Australian author Melina Marchetta, known for novels for teens such as JELLICOE ROAD, SAVING FRANCESCA and FINNIKIN OF THE ROCK, is the latest YA novelist to make the leap and write a book for adults.

In this case, at least on the surface, Marchetta’s new novel, TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL, could not be less similar to her previous efforts. Here, her protagonist --- from whose point of view much of the book is told --- is Bish Ortley, a middle-aged man, divorced, drinking too much, recently let go from his position with the Metropolitan Police Service in London. He tries to be close to his teenage daughter, Bee, but finds her pushing him away more often than not. Their family continues to suffer from the loss of Bee’s brother, Stevie, whose death in a drowning accident years earlier precipitated many of the problems that still plague Bish today.

"TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL is full of misapprehensions and rushes to judgment, not only about immigrants and Muslims but about strangers of all stripes. The book urges all of us to take a step back and consider --- as well as confront --- our own inherent biases."

Bee surprised her parents by wanting to spend part of her summer holiday on a bus tour of Calais, just across the English Channel in France. So when Bish is notified through his professional networks that there has been a bombing on a bus in Calais, he immediately heads across the Channel to see if she’s safe. He is there as a concerned dad, of course, but also continues to be an inveterate police investigator. It turns out that Bee is fine, but several others are not as lucky, and Bish finds himself questioning the survivors and their families, gaining their confidence by virtue of their shared experience.

As it turns out, one of the girls on Bee’s bus, Violette, is connected to another bombing, one that took place more than a decade earlier, in England. Violette’s grandfather was accused of the bombing, and her mother, Noor, is still doing time in prison after confessing to making the bomb that blew up a supermarket and killed several people. Bish, who was also involved in that investigation, can’t believe that he is once again crossing paths with Violette and her extended family. When Violette disappears in the wake of the bombing, along with a younger boy, the authorities wonder if Violette was the target of the bombing or if she could be a suspect. Bish’s old friend, who may or may not be working for MI5, urges Bish to use his unique position to get to the bottom of these questions. But no one anticipates the extent to which Bish and his own family will become entangled once again with a case they thought they had put behind them.

It is perhaps appropriate that Marchetta’s novel takes place in both France and England, readily crossing borders as she builds her narrative. The stories she tells --- both the present-day mystery and the prior terrorist bombing, not to mention the stories of the Algerian Revolution that form much of Violette’s fundamental understanding of her family heritage --- have to do with crossing borders and boundaries. These stories, and the characters she introduces, are as much about the changing social and cultural climate of western Europe --- and the distrust and fear that too often accompany those changes --- as they are about any specific incident of violence.

TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL is full of misapprehensions and rushes to judgment, not only about immigrants and Muslims but about strangers of all stripes. The book urges all of us to take a step back and consider --- as well as confront --- our own inherent biases.