I ended up DNFing this one. I didn't like that it was a slow burn. I either love or dislike slow burns and this just turned out to be one that I disliked. I had a hard time wanting to pick this one up.

Young teenage orphan Tom Clay has been transported to Australia after he was caught poaching in Suffolk and sent to work in outback NSW as a shepherd. In 1840, Australia is a tough place to be a convict, especially for a boy isolated in a shepherd's hut with older convicts, meagre supplies, rough inhospitable terrain and fear of wild dogs and fearful tales of the local Aborigines. But the violence in this tale is much closer to home with one of Tom's fellow shepherds, Dan Carver murdering another man and now returning with two other escaped convicts to kill any witnesses in an attempt to save himself from hanging. With his beloved dog Gyp and a recent arrival, a garrulous Irishman called Rowdy, Tom attempts to outrun Carver to get to his employer's farm ten miles away to raise the alarm.

Set against the atmospheric outback of colonial Australia, this is a gritty tale with a relentless tension as Tom tries to keep Carver at bay and protect Gyp and Rowdy, who lacks any bush skills and is more of a liability than a help to him. Tom is a great character, with his instinctive love of nature, innate smartness and tracking skills learnt as a poacher he knows a lot about reading the land and setting traps. The murderous Carver is a truly evil man without any human decency and the violence is quite graphic as he attempts to kill all who stand in his way. While this has the feel of a YA novel, the degree of violence would make it unsuitable for young teens.

Slow start here but ramped up to be pretty action packed and exciting. Very distracting read during this tough time, glad I picked it.

Tom was a great character to narrate. Interesting perspective and natural voice. Felt a bit questionable on some bits but this was supposed to be historical fiction.

This is an Australian historical fiction set in the 1840s. It follows a teenager, Tom, who was sentenced to the penal colony for 7 years. Seems like a chase novel, but it was violent. While the book was short, the chases went on and on. Harsh and gritty. Than you, Netgalley, for the opportunity to read for an honest review. 3 Stars

Fast, entertaining, with relatable characters. The prose has a great flow and conveys emotions well. Definitely worth a read.

Thanks NetGalley and Text Publishing for the ARC.
A thrilling novel that starts slow and has me reading with one eye on the page and other one looking over my shoulder. I'm an easy scare so I have no idea why I ever said I would read this one.
Ended up being pretty good.

Many thanks to Net Galley, Text Publishing and Catherine Jinks for a chance to review this book.

It is such a terrible shame that I couldn’t get to this book sooner coz of various reasons, major fact being that I had missed watching out for its archive date, but as they say, better late than never, right?? I downloaded Shepherd from net galley coz of its cover. It had such a menacing feel to it that I really wanted to check it out and boy, am I glad. Shepherd by Catherine Jinks is one of those books that makes your heart pound inside your mouth. The tension keeps mounting until one can’t even take a choppy breath without knowing the end.

Tom Clay and Rowdy Cavanagh are on the run for their lives. In a terrain that doesn’t provide any leeway, the bushes and forests resisting them at every turn it is only Tom’s poaching and tracking skills that keeps them alive. It is 1840, and colonial Australia is a place that no man wants to be but it is where Tom and other misfits have been sentenced to. Being farmhands and shepherds is the work they are forced into, but survival is tough for these thieves and outcasts as even the blacks resist the invasion of their homeland. Tom all of 13 years was caught poaching and sentenced to jail from where he was transported to New South Wales and made to work for Mr. Barrett. He is a lonely soul who has been abused by his father and taught the value of silence so he trusts his animals more than fellow humans.

But Tom, Rowdy and Joe’s life becomes a living nightmare when Dan Carver, a black guard villain who relishes murder and torture returns to kill them all, the bloodbath that follows and the struggle to outwit Carver and his cohorts was conveyed so brilliantly. The action is tight and gripping and one can’t help but feel for Tom for his innate sense of love, his dogs Gyp and Pedlar. It is so lovely that even the chickens have been given names and cared for by Tom.
The relationship between Tom and Rowdy and the trusts that grows between them was beautiful and as such even more heart breaking for its climax.
Recommended for all fans of action thrillers. Awesome!

