Book Review: Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland

Gunshot Road by Adrian Hyland

This is simply a marvellous book. It is a crime story, and an exciting one, but more importantly the book is a poem, full of emotion and insight. Every sentence is beautiful, as the author depicts a harsh yet rich landscape that is also a character in the story, seen through the unique perspective of the most unusual and attractive detective I have come across in a long while, Emily Tempest.  And as icing on the cake, there are science jokes – technology and science figure heavily in the plot, but more interestingly, are as much part of the words on the page as any other subject addressed by this talented writer.

Emily was the protagonist of Adrian Hyland’s debut novel Diamond Dove (a.k.a. Moonlight Downs). As in the earlier novel, Gunshot Road is a story set among the interconnected imagery of “deaths and dreams, watercourses, tracks and plains”. Emily is half Aborigine, and is half at home with the nomadic “blackfellers” who live with spirits, songs and taboos, in parallel with the “whitefeller” Australia of booze and drugs as well as an alien law and order. She is also half white, courtesy of her father, the miner and  geologist Jack Tempest, and in her education and outlook is as much part of the “white” world as she’s also part of the ancient, collective spirit of the tribal culture in the Northern Territory of Australia. 

Emily’s intuition, independence and bravery (told in the previous novel) have impressed Tom McGillivray, superintendant of the Bluebush Police Station, so he has made Emily the Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer for the region. As the novel opens, she sets off to take up her post, only to find Tom is sidelined and his replacement is less than ideal. Almost immediately, the squad is called in to the case of a murder – two old men have had a drunken argument and, it is assumed, one has killed the other with a geologist’s pick while under the influence. Emily knows both men (as she knows most people in this small but dispersed community) and is not convinced. The main thrust of what follows is the story of her determination to ignore her superiors as well as everyone else, and uncover what’s really going on. This, naturally, leads to all kinds of dangers on the way to full discovery and final resolution.

Gunshot Road is a superior novel to Diamond Dove in that Emily is a more real, mature person with a clearer sense of where she is headed, and the story is far more focused, which makes the fantastically portrayed background and culture much easier to absorb along with the quite complicated plot – the first half of the novel is packed with witticisms and delightfully pungent, astute observations, which slacken off somewhat in the second half, where seriousness and tragedy are more frequent.

Like its predecessor, what makes this book so wonderful is its empathy and poetry. Emily, and the Aboriginal people, live by different mores than white Australians, living through dreams, songs and strong   unspoken taboos about what may or may not be said. As she tries to do her job in the “whitefeller” world, Emily is both enabled to discover facts known only to the “blackfellers” as she understands their sensitivities and they trust her. On the down side, most of the “whitefellers”, police and civilians, don’t understand, like or even notice her, so she encounters hideous sexism, abuse, and worse.

This is a novel that must be read. It is superb. The reader is immersed totally in Emily’s persona and world, so different from anything that all but a few can have lived or know. The author’s achievement is simply magnificent. I am lost in admiration for this wonderful piece of writing, in effect a long prose poem; the author’s identification with his main character and the very land itself; as well as his multidimensional portrayal of a cultural group, with its contradictions and flaws, as it coexists with the “civilised” world of governments, rules and structures, in a strange parallel-but-independent way, as if the indigenous people are ghosts. The result is magic, in more than one sense of the word.

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I thank Anne Beilby of Text Publishing Australia, for giving me a proof copy of this book at this year's London Book Fair (Australian cover at the top of this post). The novel is published in the USA with the cover at the bottom of this post, by Soho Press (May 2010). It is published in the UK by Quercus on 1 July, with the cover in the middle of the post. The covers are all very different - I prefer the blue (UK) one and also like the Australian one. I really don't like the US cover (picture of person's back).

Read other reviews of this novel at: International Noir Fiction (Glenn compares and contrasts the language of Adrian Hyland with that of Peter Temple), Crime Space (Karen of AustCrime), Kittling: Books, Mysterious Reviews. 

Comments

[Margot Kinberg]

Oh, Maxine, I've been wanting to read this very much! I like Hyland, and I haven't had a chance to get my hands on this one yet. Time to redouble my efforts to get a copy...

[Fiona]

Maxine, thanks for the review. I recently read Diamond Dove and loved it.I was delighted to see the next book was on the way. It is good to know it does not disappoint.

[barbara fister]

I can't wait to read this.

[kimbofo]

I tried to read Diamond Dove a month or so ago having borrowed it from the library. I gave up after 40 or so pages. I thought it was simply trying too hard and the prose was awful.

[Maxine]

Maybe it is something to do with you both being Australian, Kim. I think Gunshot Road is a far better book than Diamond Dove - he seems to have worked very hard to both iron out the flaws of the first book, and add a dimension.....but, of course, each to her own.

[Dorte H]

You seem to be on a bout of fine reads right now. I am going to leave all my cozy mysteries in a few days (reading them, at least) and pick something a bit more solid for my holidays - and perhaps leave my British & Scandinavian comfort zone a bit. I still need rest and sleep, but at least I have been able to plan some writing this weekend.

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I am glad to hear this is so good. I liked Diamond Dove but didn't love it, but this sounds better. However, I've got "Truth" to read and a big TBR pile so this will be on the waiting list.

[Barbara Fister]

I use Diamond Dove (Moonlight Downs) in a course. Last fall, a student from China finally came to me to confess she was completely defeated by the Australian English. I let her write about Rabbit Proof Fence instead (which we watched in class).

[Adrian Hyland]

Dear Maxine - thank you so-o-o much for a beautiful review - I was hoping you'd appreciate it, and I was also thinking you'd be the ideal reader, because of your interest in the natural world.

Best wishes

Adrian

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I think Adrian Hyland thought about every paragraph, every sentence, every word in this wonderful book. It's so obvious each paragraph has been crafted. In mid-book, I can't read it quickly, have to savor every word. And I'm smiling all of the time and frequently laughing. (I could have used a glossary, but that's it.)

[Maxine]

Totally right, Kathy, very well-put.

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Finally finished this book which took me awhile, since I read it carefully while enjoying its words. It did not disappoint. Emily Tempest stayed true to herself, her culture and her people through to the end. Although there were very rough spots for her, she gathered her strength and inner resources and did what she needed to do, maintaining her courage and loyalties.
Now this is a book that transcends its genre and should be considered for other prizes.