"A brand new novel that continues the legacy of ‘Master of the Genre’ Desmond Bagley by the co-author of Domino Island."
Insurance investigator Bill Kemp made his first appearance in Domino Island - the story of that novel is best told here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domino_Island, but in a nutshell it was first published posthumously in 2019, based on a draft discovered in the author's papers, curated to life by the author of Outback, Michael Davies.
This is the second in the series, written totally by Davies, with Insurance investigator Bill Kemp as the central character. This time he's in Australia's remote interior, at an abandoned opal mine, with an unknown enemy and the deadly, vast forbidding wilderness. He's there at the behest of an old mate, and a questionable inheritance.
Based as it is, around a character that comes from the traditional lone wolf hero of action novels, Kemp's reasonably believable. He's one from the quietly competent mould, relying on his military background and the skills he learnt there, rather than any over the top physicality (the timeframe is also back a bit, so technology and gadgetry isn't the point). The lead female character's more than just eye candy which also helped with engagement a lot. The plot was reasonably interesting, and well-paced although the ending is well over the top, and I must admit I did find the idea of danger constantly lurking around every rock a bit predictable. Having said that he got the vastness right, although you'd be surprised who is poking about where, so I wasn't totally convinced that the mayhem wasn't seen / remarked on / reported.
I listened to this in audio format, with the author narrating his own work. Therefore the accent is British, and the setting quintessentially Australian outback. The opening scenes, in the abandoned opal mine certainly got me standing up and paying attention, but it was a bit of a patchy listen, I did find my attention wandering a lot so it might be a book that works better read / rather than listened to.
Outback
A brand new novel that continues the legacy of ‘Master of the Genre’ Desmond Bagley by the co-author of Domino Island.
Insurance investigator Bill Kemp had never wanted to trek deep into Australia’s remote interior. But when his clients Sophie and Adam Church inherit an abandoned opal mine, triggering some explosive long-lost secrets, they—and Kemp—find themselves facing an unknown enemy even more deadly than the vast, forbidding wilderness of the Outback…
The Desmond Bagley centenary novel honours the legacy of the bestselling thriller writer with a new adventure featuring Bill Kemp, described by Jeffrey Deaver as ‘part James Bond, part Philip Marlowe, and all hero’. Writer Michael Davies, who completed the first Kemp novel Domino Island for publication nearly 40 years after the author’s death, now weaves an original tale of danger and death under the blistering Australian sun.
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