MICHAEL TRANT No Trace. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Is Michael Trant Australia’s Lee Child? No Trace delivers a heroic protagonist and a rush of adrenalin in the remote Pilbara.
Michael Trant’s Wild Dogs (2022) was an action-packed thriller that introduced Gabe Ahern as Australia’s answer to Jack Reacher. Thankfully it lived up to the hype. Set in the north-west of Western Australia, it was an exciting read with a complex plot, great characters and a huge kill rate.
Gabe Ahern is back in No Trace, a sequel set in the immediate aftermath of Wild Dogs. This time his book is endorsed by Lee Child as ‘Tough, fast and hard – my kind of book.’ The cover of my advance proof sets out the premise as ‘Outback thriller meets locked room mystery’. I was hooked immediately.
Australian writers have excelled in ‘Outback Noir’, a genre in which setting and character are important components of the mix. With Wild Dogs, and now No Trace, Michael Trant has given us a character in Gabe who fits the heroic mould of bravery, integrity and determination.
The novel quickly sets up its premise. Gabe is hiding on remote Goldmont Station in the Pilbara, lying low in fear of revenge from the families of criminals now in prison as a result of him having exposed their activities. The prologue makes it clear that he has been spotted and someone now knows where to find him. A later twist muddies the waters as to whether the recognition is benevolent or malevolent. Trant keeps us guessing all the way through.
The fun begins when tourists start arriving for an authentic outback experience at Goldmont Station. They are a mixed bunch and Gabe fears they are not all they seem. Readers of Wild Dogs will know that Gabe’s instincts are to be trusted.
Frank was looking more intently at Gabe now. ‘Have we met before?’
Well, fuck. ‘Don’t reckon so,’ Gabe replied, shuffling a little.
‘Wait,’ Frank exclaimed, a look of surprise spreading over his face. ‘You’re him, that guy, the one who uncovered that people-smuggling ring a few years back. Irene, you remember?’
As the guests arrive, Gabe is notified by the Carnarvon Police that one of his enemies is out of prison, and everything on the station goes awry. The station helicopter is sabotaged, the internet goes down, and floods isolate the property.
When a guest is murdered, it is up to Gabe and his colleagues on the station to try and solve the mystery, and for Gabe to work out what the connection is to him. He has to cooperate with people he doesn’t necessarily trust and questions the relationships he is building with several of the tourists. There is a love interest in the shape of a young woman who seems eager to get to know Gabe. Trant is adept at characterisation, and the reader cares about the characters caught up in the situation while at the same time questioning their motivations.
In the midst of the thriller, there is a set piece of magnificent storytelling. One of the young children goes missing and is discovered stuck, head-down, in a pipe. As the rain increases and the floodwaters move toward the station, it becomes a race to dig the child free before he drowns. This is intense and exciting writing and the responses of the various guests and station hands wreak havoc with Gabe’s (and the reader’s) assumptions.
Inside the trench was like an oven. What little breeze there was did not extend down into the excavation. Sweat poured off Ford, Leo and Frank as they worked. Frank looked like he was going to faint each time he climbed up the dirt ramp to where Irene was waiting for him, cold water in hand. They rotated, Mitch, Jasper and Gabe swapping with others every ten minutes, all working as fast as they could. The tension was almost tangible, amplified by the knowledge that the whole site could be underwater soon.
When Gabe stuck his head above ground level chasing some fresh air, Irene passed him a cup of water, which he gulped down in seconds. Then he heard it, the low roar of running water. He pulled himself further up, peering past the mounded bank of dirt, and saw it.
The climax of the novel is cleverly done and very satisfying. I really found it difficult, even at this stage of the book, to have a sense of who the killer was, and Gabe follows the same red herring that I did. There is a classic bait and switch moment as we finally realise who has been undermining Gabe and his instincts.
This is a satisfying and well-constructed novel and there is much to respect in Trant’s adroit handling of his plot and characters. His love for the Pilbara shines through in the descriptions of the country and the lifestyle. Trant excels in the construction of his fiction, and he keeps the reader entertained as he plays with the tropes of the locked-room mystery. No Trace is an enjoyable and admirable novel.
Michael Trant No Trace Penguin Random House 2023 PB 352pp $32.99
Michael Jongen is a librarian who tweets as @michael_jongen
You can buy No Trace from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.
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