In 1890, estranged
brothers Tommy and Billy McBride are living far apart in Queensland,
each dealing with the trauma that destroyed their family in different
ways. Now 21, Billy bottles his guilt and justifies his crimes while
attempting to revive his father’s former cattle run. He’s drawn to his
boss’s widow, Katherine Sullivan, yet refuses to confront his feelings
for her. Katherine cherishes her newfound independence, and struggles to
establish herself as head of the vast Broken Ridge cattle empire her
corrupt late husband controlled with violence and money.
But even
in the outback, the past cannot stay buried forever. When the McBride
family murders and the subsequent reprisal slaughter of the Kurrong
people become the subjects of a judicial inquest, both Billy and
infamous Police Inspector Edmund Noone are called to testify. The
inquiry forces Billy to relive events he has long refused to face. He
desperately needs to find his brother, Tommy, who for years has been
surviving in the wilderness with Arthur, the McBrides’ Indigenous
stockman. But Billy is not the only one looking for Tommy. The ruthless
Noone is determined to find the young man as well, and silence the
brothers for good.
An enthralling, propulsive adventure that builds in suspense, told in gorgeous prose and steeped in history and atmosphere, Dust Off the Bones
raises timeless issues of injustice, honor, morality, endemic racism,
and violence. With an unflinching eye, Paul Howarth examines the cruelty
of power and the brutal realities of life in a world familiar to our
own.
Reviews
"Dust Off the Bones is a terrific sequel to one of my favorite
novels of the last few years and takes us in a new and wholly unexpected
direction with many of our favorite characters from Only Killers and Thieves. Highly recommended." -- Adrian McKinty, author of The Chain
“Just try putting this book down. An original, breathless, compelling debut.” -- Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions, on Only Killers and Thieves
“A complex, sophisticated morality play….Fast-paced and brimming with colorful, realistic detail, the novel paints a vivid portrait of colonial Australia in the midst of its transition to independence as the 20th century begins while posing disturbing questions about the country’s historic cruelty to its native inhabitants.”-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Just try putting this book down. An original, breathless, compelling debut.” -- Jess Walter, author of Beautiful Ruins and The Cold Millions, on Only Killers and Thieves
“A complex, sophisticated morality play….Fast-paced and brimming with colorful, realistic detail, the novel paints a vivid portrait of colonial Australia in the midst of its transition to independence as the 20th century begins while posing disturbing questions about the country’s historic cruelty to its native inhabitants.”-- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Two adolescent brothers
are exposed to the brutal realities of life and the seductive cruelty of
power after a tragedy shatters their family in this riveting debut
novel—a story of savagery and race, injustice and honor set in the
untamed frontier of 1880s Australia—reminiscent of Philipp Meyer’s The Son and the novels of Cormac McCarthy
An epic Western, a tough coming-of-age story, and a tension-laden tale of survival, Only Killers and Thieves is a gripping and utterly transporting debut that brings to vivid life a colonial Australian frontier that bears a striking resemblance to the American West in its formative years.
It is 1885 and the McBride family are trying to survive a crippling drought that is slowly eroding their lives and hopes: their cattle are starved, and the family can no longer purchase the supplies they need on their depleted credit. When the rain finally comes, it’s a miracle. For a moment, the scrubland flourishes and the remote swimming hole fills. Returning home from an afternoon swim, fourteen-year-old Tommy and sixteen-year-old Billy McBride discover a scene of heartbreaking carnage: their dogs dead in the yard, their hardworking father and mother shot to death, and their precocious younger sister unconscious and severely bleeding from a wound to her gut. The boys believe the killer is their former Aboriginal stockman, and, desperate to save Mary, they rush her to John Sullivan, the wealthiest landowner in the region and their father’s former employer, who promises to take care of them.
Eager for retribution, the distraught brothers fall sway to Sullivan, who persuades them to join his posse led by the Queensland Native Police, an infamous arm of British colonial power whose sole purpose is the “dispersal” of indigenous Australians to “protect” settler rights. The group is led by the intimidating inspector Edmund Noone, a dangerous and pragmatic officer whose intellect and ruthlessness both fascinates and unnerves the watchful Tommy. Riding for days across the barren outback, the group is determined to find the perpetrators they insist are guilty, for reasons neither of the brothers truly understands. It is a harsh and horrifying journey that will have a devastating impact on Tommy, tormenting him for the rest of his life—and hold enduring consequences for a young country struggling to come into its own.
