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  • Published: 16 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9781761620645
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

WAAGAAN The Bloody Crow

When gas fracking threatens Country, the truth becomes dangerous




A murder on Country. A forty-year-old disappearance. A community fighting to protect its land.

As Aunty June follows the truth, she discovers that the oldest wounds are the hardest to heal.

With her unique humour and environmental fervour, Julie Janson has written a cracking story of crimes past, present and continuing.

When Barry Two Mile Riley is found dead near a remote gas fracking site in the Northern Territory, the police quickly dismiss his death as just another tragedy.

But his sister Sybil knows better.

Desperate for answers, she turns to Aunty June Thomas, a Gamilaraay private investigator who is staying in the local campground with her brother, William, and his wife, Merle. Drawn into a landscape of sacred sites, cattle stations, mining camps and hidden histories, June uncovers a web of secrets stretching back forty years to the disappearance of a young girl, Lillian.

As June digs deeper, she finds herself caught between powerful corporate interests, reluctant police and a community haunted by grief. Every answer leads to another question. Why was Two Mile Riley silenced? What happened to Lillian? And who is prepared to kill or provide cover to keep the truth buried?

Set against the distinct beauty of the Northern Territory, Waagaan the Bloody Crow is a gripping crime novel and a powerful story of justice, survival and resistance.

Some stories refuse to stay buried. Some spirits refuse to be forgotten.

  • Published: 16 March 2027
  • ISBN: 9781761620645
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Trade Paperback
  • Pages: 336
  • RRP: $38.00
Categories:

About the author

Julie Janson

Julie is a Burruberongal woman of the Darug Aboriginal nation NSW. She is a novelist, playwright, and poet. While living in remote Northern Territory in Yolngu communities in her early years as a teacher, Julie wrote plays and made giant puppets, masks and costumes with Yolngu students. Her career as a playwright resulted in ten productions at various theatres such as Belvoir St Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre and Sydney Opera House Studio. Black Mary and Gunjies were published by Aboriginal Studies Press. Her plays have been produced in Arizona, USA and Makassar, Indonesia. Her Indigenous crime novel Madukka the River Serpent was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and the Davitt Award. Benevolence, a historical novel was shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award and longlisted for the NIB Literary Award and the Voss Literary Prize. Compassion is a sequel to Benevolence.