About Red Dust
After the death of her husband, Adam, in an horrific plane crash, Gemma Sinclair defies community expectations – and Adam’s dying words – by taking on the daunting task of managing the 100,000-hectare station he bequeathed her.
As if Gemma’s grief and the job of looking after Billbinya Station aren’t enough, a wave of innuendo sweeps the community that Adam’s death was no accident.
Struggling to uncover the truth of these rumours while battling to keep Billbinya afloat, Gemma wonders if she’ll ever find peace – or love – again.
The Long Story
I have always said that I am not one for reading books with mystery, but I think I will have to change that claim after practically devouring Red Dust.
Red Dust starts out with Gemma Sinclair grieving for her dead husband and feeling confused about his last words – the ones that warned her that ‘they’ could be coming after her, too… But Gemma barely has time to grieve, let alone work out whatever her husband meant. That is, until stock stealing comes to light – and Gemma is a main suspect.
With the incredible amount of sadness and loss Gemma felt right from the beginning, I immediately sympathized and identified with her as a woman. Fleur McDonald did well with creating a main character who is all woman but still has the Australian spirit of not taking any bullsh*t from anyone.
Her abilities with character creation extends out to a cast of ‘good guys’ who are easy to love and ‘bad guys’ who make the reader feel like stomping them in the mud.
International readers who are concerned about dealing with Australian terms shouldn’t be worried. While I did have to ask my husband about a couple things – ‘damper’ is bread you make over the campfire – there aren’t any terms that will throw readers off so much they’ll have to stop reading. Even if you don’t have a resident Aussie to pester, you’ll still be able to read and enjoy the book.
My one small nitpick came towards the beginning of the book with two characters named Jack – Gemma’s father and the farm hand she hires on. However, with her father being a minor character, I only briefly paused at the common name and nothing more.
Fleur has a talent for weaving in romance that makes the story richer while not altering the focus of the book. I’m a sucker for romance in books, so I was happy to see touches of it here and there without it distracting from the big mystery everyone was trying to solve.
Besides the story told itself, the thing I enjoyed most about this book was learning about outback farm life. I’m decently acquainted with farms, but Fleur throws you right into the action of shearing time without turning it into a lecture. The story still flows and moves all while you’re ‘observing’ farm life, and the dusty background of reality makes it even easier to lose yourself.
The Short Story
Red Dust is a beautiful book about the lives of Australian outback people – especially farmers – that takes you right into the lives, dreams and hearts of the people involved. I highly recommend this book.
***
Rating: 4 ½ Stars
***
Red Dust
Fleur McDonald
http://fleurmcdonald.com/
ISBN: 9780741756296
Length: 348 pages (large print)
Okay, at first I had thought “this is NOT what I read!”, but as soon as I started, I was hooked. I’m very much a city girl, with no idea what it’s like to be on a farm, and yet Fleur’s writing puts you right in there and makes it feel like home, even though it’s miles away from anything I’ve experienced. It was easy to get hooked into it.