“Nix the ‘babe’...my name’s Ellie,” introduces scenic flight tours helicopter pilot Ellie Porter, at the soaring start to this action and romance packed thriller set in the tropical heart of Kakadu. She’s sending out signals to new ‘fly” boy, Kane McLaren, that this tomboy has the land in her blood. Rugged new engineer and (Ellie has yet to divine), ex-air force pilot Kane is a reluctant co-pilot.; he is suffering from post traumatic stress after his helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan. The book’s main thrust though is fracking, and key “good guys” –Ellie’s father who suicided when their mango farm fell into debt, and her best friend Heather Jarragah’s indigenous father, Bill—are in the frame as possible blackmailers, in a uranium company’s bid to explore invaluable coal seams and gas deposits in the environmentally protected Kakadu National Park. Crisp, tense and fast-moving storytelling aside, Seaton absolutely raises the bar in rural fiction, with her fascinating glimpses of territory life.