As I have a fondness for historical sagas written in a traditional style with an easy narrative (no literary hi-jinks) and an interesting collection of characters, this title initially appealed to me. Apparently it is the first book in a trilogy and tells the intertwining stories of a group of people in the early pioneering days of South Australia.
 
There is Thomas Baker, who loses all his family just as they are about to make a start in the colony and he must find some way of making a living. The only opportunity is to travel far inland and look after a sheep run. His inexperience and naivety lead him into difficulties and loss, especially when he is the victim of the unscrupulous travelling salesman, Septimus Whitby. Septimus, in turn, has a turbulent relationship with Harriet, a young girl who has escaped life in a brothel and adores him in spite of his often cruel treatment of her.
 
Thomas’s distant neighbours in his far-flung outpost are a family with many sons and one daughter, Lizzie, with whom he falls in love. And then there is an Aboriginal stockman who helps Thomas and acts as the bridge between him and the Aboriginal community who too often fall foul of other settlers and suffer the consequences.
 
The writing is good and the finer details of the pioneering era in Australia are well-crafted throughout. All the characters have their charms whether good, bad, or a mixture of both. But overall, this book feels like a wagon train lumbering off to nowhere in particular when sometimes not an awful lot happens - and even when it does you don’t feel much impact, never mind shock or surprise. Perhaps that is the intention and accurately reflects a way of life in an era when people lived at a slower pace than we do now and is therefore oddly appropriate, but I got so bored and disappointed I abandoned it somewhere out in the South Australian scrub shortly before the end. I so wanted to like this book, but the thought of two more instalments about subsequent generations going at the same pace does not fill me with enthusiasm.
 
This review must be unrated because technically as I did not quite cross the finish line I ought not do a review at all, but I know the fault is just mine. Judging from the popularity of the author and the four and five star reviews given elsewhere, there are many readers who love it to bits and gained much more emotional impact from it than I managed to do.

Booktopia

Amazon

​If you are into crime fiction set in exotic locations and with grotesque serial killer scenarios, then this book should appeal to you.
 
At the beginning - and for much of the story - I really liked Inspector Danilov, the Russian who is out of place among the British boors or racist snobs of the Shanghai Police Dept. His anguish over his family who have been lost somewhere in the chaos of Revolutionary Russia and its Civil War aftermath feels genuine and is historically accurate. His relationship with his off-sider, the half Scots-half Chinese Strachan, provides some of the best moments.
 
But I have to admit after some increasingly gruesome and graphic murders by the time we arrived at the final showdown with the revelation of whodunit, I actually couldn’t remember who the culprit was to begin with and mixed him up with another individual - which is utterly disgraceful on my part and shows that I certainly fell off the rails somewhere along the journey or just didn’t pay close enough attention to who’s who, even though I had already figured out the major clue.
 
There are just too many echoes here of numerous novels or TV dramas about serial killers and their twisted motivations to make it unique. I accept I’m in the minority in finding many action scenes - in both books and films -a chore and I often flick through or fast-forward them. And as for those interminable fight scenes in which a man has been stunned, shot or stabbed several times over and yet rises up to fight yet again when any real human being would be well beyond dead after the first blow (unless it happens to be Rasputin) these are seldom convincing. There is rather too much of this towards the end of the book and unfortunately the epilogue foreshadows a continuation of same and on which I’m going to have to pass in spite of my affection for Danilov.

With more "noir" or more subtle suspense this had the potential to score higher. Still, a solid 3 1/2 stars for Danilov and the late 1920s Shanghai setting.

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk