Identity Theory

by Peter Temple

John Anselm is a former Beirut hostage, a foreign correspondent who went to one war too many. A burnt-out-case, he lives in his family’s ancestral house in Germany, working for a semi-legal and near-broke surveillance firm and wrestling with his own fractured identity and family history. His intelligence work collides with the lives of Con Niemand, an ex-mercenary and professional survivor, and ambitious London journalist Caroline Wishart. They are caught in a nightmare of violence and intrigue that can only end with the uncovering of long-buried secrets. Temple writes of a shadowy world peopled with intense, globetrotting characters who use espionage, double crossings, and political information to gain leverage. In Temple’s world, secrets can be worth more than human life.

Genres: Fiction, Crime, Thriller, Australia, Mystery, Espionage, Audiobook

426 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Peter Temple is an Australian crime fiction writer.

Formerly a journalist and journalism lecturer, Temple turned to fiction writing in the 1990s. His Jack Irish novels (Bad Debts, Black Tide, Dead Point, and White Dog) are set in Melbourne, Australia, and feature an unusual lawyer-gambler protagonist. He has also written three stand-alone novels: An Iron Rose, Shooting Star, In the Evil Day (Identity Theory in the US), as well as The Broken Shore and its sequel, Truth. He has won five Ned Kelly Awards for crime fiction, the most recent in 2006 for 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. Temple is the first Australian to win a Gold Dagger.

Reviews

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two stories running along side each other here; that of John Anselm in Hamburg and Con Niemand in South Africa. There is a third catalytic storyline as well. The book opens with Con Niemand, an ex Special Forces soldier, in South Africa providing security for a couple. They are attacked, he kills the attackers, but, horrifically, he is the only survivor. He 'inherits' the materials, including a pivotal video, his employer was holding and negotiates the price of getting them to England. Once there, he once again finds himself under attack.

In Hamburg, Anselm is a partner in a surveillance firm. He is an ex war journalist, survivor of a long term kidnapping, whose trauma and injuries left him with gaping holes in his memories. He is not even sure what he has forgotten. He is managing multiple invesigations one of which seems to tweek memories for him. Suddenly there are women in his life asking him questions about the past. What is going on? And how dangerous is this for him?

Finding out how these two stories collide and who survives the collision completely sucked me in and had me wanting to call out hints from the sidelines to the protagonists. Temple writes fabulous suspense and thriller work. His characters are also mostly excellent - succinct descriptions that make them real without falling into stereotype. He then lets them act in character most of the way through.

There are some issues with the book though. A central theme of the story is that all sorts of information can be found out about anyone through various massive databases. This book was written in 2008 when this was still news to people. It's not now. I believe that this book has been reissued as In the Evil Day with updates which might be helpful. I found no problems making allowances for the time lapse and enjoying it immensely.

I had a problem with the two minor women characters - one of whom was extremely unprofessional and the second was, frankly, nuts! Weird love stories with not enough motivation in the middle of suspense/thriller always throw me. On the other hand, I completely accept the character of Carolyn Wishart, the third, minor and catalytic protagonist for the story.

I did pick the bad guy although I admire the red herring which did have me wondering. There were some story lines that went nowhere which was a shame. I would have like to see them either expanded or not there because as it is they were pointless. There is some German here that is not translated that you will need Google for if you are not a Deutsch speaker.

3.5 Stars. An earlier book of Peter Temple's and easy to see how good he was going to be. I found it hard to put down, especially in the last third.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first book by Australian author, Peter Temple. I was impressed.

The plotting, in particular, is complicated and suspenseful. Plenty of surprises and unexpected twists.

The characters are most interesting, particularly the women because their motivations are far less clear and therefore more enticing. The male characters are all flawed, some fatally so. Makes them far more believable than the usual thriller genre heroes.

The story takes some attention and focus if the reader wants to keep everything straight. Basically, a series of seemingly unrelated events happening to unrelated people winds itself up into a huge conspiracy to cover up a massacre that happened 20 years ago in Angola. Temple jumps back and forth from character to character, keeping the pot boiling as the truth begins to appear.

