Australia was a wild, raw and dangerous place back in the late 19th century. It was a young settler society that lacked urbanization and infrastructure; a land prone to floods and bushfires, and filled with spiders, crocodiles, snakes and dinosaurs.
These days, most Australians have only seen captive-bred dinosaurs in a circus or a zoo. But back then, Australovenators and other giant lizards roamed the bush alongside sheep, koalas and kangaroos.
The biggest and most feared dinosaur species of them all was the Lightning Claw. From nose to tail, they were more than 20 feet in length and nearly six feet tall at the hip. Their faces were slender-jawed and flattened like those of a crocodile. Their teeth were long, and their talons were shaped like butcher knives curved into hooks. When they hissed, the sound they made was louder than a steam engine.
Unprovoked, dinosaurs generally stayed away from people. But when they went rogue due to extraordinary circumstances, they would come out of the bush and terrorize remote settlements and townships.
Recently, a rogue Lightning Claw had come to the township of Smithy’s Creek. Desperate to get rid of the beast, the local citizenry hired a professional lizard killer. Jim Vandebus’s fee was exorbitant, but he had the reputation of being the best dinosaur hunter in Australia.
Fourteen-year-old Edwin “Winny” Callaghan witnessed the Lightning Claw kill (and eat!) his mother on Christmas Eve. He was consumed with vengeance and was anxious to join Vandebus and his crew on their upcoming expedition. Rogue Hunter is Edwin’s personal memoir, written 60 years after the fact, of his dinosaur-hunting adventure.
Initially, the quest for the Lightning Claw felt like a leisurely camping holiday to Edwin. He was captivated night after night by the beauty of nature and the congenial company of Vandebus. During these quiet times, he imagined a future in which he became Vandebus’s faithful partner and followed him into dangerous corners of the world.
That wistfulness disappeared quickly when Edwin came face to face with the giant lizard for the first time. The vision of the beast was so fantastical and otherworldly that he thought to himself, How could a young boy with a .22 rifle kill such a monster?
What happened next completely altered the boy’s perception of man-eating dinosaurs forever. He and the rest of Vandebus’s entourage witnessed something amazing, something that no one—at least, no one alive—had ever seen before. It was so profound that Edwin would dedicate the rest of his life to the memory of the Lightning Claw.
Author Deborah Sheldon (with help from Edwin Callaghan) has written a nice little coming-of-age story about a big monster, a big-hearted monster hunter and one boy’s baptism into manhood. Good job.
[ Rogue Hunter / By Deborah Sheldon / First Printing: September 2026 / ISBN: 9781923663558 ]
