I felt the same and I have to confess that when I first got my hands on a proof copy of Truth and read it greedily, too much so, I was vaguely disappointed. I had a sneaking thought that it might prove impossible to follow I’m delighted that Peter Temple has and I can’t wait to read Truth.

The Broken Shore is a masterpiece, as good as any new novel I’ve read in the last ten years. They were the first pair in a planned loosely linked trilogy, the last of which will never now, all too sadly, appear.Īfter reading The Broken Shore, the novelist and journalist John Lanchester wrote …Įver since I read The Broken Shore, I’ve been hopping up and down in anticipation of Peter Temple’s next book. That was followed in 2009 by Truth, which was the first ever crime novel to win, in 2010, the prestigious Australian Miles Franklin Literary Award. The Broken Shore, published in 2005, won the CWA Gold Dagger for Best Crime Novel. Peter’s last two books are, I believe, two of the best, if not the best, contemporary crime novels of this century. Peter was, as someone recently suggested, one of the last great curmudgeons of our time, and great company, as long as, if his caustic ire was aimed in your direction, you were prepared to duck. I first got to know Peter’s work through his Jack Irish novels and was fortunate enough to get to know him a little personally, initially meeting him at the Melbourne Writers’ Festival and then, later, in London, at the home of Sarah Lutyens, the agent who represented us both. The Australian writer, Peter Temple, died on the 8th of March he had been seriously ill for some little time.

Truth by Peter Temple