The only argument I have with the story is that the ending is just a little too neat. I like happy endings as much as anybody but I want them to make sense. I think Temple was reaching too much in winding up this tale.

I would put Temple up there with Daniel Silva and slightly below Alan Furst. I plan to read more of his output.

[Kris McCracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Peter Temple’s crime fiction. The man could write a tax return and I’d still want to read it. But “In the Evil Day” isn’t Jack Irish turf – it’s something murkier, stranger, and very, very dark. Temple takes the bones of a Le Carré-style international conspiracy and smears them with dust, blood and cigarette ash until you can barely make out the shape.

The set-up is pure headache: a scatter of people who, on the face of it, have sod-all to do with each other: a burnt-out journalist, a South African mercenary, a few spooks with their fingers in too many pies. Slowly, grudgingly, Temple winds it into a conspiracy to bury a 20-year-old massacre in Angola. The drip-feed of information is masterful if you’ve the patience for it, although the constant ricochet between characters and locations did my head in.

Con Neimand’s chapters? Magnificent – taut, kinetic, exactly the jolt the story needs. John Anselm’s? Less so. He spends half his time moping about Beirut trauma and the other half doing very little about it. On its own, his arc might’ve made a cracking novel, but here it’s wedged between mercenaries, botched black-ops, blackmail schemes and the occasional detour into the geopolitical weeds. It’s far too much, yet Temple’s prose keeps pulling you back – tight, unsentimental, the kind of writing that trusts you to keep up.

There are surprises everywhere, the sort that sneak up on you in a side street and nick your wallet. When the threads finally come together, the pacing snaps into place and you remember why you stuck with it. It’s not easy reading, but if you like your thrillers with brains, shadows and a whiff of cordite, it’s worth every ounce of focus you can muster.

[Jane · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a rambling, disjointed thriller. I think Peter Temple should stick to his crime novels. Full of unnecessary characters, rambling monologues, over-padded descriptions or whole sections that didn't add anything to the story, never mind a completely unfathomable plot. And of course 2 of the 3 female leads had to end up in bed with the male leads. And then when it started to get to the action towards the very end it switched to German! Maybe listening to the audiobook didn't help - no chance to flip back and go 'Who was that character again'?

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Peter Temple's Identity Theory, John Anselm is a former journalist and American ex-pat living in Hamburg, Germany. He has spent the past several years rebuilding his shattered psyche after surviving for more than a year as a hostage in Beirut. Now, he's the lead analyst at a private intelligence firm that hacks, surveils, and plays in the grayest areas of the law to deliver sensitive information to very wealthy clients in both the public and private sectors.

Caroline Wishart works at a London scandal sheet, making a living disclosing the private indiscretions of British politicians. She's on the rise after a massive and salacious scoop that rattled the halls of government, but her perch is a precarious one - she needs something new, and she needs it now.

Con Niemand is a former soldier working as a bodyquard and security agent in South Africa. He's in the process of settling his current clients into their house, when he's ambushed by a team of armed home invaders. Con is the only one to escape the carnage that follows, and looking to try and break even on a contract gone wrong, scoops up whatever he can find on his way out the door. Unfortunately for him, what he scoops up includes a secret video recording that could bring down a number of highly placed people, and those people will not rest until they have it back in their possession.

Anselm only knows he's pursuing a sensitive item for valuable clients; Wishart is chasing the recording after nearly being able to purchase it; and Niemand is on the run, realizing that the video might simultaneously be a death warrant and the only thing keeping him alive. Their paths are on a collision course, but when they meet, it may still be too late to save their own skins.

Temple was rightly regarded as one of the best crime and suspense writers in the business. His stories are complex, his prose is economical, and his writing demands the engagement and attention of his readers, who are rewarded for their patience and active participation. The plot and players in Identity Theory (also published under the title In the Evil Day) are revealed in layers through the actions and timely recollections of the characters. The author shows the reader what he or she needs to know, but gradually, and while this can be challenging for those who prefer more straightforward structures, it heightens both the mystery and tension of the story.

