Why a Booktrail?
2000s – Emily Tempest returns to the Australian outback and to her Aborigine beginnings as she attempts to solve a murder close to home..
Diamond Dove
What you need to know before your trail
Emily Tempest hasn’t been back in the Australian outback for many years now what with travelling, working and well, life getting in the way. However now she’s back at Moonlight Downs, the community where she grew up, half in the Aboriginal world, half in the white. This is no happy homecoming however as not long after she returns, an old friend is brutally murdered and an old enemy is the only suspect
But Emily is not so sure…
Travel Guide
The Australian outback is a unique landscape which has produced a way of life,a language and much else which is unique to that part of the world. Happily there is a glossary for Aborigine and Australian words that foreign readers might not be aware of. Adds to the overall experience that this novel provides.
Emily Tempest is half white Australian and half native Aborigine, and so she has feet in two very different and very fascinating worlds. Solving a crime allows her to delve into issues of aboriginal beliefs and communities. The investigation is also an insight into the lifestyle and culture in the outback – the resilience of these people living in such a harsh landscape is testament to their strong culture and sense of community.
“For the time I was away they’d been squatting in a fringe camp in Bluebush but they’d been back on Moonlight for a couple of years now. Technically they were its owners, successful claimants of the property under the Northern Territory Land Rights Act.”
As Emily returns to her home, she also revisits it with a unique perspective of someone having been born into it, returning as a semi outsider of sorts. When a mystical man is blamed for the death of the victim who was one of the elders in the community, the stage is set for a look at many facets of Australian life as well as a crime story which aims at the very heart of everything that is Australian.
Where Next?
