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The Boundary
Hours after rejecting the Corrowa People’s native title claim on Brisbane’s Meston Park, Justice Bruce Brosnan is brutally murdered in his home. Days later, lawyers against the claim are also found dead.
Aboriginal people were once prohibited from entering Brisbane’s city limits at night, and Meston Park stood on the boundary. The Corrowa’s matriarch, Ethel Cobb, is convinced the murders are the work of an ancient assassin who has returned to destroy the boundary, but Aboriginal lawyer Miranda Eversely isn't so sure. When the Premier is kidnapped, the pressure to find the killer intensifies....
While the investigation forces Detective Sergeant Jason Matthews to confront his buried heritage, Miranda battles a sense of personal failure at the Corrowa’s defeat. How far will it take her to the edge of self-destruction?
Aboriginal people were once prohibited from entering Brisbane’s city limits at night, and Meston Park stood on the boundary. The Corrowa’s matriarch, Ethel Cobb, is convinced the murders are the work of an ancient assassin who has returned to destroy the boundary, but Aboriginal lawyer Miranda Eversely isn't so sure. When the Premier is kidnapped, the pressure to find the killer intensifies....
While the investigation forces Detective Sergeant Jason Matthews to confront his buried heritage, Miranda battles a sense of personal failure at the Corrowa’s defeat. How far will it take her to the edge of self-destruction?
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First published January 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 20, 2011
THE BOUNDARY is the first novel from Australian author Nicole Watson. Nicole is a member of the Birri-Gubba People and the Yugambeh language group and her novel is set in Brisbane, at the end of an unsuccessful land rights claim, soon after which high profile people start dying.
Reading this book it's impossible not to be aware of some fundamental elements. There is a sense of anger in the book - anger at the treatment of an ancient people in their land and anger at the deprivation and desecration of those people. There's also a sense of celebration - Aboriginal sensibility, thinking, belief systems, and society are clearly illustrated. That's not to say that this is a saccharine view of life - there's good and bad and right and wrong on both sides. There's so much damage to many of the people in this book, but there's also signs of self-reliance, repair and restoration. THE BOUNDARY is told in a style which has a real feeling of difference, choppy, abrupt, scathing as many difficult subjects are tackled - politics, land rights, alcoholism, dysfunction, family tensions and the difficulties that change continues to bring.
THE BOUNDARY is most definitely not a light and easy read, nor is it a perfect, flawless debut. The subject matter alone makes it confrontational, and the writing is often as abrupt as the content. It provides a real sense of the "other" with a glaring distinction between the mystical and reality which starts off feeling a little choppy, but does ends up making some sense. The use of the crime genre to tell this story rings true, the subject matter confrontational and whilst I did at one point think the writing a little patchy, the personal stories are strong, involving and very moving. So many aspects of the story THE BOUNDARY illustrates are raw and brutal, it does makes sense that the reader should sometimes be uncomfortable. It also makes sense that the flights into the mystical aren't explained, it makes sense that the resolution solves the immediate problem and raises a lot more questions.
What THE BOUNDARY really did for me is make me hope like hell that more and more indigenous Australian's set out to write their stories in their own language, and stylings, so that more and more of us can get an insight into the differences, understand the pain and get even just a glimpse of a reality which is quintessentially their own.
Reading this book it's impossible not to be aware of some fundamental elements. There is a sense of anger in the book - anger at the treatment of an ancient people in their land and anger at the deprivation and desecration of those people. There's also a sense of celebration - Aboriginal sensibility, thinking, belief systems, and society are clearly illustrated. That's not to say that this is a saccharine view of life - there's good and bad and right and wrong on both sides. There's so much damage to many of the people in this book, but there's also signs of self-reliance, repair and restoration. THE BOUNDARY is told in a style which has a real feeling of difference, choppy, abrupt, scathing as many difficult subjects are tackled - politics, land rights, alcoholism, dysfunction, family tensions and the difficulties that change continues to bring.
THE BOUNDARY is most definitely not a light and easy read, nor is it a perfect, flawless debut. The subject matter alone makes it confrontational, and the writing is often as abrupt as the content. It provides a real sense of the "other" with a glaring distinction between the mystical and reality which starts off feeling a little choppy, but does ends up making some sense. The use of the crime genre to tell this story rings true, the subject matter confrontational and whilst I did at one point think the writing a little patchy, the personal stories are strong, involving and very moving. So many aspects of the story THE BOUNDARY illustrates are raw and brutal, it does makes sense that the reader should sometimes be uncomfortable. It also makes sense that the flights into the mystical aren't explained, it makes sense that the resolution solves the immediate problem and raises a lot more questions.
