Steve Sailah

The scope of this novel is quite ambitious: its themes include the Australian soldiers at Gallipoli in 1915; the Boer War, particularly what led up to the execution of Breaker Morant; the relationships between Aborigines and whites in Australia in the early twentieth century; as well as a closely plotted murder mystery.

The novel also falls in with a pattern emerging in Australian fiction as the 100th anniversary of the Gallipoli landing approaches, of novels set in the First World War that wrap fictitious plots in historical fact. Real historical characters such as Major General Harry Chauvel and Lord Kitchener make an appearance.It also explores what it was like at Anzac Cove and the role that trench warfare played there even before it became the dominant feature of the Western Front.

I did find parts of the murder plot a bit far fetched, particularly the idea that the murder of his father led Thomas Clare to enlist, and indeed the reason why his father was murdered.
Nevertheless the plot holds together fairly well and the background to the main story certainly added to my understanding of the times.

There seemed to be some unresolved strings at the end which could well be the platform into a sequel.… (mehr)

The first thing that intrigued me about A Fatal Tide was the author’s name – hadn’t I heard of Steve Sailah before? It turned out that I was right – Steve is an award-winning journalist. It looks like he’ll be able to add star novelist to his credentials with this book.

The book could be easily categorised as ‘historical mystery’, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the story of two teenage boys being forced to grow up very quickly as World War I rages amongst them, it’s a story describing in detail life in the trenches during a war and it’s a story about love for your family. It’s also a book that should be read as a lesson as to why war is not a good thing. Sailah doesn’t hold anything back when describing the carnage and fear of the soldiers in addition to the illness and boredom of military life.

The novel begins in Queensland, describing the friendship between two teenage boys in a small country town. Thomas is the son of the local policeman and his best mate Snow is Aboriginal, living outside of town on a mission with his family. When Thomas’s father is found dead, presumably due to his own hand, Snow’s family looks after Thomas and begin to see some anomalies in his death. Snow’s father, Tubbie, is an expert tracker who believes he was murdered, and there’s also some evidence hidden which could be very dangerous to the military (or very dangerous, depending which side you’re on). When the local doctor supports Tubbie’s statement, Thomas knows he has to dig further to find his father’s killer. The mystery goes back to the Boer War, so Thomas and Snow, thinking themselves as their heroes, Sherlock Holmes and Watson, enlist in the Australian Army.

World War I and life at Gallipoli is like nothing the pair could have ever imagined. With Thomas’s former teacher (appropriately nicknamed Teach), and new friend Fish, the boys will turn into men as they become killing machines. This is not an adventure, it’s a nightmare. Plus there’s someone who knows what Thomas and Snow really came to war for, and they are trying to get rid of them – and quickly.

A Fatal Tide has quite a sombre tone at times, but the humour between Thomas and Snow lightens it somewhat. I enjoyed the banter between Snow and Thomas as they pretended to be Holmes and Watson, figuring out the murderer and the mock arguments between the others. What was more devastating though was the double agent role some of their comrades had – it was disgusting to think of soldiers turning on each other to fight their own petty battles in comparison to the bigger picture. I think the duplicity of the war and murder also help A Fatal Tide to stand out in the WWI fiction category. Sailah is blunt and unforgiving at the brutal loss of Snow and Thomas’s innocence – teenage boys one moment, hardened veterans the next. He doesn’t shy away from the effect fighting has on the boys’ minds – Snow occasionally misses a shot while acting as a sniper and Thomas sometimes misses a fatal shot to clip the enemy. At first Thomas thinks there is something wrong not to be an unemotional killing machine, but he accepts Snow’s point and finds himself doing the same thing for his sanity. Sailah also tells of some of the things not commonly thought about when you’re reading/watching war stories – what if you have dysentery and get shot running to the latrine? How does it feel to be continually writing that ‘last letter’ when you haven’t slept for days? What can you hang on to when the world is going to hell? How do you forget?

I also enjoyed the way the murder mystery linked back to the Boer War. This is a war I don’t know much about, especially Australia’s role, and I enjoyed learning about Breaker Morant and Lord Kitchener. I liked how Sailah took a historical ambiguity and made a wonderfully written and powerful story. This book should be required reading for those with an interest in the Anzacs, and those looking for a jolly good read.

I won the copy of this book in a competition organised by the publisher.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com… (mehr)

An intriguing mystery set amongst the trenches of Gallipoli, A Fatal Tide is an impressive novel from debut author, Steve Sailah.

Thomas Clare is just sixteen when he discovers his father's decapitated body under a tree in the paddock behind their home. The investigating Sergeant insists Constable First Class Jack Clare, a Boer war veteran, committed suicide, miscalculating the length of rope needed to hang himself, but it is obvious to Tubbie Terrier, an aboriginal tracker and family friend, that Jack was not alone when he died. A soldier's boot print on his father's face, and a hidden wartime document with a handwritten notation, are the only clues Thomas has to identify his father's killer and so with the idealism and optimism of youth, Thomas and his best friend Snow, enlist in the raging first World War to find Jack's murderer.

" Oh, what an adventure it would be."

A Fatal Tide tales place in perhaps one of the most unusual settings I have encountered in a mystery novel. Though it begins in the Queensland bush, the majority of the story is set in the trenches of Gallipoli barely a month after the historic ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Corps) landing in 1915.

Sailah vividly illustrates what Thomas experiences after his arrival in Gallipoli. Like many of the men, and boys, who enlisted, Thomas and Snow had no real understanding of the horror of war, expecting adventure and easy victories, only to find themselves ankle deep in mud, corpses and gore, eating flyblown food, battling dysentery and under near constant enemy fire.

It is only then that Thomas appreciates his naivete in going to war to search for the men who murdered his father, not that he is deterred, especially when it becomes obvious that the enemy lies not only across the wasteland of 'no man's land' but also somewhere amongst the trenches forged to protect him. Someone is desperate to recover the document in Thomas's possession which reveals the shocking truth about the events that led to the execution of 'Breaker' Morant thirteen years earlier in Africa.

Despite the grim realities of circumstance, Sailah lightens the tone of the novel with a focus on the bonds formed between the men who fight side by side with Thomas and Snow, and the eccentricities of their characters - Teach, who spouts philosophy, and quick witted and loud mouth, Kingy. Humour also comes from Thomas and Snow's adulation of Sherlock Holmes and his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom Sailah references often during the novel.

Exploring the themes of duty, honour, mateship and humanity, Sailah weaves together a compelling story of war, friendship and murder in A Fatal Tide. It offers both an interesting mystery, and fascinating insight into the experiences of our Australian diggers in Gallipoli's trenches.… (mehr)