Set in a period of Australian and British history as raw and relevant as that of the wild frontier of nineteenth-century America, Only Killers and Thieves is an unforgettable story of family, guilt, empire, race, manhood, and faith that combines the insightfulness of Philipp Meyer’s The Son with the atmospheric beauty of Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist and the raw storytelling power of Ian McGuire’s The North Water.
An epic Western, a tough coming-of-age story, and a tension-laden tale of survival, Only Killers and Thieves is a gripping and utterly transporting debut that brings to vivid life a colonial Australian frontier that bears a striking resemblance to the American West in its formative years.
It is 1885 and the McBride family are trying to survive a crippling drought that is slowly eroding their lives and hopes: their cattle are starved, and the family can no longer purchase the supplies they need on their depleted credit. When the rain finally comes, it’s a miracle. For a moment, the scrubland flourishes and the remote swimming hole fills. Returning home from an afternoon swim, fourteen-year-old Tommy and sixteen-year-old Billy McBride discover a scene of heartbreaking carnage: their dogs dead in the yard, their hardworking father and mother shot to death, and their precocious younger sister unconscious and severely bleeding from a wound to her gut. The boys believe the killer is their former Aboriginal stockman, and, desperate to save Mary, they rush her to John Sullivan, the wealthiest landowner in the region and their father’s former employer, who promises to take care of them.
Eager for retribution, the distraught brothers fall sway to Sullivan, who persuades them to join his posse led by the Queensland Native Police, an infamous arm of British colonial power whose sole purpose is the “dispersal” of indigenous Australians to “protect” settler rights. The group is led by the intimidating inspector Edmund Noone, a dangerous and pragmatic officer whose intellect and ruthlessness both fascinates and unnerves the watchful Tommy. Riding for days across the barren outback, the group is determined to find the perpetrators they insist are guilty, for reasons neither of the brothers truly understands. It is a harsh and horrifying journey that will have a devastating impact on Tommy, tormenting him for the rest of his life—and hold enduring consequences for a young country struggling to come into its own.
Set in a period of Australian and British history as raw and relevant as that of the wild frontier of nineteenth-century America, Only Killers and Thieves is an unforgettable story of family, guilt, empire, race, manhood, and faith that combines the insightfulness of Philipp Meyer’s The Son with the atmospheric beauty of Amanda Coplin’s The Orchardist and the raw storytelling power of Ian McGuire’s The North Water.
Reviews
“Only Killers and Thieves is a powerful debut. Paul Howarth
brings early Australia to life, bloody warts and all, in an epic tale of
murder, revenge, and colonial oppression, with very little room for
redemption. The story and his words will stay with you, long after you
have finished the book.” (New York Review of Books)
“Prose like that arrives direct from Cormac McCarthy’s dusty Southwest…Howarth’s spotlights how arbitrary frontier justice can be. But he also asks: How much less arbitrary is a purportedly civilized society?” (Washington Post)
“An outstanding debut…a powerful novel of crimes in a bleak landscape.” (Sunday Times (UK), Historical Fiction Book of the Month)
“They’re hard to find, books that grab you by the throat and won’t let go — addictive novels that make your heart race. Only Killers and Thieves tops that category…There’s much to relish in this page turner, descriptive writing, a plot that wrings you out, and characters you grow to hate, evil and racism personified…This literary, hard-hitter brings to life a time of mistrust and violence in Australia when whites tried to wipe out indigenous Australians. Only Killers and Thieves is brilliant but brutal.” (The Missourian)
“Howarth’s stunning debut has shades of Cormac McCarthy and Patrick deWitt...a book that grips from the outset and entertains even as it educates us about an appalling part of Australia’s history. Epic in scope, Only Killers and Thieves is a study in morality in a land where white vigilantism has never seemed more depraved.” (The Irish Times)
“Hugely impressive…reminiscent of Peter Carey.” (Irish Examiner)
