The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
Written: Sep 15 '05 (Updated Jul 10 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Strong mystery, profound sense of place
Cons: ..
The Bottom Line: Strong Australian thriller set on rugged Victorian coastline dealing with some major issues. Police corruption, a town with a hidden past and a cop trying to forget his own past.
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| damieng's Full Review: The Broken Shore Books |
Peter Temple is one of Australia’s most successful and readable crime authors of recent times having won 4 Ned Kelly Awards for outstanding Crime Fiction by an Australian author. He has once again displayed what a great talent he is with The Broken Shore a novel that gives us a profound sense of place, makes use of sympathetic characters and a provides a deeply compelling mystery.
Detective Senior Sergeant Joe Cashin has returned home to the tiny seaside town of Port Munro where he has taken up the role of a virtual one man police station. He is a former Melbourne homicide detective recovering from injuries he received while working a case, an incident that still causes him constant pain and frequent nightmares.
He now lives a peaceful life with his two poodles on his windswept property entertaining thoughts of rebuilding the tumbledown wreck that his house has become. It’s a quiet existence with only minor crimes to investigate – ideal for the rehabilitating man.
But his peaceful life is rudely disturbed by the brutal bashing of Charles Bourgoyne, a prominent member of the local community. Detective Hopgood from the nearby town of Cromarty immediately places his suspicion on some of the young men from the local Aboriginal community. But Cashin’s not so sure.
The Cromarty police have a poor record when it comes to dealing with Aborigines, hosting a number of highly suspicious deaths in custody and as it turns out their record doesn’t improve during the handling of this case either. When the hostile dust settles, Cashin finds himself on his own to investigate the Bourgoyne case.
The pressure is always present though, thanks to constant contact from the Melbourne cops and a growing media interest. The Bourgoyne case is gathering interest among the federal politicians, too, with the hot topic of racial prejudice stirring the pot.
While largely propelled by a violent crime, The Broken Shore is more than simply a tense mystery over a death in a small town. It’s about the small town itself, the corruption and racial prejudice simmering within the idyllic setting, and the dark and mostly forgotten history lying hidden nearby. It’s about Joe Cashin’s attempts as a weary man, to try to escape the haunting memories of an ill-fated police operation that still hampers his movements.
Although the setting is fictional, Temple’s description of the landscape is achingly familiar, the rugged coastline, the wind-ravaged paddocks and the fallen-down barbed wire fences struck a resonant note within me. The frequent walks Cashin takes with his dogs and their futile pursuits of resident hares and rabbits provide a much needed respite from the more intense demands of the investigation.
He has then dotted the story with rogues, laid-back knockabouts and forthright lawyers, all of whom enrich Cashin’s quiet life significantly, provide the odd amusing moment and even hint at a possible romance. The most notable of these characters is Rebb, a softly spoken swaggie who is initially moved on by Cashin for trespassing in a landowner’s outbuilding before Cashin offers him a job and place to stay on his property.
The dialogue is clipped, spoken in short staccato bursts, particularly between Cashin and Rebb, men of few words who seem able to communicate almost non-verbally coming to mutual agreements between themselves.
It’s a powerful story, typically Australian, evidenced by the dialogue, the attitude towards the natives and the political influences that seep inevitably in. The big issues are subtly woven into the story as are the friendships and conflicts. The investigation gradually builds in intensity as seemingly unconnected incidents and clues are pieced together before a tense showdown takes place. You can see the pieces falling logically into place but it’s not until right at the end that you get an idea of what the outcome might be.
The Broken Shore begins with a desirable landscape, painted in tranquil hues, and then places within it a man who appears content with his lot in life. It’s only when we move in for a closer look that we find that there are demons lurking just below the surface. And so it goes with many of the characters who enter the story, a bit of digging revealing a certain level of rottenness in each.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
damieng
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Reviews written: 427
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Stop thanking me for my patience...I don't have any.
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