A few months back I caught Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 movie Outback (the best Aussie movie ever! If you’ve not seen it, drop everything and go and watch it!), and have been reading a fair amount of Aussie outback thrillers ever since.
Having loved both Jane Harper’s The Dry and Chris Sumner’s Scrublands, I couldn’t resist taking a punt when I saw Gabriel Bergmoser’s The Hunted for 99p on Amazon. Well worth it the book was, too!
The story concerns Maggie, a young Aussie woman desperate to learn what became of her mother following her disappearance several years before. Along the way she meets and befriends, Simon, a wimpy backpacker in search of “The Real Australia”. Persuading her gullible new friend to venture off the beaten track, the pair eventually chance upon a community of feral scavengers with a taste for what Royston Vaizey butcher, Hilary Briss, used to call his “special stuff”.
With Simon offed and her literally having bitten off more than she can chew, our badly injured anti-hero flees and is taken in by the owner of a petrol station in the middle of nowhere. Equal parts The Hills Have Eyes and Straw Dogs, the siege that makes up the bulk of the remainder of the plot fairly races along with lots of blood and gore along the way.
With every nation’s crime writers now being lumped under the same lazy, one-size-fits-all-umbrella, the term “Noir” has become a bit too limiting. That said, like Canadian Kotcheff’s masterpiece of the early 70s, the three novels mentioned are wonderful at capturing the eerie emptiness that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever visited towns like Alice Springs.
If you’ve read – or are interested in reading – any of the books mentioned or indeed Aussie crime writing in general, the below link is full of further recommendations:
https://thecrimehub.com/australian-crime-fiction-with-chris-hammer/
Here’s some others to consider “Peace” Gary Disher – “Scorpio’s Lot” Ray Smithies – “Tree Of Man” Patrick White – Scrublands follow up “Silver” Chris Hammer – “Dirt Music” Tim Winton.
Other than P.White’s “Tree” bit of an ancient classic -have read the others recently – all contain elements of “OZana” – modern thriller/crime stories.
Jane Harper’s “Force Of Nature” & “The Lost Man” recommended follow ups to “The Dry”.
also The Dead Heart by Douglas Kennedy (not an Australian, but the synopsis in the OP sounds very similar to this one).
I’m a fan of The Dry and Scrublands (and have both The Lost Man and Silver lined up to read), so thanks for the tip about the Outback movie. I will look out for it.
Outback is the US title, it was originally called Wake in Fright and is now called that again on DVD etc. It’s one of the most gruelling movies I’ve ever seen, you need to make sure you’re in a fairly robust frame of mind before pressing play. Donald Pleasance does his sinister weirdo act to perfection.
Here’s a taste.
I’m not familiar with those writers (I’m a slow reader so don’t get through many books), but your description reminds me of Barbara Baynton, who wrote bleak tales of colonial women in the outback in the early 1900s. The term ‘Bush Gothic’ was coined for her work and similar, and was nabbed 100 years later by one of my favourite bands.
Assume you folks have seen the excellent gritty 6 part outback whodunnit series that the Beeb put out last year over here – it’s called “Mystery Road”?
Sounds like you’d enjoy it.
There’s a tangentially related (i.e. same detective character/actor) movie called “Goldstone” available as well.
I’m guessing both must have got airings down under? Anyone want to see either of these, PM me.
Yes, there are some terrific Aussie crime/thriller shows out there at the mo. Underbelly, The Code, Mystery Road. Not a million miles away from the genre are Wentworth and Rake.
Given that TV stations are going to be desperate to fill up their schedules following the Covid-enforced cessation of shooting, I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more Aussie series in the UK in the next year.
Who knows, there might even be a revival of those late-night post-pub 1970s standbys Bluey and Boney on the cards!
Thanks! Always keen to hear about new Aussie fiction.
Bush Gothic is a great term. Was Gothic as widely used as Noir is today?
I googled. Blimey! A movie has to tick a lot of boxes to be considered noir!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir#:~:text=The%20term%20film%20noir%2C%20French,critics%20defined%20the%20category%20retrospectively.