The laid-back elegance and low-key humour of Adrian Hyland’s prose is rarely found in crime fiction, and this is perhaps why the higher brow literary rags swooned over his first Emily Tempest novel, Diamond Dove.

Follow-up Gunshot Road is likely to send the critics into similar paroxysms of delight. But while the mystery itself – a seemingly cut-and-dried drunken murder that is (of course) not that simple – is enough to keep the pages turning; the real drama is in the landscape itself. Hyland’s outback is a place of magic and hostility, a place that can feel claustrophobic even in some of the widest open space on earth. Tempest is a fantastic character, and her attempts to solve the riddle are well worth your time.