Red Dirt Road by S.R. White

Detective Dana Russa (Hermit and Prisoner) returns in a challenging and suspenseful rural noir set in the tiny outback town of Unamurra, population 50. Two men have been murdered in strange circumstances and left arranged like angels on the work of an artist who had been hired to mount a series of sculptures that could bring tourists to the town. Dana is given the almost impossible task of finding who the killer is among the 50 local suspects. Assisted by the local police officer, Able Barillo, Dana has just one week to unravel the baffling case.

The isolated rural town came alive with White’s descriptive imagery. It was easy to imagine a drought stricken, dying town, with only a small patch of green surrounding a memorial, and closed shops and houses. It is presided over by Annie Ogden the owner of the only pub, wife of one of the murdered men, and owner of the only shop and service station in town, as well as many of the residents’ homes.

Dana is an introverted character, not given to sharing her thoughts with Able, the police officer in charge of the town. She is intelligent and approaches the case from an unconventional point of view focusing on the psychology of the murders. This provides many of the twists that confounded me as I tried to uncover the identity of the killer. The conclusion was stunning and unexpected, bringing all the threads and clues together, and leaving me often thinking of the power structures that the truth unfolded.

Red Dirt Road is the first book that I have read by S.R. White and it was easy to read as a gripping stand-alone. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it so thought provoking that I intend to go back and read the other two books in the series. Fans of Jane Harper, Chris Hammer and Garry Disher are also likely to enjoy it.

Themes: Rural noir, Crime, Detectives.

Pat Pledger