No Country for Girls

Doing this column is a great pleasure and privilege. It’s wonderful to be able to introduce new authors and their books to new fans. September is a bumper month for crime releases. It’s a Sizzler all-you-can-eat situation: police procedurals, private investigators, forensic pathologists, missing children, cold cases and meta-literary crime. From debuts to old hats, there really is something for everyone.

For our featured title – drum roll please – we have this excellent debut from UK-based Australian author Emma Styles. And what a mysterious affair this is! No Country for Girls is tense and atmospheric. Not moody atmospheric. Instead, think of the searing heat of central Western Australia, the vast distance of the Great Northern Highway, the sweat trickling down one’s back, as much from crippling fear as from the heat.

Nao and Charlie each have their own terrible secret. They are thrown together on a dark, hot night after two shocking events. An equally surprising discovery of a bag of gold forces them to make a decision, and the pair hit the road, heading north in the most ridiculous getaway car: a lime-green, souped-up ute. Soon they are wanted, like fugitives on the run, and a menacing figure wants the gold by any means necessary, all of which leads to a long-range, hectic chase north across the western state, deep into iron ore country.

What’s great about this book is the grittiness and the tension, coupled with the grim Thelma and Louise-like determination of our two central characters. There’s gold, theft, murder, dead bodies and a raft of consequences. As readers we’re rewarded with a satisfying ending, but you’d be silly to think it’s a happy one, and it comes as more of a release – that long exhalation of breath you hadn’t realised you’d been holding. What a ride!