What THE BOUNDARY really did for me is make me hope like hell that more and more indigenous Australian's set out to write their stories in their own language, and stylings, so that more and more of us can get an insight into the differences, understand the pain and get even just a glimpse of a reality which is quintessentially their own.
April 15, 2015
I loved parts of this - the anger in the book is palpable, the setting (Brisbane, particularly West End) is evoked strongly and the deep-rooted Indigenous perspective was welcome. But I struggled too - the writing never flowed for me, and I found the structure difficult to follow and the flashbacks unclear and unhelpful. The mystical part of the story didn't work for me at all and the resolution wasn't hugely satisfactory. Also: for some reason it really annoyed me that all of Brisbane's landmarks were described using their real names, but Musgrave Park was renamed Meston Park.
December 30, 2019
I'm not usually one for thrillers but I enjoyed this one from an Aboriginal Australian perspective. At times I found the writing quite verbose, too poetic or over the top. The play between reality and the spiritual world was interesting but also confusing. I thought Watson wrote her characters well - there were a few that made my skin crawl and I wasn't upset when they died.
The history Watson has included is real. The sections about land rights and the treatment of Aboriginal people by the powerful systems are heartbreaking and infuriating.
The history Watson has included is real. The sections about land rights and the treatment of Aboriginal people by the powerful systems are heartbreaking and infuriating.
July 31, 2012
Despite reading 63 books so far this year for the Australian Women Writing Challenge, none have been written by indigenous women. Determined to rectify that oversight I requested The Boundary by Nicole Watson from my library. Nicole Watson is a member of the Birri-Gubba People and the Yugambeh language group. Her experience as a lawyer working in Legal Aid, the National Native Title Tribunal, and the Environmental Protection Agency is evident in this novel, as is her identification as an aboriginal woman.
While I appreciate the way in which The Boundary elucidates the appalling past and present treatment of Aboriginals in Australian society, for me, the political and social issues explored in The Boundary tended to overwhelm the narrative. There are four deaths over the course of the story, all high profile figures involved in denying a Native Title claim. At each scene red feathers are discovered, the significance of which eventually becomes clear near the end of the novel, and investigators suspect that each man knew his killer. I'm not sure how to explain why I feel the murders were sidelined from the story but they seemed almost incidental to the broader indigenous issues like Native Title claim and The Stolen Generation, as well as the more personal problems of the characters in a novel classified as crime fiction.
Miranda is the Aboriginal lawyer who has worked on the Native claim title for six years only to have it denied. The stress of the trial and her feelings of failure have resulted in alcoholism which threatens to ruin her life. Jason, an investigating police officer, finds himself torn between his identity as the son of a white middle class family and the genetics that mark him as Aboriginal. Ethel, Miranda's elderly aunt, is still haunted by the experiences of her youth. Each of these characters is intriguing in their own right but further crowd the novel with issues rather than story.
While the themes and issues of The Boundary deserve to explored in Australian fiction, I think it was too ambitious to include so many of them within the scope of this novel. Yet this is an intriguing, if demanding book with fascinating and confronting insights into indigenous issues. Well worth the read if you go in without any preconceived notions of genre.
While I appreciate the way in which The Boundary elucidates the appalling past and present treatment of Aboriginals in Australian society, for me, the political and social issues explored in The Boundary tended to overwhelm the narrative. There are four deaths over the course of the story, all high profile figures involved in denying a Native Title claim. At each scene red feathers are discovered, the significance of which eventually becomes clear near the end of the novel, and investigators suspect that each man knew his killer. I'm not sure how to explain why I feel the murders were sidelined from the story but they seemed almost incidental to the broader indigenous issues like Native Title claim and The Stolen Generation, as well as the more personal problems of the characters in a novel classified as crime fiction.
Miranda is the Aboriginal lawyer who has worked on the Native claim title for six years only to have it denied. The stress of the trial and her feelings of failure have resulted in alcoholism which threatens to ruin her life. Jason, an investigating police officer, finds himself torn between his identity as the son of a white middle class family and the genetics that mark him as Aboriginal. Ethel, Miranda's elderly aunt, is still haunted by the experiences of her youth. Each of these characters is intriguing in their own right but further crowd the novel with issues rather than story.
