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?

What a story. It’s one that’s blindingly brilliant and epically addictive. I found myself unable to set this one aside and was still reading at 2.30 in the morning.

There’s an unforgiving force that engages in a tense and bitterly fierce pursuit of a young "Shepherd" and it reads with an intense alertness, as each scene is written with an urgency that mirrors a genuine threat that is but a whisper away.

It uses every tool at its disposal: hostile terrain, fear, and volatile personalities. In turn, every action, hesitation, or misstep brings fresh intensity or misery.

Dan Carver’s brutal superiority is a stark contrast to Tom Clay’s quiet empathy, especially for the vulnerable beasts in his charge. Be warned, their clashes result in a harsh blow to the heart on more than one occasion.

As it concluded I was left with the feeling of just how easy it is for us to judge one another, and why opinions could be better formed if they were influenced by our actions instead of labels.

4.5 stars

Shepherd is historical fiction story set during 1840 in New South Wales.

Tom Clay is barely a teenager when caught poaching in Suffolk, and sent to an Australian penal colony for seven years. Taken on as a shepherd, Tom falls back on all he has learned from his hardened and ruthless father to survive in a dangerous land filled with desperate men.

One of his adversaries is Dan Carver, a murderer. Tom knows how Dan treats any surviving witnesses to his murders and flees to the bush with his dog and an Irish friend, in a perilous chase that can only end in death.

I could easily picture the violent and inhospitable conditions that convicts faced in the era and I understood how dangerous men might go to extremes to endure their punishment. Tom was a likeable character and I enjoyed learning more about him as the author slipped in details of Tom’s life back in Suffolk.

I liked reading about Tom’s poaching skills and how he put them to good use in the inevitable confrontation with Dan. I could also empathise with Tom over his frustrations that no one could teach him about the flora and fauna of this strange land.

Overall, this story is a well-written piece that depicts some of the horrors which, no doubt, faced many of the thousands of men, women and children who were subjected to transportation to the Australian colony.

An awesome historical thriller. Check it out! I hope many readers check out this great piece. I loved reading this novel.

Starts a bit slow but picked up the pace turning into quite a read. The novel is focused on a cat and mouse game between two shepherds. Not what I usually read but interesting nonetheless.

I received a free electronic copy of this excellent historical novel on November 15, 2019, from Netgalley, Catherine Jinks, and Text Publishing. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read this novel of my own volition, and this review reflects my personal, honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Catherine Jinks as an author to follow to friends and family.

We are in New South Wales in the 1840s with a young Englishman, a shepherd named Tom Clay and a couple of his dogs, Gyp, a black and white Scotch collie, and Pedlar, a yellow mongrel. Tom considers these dogs all the family he has left. NSW is pretty bleak and wild - Tom and his fellow shepherds are hired to protect their flock of sheep from native Blacks, wild dogs, and blackguards. He has a couple of people he can actually depend on in NSW - Mr. Barrett, owner of the land, the flock, and the shepherd's hut they sleep in when it's not their turn sleeping in the watch-box. Fellow shepherd Joe Humble seems to be an honorable man. Tom also trusts Rowdy, a fairly new addition to the group of shepherds of Mr. Barrett sheep. Except for the periodic deliveries of a cartload of supplies, the shepherds stay in the brush with their flock which they protect and move as the grass becomes grazed down.

In the 1840s a lot of the residents of NSW were prisoners shipped out of England. Caught poaching in his early teens, Tom was a boy who lost his mother in his youth, son of a hanged poacher, brother of a shot poacher. Many of the prisoners sent out to Australia and New South Wales were very much more of a threat than a teenaged poacher. And many of them have fallen through the cracks and are now a threat to all the honest settlers of these South Pacific Island nations. Tom is learning to recognize them. That may save his life. And a lesson learned the hard way - only animals are completely trustworthy. They also only have one life to give... Not good odds for Tom's survival.

I didn't like this book at all. Very bleak and violent and never endingly desolate and desperate.. Some reviewers have suggested that is is aimed at YA but I wouldn't have wanted to read this when I was YA age.

Tom Clay is a young English boy from Suffolk who gets pinched and tried for poaching to survive – he is sentenced to serve out his time in the foreign land of New South Wales, Australia. Tom is stationed at a shepherd’s hut where he becomes painfully aware that he is but a boy living in the company of very violent men. Preferring the company of beasts and nature he steers clear of people who talk to much – like Rowdy Cavanaugh, the new hand. Dan Carver is a killer who relishes causing suffering and he’s coming for Tom & Rowdy. Can Tom outwit Carver with his impressive instincts about the world he lives in – even when it’s foreign- AND get Rowdy to shut up long enough to not get caught?

I have never read a novel by Catherine Jinks but I can definitely see myself reading her other novels if they are anything like this one. Shepherd is a very fast-paced novel and allows you to get lost in Tom’s experiences. This book is in a time period and setting that are very different from the novels I usually read but that definitely doesn’t make it any less interesting. If anything it makes the events of the book just that much more harrowing for Tom, things are quite different in this era than that of the Victorian era. His experiences (confrontational and regular day to day) are very well written and bring his character to life.

