“… this country – it’s huge and empty. The police station is in a tiny old wooden house, there’s just one cop out here, and the others are thousands of miles away and I don’t know if they really are taking it seriously.”

Outback is first book in the DS Walker Thriller series by Australian journalist and author, Patricia Wolf. It’s handy that AFP Detective Sergeant Lucas Walker is back home in far north-west Queensland on compassionate leave (his grandmother probably doesn’t have long). A German back-packing couple has been reported missing and his boss asks him to act as liaison between families and Queensland Police.

Berndt Meyer and Rita Guerra were last seen leaving Caloodie on a November Saturday morning, heading for work on a station past Smithton. Their lack of contact is completely out of character but the local cop, Senior Constable Dave Grogan suggests they might have seen the sort of country they were headed to and changed their minds.

Walker rates this as quite possible, and Grogan seems to be going through all the right motions, but his commitment feels a little lacking. Then Rita’s sister turns up, determined to help find the couple. DS Barbara Guerra is with the Berlin CID, and feels sure she can contribute to the search. Lucas is a little reluctant to allow her direct involvement, but knows how he would feel if it was his younger sister. Grogan less than pleased to have his actions scrutinised, and Lucas worries that the constable is too chummy with the locals to do any proper policing.

Barbara is a gutsy protagonist and while she is (somewhat) fettered by having no jurisdiction in Australia, Lucas is hampered by his own erroneous assumption, from his undercover role, that everything is about drugs; Dave, the reader quickly learns, has a personal agenda that splits his loyalties.

The reader knows the backpackers’ fate from the start through the anonymous perpetrator’s narrative, although informed guesses as to his identity will likely be correct. Meanwhile, Lucas and Barbara are thwarted by some characters with ulterior motives, and distracted by what the reader knows are red herrings.

Wolf’s depiction of outback Queensland feels truly authentic, not surprising as it comes from personal experience. The description of the heat, dust and flies, the mindset of the locals, all are a realistic representation. Barbara’s narrative offers the perspective of a foreigner thrust into a landscape that doesn’t tend to appear in promotional material.

Wolf gives the reader a wholly credible tale with that requires virtually no suspension of disbelief, and builds up to a nail-biting climax. The dialogue is convincing: Wolf doesn’t stint on Aussie slang and includes gems like “He’s got muscles like a chook’s instep.” More of this protagonist is most welcome, and it will be interesting to see what Wolf throws at him in the second book, Paradise. Gripping outback noir.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Embla Books.