While the themes and issues of The Boundary deserve to explored in Australian fiction, I think it was too ambitious to include so many of them within the scope of this novel. Yet this is an intriguing, if demanding book with fascinating and confronting insights into indigenous issues. Well worth the read if you go in without any preconceived notions of genre.
June 19, 2011
I highly recommend this book, such an eye opener and so gripping. Thanks Larissa Behrendt for the (public) recommendation. She suggested it as an entertaining way to learn about indigenous connection to the land. It was great to read close to Politics of Suffering, as felt good to have an indigenous voice through story commenting on various government policies, and such a welcome contrast to Politics... A number of indigenous and other characters appear, goodies and baddies across races (perhaps goodies and baddies is an oversimplification). And don't be mislead by my initial comments, government policies are not the focus. History, police, native title, alcoholism, adoption, this book offers a window on quite a lot. Can't wait to lend this book to friends and family. I'm not usually a fan of crime fiction, but could read this one again.
Nicole - write another please...
Nicole - write another please...
March 14, 2015
Most of this book was a fun and gripping crime thriller, with Aboriginal lawyers, detectives and activists all mixed up in what was happening. The last few chapters were deeply unsettling and disturbing. The writing was quite abrasive, in a way that worked, with little humorous touches like a company selling out Aboriginal people called Coconut Holdings, and a yobbo radio station called Green and Gold FM. The play between reality and the novel is intriguing, and the role of spirits and history was another interesting angle.
June 11, 2019
Read this as a text in an 'Australian Crimes' English literature course I took this semester. Whilst the concept of interweaving a cleverman figure as a character and plot device within the conceptional crime narrative was a novel idea the execution was inconsistent with many of the threads of plot leading to nowhere and the many voices crammed into one novel patchy and indistinct. I most enjoyed learning about the dark often hidden segregationist history of Brisbane that has been intentionally buried.
March 27, 2015
Compelling and disturbing. Brisbane is a whole new light. I thought the point of view was a little unfocused, so it took me a while to get into it.
Read
February 16, 2021'Break our minds with invisible bullets, until we can no longer believe that we are who we say we are"Nicole Watson
Brilliantly written. It's eloquent and Nicole Watson takes you to places you need to go. It gives soul to the hurts of past. I knew about the boundary and about the protectors but I learnt more about the past because of this book. I'm continuing my reading about Brisbane’s hidden shameful history.
Absolutely loved the story, the mystery and the fact that indigenous history is woven into this crime story as well as supernatural elements and a native title case. It's such a complex and complete story that keeps you hooked with its eloquent prose-like writing.
When she writes about West End, it reminds me the West End I grew up in. 8t resonated with my soul. It was really like she describes ...
"When she was a child, West End had been a catchment area for those who were not welcome in Brisbane’s middle-class suburbs: immigrants, artists, Murris. From the shared experience of exile a vibrant community had been born. But those days are passing, suffocating under a gold blanket."those days have seemingly passed it's been gentrified and you have to look deeply to find the vibrant West End of the past. No longer can you get $3.99 Vietnamese tucker. But Kurilpa is still there.
Growing up in West End we witnessed the installation of the skylight, hairdresser Stefan Ackerie erected in the 1980s. We didn't refer to it as kindly as Nicole Watson did
"The skylight is ugly, a relic of the loud and gaudy 1980s. It stands behind Meston Park like a rocket waiting,"instead we referred to it as Stefan's great Big Prick. It really was a blight on the landscape. But, for me, places I recognised made this story more compelling and reminiscent of my own past.
I made several notes while reading The Boundary I have gone back and read some of the lines I found so powerful that dug into my soul. Lines that echo through my heart..
"I sank to the ocean floor when she died."- Nicole Watson
Nicole Watson
"Staring through a veil of sleep.
But still, I can see her sadness.
She’s holding something deep within,
sits on the bottom of her soul,
dragging her down."
I thank Nicole Watson for reigniting my interest in Aboriginal history.
August 5, 2023
This was a complex book, and I had pretty complex feelings about it. Indigenous writing can be confronting, and Nicole is really open and honest about what life as an Aboriginal person in Australia is like. The everyday casual racism (He's hot but my parents would kill me if I dated a blackfulla) through to the legal system basically stripping rights from those who were there first.
