"Out in Nowhere" by Fleur McDonals is a gripping mystery set against the hauntingly beautiful yet unforgiving landscape of the Flinders Ranges. The novel expertly weaves together a tale of suspense, family tension, and the stark realities of rural life, creating an interesting story.

The plot centers on the tragic death of Alex Donaldson, a young farmer, father and husband that shatters the peace of the rural farming community, when another accidental death occurs in the community, truths begin to be uncovered.

Alongside the characters of Detective Dave and Sargent Mia, Hallie, Alex's Wife, finds herself drawn into the mystery of Alex's death. The family dynamics add a layer of emotional depth to the story, as Hallie's struggle for acceptance from her cold and toughened in-laws becomes entwined with her quest for the truth. I felt that McDonald painted a vivid picture of the vast, desolate landscape, where the isolation and harshness of the environment mirror the tension within the Donaldson family. It also added a sense of urgency to the investigation and the story as a whole.

The characters in "Out in Nowhere" are well-drawn, each carrying their own burdens and secrets. However, some of the subplots were not fully resolved, or were resolved without adequate explanation in the epilogue which left me with many unanswered questions. This was a let down to an otherwise fairly good Australian crime novel.

"Out in Nowhere" effectively captures the isolation and intensity of life in rural Australian farming communities. The combination of a gripping whodunit and the family tension makes for an easy crime read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for the ARC in exchange for this review.

This is a great rural mystery by a very accomplished author. Hallie Donaldson and her husband Alex live on a farm where one day her husband is found dead. This is a mystery, a murder and is a book the is thrilling, intense and community spirit and friendship. With great characters and a great rural story this one is a book thank takes you on a journey of how the rural community live and deal with things.

I enjoyed this book and found it very interesting and is a story that builds as you read. I found it intriguing and very interesting and had no trouble reading it from start to finish.

Thank You NetGalley and Allen & Unwin for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

An interesting rural noir police procedural. Themes of country values and altitudes vs those of the city are explored through the presence of city folk living in ‘the bush’, the city slickers there by choice and often for love but also living in a sense in exile largely with a status of ‘other’
Themes of misogyny are also presented as rampant but neatly critiqued through juxtaposition with the relationship of the experienced male detective and his ‘new chum’ female partner who ultimately does much of the work that both discovers the case and then brings it to a conclusion. Not a dumb juxtaposition this, for the older male detective occasional surprises his younger colleague (and is the readers) with very clever insight into the case or questioning of a suspect. The pace at the start of the book is slow but builds and there is an eerie sense of dread for much of the first 2/3 of the book which lifts as the plot develops. For much of the book I couldn’t say I was a fan, by its end, I was quite glad to have read it. Plotting was excellent and the characters interesting.

** spoiler alert ** We once again return to Barker, where Detective Dave Burrows and Constable Mia Worth are the officers caring for their community.

When they get called to an accident of a young farmer who has fallen from a windmill, they begin to question if it was an accident or not. The wife is devastated and is trying to hold herself together for the sake of their daughter.

But when another accident occurs of another young farmer and him being friends of the man who died in the other accident, things aren’t making sense.

Dave and Mia are trying to work out the details as well as trying to protect the community, especially when these accidents have happened.

This story of how friendships can be held together by the past but can cause so much heartbreak of loss of the friendships can cause friction within.


Once again Fleur takes us on a journey of finding the truth within a community that seeks to help one another.

I received this book from #netgalley for a honest and free review of this story.

(3.5 stars)
Despite her extensive catalogue of books, and my interest in Aussie noir, Out in Nowhere is the first Fleur McDonald novel I have read. It's part of a series about Detective Dave Burrows, though to my mind he's a lesser character than his partner, Constable Mia Worth. By and large it's a police procedural, with a nod to the differences in policing between urban and rural areas, and with what happens to how you police once you become embedded and protective of a rural community: "Sometimes saving the family even the smallest amount of pain is good policing."

The biggest theme in the book is the sexism of traditional, conservative, older rural men, which is contrasted to the resilience and capability of the women they marry (yet seem to think they protect): "The men are out in the paddocks and often hours away. You have to be able to deal with whatever comes up."

If you like Farmer Wants A Wife, you'll probably like this book, as it really digs into how women who marry into multi-generational rural families are treated: as outsiders, blow-ins, and gold-diggers: "In-laws will always be outsiders here. No matter how much they're loved or part of the family." This is gussied up in a narrative about loving the land: "Not because we're protecting the assets that past generations have built up, but because this land can't go into the hands of someone who wouldn't love it and can't care for it the way that people who have been brought up on it can."

What I liked is that Out in Nowhere largely works as a standalone novel: you get to know everyone pretty quickly, you're not beset with too much boring interconnection between books, and it's about a crime that's solved within the book. What I didn't like was the loose ends. What really happened to Nicole and Rod's first child? Why didn't we hear about their role in hiding the crime? What was it that Alex didn't know was good for him? This should have been covered in the book, as these were quite developed plot lines that were all left hanging. As a first time reader these omissions do not incline me to salivate for and read the next book, they just makes this one feel incomplete and unsatisfying.