At the close of a long day, Inspector Stephen Villani stands in the bathroom of a luxury apartment high above the city. In the glass bath, a young woman lies dead. Villani's job as the head of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad is bathed in blood and sorrow. Incapable of constancy as a father and husband, damaged as a son, his life is his work. It is his identity, his calling, his touchstone. Now, over a few sweltering summer days, as fires burn across the state and his superiors and colleagues scheme and jostle, his soul is about to be laid bare. Truth is a novel about a man, a family, a city. It is about violence, murder, love, corruption, honour and deceit. And it is about truth.

About the Author

Five-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, Peter Temple is Australia's most acclaimed crime and thriller writer. He is the author of four Jack Irish novels and four standalone novels: An Iron Rose (1998), Shooting Star (1999) In the Evil Day (2002) and The Broken Shore (2006), winner of the CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger 2007 for Crime Fiction.

Reviews

'Peter Temple's Truth may well prove to be the year's best thriller... It's the fierce energy of Temple's writing that is the book's outstanding feature - the dialogue and linking prose almost vie to outdo each other in brilliance' Sunday Times. 'A thriller of dazzling richness... leaves the reader ravaged, furious and marvelling at his technique... a stunning piece of psychological portraiture' Guardian. 'One of the world's most distinguished literary crime novelists' Independent. 'Tautly constructed and compulsively paced... his dialogue is entirely distinctive, full of the mangled poetry and beautiful solecisms of ordinary speech' Observer. 'What makes Temple so compelling is his divine use of language. The novel is written with grace and subtlety, elegant but also violent, dark and yet suffused with sympathy for the protagonists, cast in dialogue that is both distinctive and surprising' Daily Mail. 'With crackling prose and sparkling dialogue, Temple has fashioned a fashioned a fast-paced atmospheric police work of genuine class' Mail On Sunday. 'Temple's award-winning The Broken Shore was good; this is better' Independent. 'Doesn't disappoint for a single second' Daily Mail.