Shooting Star Book

It's always good to be the first person to discover talent -- and despite his immense success in Australia (he is that country's pre-eminent crime writer), Peter Temple has been something of hidden treasure for British and American readers. But Temple's days as a hidden treasure are disappearing, as more and more readers discover just how distinctive a writer he is (crime celebrity admirers include Val McDermid and Mark Billingham). Temple (who won the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Dagger with The Broken Shore) has, in Shooting Star, another winner. Prickly, fifteen-year-old Anne Carson is abducted -- to the horror of her well-heeled family. Disgraced police negotiator Frank Calder is commissioned to pay the ransom, but he has other ideas – there was another child kidnapping some years before, and Frank is convinced there is a connection. But the death of Anne Carson may be imminent. All the things that make Peter Temple's books such pleasurable experiences are here: the steady, satisfying unravelling of a mystery, the gallery of idiosyncratic characters (notably the dogged -- and beleaguered -- Frank Calder). But the prime Temple virtue -- sheer storytelling acumen -- is what makes Shooting Star such a success. --Barry ForshawRead More