Howard L. Anderson’s Albert of Adelaide is a highly entertaining Australian Western, with animals as characters (sort of like Rango or Brian Jacques’ series, but not G-rated). The main character, Albert, a platypus on the lam from the Adelaide zoo, escapes and sets out north in search of Old Australia.
We meet Albert in the great Australian desert, out of water and sunburnt. Luckily, he runs into Jack (a wombat) who has been wandering the desert for years. Jack takes Albert under his wing and starts to show him how to live in the outback. Jack takes him to Ponsby Station, a rough and tumble mining town run by kangaroos and populated by bandicoots and wallabies. It quickly becomes clear that Albert is the sort of character that things just happen to. Once in Ponsby, Albert finds himself accused of cheating, fighting, and suspect in an arson.
As if that weren’t bad enough, Jack decides to part ways with Albert. Without a mentor, Albert falls in with a bandit raccoon named TJ (an American transplant). Before he knows it, Albert is named the leader of the notorious Platypus Gang though no fault of his own. Albert and his allies end up facing a small army lead by the villainous Bertram (a wallaby) and Theodore (an opossum).
This book runs the gamut from Western to comedy to tragedy to farce to epic in a surprisingly short span. It’s told in deceptively simple language and flies by. I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a delight.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.