Peter Temple was a highly acclaimed Australian crime fiction novelist, born in South Africa. He worked as a journalist and international newspaper and magazine editor before moving to Australia in 1980. Temple's career in Australia included editing the Australian Society magazine and teaching editing, media studies, and journalism at university. He played a significant role in establishing the professional editing course at RMIT in Melbourne.
Temple's work as a fiction writer began in the 1990s, and he quickly gained recognition for his distinctive style and compelling characters. His Jack Irish series, set in Melbourne, features an unconventional lawyer-gambler protagonist and includes the books "Bad Debts," "Black Tide," "Dead Point," and "White Dog." In addition to the Jack Irish series, Temple wrote three stand-alone novels: "An Iron Rose," "Shooting Star," and "In the Evil Day" (published as "Identity Theory" in the US).
Temple's achievements in the world of crime fiction are noteworthy. He has won the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction five times, including for his novel "The Broken Shore," which also won the Colin Roderick Award for best Australian book and the Australian Book Publishers' Award for best general fiction. "The Broken Shore" also won the Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie Dagger in 2007, making Temple the first Australian to win a Gold Dagger. His novel "Truth" won the 2010 Miles Franklin Literary Award, a significant accomplishment as it is the first time a crime writer has won an award of this caliber anywhere in the world.
Temple's works have been widely acclaimed and published in over twenty countries. "The Broken Shore" was made into an ABC telemovie in 2014, and his first two novels, "Bad Debts" and "Black Tide," have been adapted into films with Guy Pearce starring as Jack Irish. Temple's contributions to the genre of crime fiction and his legacy as a novelist have left a lasting impact on the literary world.