Infamy

Taking a Deadwood meets Cormac McCarthy-style approach to recreating history, Alluvium tells the story of William Burr, former English soldier of fortune who is lured to the colony of Tasmania by Lieutenant Arthur Phillip as a bounty hunter, charged to find and capture a notorious escaped felon, Brown George Coyne, who has established a camp in the bush populated with desperates, renegade Aborigines and other escaped convicts. As Burr ventures further into the wilderness on his trail, Coyne grows increasingly mad in a Colonel Kurtz kind of way and declares himself king of the frontier, growing wealthier by the day from ambushes and raiding party forays into Hobart. With most of the armed forces concerned with clearing the land of its aboriginal population, Coyne's influence spreads and threatens to destabilise the entire colony. Coyne's men take a wounded Burr hostage, along with the wife of a corrupt army officer, and together they must try to escape the heart of darkness and warn Phillip that is colony is on the brink of anarchy.

A steamy love story, breathtaking action, cut-throat villains and corrupt and deadly officials galore, this is a brilliant and hugely enjoyable recreation of Tasmanian history by a local who is not only a terrific storyteller but also a skilled and evocative writer. It's Kate Grenville meets Cormac McCarthy in a rollicking, galloping tale that's also sensitive and faithful to history.