Book Review: "Diamond Dove"

I like to read. I'll read a lot of things and have even, when boredom and a lack of alternatives beset me, read one of those naff little romance paperbacks belonging to my mother. I can't really remember what that was about, so don't ask and I won't lie. It was crap though.
Anyway. Enough of that.
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These days, I manage to avoid situations like the above. This is generally down to two factors: I have something in the region of two hundred books at home, ranging from fantasy, detective, thriller, natural history, popular science, all the way to biographies and pure mathematics. And, unlike many folks, I will read a book again and again if I like it enough. Lord of the Rings has been read maybe six, seven times. Skallagrigg* has reached double figures, and my Pratchett collection barely has time to go cold.
Then again, I visit the library every week. Once more, this is for two reasons, the foremost of which being that I simply cannot afford to buy all the books I want to read (nor do we have space in which to store them). The other reason is that I can take these to work and not worry too much about damage or having people ask if they can borrow them and then damaging the books themselves.
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Honestly, does nobody know how bookmarks work?
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To the task at hand. This time around, I'm reviewing Adrian Hyland's award-winning 'Diamond Dove' (if you're wondering about the award, it was the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for best first crime novel).
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Set in contemporary Australia, far from the cities that are known worldwide, Diamond Dove introduces us to Emily Tempest (a classic name for a heroine if ever there was...). The wayward daughter of a white man and a black woman, Emily returns from her travels in the wide open world and ends up right in the middle of the usual small-town outback rivalries, petty politics and casual racism. Worse than that, one of the most respected elders of the Aborigine camp is brutally murdered and it looks as though it's the work of the local mystic/resident nutter.

Except Emily Tempest can't leave things alone. Within a short time, she's asking questions and getting up peoples' noses. In the meantime, she's struggling with trying to settle back into her old life.

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Sound familiar? It should do; the plot device isn't new at all. The return of the prodigal child, an epochal event, a crime to be solved and plenty of bad guys you really ought to know by now aren't going to be the killer.

Hold on a bit though. Like I said at the start of this, Diamond Dove won an award. How come, if the story is that predictable?

Well, it has to be down to the presentation and the way Adrian Hyland has managed to write things with just the right amount of detail. Well aware of an audience beyond Australia, he's avoided becoming becoming too bogged down in authentic patois and over-elaborate descriptions of the landscape (etc). That's not to say you have no sense of place, however. It's a very easy read and you get caught up in the lives and trials of the folk in the town - even the less salubrious types.

If you want a comparison, then you might want to think of Alexander McCall Smith's detective series set in Africa (No1 Ladies' Detective Agency), although Diamond Dove feels a lot less cosy. I heartily recommend this book.

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* Skallagrigg is my favourite book of all time. I seriously wish more people would read it. And forget the TV adaptation ever happened.
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