Dust Off the Bones A Novel
Dust Off the Bones by Paul Howarth is a novel published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2021, featuring 356 pages in English. This story unfolds in the Australian Outback during the turn of the century, focusing on the lives of estranged brothers Tommy and Billy McBride, alongside Katherine Sullivan, the widow of their family’s killer, and the Native Police officer Edmund Noone. The narrative explores themes of violence and redemption as it delves into the complex relationships and traumas that shape the characters’ lives against a backdrop of historical injustices.
Readers will find an engaging tale that raises critical questions about morality, systemic racism, and the abuse of power. As the judicial inquest into the McBride family murders unfolds, Billy is forced to confront his past while searching for Tommy, who has been living in isolation. The tension escalates as Noone seeks to silence both brothers, creating a suspenseful atmosphere throughout the book. Dust Off the Bones combines elements of drama, action, and historical fiction, offering a rich exploration of the characters’ struggles and the harsh realities of their world.
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“Arresting, powerful, and very much worth reading.”–Scott Simon (NPR)
“A tale of violence and redemption in the Australian Outback….Fast-paced and brimming with colorful, realistic detail, the novel poses disturbing questions about the Australia’s historic cruelty to its native inhabitants….A complex, sophisticated morality play.” (Starred Kirkus Review)
The author of the acclaimed Only Killers and Thieves returns to turn-of-the-century Australia in this powerful sequel that follows the story of brothers Tommy and Billy McBride, the widow of their family’s killer, Katherine Sullivan, and the sadistic Native Police officer Edmund Noone
In 1890, estranged brothers Tommy and Billy McBride are living far apart in Queensland, each dealing with the trauma that destroyed their family in different ways. Now 21, Billy bottles his guilt and justifies his past crimes while attempting to revive his father’s former cattle run and navigate his feelings for the young widow Katherine Sullivan. Katherine, meanwhile, cherishes her newfound independence but is struggling to establish herself as head of the vast Broken Ridge cattle empire her corrupt late husband mercilessly built.
But even in the outback, the past cannot stay buried forever. When a judicial inquest is ordered into the McBride family murders and the subsequent reprisal slaughter of the Kurrong people, both Billy and Police Inspector Edmund Noone – the man who led the massacre – are called to testify. The inquest forces Billy to relive events he has long refused to face. He desperately needs to find his brother, Tommy, who for years has been surviving in the wilderness, attempting to move on with his life. But Billy is not the only one looking for Tommy. Now the ruthless Noone is determined to find the young man as well, and silence both brothers for good.
An enthralling, propulsive adventure that builds in suspense, told in gorgeous prose and steeped in history and atmosphere, Dust Off the Bones raises timeless issues of injustice, honor, morality, systemic racism, and the abuse of power. With an unflinching eye, Paul Howarth examines the legacy of violence and the brutal realities of life in a world remarkably familiar to our own.
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