JUSTIN BAYARD

by Jon Cleary ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 1956

His second novel of the Australian backcountry, and a more powerful book than The Sundowners (Scribner-'52) -- this is first rate tale spinning and conveys a sense of today's frontiers with tonic enthusiasm. Bayard was a policeman and as the story opens he is bringing in a prisoner, Emu Foot, a native, who had killed his woman. Tribal revenge threatened, but Bayard determined to lick it and reach the station. But the Kapundas, bush myalls, might have won with Bayard's death had his prisoner not abetted him and actually saved his life. He came back to consciousness at Kootapatamba, the Kirkbride cattle range, and while awaiting the plane, he found himself in the vortex of a violent emotional battle. Young Kirkbride had brought his city wife, Julie, back to the ranch house- and six months of it had unsettled her to the brink of insanity. His head ranchman, Palady, bitterly resented her; Blanche, Palady's daughter by a half-breed, was the butt of Julie's hostility; the blacks took sides; and Bayard with his role as policeman, provided a further barb. Julie tries for him- and fails; Blanche comes to love him- and agrees to be his wife. And --as fate plays its hand, and violent death shortcuts to the ultimate answer- the story gathers momentum....Personally, I think this succeeds where Shute in Beyond the Black Stump fails -- in carrying over the mood and rhythm and impact of the half-primitive, half-civilized country.

Pub Date: Aug. 22, 1956

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1956

Categories: FICTION