Great historical fiction that I finished in a day, set in 1840's Australia. After the protagonist is orphaned, captured for crimes and sent to look after sheep in a remote area. But he's also followed by Carver, someone that has tried to kill him, this is a fast-paced book, with well-formed characters, and a great historical background.

Shepherd is a fast paced story that I would almost consider a novella or short story. At a little over 200 pages, I was able to finish it in one day. Set in Australia in the mid 1800’s, the story follows 13 year old Tom Clay, who is left orphaned after his mother’s death in childbirth, and his father is hanged for crimes committed. Left without a support system, Tom turns to poaching to survive. After being caught by authorities, he is interned to a remote area tasked with tending a small flock of sheep. His companions are fellow criminals, none more dangerous than Carver, a murderous criminal who has already tried to kill off Tom once. Tom got the better of him once, and now Carver returns. With the help of Rowdy, an older boy who mysteriously shows up at Tom’s humble hut, the two boys begin a fight to the death. Drawing on all his life experiences, Tom must outwit and outpace Carver and his murderous goons. A visceral tale both of man’s cruelty to one another and one boy’s will to survive, this is a nail biting thriller sure to entertain. Author Catherine Jinks does a good job of filling a lot of backstory into a relatively small number of pages. Review posted to Goodreads, and LibraryThing

Loved, loved, loved. Set in the 1840s in Australia it is a very well put together historical fiction. Really highly recommend. Hope to read more from this author.

Loved, loved, loved this book. This story was fabulous, dark, twisted, brutal and set in colonial Australia. Delightfully gothic with a twisting storyline that equal parts horrifies and thrills a must read. Thankyou to the publisher and netgalley for the ARC.

ARC from Net Galley, thaks!

A thriller in the 1840's! Who knew? I didn't plan to finish this as historical fiction is not my vein but very quickly the good the bad and the willing theme hooked me as I followed the "son of a poacher" as we see animals are sometimes "man's best friend".

‘I see nothing around me that I can properly name.’

New South Wales, 1840. Thirteen-year-old Tom Clay, an orphan, was convicted of poaching in Suffolk. He is transported to New South Wales. He’s assigned to a farmer as a shepherd, one of three whose job it is to protect his master’s flock of sheep from wild dogs. The three of them live in a crude hut. Tom finds the sheep dogs better company than the men.

‘I’m as lost in this place as I would be in the middle of London. I don’t know what is dangerous and what isn’t.’

But this is no idyll. A man is murdered. He is replaced. The murderer, intent on eliminating witnesses, returns. The shepherds must fight for their lives. They flee into the bush and are pursued.
The story is told over a couple of days. The action is relentless. We are with Tom as he flees, trying to find safety, trying to survive. Can Tom prevail over the murderer?

The first time I read this, I had my heart in my mouth. The second time (for I needed to reread) I was better able to observe Ms Jinks’s storytelling skills.

If you enjoy fast-paced action set in 19th century Australia, I can recommend this novel.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing Company for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

This short novel packs so much into it that I haven't seen before. Set in south Wales it describes convicts lives that were sent away from London to live in other British owned countries in the 1800s. This extremely fast paced, thrill packed story will have you on the edge of your seat gasping aloud. Extraordinaryly original story that you should not pass up, I couldn't put it down, read in one day.

Tom Clay is a boy who has lost everything he has ever loved. Having been transported to Australia as a convict for poaching (his only means of survival having been orphaned) he finds himself a shepherd to sheep on an Australia farm in a remote rural setting. Coming from poaching stock, Tom has to relearn everything he has been taught as he no longer recognises the plants, animals and other signals from nature.
Tom has the misfortune of finding himself in a battle of wits against violent and dangerous bushrangers. Can he use his poaching skills to match wits with these armed men?
At first I thought this would be a prolonged drudge through Australian convict history and I was not sure I would finish the book. However, after the first chapter the pace of the book sped up significantly and I found it very hard to put down. This was the 1840 equivalent of an action movie 'car-chase'. A very gruesome and sometimes graphically told story about a brave and very clever young man who managed to break my heart.
Thank you Text Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this very engaging piece of historical fiction.

