Where The Truth Lies
Short list: 2021 Ngaio Marsh Best First Novel
Short list: 2021 Davitt Awards Best Adult Crime
Short list: 2021 Davitt Awards Best Debut Crime
Short list: 2020 Ned Kelly Awards Best Debut Crime
Short list: 2017 Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award
Where The Truth Lies is a story of suspense and resilience, set amid the lies and suspicions between the corporate world and a blue collar workforce and revealed through the frantic buzz of a major city newsroom investigation.
Where The Truth Lies draws on Karina’s childhood memories of being taken to the wharves – “a weekend treat, to watch the huge ships and eat fish & chips out of old newspapers”.
The newsroom setting in the novel comes from her experience as a career journalist. The main character, Chrissie is a voice that Karina says she hears very strongly – a woman in a man’s world.
Chrissie O’Brian, journalist, lands at Australia’s oldest newspaper, The Argus. She is desperate for a fresh start as she attempts to escape a shocking past. Parachuted into a senior job she struggles to fit into a newsroom battling staff cuts and resentment.
Chrissie soon suspects she has a big story on her hands as she investigates the cause of a wharfie’s death.
The investigation becomes tangled in corporate politics: the wrestling between unions and big business and the changing world of the traditional media.
Tough and cynical, Chrissie is determined to reveal the full story about others while desperately trying to keep her own background secret. At the end of long days trying to find answers she is haunted by even bigger questions and longer nights.
Alone in her flat, a hidden clock keeps a secret count.
Where The Truth Lies is available online from Book Depository.