Shooting Star: Roman - Hardcover

Temple, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 3570010066 ISBN 13: 9783570010068

Publisher: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2008

Synopsis

Frank Calder – ex-soldier and sacked police hostage negotiator – is just eking out a living as a mediator when he’s approached by Pat Carson, patriarch of the dynastic Carson family. Pat wants him to deliver ransom money to kidnappers who’ve abducted his great-granddaughter. Frank urges Pat to call in the law, but he refuses, since police bungling nearly cost the life of another Carson child kidnapped years before. So a reluctant Frank begins to deal with the kidnappers, and quickly becomes convinced both Carson kidnappings were motivated by something other than money. Overseveral feverish days, Frank searches for suspects in the web of Carson businesses, deals, marriages, indiscretions and rivalries. And all the while he knows that if his instincts are wrong, the girl will surely die ... With Shooting Star, Australia’s premier crime-thriller writer,Peter Temple, is launched into an even bigger league.

About this title

Review:

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 Forshaw

Review:

Discovering Peter Temple has been the highlight of my year - Mark Billingham (Mark Billingham)

Great locations, hard-nosed dialogue and a twisting plot combine to create superb entertainment - Evening Standard (Evening Standard)

Temple ratchets up the tension in his inimitable style . he remains one of the best thriller writers in the world - Sunday Express (Sunday Express)

Temple is the master of the complex plot and his characters leap from the page . a taut action-packed thriller - Sunday Telegraph (Sunday Telegraph)

About this edition

• Publisher: C. Bertelsmann Verlag
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 3570010066
• ISBN 13: 9783570010068
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288