Adrian Hyland

DIAMOND DOVE - Adrian Hyland

Author Information

Book Title:

Diamond Dove

Author Name:

Adrian Hyland

Author's Home Country:

Australia

ISBN:

9781921145926

Series:

Emily Tempest

Categorisation

Category:

Crime Fiction

Sub Genre:

Police Procedural

Special Interests:

Indigenous Issues

Location:

Australia

Publisher:

Text Publishing

Year of Publication:

2006

Emily Tempest has returned to the Northern Territory to visit the aboriginal community, Moonlight Downs, in which she grew up. Emily left in her teens; her father sent her to live with an aunt in order to keep her out of trouble and get a decent education. At 26 years of age, Emily is back. She's not sure why. Perhaps to visit her father or maybe it's a need to find out where she belongs in the world Right now she feels she has a foot in both the white and aboriginal worlds and doesn't quite fit into either.

Book Review:

The author, Adrian Hyland, spent many years living and working with indigenous people in the Northern Territory; DIAMOND DOVE is a story told with a great deal of affection for the people. Their spiritual connection to the land and its native animals is particularly well described. He makes no attempt to gloss over the dysfunctional aspects of life in the remoter areas of the Northern Territory, both European and Aboriginal.Emily regards her community with a mixture of deep love and exasperation at the destructiveness of some of the behaviour she witnesses.

There are other issues raised in the book. The inevitable clash of cultures and lack of understanding that results. Conflicting interests of farming, mining and aboriginal land claims, the politicization of these interests and the odd mix of people who seem to be attracted to such remote areas. The real achievement that Hyland has managed to pull off is the fact that he vividly portrays all these aspects of life in the outback without making any judgements and without trying to push the reader down the path towards a particular opinion. He leaves that entirely up to the individual.

Hyland has also injected a wonderful dry humour into the book. Expressions such as "dry as emus knees", "he belonged to the von Ribbentrop school of negotiation" and "been taking deportment lessons from a Rottweiler" are genuinely funny. The author also has a gift for description; " Gladys herself was a battleship on stilts. She wasn't much older than me, but she'd exploded in every direction. She was immensely tall, immensely fat, wearing a green dress and a coiffure that looked like it had been fashioned with a splitting axe."

Like the precious stone, DIAMOND DOVE is a rich gem of a book and one not to be missed.

DIAMOND DOVE - Adrian Hyland

Author Information

Book Title:

Diamond Dove

Author Name:

Adrian Hyland

Author's Home Country:

Australia

ISBN:

9781921145926

Series:

Emily Tempest

Categorisation

Category:

Crime Fiction

Sub Genre:

Police Procedural

Special Interests:

Indigenous Issues

Location:

Australia

Publisher:

Text Publishing

Year of Publication:

2006

Book Review:

Emily Tempest, drawn back to Central Australia and to the place she grew up, Moonlight Downs, instantly feels at peace with the Warlpuju people. Here are her best friend Hazel and Hazel's father Lincoln Flinders, a much respected tribal elder. The Warlpuju have always been her mob and Moonlight Downs her Country. Emily was instantly accepted and included from childhood even though she is the daughter of a white man and a Wantiya women. She's done her fair share of walkabout since she left the Downs and the mob were driven off by the last station owner, so this is her first return since the successful land claim that returned this traditional land to its traditional owners.

When Lincoln is brutally murdered just hours after Emily's return, the easy suspect is Blakie Japanangka. Wild man, savage protector of tradition and guarder of sacred sites, Blakie is known to everyone as a bit of a nutter. Since her return Emily has seen Blakie arguing with Lincoln more than once and the manner of Lincoln's death seems to indicate a ritual killing, maybe because of some broken taboo. When the local police arrive from nearby town Bluebush, the hunt for Blakie is on straight away. But Blakie's from this Country, he knows it like the back of his hand, and after a clumsy attempt by the police to grab him, he disappears into the scrub. In the meantime the mob moves off Moonlight Downs, lost and looking for leadership they slowly move to the squatter camps outside Bluebush. Even Emily, despite swearing she never would, ends up working in a pub in Bluebush, living in a flat in town and still pursuing what happened to Lincoln with a single minded intent that gets up the nose of a lot of people very quickly. The appearance of Earl Marsh, the big, brash and offensive owner of the station next door to Moonlight Downs and the slimy government representative Massie eventually make Emily question her pursuit of Blakie, even though Police Sergeant Tom McGillivray doesn't agree.

