A Fatal Grace The Broken Shore Peter Temple Farrah Straus and Giroux ISBN 0-374-1693-8 June 07 $25.00 HC

Joe Cashin is a cop on the mend. After a case literally cracks up on him, he's seconded to the small Australian sea-town where he grew up to as a way to ease him back into active duty and his homicide squad. He spends a lot of time drinking, listening to opera, reading, walking his dogs, and recovering both physically and mentally. The Broken Shore is a slow building police procedural. Not that there isn't a lot going on. For a little town it has kids with drug problems, petty theft, and a burglary gone bad which leads to murder and puts Joe Cashin in the thick of things. Joe's family and friendships and old school connections play a big role in The Broken Shore. The story picks up the pace as Joe is more and more convinced by those same friends and schoolmates, that the three young boys from the Aboriginal side of town didn't commit the murder. Joe is a tough solid cop. The case becomes much more than just finding the real killer. This is the eighth crime novel Peter Temple has written. There are four novels in the Jack Irish series and three other stand alones. It's our good fortune that FSG has picked up Mr. Temple here in the states.

Dave Biemann