In the evil day [Paperback]

Peter Temple (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002

The Cold War is long dead but the trade in deceit and lies is still running hot. In Hamburg, John Anselm is hiding from the ghosts he has left behind in foreign war zones. He spends his days working for a surveillance firm. At night he drinks too much, paranoid about the suspicions he glimpses in the eyes of strangers.In London, Caroline Wishart calls herself an expose journalist. The story she has stumbled on could make her career-or is she playing somebody else's game?Into both their lives comes ex-mercenary Con Niemand, bearing an explosive secret, a secret with the power to topple governments and destroy them all.A powerful and compelling thriller, In the Evil Day conjures a 21st century world where information is more dangerous than explosives and secrets are more important than human life.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Temple is as dark and as mean, as cool and as mesmerising, as any James Ellroy or Elmore Leonard.' Age "Discovering Peter Temple has been the highlight of my year." Mark Billingham "A towering achievement. Indispensible." Maxim Jakubowski, The Guardian "Put simply, Temple is a master" John Harvey 'Sharp, smart, and with a little bit o' lovin' thrown in for good measure, this will grip you from beginning to end.' Time Out 'In the Evil Day combines the sparse, precise and frankly killer prose which made The Broken Shore such a treat and puts it to perfect service in a book which begs to be read and, ultimately, filmed.' Dublin Evening Herald 'Another triumph for this fine writer.' Daily Telegraph --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Four-time winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Crime Fiction, Peter Temple is Australia's most acclaimed crime and thriller writer. He is the author of four Jack Irish novels: Bad Debts (1996), Black Tide (1999), Dead Point (2000) and White Dog (2003). He has also written three other standalone novels: An Iron Rose (1998), Shooting Star (1999) and The Broken Shore (2005). --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (January 1, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 1863252282
• ISBN-13: 978-1863252287
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,678,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IN THE EVIL DAY and IDENTITY THEORY are the same novel, May 2, 2008

By 

Paul Schliesser (Cincinnati, OH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Evil Day (Paperback)

IN THE EVIL DAY is currently in print in the U.S. under the title IDENTITY THEORY.

I hope this knowledge will save save you from ordering a duplicate of a book you already know, thinking it's something else.

There are a number of Temple's books that have not yet been published in the U.S. and are only available as imports, but this isn't one of them.

Whichever version you might choose to read, this is a well-written, psychologically complex novel and I highly recommend it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Noir in the age of privatization, June 16, 2007

By 

Stephen Dedman (Bayswater, WA Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the evil day (Paperback)

It's difficult to do justice to this excellent novel in a short review. The first half mixes the action-packed adventure of Con Niemand, former soldier turned mercenary, with the slower, more complex unfolding of the character of 'corporate risk manager' John Anselm and his equally complicated world of conspiracies and double-dealing. The link between their stories doesn't become clear until about halfway through the novel, but this isn't the end of the plot twists; there are plenty of surprises still to come.

The style of In The Evil Day is often spare, even terse; while there are some richly detailed passages to establish character and setting, some chapters consist of nothing more than dialogue between two unidentified speakers. This befits the shadowy world Anselm and Niemand inhabit, where knowing who you're working for may be difficult, dangerous, or hard to reconcile with your conscience... and while trust may be rare and larger loyalties obsolete in that environment of `plausible deniability', where the interests of nations have become secondary to those of political parties and the corporations who finance them, Niemand, Anselm and Wishard do have consciences.

Temple shows his mercenaries, deadly as they may be, as more honorable than the people who employ them in the hope of being able to disavow responsibility. Niemand is first and foremost a survivor, acting on instinct when threatened, but he protects his friends as best he can, is capable of gentleness, and has no tolerance for those who enjoy killing. Anselm is equally efficient, to the point of being workaholic, but he is loyal to his boss and colleagues, able to empathize with those he hunts, and loves his family.

The women in this novel may sometimes seem too good to be true, and their civilizing influence almost miraculous, but they are a necessary part of Temple's world - proof that it is worth living in, and preserving.

4.0 out of 5 stars Stylish use of thriller conventions (except the daydream women), September 3, 2010

By 

Trevor Kettlewell "trevsbookreviews" (Nowra, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the evil day (Paperback)

The only other book I've read of Temple's is The Broken Shore, so I was not surprised to find a lead character deeply formed by previous trauma, the details of which are only gradually filled in, often only with hints. It worked for him then, and it works again here, but I wonder if it will if I find it in the next book of his I read. And there will be a next book - he's a nice discovery a friend of mine made (and I hope he keeps lending me more books!).

There are other similarities, but not in the sense of Temple copying himself. We still get the spare writing, complementing these taciturn, worldly characters, and you don't feel insulted by the stupidity of the dialogue or exchanges. There's also again the wonderfully dark mood (cf. Hammett and Chandler) appropriate to the cold business of bounty hunting (but from the distance of a computer terminal) is sustained, but also effectively punctuated by well-paced moments of humour, warmth, and friendship.

However this is almost an entirely different genre to `The Broken Shore', which largely stays in a small rural Australian town, and has only one or two action scenes. `In the Evil Day' is consciously a thriller, diving headlong into many of the conventions: sophisticated European locations; state of the art IT and experts; presidential level conspiracy; assassins; ex-soldier mercenaries; chases; gunfights; build to climactic fight scene - just to name a few. It's almost too much, too conventional, but there's pleasure to be had in someone using these standard things well for a change. He keeps the pages turning, but manages some greater character development along the way.

But what on earth is the deal with the women in this book?? More particularly the two daydream angels that nothing less than miraculously turn up to save the lives of our major and minor heroes, displaying completely inexplicable martial and weapons skills, breathtakingly implausible instant utter sexual and lifelong commitment, and unabashed deus ex machina timing. Is Temple having a laugh?