The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War is a historical fiction novel set in Australia right after the end of WWII. This is the second book in a trilogy by Greg Kater that started with The Warramunga’s War.
Book Summary: The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War
Right off the bat, we meet our two main heroes, Jamie Munro and Jack O’Brien (also called Jacko). After their involvement in intelligence and counter-espionage during the war, they are now once again working together. This time as heads of the Darwin office of the Commonwealth Investigation Services (CIS). It’s an organization dealing both with garden-variety and uncommon criminals in the northern part of Australia.
After learning about a distress signal given by a fishing boat nearby, Jamie and Jacko set off to investigate. Much to their surprise, the boat is anything but a genuine fishing boat, and its cargo is strange one too. They found bodies of children floating around the boat and a living child hiding on the lower deck. They both suspect that the crew is involved in human trafficking. Soon they learn that, indeed, the criminals are involved in child trafficking for the pleasure of rich pedophiles. Thus begins their major investigation into the trafficking ring, where both are hell-bent on bringing the pervert criminals to justice.
Book Review: The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War
The central theme of the first part of the book is a straightforward criminal investigation. In the second part, when the initial investigation came to an end, will surprise you. In many stories that would be the end of the story but not in The Warramunga’s Aftermath of War. It continued with a gripping adventure story set in the Australian wilderness involving tracking and taunting the enemy.
The story was solid, and the characters were well fleshed-out. Jacko is a half Warramunga aboriginal, who possesses some interesting tracking and survival skills; which helped him greatly during the cat and mouse spiel with the bad guys. While Jamie is an interesting character as well. He and his half-sister, Sarah, literally stole the show once they got their time in the limelight.
This book reveals the devastation that takes place in the Philippines as a result of the war. The author did a good job of describing some of the places in utter ruins. This explains why there were children who are left orphaned, and easy for the smugglers to take advantage of. This would interest those who study history and the results of warfare.
The criminals in book were hard to pick out because author would initially introduce characters to be appeared on “up-and-up”. He reveals their true intentions at a later time. Also, there were a lot of characters to keep track of, which might be confusing to some. Those who like mysteries could get caught up in the chase to capture the guilty parties.
The relationships and the culture add another dimension to the novel. The religious or class differences of the romantic couples do not deter them in any way.
