Aged 17, a boy leaves home, his mother’s caravan, because he has to. He is carrying only half-repressed bad memories and a piece of paper with five names on it, one of whom may be his father. He takes a job at Top End Croc Jumping Cruises where he is fascinated by the dangerous strength of the crocodiles and his relationship to them – the fear and the need to interact and understand their ways. He is also fascinated by the lovely Sally, warm, experienced but somehow elusive.

This rough, dusty world with its mainly good people and ancient reptilian creatures, dangerous under the river currents, is where the boy must discover his own strengths and maturity. There is something very Oz about this sort of book which captures the preoccupations of the inarticulate bloke with such feeling. Seems odd that it is written by a ‘Belinda’; all power to her. For older readers 15+.