Only Killers and Thieves, Howarth - B+

                                                      This is an absolutely fascinating western novel with ranchers, drought, frontier murders, vigilante justice and an extreme antipathy for the natives. Except it's set in Oueensland, Australia in the 1880's. There is an atrocity at the Mckenzie ranch while the teenage boys are out on the range. Billy and Tommy team up with their much hated neighbor, John Sullivan, call in the Native Police and go off to find the blacks who committed the crime. Nobody really knows who committed the crime, but an assumption is all they need. Of course, assumptions are seldom correct and Tommy exacts the appropriate revenge in due course. This is a very fine book, written by an Englishman who lived in Australia for a few years. I'm not sure if he intentionally draws the parallels, but the similarities between the Australian and American frontiers are uncanny. I can't recommend this enough.