Truth [Paperback]

Laurie doesn't see him, so Steve Villani is able to study his wife as she walks toward him.

Jeans, black leather jacket, thinner, different haircut, a more confident stride.

She spots him, comes over.

He hasn't planned it, but he can't help himself. "You're having an affair."

She says this isn't the place to talk. He won't let it go.

"... meeting with the boyfriend, is that it?"

"I'm not having an affair," she says. "I'm in love with someone, I'll move out today."

Looking for great fiction-writing? Friends, that is it: not a word wasted, every beat true, drama at the red line, a surprise that packs a wallop.

What more do you want? Whatever your fantasy about a book, Peter Temple probably satisfies it in Truth. Peter Temple? Only one of the world's better novelists. But unknown to most American readers largely because he lives in Australia.

Temple is under-appreciated here for another reason: His books are thrillers with violent crimes as the problem to be solved and cops as the characters who must solve them. In our country, that's the province of genre specialists like Patricia Cornwell and James Patterson --- writers who favor simple plots, cardboard dialogue and lots of white space on the page. Temple, in comparison, is Dostoevsky.

The comparison is not casual. Temple's characters are complex, his plots complicated, his world smudged if not outright dirty --- that is, his books are entirely credible. In this one, a young prostitute is found murdered in a super-luxury high rise that boasts the ultimate in technology --- though on the night of the murder, none of it works. In Temple's books, high and low always meet. Not only might the murder be connected to the torture and execution of three thugs, but Steve Villani, chief of the Homicide squad in Melbourne, must deal with citizens of every caste.

He's having an affair, for instance, with a successful TV newscaster. He's invited to a party given by a gazillionaire, where he recognizes "a millionaire property owner, an actor whose career was dead, a famous footballer you could rent by the hour, two cocaine-addicted television personalities, a sallow man who owned racehorses and many jockeys." And, when it's time to be a tough cop, he can go there: "He fell sideways and Villani stopped him meeting the concrete, not with love, laid him to rest, put a shoe on his chest, rested his weight, moved it up to the windpipe and pressed, tapped, you did not want to mark the [...]."

If the plot has more layers than a Goldman Sachs bond deal, it's fun to try and figure out what's coming. (Good luck.) What's simple --- and simply delightful --- is Temple's dialogue, which verges on shorthand.

Here he is, giving a deputy his marching orders for the daily media update on the prostitute's murder:

"Take the media gig this afternoon?"
"Well, yes, certainly. Yes."
"Give them the waffle. Can't name Ribarics. On the torture, it's out there, so the line is horrific and so on. We're shocked. Scumbags' inhumanity to other filth. With me?"
"Urge people to come forward?"
"Mate, absolutely. In large numbers."

And here, in a scene so emotionally rewarding you'll want to give Villani a fist-pump, is the Homicide chief grilling a high government official who just happened to have been the young prostitute's final client:

"Are we done?" said Koenig. "I'm a busy man."
"Not done, no, not at all," said Villani. "But we can conduct this interview in other circumstances."
"Is that, we can do this here or we can do it at the station? Jesus, what a cliché."
"That's what we deal in," said Villani.
"I'm a minister of the crown, you grasped that, detective?"
"I'm an inspector. From Homicide. Didn't I say that?"

Fun, but never charming. This is, after all, Homicide, "where animals hated you, dreamed of revenge, would kill your family." It's a job that eats you, "your family got the tooth-scarred bone." A job where crimes are sometimes solved by looking at footage taken by a security camera at night and noticing the reflection of a car's license plate on a window, and sometimes solved in nastier ways.

You want a mindless beach read? Skip this. You want to be slapped into full attention by a master? Come ahead.

'Bomb It To Snake' is an Australian expression that means, follow procedure-particularly in an emergency. A bomb is a long kick. Snake was the name of an Australian Rules Footballer. Originally instruction to members of Snake's football team on what to do when no other opportunities presented themselves. This fits our Inspector Stephen Villani's philosophy to a 'T'. He, the head of Homicide, said this to his team when he wanted the right thing done, now-'Bomb It To Snake'.

'Truth' could be one of the best crime thrillers I have read this year. Hard to tell, we are young yet, but it kept me engrossed throughout. Not one word too many, but I was mystified at times about some of the phrasing, but I muddled through and it came to me without much of a problem. Fires have engulfed much of the brush in Australia, and it has reached the valley near his boyhood home. Villani goes home to visit his father, Bob. They fall into their relationship, and we come to an understanding of sorts about why Villani needs to be in control, and why he is accused of being a bully. Things at the offices are busy, murder and mayhem are always on the docket. One of the new cases looks fairly easy to crack, a young prostitute found murdered in a new high rise building. So much security; cameras, voice prints, eyeball prints, but yet no information is forthcoming. Orders from on-high say to go easy, lie low. Politics and job security are raising their heads. Villani is a man who was brought up to be straight and narrow, but to maintain his job and not be swept under he has to play by the rules, doesn't he?

Family life is a problem. He has been married for many years to Laurie, three kids. The marriage is falling apart, his younger daughter is a druggie, and no one knows what she is up to. His work keeps him in his office 18 hours a day. He has men to lead and the family, well they need to muddle through. Villani is doing all he can, he thinks.

Corruption of power and damage by violence is the core of the novel. Drugs have made crime a murderous reality. Villani sees the negative side of life every day- he sees it in his work and in the politics that can overpower his life. He is an admitted adulterer, full of guilt, ex gambler, trying to quit smoking, but at the core, what does he have? He is a mentor to his men and a friend to some. This is a book with many layers, and we begin to unwrap them one by one. This is a marvelous novel, and the beginning of a Villani career.

Highly Recommended. prisrob 06-01-10

The Broken Shore: A Novel

Bad Debts (Jack Irish)

Peter Temple is simply one of the best writers to come along in the last decade or so. The fact that he writes mysteries and police procedurals is beside the point.
I started with Identity Theory, and then bought everything he has written - as one reviewer mentioned, this wasn't easy given his little-known status in the US. I had to buy the books from Australia and it was worth every penny!
I've re-read all the books several times and am still in awe of his grasp of personalities, moods, scenery, horses, political jackels, you name it. I just finished reading the Jack Irish series again and feel like I know him, his friends, his pub, everything. There are little treasures littering the writing like gems. Discussing his problem with sleeplessness and nightmares, he describes dreams as "the mind's cinematic memories." Lovely.
The books, with the exception of Identify Theory, are set in Australia and written in Australian. Reading them offers up a whole new world, with its own slang and meanings. The Broken Shore and Truth include a glossary of Australian terms in the back which is not only helpful but hysterical reading. The glossary also help when you go back to re-read the other books as well.
I would suggest starting with Identity Theory, not because that is where I got hooked, but because it starts in South Africa, then bounces back and forth between Hamburg and London, and comes together again in Wales. It is a pretty complex book but the characters and places just step off of the pages, and you keep turning them.
I am almost envious of those of you who have never read any of his work...you have SO much to look forward to now. Enjoy!

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 21 reviews  3.8 out of 5 stars