For readers who want something deeper than a simple whodunnit - and who value "show" rather than "tell", Peter Temple is an author you're likely to enjoy. Identity Theory is uneven in a few places, and the ending feels just a little bit rushed - it's not Peter Temple at the absolute top of his game - but it's superior to the vast majority of political thrillers out there today. Recommended.

[Aine Dunne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the easiest book to read - the characters are difficult to keep track of and the dislogue can be fragmented and hard to follow. However it is worth sticking with. The story centers around a former journalist turned surveillance expert and a mercenary who stumbles on some incriminating evidence of war crimes. Based in London, South Africa and Hamburg this is a bit different from the norm.

[Clive Parkin · Rating 2 out of 5]

To be fair, I didn’t give this a concentrated effort, but continuity was a real struggle at times. I love Temple, but this felt more fractured than other work I’ve read.
The classic moment came on page 275 when one character thought- Trilling? Who was Trilling?
Indeed, I thought...

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought In the Evil Day by Peter Temple because I've been looking for his Jack Irish mystery series and when I found this standalone thriller, I thought I should give it a chance. It was a bit of work getting into the story but once I got into the flow, I found it to be an exciting, fascinating read.

The gist of the story. Ex-South African soldier, Con Niemand, is now a bodyguard in Johannesburg South Africa. Things turn ugly when he escorts his latest client home. The family and Niemand's partner are attacked and killed by robbers and Niemand kills the robbers. While leaving, Niemand discovers that the husband has in his possession a video of a mass murder committed by American troops somewhere in Africa. Niemand heads to England to sell the information to a reporter. That is the main story line. There are others. One follows intrepid reporter, Caroline Wishart, as she tries to find Niemand and get the information. And the 3rd plot follows John Anselm, who works for an information - gathering company in Hamburg. All the stories are eventually intertwined in a sometimes complex story.

Each character is well-developed, each dealing with events from their past (lots of flashbacks, especially with Mr. Anselm). There are many fascinating peripherals. I especially enjoyed Anselm and his team and how they hunt down information for their clients, so interesting. The story is intense, lots of action but also lots of introspection.

As I said at the beginning, it does take a bit of getting into the flow, but it is ultimately worth the effort. The story is well-crafted, the characters are interesting and sympathetic and the story has more than enough action and is just technical enough to hold your interest but not lose you. How these individual threads come together makes for a most satisfying ending as well. Try it. Now to find one of his Jack Irish mysteries. (4 stars)

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘There was nothing under truth, beyond truth.’

Three cities. Three characters. A secret.

In Johannesburg, Con Niemand an ex-soldier and mercenary, comes across evidence of a terrible secret while working on a security detail. In Hamburg, John Anselm is trying to escape his memories of foreign war zones while working for a surveillance firm. In London, Caroline Wishart calls herself an exposé journalist, and is looking for her next big story. Their lives will be drawn together. Niemand thinks he has found something worth selling. But it is something others will kill for, something that has the power to destroy reputations and possibly to bring down governments. Wishart needs to try to verify what Niemand wants to sell. And Anselm needs to conquer his demons.

‘Dead. How many people in this unfathomable business were dead.’

This is a complicated story of suspense, and it requires concentration. There is plenty of action but occasionally things slow down just enough for the reader to catch their breath and process the story. There are unexpected twists and turns. Information is dangerous, as are memories. And everyone is being watched. This is not a light read but it is a rewarding one.

If you enjoy complicated plots and complex characters, I can recommend this.

Peter Temple (1946-2018) left behind nine completed novels and I am slowly working my way through reading some (the Jack Irish novels) and rereading the rest.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Tracy Smyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book confusing at times. But it kind of came together at the end

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start, but a great ride in the end

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The Evil Day is a stand alone international thriller by Australian author Peter Temple that transgresses much of the globe, including South Africa, England, Wales and Germany.

