Identity Theory

Then into his life comes Con Niemand, ex-mercenary and professional survivor. Niemand has had the unluckiest break of his life – he has stumbled across evidence of a terrible secret and now he’s on the run, the focus of a relentless high-tech manhunt across England to the remote Welsh mountains.

Against his will, Anselm is plunged into a world of violence, betrayal and death. He must break out of his anesthetized life and pit himself against forces that he does not understand, forces determined to rebury a secret that can destroy reputations and lives across the globe.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Noir in the age of privatisation, 2008-04-21
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 Identity Theory (originally published as 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.


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

I read every word, 2008-01-24
There are a lot of people trying their hand at writing these techno thrillers where you can track down anyone anywhere in the world by just using a computer, hacking into various systems etc. The few I've read were cheezy. Not so with Identity Theory.

Peter Temple's Identity Theory reminded me of John Le Carre's work in that it's characters are low-key, diligently working under the radar towards figuring the puzzle...towards the end game. Multinational.

Anyway I loved it. I also loved Temple's The Broken Shore, Bad Debts, and Black Tide. And will be reading Shooting Star ('99), Dead Point (2000), and White Dog ('03) in the near future. Also Truth (2008, forthcoming).

Peter Temple has become one of my favorite authors. Robert Wilson is another.

David Honeybone, the editor of Crime Factory magazine who also runs the Crime Writers' Association of Australia, sums up the plot better than I could ever.

"Con Niemand is an ex-mercenary, a South African trained in the art of killing. He earns a living by doing security, running protection for wealthy South Africans who find themselves in a country gripped by lawlessness, still searching for stability post-apartheid. The sole survivor of a job gone wrong, Niemand comes into possession of a video showing American soldiers in an African village, a charnel landscape, where they are calmly dispatching survivors. Survivors of what, though? Niemand hasn't much time to contemplate that question before he's contacted by the tape's owners in London, and with dollar signs in his eyes he boards the next flight out of South Africa to return their property. But such is the importance of this tape that he unwittingly becomes the target of a deadly manhunt.

Switch to Hamburg, Germany, and meet John Anselm, a journalist piecing his life back together after being kidnapped in Beirut. His brain a shattered switchboard of half-memories, courtesy of a rifle butt to the skull from a captor, Anselm controls panic attacks by drinking. He earns a living through a shady but sophisticated electronic-surveillance agency whose clients require information on everything from errant wives to industrial espionage. Unaware of Niemand's situation and that they share dangerous knowledge, Anselm is employed to track the ex-mercenary's movements, until a series of violent events lead their paths to cross, just as the threat of an exhumed American foreign policy secret raises the stakes for all concerned."

Highly recommended!


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Originally "In the Evil Day" - Don't buy both! - Great Australian Mystery, 2007-12-22
Another outstanding book by this Australian author. I love finding a new-to-me mystery writer - gives me a chance to track down and read all the books. Because the first ones are hard to find in the U.S. it is being a challenge, but I've now got all but one. Meanwhile, this one is easily available and it's just one fine, well written mystery. I'm hard to please, let me tell you - I'm a serious mystery buff and I know and demand excellent writing. Peter Temple is my latest and best find. I strongly recommend him to anyone who appreciates good writing, fine plotting, 3 dimensional characters, and a darned good read.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

The Missing Star Goes to the Publisher, 2007-08-01
I liked Temple's Jack Irish novels and found this one not so colloquial as the Irish stories. I liked the story lines and how they came together but have to admit I liked the mercenary the best. I found way too many misprints, mispellings, missing words, etc., that it distracted my reading. This just doesn't usually happen. Temple needs to find a publisher who can hire a proofreader.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

You may have read it before, 2007-07-03
This is the same book as "In the Evil Day " by Peter Temple, nevertheless it's a brillant book with a Le Carré feeling to it. And when it comes to action scenes he's as good as Lee Child! Well, what about it - Carré/Child in a very complicated but also rewarding thriller. His other books are as good. Pity when they have different titels for differnt countries. Can confuse you, n'est pas?

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