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The Stoning set in Australia – Peter Papathanasiou

  • Submitted: 23rd August 2022

The Stoning – Outback Noir

Getting cold where you are?  Let’s head to Australia to the setting of The Stoning.  A terrible crime takes place in a small town in the middle of nowhere – Cobb which is fictional – and the consequences are far-reaching.

A local schoolteacher is found taped to a tree and stoned to death. Suspicion instantly falls on the refugees at the new detention centre on Cobb’s northern outskirts. Tensions rise and racial attacks escalate….

Detective Sergeant George Manolis returns to his childhood hometown to investigate.

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

The Stoning set in Australia - Peter Papathanasiou

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

Boarding Pass Information: The Stoning

Destination : Australia’s outback

Author guide: Peter Papathanasiou

Genre: Crime, Outback Noir

Food and drink to accompany: Corn on the Cobb

 

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A novel to take you right to the heart of the Australian Outback

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

Outback Noir? Now that grabbed me from the off. We’re flung into dusty, remote Cobb, a small and happily fictional town in the middle of the Australian outback. This is not the kind of place you happen upon. This is rural Australia, raw, wild and unforgiving. You’d think there would be a quiet and nice community who sticks together and looks out for each other. Nope.

The problem is that there has been a detention centre for immigrants set up here.  No one wanted it here and they are fiercely opposed to it. When a gruesome and awful crime takes place, well you can guess who gets the blame. The immigrants in this place are illegals or those who have stayed too long when their visas have ran out.People who the locals don’t want.

The Stoning set in Australia - Peter Papathanasiou

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

This is a raw and brutal look at the way that racism rears its ugly head. What’s worse is that it escalates very quickly and things take a drastic and deadly turn pretty quickly. Think of the novel and film A Time to Kill where two white men rape and beat a young black girl and you get an idea of the anger and hatred that is flung in both directions. The fear and sense of retribution is palpable. Remember to breathe!

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

What struck me as particularly interesting from this novel was the fact that an outsider who was once a local himself, comes home to investigate.  His father has recently died so he has that cloud of darkness over him. In addition, when people get wind of his return, someone is not happy and tries to run him out of town. He’s the only one that seems ready to take the risks and use his insider knowledge to get to the truth. This is rural Australia and the investigation into the crime and the subsequent racism has not been taken seriously.

Read it with a fan to sweep the sunshine from your face and the flies from the dead body. Pop the lid on the cool box and grab a bottle. Oh and sit yourself down – before you fall down when the grinding heat and the dizzying case gets too much. Read it though – it will imprint itself on your mind.

 BookTrail Travel to The Stoning

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Postcard details:  Access The BookTrail’s Map of Locations and travel guide here

More books set in Australia

 

 

BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Stoning

Twitter:  @peteplastic     Web:  fromtheplasticpen.wordpress.com/

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