It’s hard to believe that Gunpowder Creek is Alex Dook‘s first novel – probably because it’s not. The Perth-based writer has been recognised twice for the Fremantle Press Fogarty Literary Award with a long-listing in 2019 and a shortlisting in 2021, though neither manuscript was picked up at the time. In the fifteen or so years that Dook spent writing numerous manuscripts and screenplays, it’s clear to see that he’s become something of a master of the craft, because Gunpowder Creek is, if you’ll pardon the pun, explosive.
Beginning in a Fremantle cafe, in which Dook’s embedded third person narrative point of view hilariously skewers the Portside town, we meet Zach, a young man in his early twenties. He’s nervous, probably because he’s waiting for an unknown criminal to pick him up and take him on dangerous job he knows very little about.
The next time we hear from Zach is in a panicked voicemail left on the phone of his mother, Emily, who misses the call because she’s dealing with the usual bullshit at her job. Very soon, the mundane question of whether the staff member who deserves the promotion will be chosen over the nephew whose uncle is ultimately in charge of the decision will be far from Emily’s mind. Just like she will be far from Perth, driving a silver commodore north to Gunpowder Creek, a fictional ghost town in the West Australian outback.
If Emily can’t deliver whatever is in the boot of the car by her deadline, she’s about to learn just how literal a deadline can be. Monitored constantly by the psychopaths who have captured her son, Emily will find out just how far a parent might be willing to go to save their child.
Dook is a master of pacing, with short, punchy chapters and perfectly placed cliffhangers to keep you racing through this book. The violence, when it happens, is heavy but not drawn out, and balanced well by the ironic and often funny narrative style. While the entire book is in third person, each section is closely tied to one of several points of view, and each is immediately distinguishable from the others. As more and more characters are layered into the mix, it becomes immediately clear that there are different levels of good and bad in Emily and Zach’s world. Readers will be strategising alongside the heroine, trying to devise ways of outsmarting the listening device installed on her phone in order to keep her from calling for help, and asking themselves if they could have made it through the challenges Emily must overcome – blisters, burst tyres and much more.
At times like if Pulp Fiction was set at a roadhouse halfway between Geraldton and nowhere, Gunpowder Creek is a compulsive read, reminiscent of Garry Disher.
FOUR AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Alex Dook’s Gunpowder Creek is out now through Echo Publishing. Find a copy at your local bookshop HERE.
