Non-fiction

The Kelly Hunters

Grantlee Kieza: ABC Books, $35

After a slew of accessible biographies including Lawson, Monash, Banjo and, in 2017, Mrs Kelly, the author delves into the life of her outlaw son Ned. In a clear and fast-moving style he sketches in Kelly’s road to notoriety but the focus here is on those who searched difficult terrain for 20 months after Kelly and his gang killed three policemen in a remote mountain camp in 1878. Among the hunters in a region rife with Kelly sympathisers are poorly paid, mainly Irish police, and eventually, Stanhope O’connor, a murderous sub-inspector of Queensland’s Native Mounted Police and his team of trackers, who are on the scene for the final shootout in the small Victorian town of Glenrowan.

ALISON WALSH