The rumour concerns Matt Green, a senior adviser to the prime minister. It is alleged that he sexually assaulted an Aboriginal girl in Alice Springs during a hand-back ceremony. Chesterton attended the same ceremony. She has also been having an affair with Green. While searching for corroborating evidence to turn rumour into truth, Chesterton reconnects with an old friend, whose cousin’s child is at the centre of the sexual abuse allegations. As the personal and political become more intertwined, the storytelling is engaging.

Voumard is precise in her depiction of the outback, and avoids most of the clichés surrounding the ‘red centre’. Chesterton, similarly, cannot coast along on her usual Canberra ennui in Alice Springs. She must question her motivations and examine her own complicated family history.

This ambitious novel tackles a heady mix of moral issues juxtaposed against personal and political histories in a contemporary setting. Voumard’s prose is confident, but the characters lack depth. Her familiarity with the world of political journalism stunts her fiction. Many journalists have made a successful transition from journalism to fiction writing – Fiona Capp and Michael Robotham come to mind. Voumard needs to develop her talent to revel in the slower pace of fiction writing and, in this, create dynamic lives and worlds, rather than report on them.