The Shearer’s Wife
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 9, 2020
Author Fleur McDonald
Distributor: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781760876814
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Release Date: November 2020
Website: https://www.allenandunwin.com
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Fleur McDonald does not disappoint in The Shearers Wife as she has skilfully crafted out another well researched story looking at the many layers of life in rural Australia and the way people who are well known in a small community often have deep secrets kept well hidden.
The small team at Barker are going about their daily business of Policing a wide district when the AFP arrive at the Station unheralded, demanding Dave Burrows make himself and his vehicle available to undertake a drug bust.
To say Dave is not impressed is an understatement and when he discovers who the Feds have in their sights he is horrified, not believing for one minute that a pillar of the community and the Church, could possibly be involved in drug dealing: but so it would seem as she is apprehended at the Post Office with a small post package filled with narcotics.
Her story goes back to 1980 when as a young girl she birthed twins, remaining in Barker while her shearer husband took to the road, refusing to face up to being a parent of twins. Rose makes a new life for herself and the babies; twelve months on Ian returns to town to visit Rose and the children, leaving with their small son while Rose is at the hospital with their feverish daughter.
Zara Ellison, girlfriend of Constable Jack Higgins, and reporter for the Rural Times is not coping at all well with the death of her brother some months previously and seems to be on a pathway to destruction, but wants to begin a new life, make a fresh start with Jack.
As the Barker team get warned off the case, Zara is asked to use her skills as an investigative journalist to see if she can discover what is really going on and why is so important to the AFP, but as she digs further into the story, Jack begins to believe he and Zara are anything but an item, maybe she is deliberately working against them not with them. And then there is the story about the champion shearer Zara has written during Barker Show rounds, which highlights, or so Jack believes, that their relationship is anything but positive.
So many strands woven together form a tight knit story of life in rural Australia when the going gets tough and people’s lives are at stake, as the deeper Zara digs, the more danger is becoming apparent as Dave, Jack, Zara and Kim face the true horror and devastation of drugs and drug trafficking.
Fleur McDonald weaves her magic in and around the small community of Barker once again. The Shearer’s Wife is spellbinding, real and as always very easy to relate to, as Dave Burrows and his team face the true price of the drug trade.
The perfect book for a little serious time out.