There are quite a few characters in the novel, which could make things tricky to keep in your head, especially as a non-indigenous reader who was learning a lot about Aboriginal culture as I read. And honestly no one in the book could be accused of being a nice person. But that doesn't negatively impact it at all.
My greatest disappointment was realising the age of the book, checking out what else the author had written and realising that she had not written anything else even slightly in this realm (a very eclectic list of books make up the authors writing, sadly no others that would be on my personal TBR list)
There are quite a few characters in the novel, which could make things tricky to keep in your head, especially as a non-indigenous reader who was learning a lot about Aboriginal culture as I read. And honestly no one in the book could be accused of being a nice person. But that doesn't negatively impact it at all.
My greatest disappointment was realising the age of the book, checking out what else the author had written and realising that she had not written anything else even slightly in this realm (a very eclectic list of books make up the authors writing, sadly no others that would be on my personal TBR list)
December 21, 2023
Good characters. Avoids romanticising any one or group. Shows some Australian Aboriginal history mostly in Brisbane. And goes through some of the issues Aboriginal Australians deal with. It was fun trying to pick the real references being alluded to. Alex John for Alan Jones? Trashy current affair show - A Current Affair? Is the park Musgrave Park in real life? Is the coconut part of Coconut Holdings and those who sell out to it a derogatory reference? I’m probably missing some. Ultimately this novel doesn’t know what it wants to be though. For most of it it seems like a murder mystery, then supernatural elements come in. Then there is some kind of schmaltzy, twee romance vibe then an implausibly quick coming good happy ever after. A lot of characters introduced in the first part are superfluous to the story. I guess it is a nuanced look at the complex state of Aboriginal affairs today. It’s just the form it is delivered in that went a bit awry. It kept me interested until the end when it seemed to lose its way and be unable to reign itself in.
December 27, 2023
Even though it's advertised as a thriller, it's much more than that.
Following Australia's rejection to recognize the Aboriginal people in the constitution earlier this year, I realized I've been quite ignorant on contemporary Aboriginal culture and wanted to explore a bit more.
This book offers such an impactful account of their story It brings together past myths, current struggles and hope for a better future, all on the background of a murder mystery. Bonus points for the criticism of capitalism and greed, the destructive need to bury myths and tradition under skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings.
And super extra bonus points: the author herself is a member of Birri-Gubba People.
Following Australia's rejection to recognize the Aboriginal people in the constitution earlier this year, I realized I've been quite ignorant on contemporary Aboriginal culture and wanted to explore a bit more.
This book offers such an impactful account of their story It brings together past myths, current struggles and hope for a better future, all on the background of a murder mystery. Bonus points for the criticism of capitalism and greed, the destructive need to bury myths and tradition under skyscrapers and high-rise office buildings.
And super extra bonus points: the author herself is a member of Birri-Gubba People.
October 22, 2017
The Boundary is definitely a page turner and I did enjoy reading It. A who-dun-it—but with a lot of baggage. The political framework and historical context of Brisbane is an overriding theme of the book and is a meaningful backdrop to an unusual murder story. There are many disfunctional characters, perhaps too many, but though, at first, they seemed overdrawn and stilted, I came to appreciate their complexity later in the book. The writing style and narrative seemed at times to be a bit disjointed, but I wonder if this was a deliberate ploy by the writer to jolt the reader out of their comfort zone and into a perception of the "other"?
October 9, 2023
The sacredness of a site means nothing to the developers wanting to use the land for a major development. That leads to anger and a growing body count. I was as fascinated by the spiritual connections as by the mystery itself, though I was well aware of the superficial nature of the former for the benefit of non-indigenous readers. Watson's anger came through, not shrilly but insistently. Those of us in the settler community need books like this if we are ever to reach a time of true reconciliation. It may not be comfortable to read, but it's an important part of the journey toward true equality. Watson is a good writer, and I'll look forward to more books from her.
August 1, 2020
I love this book - a detective novel set in Brisbane against the backdrop of indigenous land rights so it's clever, interesting & fun but (and this is partly the nature of genre fiction for me) I did find it rather rushed and not enough fully explained. I really struggled to get a sense of each of the characters. There is a supernatural element - which could work really well - but also a hint that this is not so either. Overall it didn't quite come together for me. My verdict is that it was worthy of a longer book & possibly a bit more focus on character development.
