Shepherd
Catherine Jinks
It’s a hard life in New South Wales as a convict, but Tom Clay has his sheep and his dogs. There’s a big problem though – Dan Carver is going to kill him when he comes back. The arrival of a third shepherd, Rowdy Cavanagh should make Tom more relaxed, but Rowdy doesn’t know when to shut up. A fraught chase ensures across the wild Australian landscape.
What this novel brings home for me is the sheer amount of knowledge that white Australians have lost by effectively wiping out the native peoples. Tom is/was a poacher back in England and thus he understands a lot about animals and plants. In the bush he doesn’t understand anything though and he feels like everything is against him. Rowdy’s big mouth certainly doesn’t help him concentrate!
The cover suggests a murder mystery to me, with the pitchfork spearing the title. But what I got was nothing like that. Instead I felt like I was walking the bush with Tom and fearing for my own life. Unfortunately, I’m just not very excited by colonial Australian history. I studied the literature of the time and wasn’t that keen on it. I don’t really understand why I didn’t care for this novel, but I didn’t. It’s not something I’d necessarily read if I had a choice, which is why it came on vacation with me to force me to read it.
The writing style is smooth and the environment explicitly realised. Technically this novel is fantastic. Yet the ending felt cold to me and I could have put it down at any point. I didn’t connect with Tom enough and the deaths of other characters didn’t interest me. I finished this novel in the space of a couple of hours. 3 stars from me.
Text Publishing | 2nd July 2019 | AU$29.99 | paperback
