When Matthew Clark sees a thylacine during a research expedition in the Tasmanian forest, he is excited. The thylacine is, after all, supposed to be extinct. But Matthew’s excitement turns to frustration when he is sacked from his job and unable to follow up on his sighting with more research.
Matthew is determined to find another thylacine and is able to put together a team, funded by a private collector who will pay millions for the live capture of one of the animals. But Matthew must decide if his scruples will allow to him to be involved in such a scheme.
The Last Thylacine is an eco-thriller, with the action concentrating on Matthew and his team’s efforts to track and capture a thylacine. There are also explorations of themes of environmental responsibility, relationships and mateship. It is perhaps unfortunate that the absorbing nature of the plot is detracted from by the distraction of some editing problems. Whilst things like the misspelling of the Australian word cuppa as cupper and the overdone use of inverted commas and underlining to emphasise words may seem small, they are very distracting and take away from what is otherwise a story worthy of proper treatment.
The Last Thylacine, by Terry Domico
Turtleback Books, 2005