Moonlight Downs

October 29, 2007
Australian Hyland’s rewarding debut opens with half-aboriginal Emily Tempest returning to the Outback “blackfeller” camp of Moonlight Downs after years of traveling around the world. Just as Emily is settling in, her dear friend Lincoln Flinders, a highly respected community leader, is found strangled and missing a kidney. The mutilation points to the local sorcerer, Blakie Japanangka. Emily, with the help of police sergeant Tom McGillivray, tries to track down Blakie, who has escaped into the hills. When doubts about Blakie’s guilt arise, suspicion falls on several people connected to land ownership disputes, leading to a series of rather unbelievable action scenes. The true strength of this beautifully written novel lies in Emily’s ambivalent feelings about her culture and her complex interactions with Hazel Flinders, the murdered man’s daughter and Emily’s former best friend. Their relationship, and the way Emily moves between aboriginal and white society, provide the tension lacking in the mystery half of the plot.

January 15, 2008
This distinctive debut novel is perfect for mystery fans who are craving new horizons. Emily Tempest is half Aboriginal and grew up in the Australian Outback. After college and travel, she returns to her home and mob (clan). She notices changes, some of them disturbing. When Lincoln, a mob leader, is brutally murdered, Emily is not content to settle for the obvious solution: that he was the victim of a local sorcerer. As she reconnects with her old life and dear friend Hazel, she searches for the murderer. Hyland, who worked in remote Aboriginal communities and lived with the Walpiri in the Tanami Desert, touches on political and racial issues and Aboriginal spirituality as he weaves an intriguing tale that includes poetic descriptions and excellent characterizations. Included are two essential and helpful glossaries: Australian and Aboriginal. Much needed doses of humor and a sweet romance lighten this sometimes dark story. Winner of the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for best first mystery in Australia, where it was titled "Diamond Dove", this is a choice selection for all Australian fiction and in-depth mystery collections. [See Prepub Mystery, "LJ" 10/1/07; for another Australian mystery involving the Aborigines, see Peter Temple's "The Broken Shore".Ed.]Susan G. Baird, Chicago

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2008
Adult/High School-After a decade attending university and seeing the world, Emily Tempest, the daughter of a white Australian prospector and an Aboriginal woman, returns to Moonlight Downs, the camp in the Australian Outback where she was raised after her mothers death. Shortly after her arrival, Lincoln Flinders, the leader of the camp and father of her childhood friend, is slain, and Emily is determined to find out who killed him and why. Is the murderer an Aboriginal sorcerer with whom Lincoln had quarreled? Lincolns brother, ambitious to take Lincolns place as leader? An aggressive white rancher, angry at Lincolns rejection of his demands? Or is it one of the whites in the nearby poverty-stricken town, whose smiling face hides racial rage? As she uncovers the events that led to the murder, Emily slowly comes to grips with what led her to leave the Outback years ago, and what is bringing her back there now. Comfortable with her biracial ancestry but caught between Aboriginals and whites struggling with the cultural adaptations necessary to live together peacefully, Emily is a sympathetic protagonist. This glimpse into Aboriginal culture will whet teens appetites for reading more about the land and people portrayed."Sandy Schmitz, Berkeley Public Library, CA"

Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2007
This mystery is set in the Australian outback; its heroine, half-aboriginal, returns to her community in the Northern Territory after spells at Melbourne University, travel, and a series of hardscrabble jobs. Admirers of the Thurlos Ella Clah series, in which a young Navajo woman cop both reveres and breaks away from tradition, will find another intriguing heroine in Emily Tempest. Tempest comes back to the scattering of corrugated iron shacks that makes up Moonlight Downs, not to stay but to seek some new direction. Shortly after her arrival, the leader of her tribe, a man who guided Tempest when she was little, is murdered. One kidney has been cut out, an infallible sign of sorcery. Tempest, already trying to figure out where she fits in the world, decides to investigate on her own. Hyland excels at drawing the reader into a strange, rough world. This debut novel is filled with both poetic descriptions and a great deal of wit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)