The Broken Shore

This is another extremely well-plotted book, set in rural Australia. The detective, Joe Cashin, is living in the small town where he grew up, when a rich guy living on a huge estate is brutally murdered. The local police think it was three Aboriginal teens, but an operation to take them in for questioning goes awry.

I love the setting here; the small coastal town is really vivid. There’s the mystery, which gathers steam and gets very compelling, but there are also lots of great descriptions of Joe’s two dogs, annoying well-written dialogue and plenty of dry humor as well.

Crime but with such achingly good prose, I sometimes have to stop and re-read a sentence just to admire the way Temple wrote it. It’s a slow-burn, with a very dark, noir feeling, and the more you learn about the backstory of protagonist, Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Cashin, the more intriguing he becomes. A great plot, and I love the way Temple weaves different threads together to bring about the slick resolution. If you’re unfamiliar with Australian slang, expect a crash course in the first part of this novel. What makes this book one I return to again and again… show more.

Temple is another internationally renowned and multiple award-winning Australian writer. Several of his novels (The Broken Shore and Jack Irish series) have been turned into telemovies. The Broken Shore protagonist is Joe Cashin, a police detective who moves from the big city to live in the small South Australian town where he grew up but if he thought he'd swapped frenetic for calm he's in for a shock. This is not merely a crime novel, it plumbs life on every level. Temple's not called one of Australia's finest writers for nothing.