“A must-read for anyone who craves pictorially descriptive writing, story-telling with palpable tension and characters so finely drawn they leap off the pages…Howarth has captured the trappings of America’s Wild West, only here the white vigilantes’ victims are Australia’s aboriginal natives. Otherwise the parallels are striking, from ethnic hatred, violent attacks and torture to the bloodthirstiness of ruthless hunters as they move through an unrelenting, sun-parched landscape bent on extermination. Against this stark and gory backdrop Howarth crafts nuanced, insightful alterations in the boys’ characters…No matter how driven you are (and you will be), resist the temptation to read Only Killers and Thieves straight through. Howarth’s writing deserves thoughtful savoring.” (Newark Star-Ledger-NJ.com)
“Howarth’s impressive debut is a Wild West saga transported to 19th-century Queensland, Australian. The story deals unflinchingly with the brutality of Australian rule…but the heart of the story is the complicated relationship between the brothers...While this book has a historical point to make, it also works as a suspenseful mystery and a resonant bildungsroman.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“Powerful debut…the novel feels like a modern Western along the lines of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Howarth’s narrative is almost cinematic…U.S. readers will make the connection with our country’s oppression of Native Americans and gain an understanding of the fundamental racism of both former British colonies…Howarth is a novelist to watch.” (Library Journal, starred review)
“A gripping novel about conflict in the Australian outback at the turn of the century; beautifully done.” (Paulette Jiles, New York Times Bestselling Author of News of the World, National Book Award Finalist)
“Prose like that arrives direct from Cormac McCarthy’s dusty Southwest…Howarth’s spotlights how arbitrary frontier justice can be. But he also asks: How much less arbitrary is a purportedly civilized society?” (Washington Post)
“An outstanding debut…a powerful novel of crimes in a bleak landscape.” (Sunday Times (UK), Historical Fiction Book of the Month)
“They’re hard to find, books that grab you by the throat and won’t let go — addictive novels that make your heart race. Only Killers and Thieves tops that category…There’s much to relish in this page turner, descriptive writing, a plot that wrings you out, and characters you grow to hate, evil and racism personified…This literary, hard-hitter brings to life a time of mistrust and violence in Australia when whites tried to wipe out indigenous Australians. Only Killers and Thieves is brilliant but brutal.” (The Missourian)
“Howarth’s stunning debut has shades of Cormac McCarthy and Patrick deWitt...a book that grips from the outset and entertains even as it educates us about an appalling part of Australia’s history. Epic in scope, Only Killers and Thieves is a study in morality in a land where white vigilantism has never seemed more depraved.” (The Irish Times)
“Hugely impressive…reminiscent of Peter Carey.” (Irish Examiner)
“A must-read for anyone who craves pictorially descriptive writing, story-telling with palpable tension and characters so finely drawn they leap off the pages…Howarth has captured the trappings of America’s Wild West, only here the white vigilantes’ victims are Australia’s aboriginal natives. Otherwise the parallels are striking, from ethnic hatred, violent attacks and torture to the bloodthirstiness of ruthless hunters as they move through an unrelenting, sun-parched landscape bent on extermination. Against this stark and gory backdrop Howarth crafts nuanced, insightful alterations in the boys’ characters…No matter how driven you are (and you will be), resist the temptation to read Only Killers and Thieves straight through. Howarth’s writing deserves thoughtful savoring.” (Newark Star-Ledger-NJ.com)
“Howarth’s impressive debut is a Wild West saga transported to 19th-century Queensland, Australian. The story deals unflinchingly with the brutality of Australian rule…but the heart of the story is the complicated relationship between the brothers...While this book has a historical point to make, it also works as a suspenseful mystery and a resonant bildungsroman.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review))
“Powerful debut…the novel feels like a modern Western along the lines of Cormac McCarthy’s All the Pretty Horses. Howarth’s narrative is almost cinematic…U.S. readers will make the connection with our country’s oppression of Native Americans and gain an understanding of the fundamental racism of both former British colonies…Howarth is a novelist to watch.” (Library Journal, starred review)
“A gripping novel about conflict in the Australian outback at the turn of the century; beautifully done.” (Paulette Jiles, New York Times Bestselling Author of News of the World, National Book Award Finalist)
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