I would highly recommend this book to fans of suspense, thriller and possibly to those who enjoy Victorian era fiction with the previous elements. This book does have some potential sensitive subjects – animal cruelty, people cruelty, race and death descriptions but for the time period I don’t believe to be considered out of the ordinary. Thank you to NetGalley & Text Publishing for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is an action packed read, with a fast pace to it. Very strong characters and a steadily increasing suspense to it. Very intense but definitely worth sticking with.

Very good book. It started a little bit slow but I really enjoyed the story and characters. Thanks for the ARC.

Australian author Catherine Jinks’ latest book Shepherd is a bloody, pacey visit to convict era Australia. The main character, Tom, is a teenager, transported to Australia for poaching and working out his time as a shepherd on a remote sheep station in the Australian bush. His life has not been an easy one and things are about to get much much worse.
When the book opens Tom is already in trouble, possibly dying after eating some native berries. The narrative then flicks back to when he was vaguely happy: working in a remote outpost, looking after a flock of sheep with a man called Joe and three dogs. But things quickly go downhill following the arrival of a new helper Phelim “Rowdy” Cavanagh and soon after, convict Dan Carver, a man both Tom and Joe thought they had left for dead and now back for revenge. Carver’s philosophy is not to leave any witnesses alive whereas Tom’s is to save as many colleagues and animals as he can. The rest of the book chronicles Carver’s bloody and violent pursuit of Tom.
Shepherd is at its heart a chase thriller, in which a resourceful hero has to outwit a seemingly unstoppable and indestructible foe (think The Terminator as a good comparator). Carver’s strengths force Tom to use all of his knowledge and ingenuity as a poacher (tracking, moving silently, setting traps) to avoid capture and create effective diversions. This structure is the perfect scaffold on which to build Tom’s history, and most of the action is underscored by relevant episodes from Tom’s short but eventful life. So that by the end of the book the reader has a very strong and clear idea of Tom and the events that have shaped his life.
With its relatable teenage protagonist Shepherd skews a little YA but it is fairly graphically violent in some places so it is certainly not for younger readers. But older teens and adults will get a very visceral and compulsively readable look at the convict history of NSW.

Shepherd is a quick (but not short) story between a titular character and some bad ass dudes who are trying to kill him. It all happens mostly in one flow, with chapters, but a seamless story. I read it in two sittings. First, there's the main character, who is pretty young, but given the setting, makes sense. Then we have a dog, who, you're about dogs at all, you'll love. Finally, we have the bad guys, and I won't give away too much, but just know, they're pretty nasty. Oh, and all this takes place in Australia. One of the best places in the world.

One of the reasons it only took me two sittings to finish this, is because it's a great narrative. Lots of excitement, quickness, and oh-shitness, too.

Shepherd releases 5.22.2020.

5/5 Stars

An amazing story during early Australian colonisation with a hostile environment that brings out the good and nasty trying to adapt.
As the adventure for Tom becomes more graphic Catherine Jinks cleverly contrasts the isolation that first convicts experienced and English rule for the privileged and the no-win situation with either. Learning from a poacher family helps Tom survive by adapting to the surroundings and using his skills to great advantage managing to stay alive.
This is an exciting nail biting story that touches many ethical confronting moments still relevant today a first class Australian novel.
An independent review forText & NetGalley

spoiler alert ** 

Something completely different for me,and glad I gave it a go.
It was tense,and violent and bloody.
Tom Clay seems a nice enough boy,it's no surprise he's a convict in Australia given his background.
His care of animals,genuine love for his dog made me warm to him.
Carver however could scare the living daylights out of you.
Every time I thought we were Done,up he popped again.
I'm sort of expecting him to pop up in my next read...
Great pace,tension and ending.
Ticks a lot of boxes.

An absolute joy from beginning to end, Shepherd is a fast-moving, compelling and ultimately satisfying read. The setting (both in time and place) is evoked beautifully and the small cast of characters are wonderfully written, but author Catherine Jinks has a gift for fleshing out setting and character subtly, without impeding the breakneck pace of the story.
Absorbing, page-turning and skilfully written, I could not recommend Shepherd more highly.

Thirteen-year-old shepherd Tom must defend himself against a ruthless killer, tracking him through the outback in this thriller set in colonial era Australia. It's 1840, and life in colonial Australia is brutal.

This is an intense book which is set over a short number of days as Tom tries to survive by outwitting his pursuer with only a fellow shepherd (who won’t stop talking) and his beloved dog to support him. The style of writing is very evocative and really gave me a sense of how tough life would have been in the 1840s both in Queen Victoria’s Britain and outback Australia especially for a young boy on his own. It really gives you an insight into the prejudices that both prisoners and aboriginals would have faced during this period. A great historical thriller.

Shepard is a book I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy as I began reading it. I figured I’d give it 5 chapters and see if it caught my interest.
Let me tell you you. It caught my interest.
It reminded me of the books my brother read when we were young. I would read them after he was finished.
I ended up living and loving Shepard, as I read along. The last 4 chapters had me staying up late to finish.
I think this is more of young adult book, but boy! This 66 year old grandmother can’t wait to buy it for my grandson.
He’ll be enthralled!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book.

This book starts off slow, set in 1840 Australia, but once it gets going, it really gets going. I was surprised at how violent it got, it really made the story exciting. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would!

Slowwwwww starter but then it goes straight into frenzied and frantic.
So who is the villian? Only one way to find out.