DIAMOND DOVE is an aboriginal novel written by a white man who has spent many years working with communities in Central Australia. The Warlpuju mob is an invention by the author, based on a number of different groups in that area. Much of the Aboriginal terminology though can be found in languages to the north of Alice Springs. DIAMOND DOVE is a reference to the totems of both Lincoln and Hazel, woven through the story. It's an interesting choice for a white man to write an affectionate, funny, telling story which is so strongly imbued with a sense of Aboriginal Culture and Country.

One of the major strengths of DIAMOND DOVE is that interwoven with the mystery of Lincoln's death is a wonderful, sensitive and enlightening glimpse into realistic contemporary Aboriginal life. There's explanations of totems, taboo, sacred places, familiar structure and relationships, lifestyle, skin names, taboo names, traditional tribal structures and the effect of country. There's some telling insights into the differences between the white community and the local Aboriginal communities – in and around the town of Bluebush and outside it, at the stations and in the mining communities. There's also some fabulous and frankly hilarious observations of a redneck outback Australian country town that will have you crying with laughter. There's even a touch of Outback Mechanic – with fuel being fed into wrecks of old cars from tins tied on the roof! Hyland has got a real knack of writing the dialogue in a lyrical manner, that reads with the lilt that you get when Aboriginal speakers move to and from their own Language and English. There's something in that speech pattern that echoes the bush and for this reader, those dialogue sequences were a real joy to read.

DIAMOND DOVE is a novel where a lot of major components merge really well. The characterisations are fabulous. Emily is strong, loud, opinionated, flighty, caring, ratty, forthright, independent and kind and she feels very female, very current day Aboriginal to this reader at least. Tom McGillivray is your classic outback cop – done it, seen it, nothing surprises anymore. Hazel is an Aboriginal woman, living as close to a traditional lifestyle as she can, comfortable in that choice. Other members of the mob are more clearly caught between a Traditional life and the supposed lure of the white culture. There is a supporting cast who are sketched out beautifully, either in brief cameo appearances or as a larger part of the story. The mystery is intriguing, the manner and style of Lincoln's death adding that possibility of ritual and therefore something deeply Aboriginal as a possibility. The sense of place or setting for the novel wins on a number of levels. There is Central Australia and the differences between the deserts and the outback and the small town worlds. There is also Aboriginal Central Australia with the totem elements, the sacred places and the hidden places. Finally there is humour, dry, ironic, sardonic, rude, pointed and observational.

DIAMOND DOVE hints at the beginnings of an ongoing series, and Emily would be a great entrant in a long line of amateur Female Investigators. It is highly recommended.

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The Diamond Dove is one of the smallest pigeons found predominantly around areas of water in semi-arid areas of Central, West and Northern Australia. They are very delicately marked around the eyes, are often seen on the ground in a toddling sort of run, and their wings can make a whistling noise when flying. They tend to be seen in pairs or small groups.

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This one is definitely going to make my Tops of 2007 - no doubt whatsoever.

Ned Kelly Short List for 2007

Submitted by Karen on July 26, 2007 - 2:43pm

Book Title:

Chain of Evidence

The Night Ferry

The Unknown Terrorist

The Cleaner

Undertow

Spider Trap

The Betrayal of Bindy MacKenzie

Diamond Dove

Better Dead than Never

Behind the Night Bazaar

Justice For The Dead

Overboard

Intractable

The Ned Kelly's will be presented as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival (we'll be there again this year) on the evening of Wednesday 29th July, 2007.

Best Crime Novel

Chain of Evidence by Garry Disher (Text Publishing)

The Night Ferry by Michael Robotham (Little, Brown)