Dust Country

Dust Country is an outback thriller about a British backpacker, Beth Forrester, who tries to help a frightened child and is pulled into the path of a sadistic killer. It is also a survival story about heat, distance, male violence, and the terrifying emptiness of the Australian interior.

The novel opens on Thursday with Inspector Jack Logan driving Beth back to Birdsville. She is exhausted and traumatised, able to answer most of his questions only with “I don’t know.” Logan has just received a horrific call: six people have been killed in Birdsville. The local doctor tells him, “The place is a fucking mess,” and compares the scene to something done by feral dogs. Logan calls in favours, sets roadblocks on every route out, and brings Beth because she is the only person who has encountered the suspect and the child travelling with him.

The story then cuts back three days. Beth has been travelling through Australia with her boyfriend Kyle, but in Port Pirie their relationship finally collapses. Kyle has become a drunk, ugly, belligerent version of himself, and after humiliating himself in public he hits Beth during an argument. She leaves him, telling him, “Fuck you, Kyle. Seriously. I hope you drown out there.” She takes their Jimny and decides to continue the trip alone, driving toward Cairns through the outback.