The Absolution Trail

Garrison and Harry, returning to their homes on the west coast of New Zealand’s South Island after the First World War, embark on a manhunt into the rugged High Country. They search for a boyhood friend, Dan McGill – a murderer and a man with dark secrets which tear the small town of Whistle Point apart. As the two hunters become prey themselves, they begin to understand the true nature of their own violent past, and the cost of trying to leave it behind. They learn, from Dan McGill, the higher price of denying the true nature of self. This High Country adventure of men and horses, mountains and danger, love and loss, is Rob Allen’s fifth novel. It echoes with themes from his fourth novel, A Competent Man, such as the intense relationship of New Zealanders to the environment; a lost landscape for many New Zealand fiction writers. The characters are as tough and as dangerous as the craggy outcrops they scale. Rob Allen lives and loves in Auckland, New Zealand and his affinity with the landscapes and people of his homeland always permeates his writing. He has written four other Apparition, Sons of the Poison Tree, Mishi’s Gift and A Competent Man.