Purgatory, Robert M. Smith

Originally published in 2022, this is a series that slipped past me, but something drew my attention to the setting mostly, and after this last awful summer, reading about Mallee towns in the heat sounded like a fictional pursuit that might distract from the reality outside the door.

In this series, Greg Bowker is a  young senior constable who got himself in a bit of bother in Ballarat, and was transferred to a one-officer station in Manangatang, town that is still going despite all declarations of the imminent death. In an interesting twist the author was raised on a farm in country Victoria, and at the time of writing the blurbs for his books, was living in Ballarat. So a reverse Bowker if you like. Either way he's certainly very good at writing the heat and dust of places like Manang, and the references to nearby locations such as Ouyen (with it's mind-blowingly hot summers and frequently cool to cold winters). He's also particularly good at conveying the complications of being the only cop in a massive area that he doesn't know, with not a lot of people in it into the bargain. 

The conveying of small town policing is pretty good as well. As is the way that he and his young wife have to adjust to the community and the sport / what is it with these places and bloody tennis and football! (I know, no need for correspondence on the issue - I just can't stand either pursuit), whilst dealing with a couple of delinquent teenagers and some deeply buried family secrets.

There's a realistic feeling of small bush town's in the 1980's though, and the treatment / attitudes to women, people with any sort of difference to the white, tanned to leather farmer types, and outsiders in general. And strangely enough the feeling of dark and deception flagged in the blurb kind of fitted in with a world of heat, dust, snakes, and physical as well as mental challenges.