Grant Gillespie's debut novel isn't just called The Cuckoo Boy because it's about an awkward adopted child who wears down his parents
and is implicated in the death of a sibling. Gillespie is attempting to
re-energise the cliché by using it to ask questions about chance and
intention, and good and evil.
Late on in the book, when most of
the world has already made him a pariah, James, the strange hero, says:
"Cuckoos lay their eggs in other bird's nests. The chicks look really
silly. I've seen them in books … a big baby bird and a really small one
trying to feed it. They have to catch even more worms than ever. The
mother bird's babies die. They get pushed from the nest … Is that murder
or is it an accident?"'
'Hailed
as the finest crime writer in Australia, award winner Peter Temple is
now being recognized worldwide as a master of the genre. With The Broken
Shore, he delivers his most powerful novel yet—a chilling tale of
murder in a community where tensions over race, class, and politics have
reached the boiling point.
Shaken by a recent scrape with death, his physical and emotional scars
still raw, detective Joe Cashin is posted away from the Homicide Squad
to the quiet South Australian town where he grew up. But his hometown
offers little in the way of a tranquil recovery; Cashin is soon
embroiled in a highly publicized murder investigation. Prominent local
businessman Charles Bourgoyne was brutally attacked in his own home, and
three Aboriginal boys have become the lead suspects. When a shootout
erupts between them and Cashin’s team, the truth itself becomes a moving
target, and the evidence raises more questions than it answers. As the
secrets of the Bourgoyne family begin to unfold, Cashin unravels a web
of deceit while confronting his own haunted past. Racing to a riveting
conclusion, The Broken Shore will transfix you at every turn.'
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