More so for Villani, as his father and their property, their forest, is directly in the line of threat.Īnd then there's truth. Add that complexity to the environment in which TRUTH is set - Melbourne ringed by bushfires, hot, smokey, difficult, uncomfortable, threatened. A joint love, it seems to Villani, it's the only thing that they hold in common.

Villani is good at his job hopeless at his personal life struggling with his relationship with his father they share a bond which is fractious at best, their forest of trees a bridge between the two men. Perhaps it is this concept of a man who is the sum total of his childhood, his younger years, his decisions, his personal and professional lives, and the decisions (or events) along the way that push and pull and shove and ultimately shape personality that most interest Peter Temple. A country boy / city cop he's a complex man, as complicated as Cashin, although his life has taken a different path. Inspector Stephen Villani goes from his own BROKEN SHORE cameo to the central character in TRUTH, as the head of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad. Perhaps it would be fairer to call it a companion to the earlier book, a parallel story. TRUTH has been 'billed' as the follow up to the acclaimed THE BROKEN SHORE, but really that's not setting expectations for the book well - sure Joe Cashin makes a number of cameo appearances (by reference) as, for that matter, does Jack Irish, but TRUTH isn't a sequel in the strictest sense of the word. Let's get the verdict out of the way right up front so there's absolutely no doubt - it did not disappoint. TRUTH by Peter Temple is probably the most keenly anticipated novel in this house for many years.

Truth by peter temple