Patricia Wolf (2022) Outback

Patricia Wolf’s Outback is a DS Walker Thriller. This is her debut novel. Less than a handful of readers would know (or care) who DS Walker is. But it’s presented as part of a series of books such as Rebus or Laidlaw that has a pedigree. This is market-speak for look at me.

Outback is readable. I’ve left unfinished around four novels recently.

Simple setup—with the ticking clock. Unless they’re found they’ll die.

The Australian sun is a killer. Well, we’re finding that in other parts of the world. Even the Scottish Highlands is burning.

Wolf’s strength is setting the scene. Caloodie is as isolated as it sounds. It hasn’t rained in years. You can’t eat red dust but for many it’s a must. DS Walker is an undercover cop on sabbatical and caring for his grandma, who brought him up. She’s dying of cancer.

Like Wolf, Walker was brought up in the outback and is familiar with small-town ways. The production and sales of drugs and meths, in particular, is largely hidden away in the vast spaces and the endless heat in which booze was king. Walker, as you’d expect (his name is on the cover) is the beating heart of the book. He’s seconded to missing person’s case involving German tourists.

The Prologue sets the scene.

‘Rita is watching the temperature gauge creeping towards the red. The car, the one she didn’t want to buy but which Berndt said was the best they could afford, is rattling along at its top speed, just shy of 100 kilometres an hour.’  

You don’t need to be a detective to anticipate the car is going to breakdown.

Rita is the third-person narrator. Berndt gets a wee shot driving the novel. But they are largely missing. Rita’s sister, who also happens to be in the equivalent of the Berlin CID, comes to Australia to help with the investigation.

She offers the cultural shock of dust, distance and endless nothing much in contrast with her rich city life.

You’d expect a bit of canoodling in Caloodie with the hero, DS Walker, the insider.

What makes it unusual is the abductor is given a point of view as the disgruntled local, who somehow got caught up in something he didn’t plan. Or did he?

Solving who and what he is follows the usual paths of red herrings and false leads. Since the reader knows there is going to be other DS Walker books, we suspect the lead detective will be fine. But will he get there on time? Fuck, aye. It’s part of the journey. Outback. Read on.