Dust
by Michael Brissenden
Affirm Press
The day was hot and it had been a long time since there had been any rain. When Aaron Love discovered a body in the mud, it was just another death on the vast dying lake next to his caravan, in the dying town in regional New South Wales.
Aaron’s father, Tobias Love, had disappeared two years previously and it was assumed that he had drowned. They found his Ute and his boat, but not the body. Looking for answers, Aaron had come to search the dried lake bed.
However, it was not the remains of his father, but the recently deceased body of a reporter who had come to his van to make enquiries about his father, who the reporter believed was still alive.
The reporter had left behind a thumb drive that showed pictures of his father after he had supposedly disappeared and Aaron wanted answers. He also wanted to kill his father for leaving him alone to fend for himself and for all the beatings he endured as a child.
This is a story of disadvantaged people in a small community who live on the margins in a time of change. It’s a time when conspiracy theories take hold of those who have little, and renewable energy projects are threatening to take away what they do have.
After decades as an investigative journalist, Michael Brissenden has drawn from issues that occupy the news such as disinformation, the rise of conspiracy theory groups, crime, corruption, and the discovery of bodies in a lake.
It is both a social commentary and a compelling mystery and Brissenden points out that even though the characters live on the fringe and scrape by as best as they can, their tough lives are not completely without humour, love or tenderness.
Lezly Herbert