There are two main characters that the text oscillates between. John Anselm is a former war correspondent who is suffering from his near death experience as a tortured hostage in Beirut. Suffering post-war stress and probably alcoholism, he lives in Hamburg, working for a struggling surveillance firm and trying to come to terms with his tormented past.

In another part of the world, Con Neimand, an ex-soldier and mercenary, stumbles across evidence of a terrible secret whilst on a security detail in Johannesburg. This knowledge puts his life at risk and he is on the run from an unknown enemy.

The two worlds are brought together by the hidden secret as the plot weaves towards it's dangerous and deadly conclusion.

An interesting enough plotline, but I found the changing between characters and settings made it quite complicated and required some thinking and all my concentration. I found that I enjoyed the Con Neimand segments as these were action-packed and seem to carry the story forward. Alternatively the John Anselm segments I found to be slow and laborious. As he wallowed in self-pity, I found the story seemed to flounder. In fact, I was quite glad once the plot tied together, became less fragmented and the book became more even paced.

Overall a complicated and busy international thriller along the lines of LeCarre or Deighton. A thinking person's thriller. Not suitable unless you can give it your full attention, and I recommend reading it in a couple of sittings so as not to lose track of the plot or characters.

[Cliff · Rating 3 out of 5]

A man in South Africa drives a rich white woman home from the shops. He is driving a specially armoured car. Clearly he is a specialist body guard, protecting the woman from random attacks. In Hamburg is the another man who was once a journalist but was taken hostage in Beirut and kept in captivity for a year or more but is now involved with a company which is involved in possibly criminal methods in tracing people who don't want to be traced. He is German but was brought up in the USA and he and his brother are the sole remaining members of a large, important Hamburg family. For much if the book the connection between these two men is unclear and their various actions seem to be unrelated. However, the author slowly weaves the threads together and it is only in the final pages that everything becomes clear. Much of the narrative proceeds by way of dialogue and often short, staccato dialogue. It is sometimes difficult to follow the narrative, partly due to the number of subsidiary characters whose place in the story is not always clear, possibly intentionally. John, the Hamburg character is deeply disturbed as a result of his captivity. There is a lot of violence in the book, but it is a necessary part of the unfolding plot.

[Sharron · Rating 2 out of 5]

The plot was absurdly convoluted. There was a cast of thousands. Well, that's an exaggeration but it felt like it because dozens of them were introduced rapid fire in the first few chapters. It was impossible to tell who was who and whether they would appear later in the story. I felt as though I walked into a large reception and was introduced to thirty or so people all in a quarter hour and would be tested on who they all were later on. If so, I would have failed. The fact that some the characters had a multitude of names didn't help nor did the fact that the story moved back and forth in time. I like the Jack Irish series by Peter Temple but this novel, despite some good writing at times, was tough slogging.

[Richard Yaxley · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the author's earlier works, with his trademark complex plotting and superb phrasing, particularly his descriptions of the various environs. This was a novel that demanded persistence but the pay-off, the unravelling, is certainly worth it. Temple's writing bridges the crime / thriller genre and literary style (hence his Miles Franklin Award for Truth) and is all the more appealing for that.

[Arax Miltiadous · Rating 3 out of 5]

βρήκε τον χρόνο του τελικά και δεν θα έλεγα ότι με απογοήτευσε, συναίσθημα που είχα κατά την πρώτη απόπειρα της ανάγνωσης του.
Σίγουρα δεν είναι από τα βιβλία που με ξετρέλαναν αλλά ήταν απολαυστική ιστορία, με ωραία γυρίσματα στην πλοκή και ποιοτικά γραμμένο.
Αυτά, απολαύστε ελεύθερα!

[Don · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have read and enjoyed several Peter Temple books.

Was it because they were set in Melbourne? I don't know.

However, for some reason, at the half way point of, 'In the Evil Day', I decided I had had enough.

[Guido Tresoldi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved 'Truth' but while this book is engaging and was a good holiday read, I didn't find it as engrossing. Somehow I felt this was an attempt from Temple to broaden his stories beyond Melbourne, but that is why I found Truth so good (as a Melbournian I may be biased!).

