We hope these questions help guide your group's discussion of this compulsive crime thriller!
1. What other novels, shows or movies have you read or seen that are set in Australia in the 1970’s? How are they similar or different to Gunnawah?
2. Which narrative and textual elements (for example dialogue, humour, setting) do you think make Gunnawah feel distinctly Australian?
3. What do you think stands Australian crime apart from other similar genres (like cosy crime, scandi-crime, thrillers, etc)?
4. How has Ronni Salt woven facts into her fiction? Did it affect your reading experience? If so, how?
5. The town is populated with so many memorable characters. Did you have a particular favourite?
6. Did you find Roni Salt’s depiction of an Australian small town authentic? Is Gunnawah similar or different to any places you’ve visited or lived in?
7. How important is the small-town setting and its community dynamic to the narrative of Gunnawah? Do you think the story could have been set anywhere else?
8. Katherine tells Jack her hope was for Adelaide to leave: ‘leave the farm, leave Gunnawah, leave the whole stinking, tiny, suffocating little place,’ (page 215). Why do you think Katherine wants a different life for her daughter? What are some of the possible positives and negatives for young people about living in a community like Gunnawah’s?
9. Valdene tells Adelaide one day she’ll have to decide whether she’s a farmer or a journalist: ‘cos one’s about digging up dirt and the other one’s about putting it back in,’ (page 109). Do you think Adelaide has made her choice? How does she grow and change as a character throughout the novel?
10. How do you think the town and the people of Gunnawah will be different after the events of the novel and why? Do you have any questions you’d like to see answered in a sequel?
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It's 1974 in the RiverinaThe weather is hotBut the body in the Murray River is stone cold . . .A captivating and compulsive crime thriller about guns, drugs and a young woman dead on the money
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