Fool's Gold

From Bestselling Rural Storytelling

Drawing on extensive interviews with detectives specialising in stock crime in rural Australia comes a Fleur McDonald classic, written with her trademark warmth and outstanding storytelling.

To Dave, the posting to Barrabine was exactly what he'd wanted - it was a town on the edge, the wild west. There would be excitement, mystery and intrigue here. Everything a detective looked for.

Detective Dave Burrows' first posting to the far west goldfields town of Barrabine in 1997 holds everything he's looking for, but Melinda, his wife of two weeks, is devastated at leaving behind her family, friends and career. More comfortable in heels than RM Williams, Melinda walked away from her much-loved job in the city as a paediatric nurse to follow Dave into the bush.

Dave settles in easily to the plain-speaking toughness of his new town, determined to do well, knowing that Barrabine could be his stepping stone into the elite stock squad. But will his marriage last the distance? As Dave investigates reports of mysterious late-night trespassing, a missing person, and guns being drawn on strangers, a local prospector phones in with horrific news that could hold the key to everything.

Fleur McDonald's bestselling rural storytelling takes her popular detective, Dave Burrows, back to his compelling and exciting beginnings.

Fleur McDonald has lived and worked on farms for much of her life. After growing up in the small town of Orroroo in South Australia, she became a jillaroo before spending twenty years farming 8000 acres, east of Esperance, WA.

Fleur likes to write about strong women overcoming adversity, drawing inspiration from her own experiences in rural Australia. She is the best-selling author of Red Dust, Blue Skies, Purple Roads, Silver Clouds, Crimson Dawn, Emerald Springs, Indigo Storm, Sapphire Falls, The Missing Pieces of Us and Suddenly One Summer, as well as the ebook exclusive If You Were Here. Fool's Gold begins the story of the popular Detective Dave Burrows.

Fleur currently lives in Esperance with her two children, and energetic kelpie and a Jack Russell terrier.

Fool's Gold
Allen & Unwin
Author: Fleur McDonald
RRP: $29.99

Interview with Fleur McDonald

Question: How did you come up with the idea of Fool's Gold?

Fleur McDonald: It was more about the idea of giving Detective Dave Burrows his own series and then coming up with an idea for a case for him. It was clear from all feedback, everyone loves Dave, so once the series had been decided on, I set about thinking what type of a case could a newly badged detective take on.

At the time, I was spending a lot of time camping in the goldfields of WA – out of a little place called Widgemooltha. Up there the soil is a deep red, the bush is thick and it's rare to see anyone, although you can tell there have been people around. It was around a camp fire one night I came up with the idea of a body down a mine shaft. From then on, it was all about asking the -what if' questions, and coming up with a story from there.


Question: Can you tell us about the research you did into the stock stealing costs?

Fleur McDonald: I spent time with DI Mick Dowie in Queensland and he told me a lot of the stats. Obviously, the police department keeps a fairly close eye on these types of things to know if it's getting worse or better.

Mick and I spent three days together in and around Toowoomba. I was able to see first-hand, the computer programs they use and how they research before going out in to the field. I think the piece of information which surprised me the most was that most of the investigative work is done behind computer screens. Sure, every case needs some leg work, but a huge amount of the work is done through computers, cross checking data and records and telephone calls. It's certainly nothing like what you see on crime shows on TV, where the detectives are out in the field all the time.

The other thing which I found really interesting is the Major Organised Crime Squad (Rural) detectives have to be able to ride a horse (and own their own) and motor bike, and have an understanding of how stock work. Really the prefect candidate for this type of detective is a person from a farm!


Question: Why is only 60% of rural crime ever reported?

Fleur McDonald: Farmers often don't report thefts because they're not sure if they are just that. Sometime stock can go through boundary fences and are on the neighbours property - purely innocent and sometimes we can count incorrectly. Either way, farmers, unless they are one hundred percent sure they're missing animals, are loathed to report it to the police.

Say, for instance, the farmer could see vehicle tracks in and out of a gateway, which he knew wasn't his or any employees, and the mob in that paddock are down by 50 heads. The farmer has evidence that there has been someone else on his farm. However, if there wasn't anything like that and they'd just got the mob in for shearing and they were down 50, the farmer might ring his neighbour and ask if they'd seen any of his sheep or think the muster hadn't been clean (getting all the sheep out of the paddock).

In addition to this, often there is great time lapses (especially in the northern part of Australia) from when the farmers put their cattle back out in the paddock, to when they have anything to do with them again, other than checking on their wellbeing. If, at mustering time, the count for the animals is down 150 on the previous year, it's almost too late to do anything about it, because the stock could have been taken any time within the last twelve months.


Question: How much of your inspiration for Fool's Gold was from real life and real people?

Fleur McDonald: I spent a lot of time in the goldfields, researching mining life in the early 1900s as well in the modern day. During this time, I met many wonderful characters – down to earth, straight talking women and men who all deserve a place in the pages of history, but I have to say that all my characters are mixtures of the many people I met and talked to. One of my favourite parts of the research for this book, was doing a brothel tour in Kalgoorlie. It was amusing and informative, but it also struck home, no matter how controversial this industry is, brothels were and are a necessity.

Question: There are several issues raised in this book. Was this deliberate or did the story evolve this way?

Fleur McDonald: As a person who lives in rural areas and understands some of the challenges faced by rural people, I like to be able to bring these to the forefront of my books and raise awareness about them, whether it be mental health, domestic violence, alcohol and drugs. I feel I'm in a really privileged position to be able to write about these issues within a work of fiction and raise awareness of the problems without preaching at the reader.

In Fool's Gold, the isolation felt by Melinda, is one problem many women face. The remoteness in the goldfields isn't any different to being on a farm and so many people feel alone. I've felt the same as Melinda did, so I was able to write about that part with a lot of knowledge.

As for the rest of it, I guess the book just evolved that way. I'm a writer who never really knows what I'm going to write until I sit down at the keyboard. It's to the point where sometimes I re-read what I've written and have to ask myself if I really wrote it! I like writing like that because I hope that means the reader wont' work out the ending until I get there, because more likely than not, I won't know how the book will end until I get there!


Interview by Brooke Hunter

 

Fool's Gold
Allen & Unwin
Author: Fleur McDonald
RRP: $29.99