The story is set in colonial Australia. Tom Clay is a young convict who works as a shepherd in New South Wales. He tends the sheep for his master alongside other convicts in the bush. Dan Carver is also a convict. He is a vicious man who has vowed to kill Tom and the other convicts. Tom was just thirteen years old when he was caught poaching and sentenced to seven years.

Set in 1840. The story is told over a short amount of days. Tom has to try and outwit his pursuer. Tom has his dog and fellow shepherd with him. I liked the authors writing style. Theres some gore and violence so I wouldn't recommend it to the faint hearted. We get on insight in how to peruse someone out in the wilderness. Trigger warning: some animals are killed or wounded

I would like to thank NetGalley, Text Publishing and the author Catherine Jinks for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is an extremely tightly-paced story that gives you an interesting lens on a time and place many of us may be unfamiliar with. The story is essentially one huge chase sequence, which is both the book's strength and (for me) a bit of its weakness.

The story revolves around the pursuit of a young boy named Tom through the Outback by an evil man named Carver. We're given some backstory on the beef Carver has with Tom, but it's a bit underdeveloped. Looking back though, I wonder if that's because of the narrator's age. Tom is only a child, so maybe the nuance of why Carver is so awful isn't something Tom wonders about? (He's just consumed with the need to survive.) Regardless it was something *I* wondered about so I didn't love that the book skimmed over those details.

The action scenes on the other hand are the book's strength, and they're well-written and descriptively vivid. Tom is a tracker and we get a great deal of insight into how to chase (and pursue) someone through the wild. That part of the book was fascinating. Word of warning though, this is a brutal story, with some gory moments (Carver, true to his name really doesn't mind hurting and killing living things) and some animals are wounded and killed along the way. I mention it because that feature can be a deal-breaker for some readers.

Thanks to the author and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Shepherd is a relatively short novel but my word does it pack a lot in. This novel is something totally different to what I usually read but I wanted to give it a try and I’m so pleased I did. From the very first page you are taken on an absolute rollercoaster experiencing numerous emotions as you champion little Tom Clay. I found this book impossible to pit down and would highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley, Text Publishing and the author for the chance to review.

This is a fast moving thriller set in the Australian outback in the mid nineteenth century and the novel can be summed up quite well as one giant chase scene. This is both a positive and a negative as whilst it does mean that there is non-stop action that doesn't really let up for a minute, it also means that there is a lack of depth to the events as there is never any time to sit back and savour the moment. The main characters are strong and leap off the page at you, the contrast between Carver's harsh brutality and Tom's more gentle and easy going manner striking and clear.

Jinks writes well and the novel is striking in its tight writing style, but I do wish there had been a little more chance to build on the characters and backgrounds; whilst there are flashbacks to Tom's past, these seem rushed and superfluous to the story rather than really bringing it to life. Because so much of the novel is focused on the battle between Carver and Tom, there isn't a lot of exploration of the time period or the setting. You certainly get the sense of the harshness of life, particularly for an ex 'lag' or convict, and the lack of further detail may be in part due to our lead character not having a full awareness of what different plants and animals are called.

So an interesting read, a little too focused on the action and the violence for my liking but I can imagine older teenagers enjoying the fast pace and gritty events. Be warned, the violence is graphic at points so this isn't a novel I would recommend for younger readers necessarily.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for my review copy of this novel.

When Tom Clay is caught poaching on private property at the age of 12 he is sentenced for seven years to go to New South Wales Australia.
This book is based in the 1840's and goes into great detail about how the colonies worked at that time.
The story of Tom and his new boss Rowdy Cavanagh is compelling and when Dan Carver turns up and wants to murder them both can just a young boy help save them from this murderer?