This vastly underrated true crime novel concerns the 2004 death in custody of Cameroon Doomadgee, an Aboriginal man who was arrested on Palm Island for a swearing at a police officer. Hooper is an outsider: she’s not a local of Palm Island, nor is she close to the police, but she responds to what she sees with a thoughtful intelligence. Like the best crime novels, this one raises more questions than it answers, and will leave you feeling unsetttled. Not an easy read, but a worthwhile one.
