White Dog (Temple novel)

White Dog (2003) is a 2003 Australian novel by Peter Temple.[1] The fourth novel in the "Jack Irish" series,[2] it won the 2003 Ned Kelly Awards Best Novel for Crime Writing.[3]

Not to be confused with the semi-fictional Romain Gary memoir, White Dog (Gary novel).
White Dog
First edition
AuthorPeter Temple
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
SeriesJack Irish series
Genrecrime novel
PublisherText Publishing, Australia
Publication date
2003
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages337
ISBN1-877008-53-2
Preceded byIn the Evil Day 
Followed byThe Broken Shore 

Plot summary

A Melbourne property developer is murdered and his artist ex-girlfriend is the prime suspect. Jack Irish, a lone private investigator, comes in to investigate. In his investigation, he figures out quite the surprise.

Style and subject matter

Reviewer Hutchings describes the novel as "classic detective fiction" typified by its first-person narrative and "engagement with the city".[4] Hutchings also suggests that "the sense of times past" conveyed by Temple in this novel is central to other writers in this genre, such as Raymond Chandler whose hero, Philip Marlowe, is "an anachronistic knight-errant, a defender of past decencies".[4] He suggests that for Temple, along with the Australian crime writers Marele Day, Peter Corris and Cathy Cole, "the detective offers a link to a disappearing working-class, egalitarian Australia".[4]

As in all his Jack Irish novels, Australian Rules Football and horse racing feature in The White Dog.

Publishing history

After the novel's original publication by Text Publishing in 2003,[5] it was reprinted by Text in 2004,[6] 2014[1] and 2018.[1]

In the United Kingdom it was published by Quercus in 2007,[1] and reprinted in 2012.[1]

See also

References
  1. "White Dog by Peter Temple". Austlit. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  2. "Jack Irish series". Austlit. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  3. "Previous Winners: Best Fiction". Australian Crime Writers Association. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  4. Peter Hutchings (2003, April 18) "A man alone with clues to times past" (Spectrum). Sydney Morning Herald p.20
  5. White Dog (Text) 2003. National Library of Australia. 2003. ISBN 9781877008535. Retrieved 22 June 2023.
  6. White Dog (Text) 2004. National Library of Australia. 6 September 2004. ISBN 9781920885298. Retrieved 22 June 2023.


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