[Adrian O'Neill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't enjoy nearly as much as Peter Temples other books which I loved. I found the different plot lines and the multitude of characters hard to follow. It did all come together in the end but was hard going at times.

[Kerry carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it. was a bit hard to get used to all the characters but once you get used to that the story and twists are really good.

[Diane · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn’t finish this book. Usually like Peter Temple but not this one. I read half and still didn’t know what was happening.

[Ravi Vaish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tangled Webs

This globe-trotting political thriller is a departure for author Temple, best known for his whodunnits set in Australia.

In contrast to the usual works in this genre, there is a good deal of dialogue over action - some of it recorded from audio bugs and wiretaps. This often read as obscure and confusing and it took me several readings to place certain passages in context.
I think that this was a deliberate choice of the author to realistically depict how one of the protagonists, ex-journalist John Anselm who works for a private surveillance/data mining agency has to habitually sift through a mountain of raw data to get to the relevant details/info needed by their clients.
The characterizations of the dramatis personae and the lean, spare prose style of this thriller are far superior to what is generally found in the genre. I would even venture to declare that Peter Temple is a better writer than John LeCarre.

[A.M. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a complex story, even for Peter Temple, and it is not until two thirds of the way through that some of the story threads start to knit together. A bodyguard in South Africa decides to try and sell a video his client has already died over, and he drags a lot of other corpses along with him. Meanwhile another man running a surveillance firm struggles with the loss of his family and his old life. In London, an ambitious female journalist thinks she has the story of the decade.

Some of the women characters were a little… hand wobble… but it was pretty interesting although the tech stuff all dates so quickly.

3 stars

So far this year, my library saved me A$1550.21

[Andy Kabanoff · Rating 5 out of 5]

No need for me to outline the plot as everyone else has done so. The plotline, metronomically swinging between London and Hamburg, needs concentration at first until the links start to appear. It's great to read a suspense thriller than requires effort from the reader. The quality of the writing demands perseverance and it is totally rewarded. It throws the spotlight on another forgotten / hidden war - Angola where the US led campaign to stop communism at all costs follows the pattern of Vietnam, Chile and so many other regions. Terrific thriller.

[AJ Bernstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

Peter Temple wrote some of the best outback noir that I've read, so this book was a total disappointment. I'm not sure why I kept reading it, I put it down over and over. The plot was overly convoluted until the final chapters when it was pared down. He should've stuck with Australia, Europe was too fragmented and lacked the character for his voice. And a few glaring plot devices: a woman on the run uses her credit card for gas? No one is that clueless. Two of the main female characters sleep with the men they meet? Nah. And the resolution was a bit too tidy.

[David C Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good post Cold War thriller centering around an atrocity that took place somewhere in Africa, a coverup with political ramifications. It’s also very good on how the English tabloids work. You have to be patient with it because it’s all episodic fragments that gradually cohere. More stripped down and taut than Temple’s Australian crime fiction. There’s a nice line about how working for Ollie North isn’t something you want on your C.V.

[Biddy · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good plot full of suspense and strong characterisation BUT there were too many characters, plots and sub plots to keep tabs of who's who, which meant skipping back to check who, when, where etc. May be it's just me and my brain fog, although I haven't felt this in other thrillers etc that I have read lately.

[Jyv · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggled to be interested in this book. I found it confusing with all the characters, not knowing what's going on, not caring what was going on. Didn't care about any of the characters. I read about 100 pages or so and gave up through lack of interest. Sad, because I've enjoyed Peter Temple's other books.

[Damon Isherwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by Peter Temple is worth reading. Most (all except this one?) are set in Australia. In the Evil Day is an 'international thriller', however, like the others, there is not a wasted word. Nothing he writes is cheap or fake. Characters are heroic and earn our compassion. The tension and action is real. Very excited to find this when I thought I had already read everything he had written.

[Devilish · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of this book didn't make sense until the end. You had the feeling it might be intertwined but not how. Niemand and Anselm are both interesting nuanced characters. A spy thriller romp through Hamburg, London and a few other international spots.