We first meet Nick Hawthorne in a bar in Darwin. As a stripper offers distorted perspectives on what Australia has to offer, our hero from Maine meets a compatriot from Detroit who is intent on doing to Asia what America does to most places. (Personal opinions, huh?) Nick has a few of those. He has a personal approach to life, but feels he gets little out of it, despite having achieved the status of being the first-person lead character in Douglas Kennedy’s novel Deadhearted.

Nick is a journalist who has only had small jobs. They interested him a little, they beat him a little, they stimulated him a little less. He then found a map of Australia and became so obsessed with the emptiness of the continent that he sold and left the US to discover the unknown, to visit the unvisited. He is less than impressed with Darwin. It’s not a good start. But a VW motorhome purchased from a Jesus fanatic promises a great escape down the road to Broome. Not around the corner…

A hitchhiker named Angie provides a welcome distraction from the repetition of the road. She seems calm, not to say easy, and a bit threatening. It is the first time she has traveled, but she exudes confidence. Nick, however, remains in control. Or so he thinks…

Until you find yourself in Wollanup. It is a town whose recent tragic history has wiped it off the map. Nick has come to nowhere, to the dead heart of a land. He is now a stranger, he has sex and draft beer and a horrible diet. A horror story haunted by powdered eggs…

Until Krystal starts cooking… Her mechanical skills come into play. The rebuilt motorhome is destroyed again. Her renewed mobility is a threat.

Events happen, as they happen… Douglas Kennedy’s The Dead Heart becomes something of a fast-moving, page-turning thriller. But there are characters here. Something, I’m not sure what! – seems almost believable. Nick isn’t the nicest person, but this overweight, rather self-centered thirty-something hedonist realizes that there might be more to life than unlimited sex and draft beer. He wants both, but clearly somewhere other than Wollanup.

What happens in The Dead Heart is crucial. It’s a plot-driven piece of work, but it’s also engaging and well-written. His racy style fits the obvious concerns of the characters and helps create a vivid portrait of lives that know only the here and now.

Dead Heart is a book to read in one sitting. The process will leave readers wondering how they might have reacted in such circumstances. And what about Australia as shown? Is this a stereotype? Your bet…