January 14, 2024
This book was ok! I did find I was intrigued and bought into the whodunnit experience but there were two many characters and the storyline jumped from one of the other without any clear distinction that the focus had shifted until you were half way through the new scene and realised it was someone else involved.
I listened on audio so that may have added to this effect.
The characters were all pretty unlikable and didn’t find myself particular routing for any of them!
I listened on audio so that may have added to this effect.
The characters were all pretty unlikable and didn’t find myself particular routing for any of them!
January 16, 2022
I had difficulty in the first half of this. I couldn’t differentiate the characters for some reason. But after a few got killed off I was engrossed. There’s interesting history of Brisbane and a good mix of characters and who-done-it.
May 30, 2024
Not bad for an Aussie detective story. I enjoyed the realistic characters and Aboriginal perspectives intertwined with magic realism.
March 16, 2021
I don't read a lot of crime fiction, but I get the feeling this whodunnit is a little bit out of the ordinary. The Boundary, a debut novel by lawyer Nicole Watson, is set in my home town of Brisbane, and draws upon the intrigues of Black politics, as well as wider Indigenous issues such as native title, land rights and deaths in custody. Those with even just a slight knowledge of current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues and politics will probably recognise a few of the main characters (in particular, the aptly named Dick Payne) and several of the background events Watson mentions are historical fact (including the curfews for Aboriginal people outside of the Boundary Streets). However, beyond these facts, she has woven an intriguing tale of murder, betrayal and mythology in and around the the corridors of power in Brisbane, and the inner city suburb of West End.
The Boundary is a page turner but I did have a few problems with it. At times I found it hard to follow who was talking, as Watson has a tendency to jump from character to character without warning. There is also a large cast of characters, some of whom have similar names, which added to my confusion. At times the novel veered from a crime style of writing to a more literary style, which took me out of the story. The denoument, while interesting, was a bit of a stretch, although it did get me thinking after I'd finished the book.
Overall, this is a good solid debut novel that keeps you guessing right up until the end. Despite its flaws it held my interest throughout, and its an original work that offers perspectives not often seen in Australian crime novels. Recommended.
The Boundary is a page turner but I did have a few problems with it. At times I found it hard to follow who was talking, as Watson has a tendency to jump from character to character without warning. There is also a large cast of characters, some of whom have similar names, which added to my confusion. At times the novel veered from a crime style of writing to a more literary style, which took me out of the story. The denoument, while interesting, was a bit of a stretch, although it did get me thinking after I'd finished the book.
Overall, this is a good solid debut novel that keeps you guessing right up until the end. Despite its flaws it held my interest throughout, and its an original work that offers perspectives not often seen in Australian crime novels. Recommended.
May 25, 2020
This is a somewhat strange experience. In tone, this is a traditional crime fiction book, with a few magical realist elements. But the kicker is that the sympathies of the author are with the killer, which kinda turns it into something else entirely. This never quite worked for me: it left me queasy, and I found the morality issues more engaging than the hunt, but they never seemed directly addressed.
The slices of Brisbane were wonderfully done, and I enjoyed the character portraits. I'd be interested to see where the author goes in the future.
The slices of Brisbane were wonderfully done, and I enjoyed the character portraits. I'd be interested to see where the author goes in the future.
December 26, 2012
It may have a body on the first page, but The Boundary is no ordinary crime novel. Yes, there is a lawyer-hero (the troubled Miranda Eversley), there is a good cop and a bad cop, bad lawyers, a weak government official, a battered wife, and an angry community. But into this mix Nicole Watson adds generous slices of Brisbane’s Indigenous history, and a supernatural being called Red Feathers.
Read full review here: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2012/...
Read full review here: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2012/...
July 25, 2012
I thought this was an extraordinary book. It took me a while to get into it - it is just so bleak, but the suspense drew me in around a quarter of the way through. The last half was impossible to put down. In spite of the dark and tragic themes throughout, there is a sliver of hope running through it. I really look forward to reading more of Watson's work.
August 5, 2014
This is a brilliant book with great characters. Set around the fall out of an unsuccessful native title claim, it is a mystery and I have to admit that even after finishing it I have no idea who the guilty party was... But still would highly recommend it
July 8, 2012
Excellent Australian fiction with a bit of myth and legend thrown in.
April 6, 2016
I found this story set amongst the legal and the Aboriginal communities of contemporary Queensland completely engrossing. Tough, challenging, magical, dark and rich in character and story telling.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews