'He stepped down from the rocks onto the riverbed. Six minutes to live, but he didn't know it then. He loved - and feared - this place as it was, but its secret was going to come out now ... He began crossing the riverbed ... Four minutes.'
Why as part-Aboriginal lawyer Tony Grant brutally murdered in a lonely outback gorge?
What was the secret that threatened his beautiful Asian girlfriend Dana?
Ian Moffitt was born in Sydney in 1926. He was a reporter, sub-editor, feature writer and foreign correspondent for Australian newspapers for more than 30 years before he began writing fiction fulltime. He worked for the South China Morning Post during the Chinese Civil War and it was his experience in Hong Kong and China that inspired The Retreat Of Radiance. He died in 2000.
Tony Grant, part-Aboriginal Lawyer, is murdered on an outback station and his body moved to a meat locker beside the main station house. Where and why he was murdered seems to be something that the local police just can't work out. Ex-policeman and adoptive brother of Tony, Rod comes back to Alice Springs when their father asks for his help.
There is nothing much keeping Rod away any more with his own life rapidly going nowhere. Alongside the murder, Aboriginal and White relationships in the "frontier town" of Alice Springs, land rights and the ongoing battles between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal interests there are the property development aspirations of a Malaysian / Chinese development group headed by an Uncle and Nephew who have an uncomfortable business and personal relationship. Then the death of Tony's friend and niece of the Chen family Dana and it does start to seem that Tony's death must be something to do with a major resort development.
This book was originally released in 1988 and it provides a very realistic view of Aboriginal / White Australian relationships and the situation in towns like Alice Springs in 1988. Moffitt is the author of The Retreat of Radiance, The Colour Man and Blue Angels. He, sadly, is now dead, but if (aside from a slightly silly scene from the point of view of a crocodile for goodness sake) anyone is interested in a realistic view of Aboriginal Australia as of 20 years ago, I can highly recommend this book.
