Truth

From the Publisher

“Temple spins a complex and powerful story with writing so top-notch that readers might be tempted to slow down and savor the prose if the plotline weren’t so compelling....Talk it up; highly recommended.” —Kelsy Peterson, Library Journal

“Temple’s elliptical storytelling—the past and the present are often interchangeable—-fits the slippery subject of deeply ingrained police corruption and one man’s determination to uncover the truth.” —Publishers Weekly 

“One of the world’s most respected literary crime novelists...Temple’s award-winning The Broken Shore was good; this is better.” —Barry Forshaw, The Independent (UK)

“Tautly constructed and compulsively paced...His images can catch in the mind like things glimpsed under lightning.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Raw and visceral...there is something desperately poignant and affecting in the way Temple reveals his characters’ emotional lives....I love his style.” —Kate Atkinson, author of Case Histories  

 

Praise for The Broken Shore:

“A compulsive read . . . a grim, brutally involving crime novel [from] a master of the genre . . . It’s one of those books you can’t wait to finish and then can only regret that it’s ended.” —Daily News (New York)

“Having read the new novels of Michael Connelly and Martin Cruz Smith, I have to say that Temple belongs in their company.” —The Washington Post

“Flinty, funny, subtle and smart...From a single corpse, Temple spins a complicated mystery that eventually encompasses racial tensions, scumbag cops, drugs, a grandstanding aborigine politician, stomach-turning sexual abuse, and rapacious developers...Temple ranks among [the genre’s] very best practitioners.” —Entertainment Weekly

Publishers Weekly

The death of a nameless prostitute in a glitzy Melbourne high-rise is the first in a series of crimes that Insp. Stephen Villani discovers are all tied to protecting the interests of the city's elite in this brutal tale of corruption, greed, and revenge from Australian author (and Ned Kelly Award–winner) Temple (The Broken Shore). Burdened by a shaky marriage and an increasingly rebellious teenage daughter while trying to stay afloat in Melbourne's treacherous political climate, Villani doesn't know where to turn. The discovery of three savagely tortured men with ties to one of the city's biggest crime bosses only adds another layer to the already twisted case, and makes Villani question eve-rything he thought he knew about the line between cop and criminal. Temple's elliptical storytelling—the past and the present are often interchangeable—fits the slippery subject of deeply ingrained police corruption and one man's determination to uncover the truth. (May)

Library Journal

As head of homicide in Melbourne, Australia, Inspector Stephen Villani devotes himself to serving justice. Yet even as he pursues cases with single-minded intensity, he can't ignore a foreboding that the job is destroying him. Faced with a brutal triple homicide and an unidentified victim found in a penthouse apartment, Villani uncovers a sinister political dimension to the crimes as major players in the upcoming state elections try to influence the investigation. Meanwhile, Villani's drug-addicted teenage daughter is out on the streets, his marriage is in crisis, and bush fires threaten his father's life. VERDICT In this follow-up to the award-winning The Broken Shore, Temple spins a complex and powerful story with writing so top-notch that readers might be tempted to slow down and savor the prose if the plot line weren't so compelling. Villani is an unforgettable protagonist, a miserable, conflicted cop who somehow embodies grace in a malevolent world. Already acclaimed in Australia, Temple proves once again that he deserves to be better known among American crime fiction fans. Talk it up; highly recommended.—Kelsy Peterson, Johnson Cty. Community Coll., Overland Park, KS