8.4 /10 1 Votes
Language English Publication date 1969 Pages 315 pp Originally published 1969 ISBN 0718106784 | 4.2/5 goodreads Publisher Michael Joseph, London Media type Print Preceded by The Apprentices | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Dead Men Running (1969) is the final novel by Australian writer D'Arcy Niland, it was published posthumously.
Contents
Plot summary
Set during the years 1910 to 1916, the novel follows the story of Starkey Moore, a loner living in the small outback town of Hope, who discovers a young man collapsed by the side of a road in a storm. Moore nurses the young Joey back to health and proceeds to teach him a number of life lessons.
Critical reception
Ian Hicks, writing in The Canberra Times, was impressed with the book: "After my first reading of Dead Men Running, I had an overwhelming feeling of disappointment that there would be nothing more from the pen of D'Arcy Niland. But look at it from another viewpoint. How fortunate a man to have died, leaving behind a book as good as this. Make no mistake, it is a statement of fact, not of opinion nor of sympathy, to assert that this is a great novel."
Television adaptation
The novel was adapted for television by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1971. Shown over 6 episodes the adaptation was directed by Eric Taylor, from a script by Harold Lander and Eric Taylor, and featured Ewen Solon, Brendon Lunney, and Diane Craig.