A Female Cormac McCarthy?!

Courtney Collins' debut novel, The Untold, has the grit, realism, brutality, and beauty similarly captured in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy novels.  While the writing and setting is stylistically similar, Collins has a distinctive voice.  In this novel, she tells the story of real-life Jessie Hickman, a horse thief living in the Australian outback in the 1920s, on the run from her law.  It's a beautiful read that moves at a quick pace.  However, given the austerity of the novel, I'm not sure it will stick with me for a long time.  Just as I was getting to know the characters more intimately, the book ended, but perhaps this was intentionally.  Jessie Hickman was elusive to those around her, and while she stays in our grasp while we are reading, she slips away in the end.  Recommended!