Sunday, September 18, 2016

Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil by Melina Marchetta

He's an older cop who is home on suspension because he lost his temper at work and threatened another cop.  He's OK with that.  He'll just have another drink and forget about it.  Then he gets a phone call that lets him know his daughter was on a tour bus that got bombed.  No one knows if she's alive or not.  He's on his way before the call is over.  He's lost his son to a rip tide, no one is going to take his daughter from him!

Mulholland Books and Edelweiss let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published October 11th.

Bish is divorced, doesn't have the best relationship with his daughter and his life is a mess but he's determined to find why the bus was bombed and who the proposed victim was supposed to be.  His daughter is alive but in shock.  He's surprised to find that one of the passengers was the daughter of a family he met long ago.  Her mother admitted building the bomb that blew up several people.  Her father died in the blast.  They took her child from her when she was in jail and the girl is back in the local area.  He was the cop that took the baby.  He also knows she was seated where the bomb detonated every day during the tour until the day before.  Since she's from a notorious family, was she meant to be the victim?

With a mix of French and English detectives, secret service and more investigating it gets more confused than straightened out.  There's a language barrier, racism, and politics all mixed in.  Bish begins to suspect her mother was not guilty of the crime she's in jail for.  So he keeps trying to find the missing girl and begins sorting in the old case files.  The more he finds, the more holes there are to fill.  And the madman with the bomb is still on the loose.

This is an intense read with a lot of family dynamics involved.  It's also a long book but it kept my attention to the end.  The final thought I walked away with was:  Don't get between a father and their daughter.  It's dangerous.

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