Out of Nowhere - Winner of the Bath Novel Award 2023:
“The winner, OUT OF NOWHERE, is a tense, disturbing literary thriller, set in Australia, about an escaped prisoner on the run, trying to see his long-lost daughter again. It is an impressive, dark-hearted novel which is hugely atmospheric, has an authentic and gripping sense of nastiness, and is peopled by totally convincing characters who perhaps weren’t born bad but time and again make bad decisions in tough circumstances.”
-Kate Barker, Bath Novel; Award judge 2023
People had him down as a murderer from early on – the Herald Sun called him the Queensland Killer, which made me laugh when I saw it for how could that have described Frank, though it is fair to say I might not have known him as well as I thought. There were some bodies on the path he left behind. It was a strange thing to consider he might have had nothing to do with all that bloodletting. But I had my doubts.
Frank always said he believed in God and that he wished God would leave him alone. Look what happens when he pays you any attention, Frank said. Like none of all of the bad luck in his life had anything to do with him. From when he was a boy God had his eye on him, so he told me. God sought him out in the congregation. A saint doesn’t ask to be a saint, he told me, nor a sinner a sinner. And forever after he’s been cursed with God’s interest. Well, if that is true, perhaps that would explain all that happened to poor Frank Neely, my husband, father of my child. Either way I doubt it.
- Out of Nowhere
“The winner, OUT OF NOWHERE, is a tense, disturbing literary thriller, set in Australia, about an escaped prisoner on the run, trying to see his long-lost daughter again. It is an impressive, dark-hearted novel which is hugely atmospheric, has an authentic and gripping sense of nastiness, and is peopled by totally convincing characters who perhaps weren’t born bad but time and again make bad decisions in tough circumstances.”
-Kate Barker, Bath Novel; Award judge 2023
People had him down as a murderer from early on – the Herald Sun called him the Queensland Killer, which made me laugh when I saw it for how could that have described Frank, though it is fair to say I might not have known him as well as I thought. There were some bodies on the path he left behind. It was a strange thing to consider he might have had nothing to do with all that bloodletting. But I had my doubts.
Frank always said he believed in God and that he wished God would leave him alone. Look what happens when he pays you any attention, Frank said. Like none of all of the bad luck in his life had anything to do with him. From when he was a boy God had his eye on him, so he told me. God sought him out in the congregation. A saint doesn’t ask to be a saint, he told me, nor a sinner a sinner. And forever after he’s been cursed with God’s interest. Well, if that is true, perhaps that would explain all that happened to poor Frank Neely, my husband, father of my child. Either way I doubt it.
- Out of Nowhere
The Last Migration - Runner-up Bath Novel Award 2014 and Bridport Peggy Chapman Andrews 2014 - is a literary thriller set in the Australian outback:
“A well-crafted novel, using spare prose to evoke a powerful sense of place. The voice stuck in my mind long after I reached the end.”
Juliet Mushens, Bath Novel Award judge 2014
“A well-crafted novel, using spare prose to evoke a powerful sense of place. The voice stuck in my mind long after I reached the end.”
Juliet Mushens, Bath Novel Award judge 2014
There won't be any violence. That's what Murray said. Right from the start he promised Lee that. Just a ride to a town on the other side of the Munday Munday Plains – 400 k or so. A place on the map, near a dried up reservoir. We pick this bloke up, bring him back to town. Simple.
And no violence? said Lee.
Yeah.
They were out on the porch in the early evening, Murray sitting on an aluminium camper chair, Lee resting against the side of the house. Across the yard the low tin fence, and over the road the dark shapes of bungalows in the grainy twilight.
- The Last Migration
And no violence? said Lee.
Yeah.
They were out on the porch in the early evening, Murray sitting on an aluminium camper chair, Lee resting against the side of the house. Across the yard the low tin fence, and over the road the dark shapes of bungalows in the grainy twilight.
- The Last Migration