Dust Off The Bones by Paul Howarth

 

When fourteen year old Billy McBride and his twelve year old brother, Tommy, return to their Australian homestead after fishing that day, they know immediately that something is wrong.  It's too quiet.  They go into the house and find their parents shot dead and their sister dying.  When the Native Police arrive led by the Chief Edmund Noone, they vow to track down the killers and get justice for the boys who they take along.  But something more happens, something so evil that it must be hidden forever.

Now years later, everyone has scattered.  Tommy is somewhere out in the Outback, herding cattle the last he was heard of.  Billy came back home and ended up marrying Katherine, the girl on the largest cattle ranch in the area.  Noone with the help of local law enforcement has hidden what happened that day and has risen in the law establishment.  But he hasn't changed his ways and is determined to keep what happened hidden no matter what it takes.

When a barrister listens to an alcoholic minister who witnessed the incident, he tries to take Noone to account in a courtroom.  That leads to everyone involved having to relive what happens and another successful quashing of the truth.  But Noone isn't satisfied and decides that the only good witness is a dead one.

Paul Howarth is an Australian author and lawyer.  This novel is as raw and elemental as the Australian country as it went through colonization.   It demonstrates the cruelty used to subjugate the native population and how that evil was perpetrated throughout the justice system and society.  Edmund Noone is a cruel man, willing to kill humans as easily as others might swat a fly.  He is a terrifying villain the reader won't forget soon.  This novel is recommended for literary fiction readers and those interested in other country's histories.