• The Broken Shore

  • By: Peter Temple
  • Narrated by: Peter Hosking
  • Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (178 ratings)

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The Broken Shore  By  cover art

The Broken Shore

By: Peter Temple
Narrated by: Peter Hosking
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Publisher's summary

Shaken by a scrape with death, big-city detective Joe Cashin is posted away from the homicide squad to the quiet town on the South Australian coast where he grew up. Carrying physical scars and not a little guilt, he spends his time playing the country cop, walking his dogs and thinking about how it all was before. But when a prominent local is attacked and left for dead in his own home, Cashin is thrust into what becomes a murder investigation. The evidence points to three boys from the nearby aboriginal community, whom everyone seems to want to blame. But Cashin is unconvinced and soon begins to see the outlines of something far more terrible than a burglary gone wrong.

Winner of the Ned Kelly Award, Australia's major prize for crime fiction, The Broken Shore is a transfixing novel about a place, a family, politics, and power - and the need to live decently in a world where so much is rotten.

©2005 Peter Temple (P)2007 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic reviews

"A towering achievement....Indispensable." ( Guardian)
"A grim, brutally involving crime novel...It's one of those books you can't wait to finish and then can only regret that it's ended." ( The New York Daily News)
"Temple's novel racked up the awards in Australia, and it's easy to see why: this deeply intelligent thriller starts slowly, builds inexorably, and ends unforgettably." ( Booklist)
"Beautifully written....Byzantine plot twists and incisively drawn characters combine with stunning descriptions of the wild, lush, menacing Australian landscape to make this...unforgettable." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about The Broken Shore

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Taut, Complex in Every Way Fantastic Listen

Peter Temple knows how to write characters, deep, with history yet brevity of prose, the plot is multi-layer, reminding me of "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo". I loved the narrator, taking a bit of time to get used to the Aussie accent and colloquialisms. Short sentences, searing scenes, this book was gripping until the last sentence. Highly recommend.

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Dripping With Local Color

Superb. Beautifully written noir detective yarn set in Australia that is wonderfully read. Hearing it in the colorful accent of an Australian enhances the book and adds to the local feeling. The writing is wonderful, with a lot of snide, dark humor. I've gone on to read two other books of Temple's and enjoyed them both.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great Narrator Enhances a Terrific Story

Would you consider the audio edition of The Broken Shore to be better than the print version?

Yes. The narrator brought so much to the table. I really loved his work. That said, Peter Temple is a true prose master and anything he writes is a pleasure to read. But Mr Hosking really brought it to life. I will be on the lookout for more audiobooks read by him.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes! And I rewound many times to savor Hosking's reading or Temple's lovely prose.

Any additional comments?

Really confused as to why some other reviewers claimed the Australian accent was hard to understand. I am American and I completely disagree. There was some Aussie slang I didn't know and had to look up, but it had nothing to do with Mr. Hosking's reading. He was a joy to listen to.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

authentically Australian

What did you love best about The Broken Shore?

An excellent story, a sympathetic and intriguing main character, and authentic Australian atmosphere - well written and well read.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Uneven Shoreline

Temple writes good prose, but his story is convoluted and takes too long to play out. The narrator's accent is hard to understand.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great characters

This is a good book. Warning the mystery centers around sexual abuse of children. The abuse happens in the past and is not graphically talked about. The narrator is great. It is an interesting police procedural

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

A good summer read

On the whole I liked this book. I found it rather a slow starter, and some of the rather crude local characters and language did not appeal to me. However, over all, it had a solid plot and was engaging, I wouldnt say this is an absolute must download book, but if you are looking for a good 'on the beach' read this summer, then I would recommend it. I would have scored it 3.5 rather than 4 if that had been possible.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Decent Detective Story

This is an all Australian production from the author and setting to the narrator. This author has a nice writing style that uses a lot of short phrases to respond to narrative or environment. I found that pretty funny at times and enjoyed it. The author's sense of humor was subtle, but it was there. I thought the story itself was drawn out and it started slowly. I suppose that it had to start out slow, but it really took a long time as I kept wondering what the dang book was about! But it did pick up and the story unleashed itself in the final few hours of the audio. The story seemed to reflect the main character's outlook on life as a generally burned out detective. The Australian dialect was key to the book, but was sort of hard to get at times. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to explore police procedurals from other countries. The narrator did a very nice job presenting the story and was easier to understand as I got more familiar with the Australian accent. I gave it four stars out of five.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

engrossing & well written

i really enjoyed this book. well written & performed. there were times i wished that i had the glossary included in the print version, but it was nit a problem to understand the meaning of the dialog.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Slow to build, tricky to listen to

Any additional comments?

I loved listening to the Aussie accent, and I gave this book my full attention, but it was tricky and at times difficult to listen to. Peter Temple writes prose in small, clipped phrases as opposed to fully grammatical sentence structure, and the Aussie uplift at the end of each phrase made it a little difficult to follow a narrative arc. At times I felt I was being pelted by phrases. I really had to work at it. Combine that with a novel whose first 4-6 hours of listening were only setting the stage for the major plot developments, which finally began to pick up speed and weaves together in the last 2 hours of listening--I needed a lot of patience and concentration. At times, I felt that I was listening to a book in a foreign language--I missed a number of Aussie-localized references and humor. And unfortunately I found the grotesqueries over-the-top, unbelievable, and sensationalized. Having said that, I gave it my best shot and listened all the way through, so that must mean something, but I don't think I'll have the energy for another Peter Temple book for quite awhile.

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2 people found this helpful