Dusk in Aussie Readers

Jun 16, 2025 PattyMacDotComma rated it really liked it

Shelves: aa-ce, australian-author, fiction, kindle, historical-fiction, 3000-lor-shelf-2025, audio-while-reading, aa

3.5~4★
“A whole life earlier, when the twins were aged nine – or perhaps ten; they could never get the seasons straight in their heads – they were crouching on a beach, bleeding into the sand.
. . .
Tiny deep cuts on their shoeless feet from the bladed shells they’d crept over to reach this spot. Trickles of young life snaking from their wounds to stain the white grains crimson.”

The sister and brother Renshaw twins, Iris and Floyd, were raised as handy, small thieves by their English parents, not 3.5~4★
“A whole life earlier, when the twins were aged nine – or perhaps ten; they could never get the seasons straight in their heads – they were crouching on a beach, bleeding into the sand.
. . .
Tiny deep cuts on their shoeless feet from the bladed shells they’d crept over to reach this spot. Trickles of young life snaking from their wounds to stain the white grains crimson.”

The sister and brother Renshaw twins, Iris and Floyd, were raised as handy, small thieves by their English parents, not in Dickensian London, but in Tasmania. As a boy and girl who'd been skylarking and flirting, their parents were transported half a world away for a petty crime. That was then, but now, they're infamous.

“She harboured no doubts about their crimes. They were thieves. They were killers. They were what people said. But that wasn’t how Iris chose to remember them, because the truth of what they had done wasn’t the truth of all that they were.
. . .
when they were malnourished youths, living on the other side of the world in the old country… Sneaking into the nearby woods to lie on a green bank, dipping their hands into a clear stream, pulling out trout and holding them, fat and wriggling, up to each other’s eyes: an act both small and catastrophic.
. . .
To be caught by his [the viscount’s] gamekeeper, as her parents were on their way home one sunny afternoon, was to be arrested; to be charged and sentenced without ever appearing in front of a judge or jury; to be locked in the crowded, foetid hold of a creaking ship and dragged in chains to the far corner of the world.”

This young couple are the Renshaws, who then turned to actual crime to make a living, at the same time making a name for themselves as feared criminals. Their twins were given no choice.

Now adults themselves, the sister and brother can’t escape the Renshaw name and are fiercely loyal to each other. Who else would have them, anyway? Floyd has something seriously wrong with his back, and Iris keeps a special ointment she rubs on and unkinks it as best she can. They are quickly alert to each other's needs and anxious when they get separated.

They hear of a bounty offered on a wild puma, called Dusk, who lurks in the hills. It has recently killed a man in a particularly gruesome fashion, and hunters are gathering.

There are several interesting characters, but a couple of them felt more like caricatures. Still, I chose to go along with Arnott's imagination. It becomes quite an adventure story where I had to suspend disbelief more than once - there's his imagination at work, again.

The weather is mostly cold and wet and miserable, but Arnott’s descriptive skill alone is worth the read. Here is how morning light dispels the fears of the night.

“The fully risen sun built a morning of cold colour, of ripped clouds, sharp light washing onto wet wool and frosted fields. It afforded the twins a confidence that they hadn’t felt the previous day. With the sun unshielded, the mist absent, the land was robbed of menace. The river was no longer haunting but placid; the twisted trees appeared graceful and stoic in their contortions; the listless shepherds now seemed merely apathetic, rather than mysterious or threatening.”

I’m always happy to read the work of this talented Tasmanian. ...more

36 likes · Like · see review

Jul 13, 2025 Brenda rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aussie-authors, 3000-2025, 2024-release, historical-fiction, own-read

3.5★s

In the Highlands of Tasmania, a puma named Dusk was creating havoc, killing animals as well as people. A man from Patagonia had been hired but hadn't been seen since he ventured into the wild bush, so a team of men came together to search, with a bounty motivating them. And so it was for twins Iris and Floyd who had been struggling to survive. On their horses, with no weapons, little food, plus their camping gear, they headed into the Highlands to search for Dusk. But there was danger ahea ...more

26 likes · Like · see review

Dec 15, 2024 Kim rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, australian-fiction, australian-author, act-library, 2025-booker-possible, 2024aus-release, australian, 2024-most-anticipated, 2024-library-reserve, 2024-favourites

A good story but lost me on a few minor points, probably only important to myself and other readers would probably not be bothered by it. I'll still read anything he writes. ...more

2 likes · Like · see review