The book is set around the time of the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria . Temple was in the process of writing the book , set during a hot bushfire-prone season , when the fires occurred . The disaster almost stopped him continuing , saying " I was n't quite sure how to cope with that . I was n't sure what kind of book I would write . " '' Truth '' 's central character is Inspector Stephen Villani ( who had appeared in '' The Broken Shore '' but not as a major character ) , acting head of the Victoria Police homicide squad . Already under a cloud over the deaths of two Aboriginal boys during a botched police operation , and a series of unsolved cases , Villani finds the certainties of his life crumbling after the discovery of a murdered woman in an exclusive apartment block
Black Saturday bushfires
Black Saturday bushfires
Truth (novel)