The Billabong (Bushrangers Book 1) by Jack Byrne

Publisher:  Dreamspinner Press; 1 edition (November 26, 2013)

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Review written by Christopher Hawthorne Moss

How refreshing to have a story set in Australia for a change, this one set in the 1800s when bushrangers, basically Australian outlaws, range the Outback. Jim Kelly has just lost his wife and children to a fever, and he heads for a billabong he knows about, that is to say a swimming hole, to distract himself from his grief. When he is bitten by a snake, it just so happens that a man who knows what to do for snakebites happens along and saves his life. Jim is suspicious of Mark Turner, but the two start to cooperate on the chores around the camp, and after a few trips to the billabong to skinny dip they surprise themselves by coming together after various dramatic experiences, including a huge brush fire. Mark rides off on an errand and doesn’t come back. Find out with Jim where Mark is and why he is unable to return to his lover. It seemed to me there were a couple of terms use that were more appropriate to the American West, but the story is new enough and interesting enough to keep anyone’s attention.