Tell Me Something True

Michael Robotham has written many excellent crime novels but this is his first novel set in Australia. The first draft of the book was written many years ago then put aside. However with the popularity of Australian crime fiction the author revised the book which has now been published. The result is a study of life in a small town in New South Wales when a former resident is released from gaol and returns home.

Arlo Hackett has spent twelve years in gaol after being found guilty by association when his brother, Luke, was charged with murder. Arlo returns home to a town full of hatred but initially he has nowhere else to go. His mother is in a nursing home so he decides to prepare the family home for sale in order to pay the fees required for keeping his mother in the home. 

Eventually Arlo realises that he needs to investigate what really happened when his friend Saxon was murdered. Chapters in the book reveal the story as Arlo carries out his search while other chapters provide an account of life in the town twelve years earlier. Eventually Arlo and his few friends realise that the true story about Saxon's death are very different from what what was revealed by the police at the time.

Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham is a gripping crime novel which I read in two days. The title refers to a fun game that Saxon liked to play by asking "Tell me something true."