Truth

A Novel

By: Peter Temple

Narrated by: Michael Carman

Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

Inspector Stephen Villani, head of homicide in Melbourne, Australia, has a full agenda: a murdered woman in a penthouse apartment, three men butchered in a sadistic rampage, a tattoo-faced drug dealer corrupting his rebellious daughter, and a crumbling marriage.

As these seemingly unrelated events begin to unfold, Villani finds himself immersed in an unfamiliar world of political scandal and ethical ambiguity. He must navigate the inept bureaucracy that is the police department, all while maintaining a solid front and trying to keep the press, his family, and his own past from breaking him completely. With each twist and every turn of this taut crime novel, Villani is forced to question who can be trusted.

©2009 Peter Temple (P)2009 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd.

Slow

In "Truth", the story is a little slow and lacks suspense. On top of that, the 'mystery' of the initial crime is distracted by the Detectives sloppy lifestyle and inner turmoil. This might be fine, except that the reader is apt to miss the point.

The main character's monologue, or the story's narrative, tends to switch topics without warning, making the storyline difficult to track (this, likely due to subtlety in the writing, stylistic differences of Australian crime-writing, and reader inattentiveness).




Bottom Line: "Truth" is not a bad novel, just slow, and rather boring, but there worse ones out there. 50/50.

Poor Narration Can Ruin the Best Book

What disappointed you about Truth?

The narrator, Michael Carman, is really not cut out to read audio books, especially not ones written by Peter Temple. Temple is a writer who doesn't waste words, or dialogue tags. This isn't a problem if you are reading on the page; the formatting will tell you who's speaking and when there is a flashback, etc. But when you are listening, you need a way of knowing when there's a shift. That's not happening here.

This narrator is so limited in the voices he can do that everything sounded the same: the narrative, the protagonist, all men the protag was having conversations with. I have never been so lost in a book in my life. To make matters worse, I had just listened to the same author's book Broken Shore, which was stellar, and the reader, Peter Hosking, was phenomenal. He enhanced a great book whereas the reader of Truth detracted from the story so badly that, although I stuck it through to the end, it was a huge (and confusing) disappointment. Such a shame because Peter Temple is a superb storyteller and a wonderful prose master.

Just couldn't get going

I don't know. Is it too much to ask for an audiobook to command your attention somewhere in the first three or four hours? Just didn't happen for me. Click.