Detective Inspector Dan Clement is mired in routine outback crime: explosives stolen from a mine, protestors picketing an abattoir, and a clinic break-in with potential ties to anti-vaxxers. But as police pick at these disparate threads, a grisly murder by crucifixion at a remote cattle station shocks even Clement, the hard-nosed copper featured in three previous Warner crime novels, City of Light, Before it Breaks and Clear to the Horizon.
Fans of DI Clement will know that nothing is ever as simple as it seems in his line of work, especially when the detective’s relentless instincts for uncovering the hard truth are stirred. These instincts are the driving force of the novel, but in After the Flood Warner skilfully weaves a strong supporting cast throughout.
These characters – good, bad, often in-between – lure the reader deep into a tense police procedural that charts conspiracy, terror and shattered dreams in a landscape that’s simultaneously immense, menacing and suffocating with suspense.