Red centre, dark heart. Evan McHugh. 2017.

The Australian outback is a vast landscape of extraordinary magnificence. But it also a notorious landscape of extraordinary magnificence. But it is also a notorious crime scene.  Some of the most shocking and fascinating crimes in our history have been committed in its harsh surrounds.

Red Centre, Dark Heart explores baffling murders, mysterious vanishing acts and intense manhunts in remote Australia, beginning with the nefarious conviction and cannibalism Alexander Pearce, and ending with the chilling murders of innocent young backpackers on lonely back roads.

From infamous incidents like the disappearance of Peter Falconio to the lesser-known but no less disturbing cases of bill Groves and Larry Boy, these true-crime stories remind us how the Australian outback gained its sinister reputation - and how, through history, the worst aspects of human nature have revealed themselves in its unforgiving environment.