Book Tour and Review: A Fatal Tide By Steve Sailah

I'm taking part in the Random House Australia book tour for A Fatal Tide by Steve Sailah that was recently published on 1 August 2014.

Steve worked for 26 years as a radio journalist and foreign correspondent in Australia, London, New Delhi and Washington. Steve now writes full time, he's written a children's book and this is his second book, a historic novel showing his interest and knowledge of Gallipoli.
 

This is a mystery and war time story set in 1915 when young Australians were leaving home to fight in Gallipoli in WW1. Thomas and his best mate Snow are two young men, one aboriginal and one white, who grew up together in Queensland. When Thomas' father is murdered with clues that point to the South Africa Boer War that his father fought in, Thomas and Snow enlist in WW1 in the hope of finding the murderer and solving the crime.

 

Once in Gallipoli, the war turns out to be a very harsh reality for Thomas and Snow as they join the Anzacs to fight the Turkish. It is really confronting reading about what war was like for all those young soldiers, how they lived, the sickness and injuries, and the fighting on both sides of the battle.

 

Having the mystery of Thomas father's death to solve amongst the war story was a little hard to follow at times but the story did work in the end and it was something really different. This could have made a great war time story on it's own, but the murder and mystery added another element. If this is what the author wanted to achieve, then they definitely did write about something with a point of difference.

 

I really enjoyed this book, I liked the characters, writing style, and learning about Gallipoli which the author had a lot of knowledge on, no doubt from his time working as a foreign correspondent.

I recommend this book to readers with an interest in the Gallipoli and Boer War and Australian history.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5

Jarrah Jungle's Star Rating:

1 Bad - I'd rather eat brussel sprouts topped with anchovies than read this again
2 Not Good - I'd rather watch re-runs of Neighbours than read this again
3 Ok - I'm sitting on the fence - its not great but not terrible either
4 Good - I'd pass up a pack of tim tams for this read
5 Great - I'd pass up a date with Johnny Depp for this read

A Fatal Tide can be purchased from Random House Australia

Sharing my book review on Random House Australia here and Good Reads here

Disclosure: Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Australia for providing me with this eBook published by Bantam Australia to review. As always, all opinions are my own.

 

 

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[Image via Random House]