Outrider (Mark Wales, Macmillan)

In Mark Wales’s debut novel, Outrider, China invades Australia, and the state of Victoria is now in the hands of enemy forces. With many fight-hungry locals turned traitors, The Hill—the once picturesque Mount Dandenong—is now the only place for any Victorians willing to fight back. It’s also the home of Jack Dunne, an Outrider—a lethal military weapon in his own right. After Jack kills a vital enemy leader at a checkpoint near The Hill, war is declared on the stronghold, and there’s only one way for the Resistance to win. With his son Harry in tow and a backup team in the air, Jack is Victoria’s last hope. Wales handles any potential reader concerns regarding racism and the portrayal of China’s fictional terrorism here well. The vast majority of enemies are turncoat locals, and the focus is not on the political landscape that began the invasion, but on Jack’s immediate problems. The desperation he feels to look after his son when nowhere is safe is palpable, and his reliance on Harry’s skills makes for grim reading at times. While there is a fair amount of bloodthirsty fighting, technical talk and weapon acronyms to sate military-enthusiast readers, Outrider powers along with enough energy that it won’t trip up readers without that knowledge. Wales’s previous experience as an SAS troop commander and as the winner of 2017’s Australian Survivor lends him some serious cred, making this a fast-paced, high-octane thriller for fans of Lee Child, Chris Ryan and Matthew Reilly.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Fiona Hardy is the author of the How To series of middle fiction books, and a bookseller at Readings. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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