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"The stranger was wearing trainers and shorts, even though there was still a frost on the ground outside. A dog followed him into the pub, so close to him that her shoulder brushed his leg. It was a blue merle, a handsome dog with prick ears. In the dim light of the bar, the stranger nodded to them, then picked up a menu.

  “That lad runs all across the moor,” muttered an older man wrapped in thick jackets to a younger man. 

The younger one forked steak pie into his mouth. 

  “Seen him before,” he replied."

 

The story is set in a fictional market town on the edge of Dartmoor.

Dartmoor rises over 2,000 metres above sea level. It may be stern and lonely for most of the year, but if you believe the climate predictions concerning sea level rise, you will also foresee a time when the high ground will be worth big money. Some investors might see this as an opportunity, but the farmers who have worked the land for generations are resistant to selling the life they love.

 

It is the near future. Abel Richards is the new reporter for the Mid Devon Post. He grew up on a sheep station in the Australian outback and is of indigenous descent.  When Abel is assigned a story about a hill farming woman who has disappeared, he finds himself caught up in a struggle that he recognises ... the struggle between those people who invest their lives in a place and those who chase big money.

 

 

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