Truth by Peter Temple

Publisher's Synopsis

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.

So begins Truth, the sequel to Peter Temple's bestselling masterpiece, The Broken Shore.

Villani's job as head of the Victoria Police Homicide Squad is bathed in blood and soorow. His life is his work. It is his identity, his calling, his touchstone. But now, over a few sweltering summer days, as fires burn across the state and his superiors and colleagues scheme and jostle, he finds all the certainties of his life are crumbling.

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.

My Review 

Peter Temple has reintroduced us to the Victorian Police Force and the colleagues of The Broken Shore's lead character Joe Cashin. In Truth the exploration takes us deeply into the life of a police inspector who is challenged by his past, his present and his future.

Inspector Stephen Villani is the head of homicide with the Victoria Police and it's a tough job at the best of times, cases are never easy but at least he is given fair rein to solve the crime. The murder of a woman in an exclusive luxury apartment that is supposed to be the most secure building in Melbourne brings on challenges that puts him face to face with political string-pullers who call him off the case. But Steve Villani is not a man who will be manipulated nor told to look the other way. When it comes to homicide he is a man who seeks the truth, no matter what the consequences may be.

While struggling to come to terms with the high profile murder Villani is reminded of past crimes, of mistakes that were made and mistakes that have been hidden. His mind continually returns to his father, living on a property on the outskirts of Melbourne where bushfires are closing in. As his investigation develops the recollections of his life growing up with his father begin to unfold telling us much about the man now in charge of the Homicide Squad.

The clipped dialogue is sharp and memorable speaking volumes in what is left unsaid by Villani and his fellow homicide detectives.

There is a darkness to Truth that is hard to define. Around Steve Villani is an aura of helplessness as events start to slowly slide out of control and away from his grasp. While he shows an innate talent for his job the cases he works tend to resolve themselves while he is being beaten down by the dual pressures of a family that is disintegrating and superiors with questionable motives playing politics with the lives of others.

Once again I was struck by the depth of emotion that Peter Temple was able to draw out of his characters with effortless precision. This is a talent that repeats itself novel after novel and creates, in this case, a raw character of tremendous determination who is fully aware of his flaws yet incapable of correcting them.

Truth is a tremendously powerful novel that comes together to form a story of haunting clarity, marked by determination. Villani's belief that Homicide Comes First will either be an awful premonition, a fantasy that would always prove to be his folly or a motivating force that will carry him to greatness.