Shooting Star

by Peter Temple, David Tredinnick (Read by)

Overview

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. Over several 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781489088079
Publisher:	Bolinda Audio
Publication date:	12/01/2015
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	258,397
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 6.75(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Peter Temple has worked extensively as a journalist and editor for newspapers and magazines in several countries. He has won five Ned Kelly Awards for his novels, and won the world’s most prestigious crimewriting prize, the Duncan Lawrie Dagger. In 2010 he was awarded Australia’s greatest writing prize, the Miles Franklin Literary Award. His books are published in more than twenty countries.

Editorial Reviews

12/23/2013
Australian ex-cop Frank Calder, now a self-described mediator, has his hands full in this hard-hitting standalone from Ned Kelly Award–winner Temple (Truth). At the invitation of Pat Carson, "patriarch of the Carson dynasty," Calder visits the family compound outside Melbourne, where he meets Pat and his two sons, Barry and Tom. Tom's 15-year-old granddaughter, Anne, has been kidnapped, and the family wants Calder to deliver the $1 million ransom. Despite reservations, Calder agrees, and is sucked into a situation dealing with not only the demands of the kidnappers but the dysfunctional Carsons, whose history includes the earlier kidnapping of Barry's then-11-year-old granddaughter, Alice. Calder has to wonder "what sort of curse lay on this family... that their children were stolen from them, that those they touched they marked with crosses of ash." Calder handles the rough and tumble, as well as the pampered and the spoiled, in this gritty, well-executed tale of greed and vengeance. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

'No summary or catalogue of details will do it justice. Read it for the writing and for where it says this sort of novel is today.'
Age

'If you have not read a Temple thriller, you don’t know what you are missing.'
Adelaide Advertiser

'A tough, contemporary crime novel that takes the reader down some very mean Australian streets…A terrific read by one of Australia’s best crime novelists.'
Canberra Times

'Temple’s dialogue is crisp and the narrative at times poetic…a tense unputdownable thriller with full-throated characters and dynamite plot.'
Castlemaine Mail

'Peter Temple is, quite simply, the finest crime writer we have and Shooting Star reminds us why and how he has set a standard internationally that few come near. His Chandler-like ability to capture the dark corners of our sunniest places is as good as it gets. Temple weaves past and present beautifully …a terrific and powerful read.'
Hobart Mercury

'As always, Temple is a master of the complex plot and his characters leap from the page fully realised in a taut, action-packed thriller.'
Telegraph UK

From the Publisher