Fabulous plot which I could not put down. Brilliant characters, and twists and turns. Highly recommend to other fans of this genre!!

I am always very excited to read Australian crime and to discover new authors in that genre. The premise of WHERE THE TRUTH LIES had everything I normally love in a book, and yet I must now concede that the book and I just weren't a good match. I think that the central story was a good one and had real potential, but got lost under a lot of additional information and filler stories that ultimately made me lose interest. And even though the main character Chrissie could have been the type of driven, hard-ass female character that can carry a story, I was never really able to get close to her and understand her motives. It may just be the case of a 2020 reading slump but this one just didn't quite work for me.

Blurb...
She was slipping away. The further she fell, the closer the clouds seemed to come. Wispy transparent slipstreams of white. Cirrus. Pain smashed her head. Floating …

When investigative journalist Chrissie O’Brian lands a senior job at The Argus, she is desperate to escape the nightmares of her past. Her life has become a daily battle to resist numbing the pain. But her job is something she can do better than anyone else – and the only thing that keeps the memories at bay.

A face-off on the waterfront between the unions and big business is just the kind of story to get her career back on track. But after a dockworker who confided in her turns up dead, Chrissie becomes obsessed with unravelling the truth. When a gruesome threat lands on her desk, it's clear someone is prepared to do anything to stop her.

But who is more dangerous – a ruthless enemy or a woman pushed to the edge? Used to fighting her own demons, this is one battle Chrissie is determined not to lose.

Where the Truth Lies was shortlisted for the prestigious Unpublished Manuscript Award in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.


My thoughts...
PLOT
A well-plotted crime novel written by an author who brings authenticity to the storyline and to the role of an investigative journalist.
PACE
The pace was good throughout the story, although it wavered a little towards the end. The author used a wedding in the final chapters to introduce new information. This slowed things down when I expected the tension to build.
LANDSCAPE
The author introduced me to a side of Melbourne I did not know. I now have more of an understanding of the workings of the waterfront and some of the ‘shadier' streets of Melbourne.
CHARACTERS
The story's main character, investigative journalist Chrissie O’Brian, narrated the story, but I didn't feel anything for her, I didn't admire her. I didn’t like what she brought to the story. Her background story was a sad one and yet I felt quite removed. She seemed distant. I didn't much care about her.

I have been reading more thrillers lately and I'm glad I got the opportunity to read this one.
This was a well written book by a young debut writer set in Australia which I loved. There is plenty of suspence and lots of thrills which kept me on the edge of my seat and kept me reading as I wanted more.
Intriguing, fast paced, mysterious and the main character, journalist Chrisse O'Brian doesn't stop until she finds the answers. The story flowed, there was something happening at each turn of the page, it was exciting.
Great book, great first time author.

Where The Truth Lies is the first novel by Australian journalist and author, Karina Kilmore. After a year at The Argus, journalist Chrissie O’Brian is still being relegated to minor stories and puff pieces by her resentful news director. But one such piece, interviewing a female dockworker, leads into a potentially explosive story.

Masina Weber, a veteran of some years’ experience with Grange Industries, falls to her death in her workplace mere hours after leaving Chrissie a concerning voicemail alleging that something was dangerously wrong at the wharf.

Chrissie is determined to find out just what Mas meant, and whether her death, unwitnessed and unrecorded on CCTV, was really accidental. But interviews with Grange, with the Maritime Union boss, and with the Transport Union rep result in conflicting allegations and information, and it’s soon clear that the opposing sides have agendas they aren’t revealing. Chrissie is left wondering if she can trust anything they say.

Before she can do the necessary research, however, she is taken off the news desk and sent to work for the op ed doing obits. Could the rumour about The Argus avoiding certain stories have some validity? And if the coming redundancies don’t threaten her job, could there be someone at The Argus leaking?

Another death, and then a grisly message delivered to her desk have Chrissie and her colleagues concerned for her safety. It also becomes clear that Chrissie's judgement and performance are affected by the high consumption of alcohol and pills to which she resorts to cope with the grief and guilt she carries from her recent traumatic events in New Zealand.

Kilmore’s secondary characters, if a little thin, are appealing, particularly Mike and Maria; Chrissie, as a main character, is well developed, but using the flawed protagonist device can be a fine line to tread: laying it on too thick risks losing the empathy of the reader, leading instead to frustration with the character's behaviour. The hint of romance is unnecessary and not entirely convincing.

Kilmore’s experience as a journalist is apparent on every page, and she manages to incorporate many topical issues into her plot: the automation of industry and the inherent safety concerns; the (perhaps unsafe) conditions under which non-union and foreign labour might agree to work; and the spread of information and “news” via social media, with its lack of fact checking. The plot has numerous twists, red herrings and sub-plots, making the resolution feel a little messy. Nonetheless, an impressive debut.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.

Dedicated journalist Chrissie O’Brian thinks she’s onto a big story investigating a number of mysterious workplace accidents at the Melbourne Docklands. But her stories keep getting slashed and instead she’s assigned to a profile piece on solo female crane driver, Masina. Things take a sinister turn when Masina tells Chrissie she’s in danger, and then is found dead the next day – another ‘accident’. As Chrissie digs deeper, yet another worker is killed and a bloodied parcel turns up at her desk. She realises she’s onto something – and she has to get to the truth before it gets to her.

Karina Kilmore’s debut novel Where the Truth Lies is crime fiction at its finest with an intriguing mystery at its core – are these really workplace accidents or are they murders? The plot is complicated by an ongoing dispute between the unions and the wharves, missing cargo, dodgy crane records and financial trouble. Could the unions be staging accidents? Or are the wharves involved in large scale fraud?

Main characters in crime fiction typically have a dark past (that’s what makes them so interesting) and Chrissie is no different. She lives alone, self-medicating with alcohol and painkillers, trying to dull the pain from a past trauma, throwing herself into her work and taking comfort in neighbourhood stray cat, Skinny. The successful career she forged in New Zealand hasn’t translated to Australia; her senior position at The Argus newspaper was given to her as a favour and her news director resents her. But Chrissie’s backstory, involving the tragic loss of her husband and her downward spiral into self-blame and depression, is so heart-breaking that the reader cannot help but feel empathy for her and root for her to succeed.

Like Chrissie, Karina Kilmore is a New Zealand native who lives in Melbourne. An experienced journalist, Kilmore uses her knowledge to great advantage with vivid depictions of the newsroom, crammed with desks and people, and buzzing with noise from televisions, radios and phones. She brings the wharves to life with descriptions of the patchwork of coloured corrugated containers and picketers spinning their clicker rattles high in the air, chanting about safety.

The plot ticks along at a fast pace, the suspense increasing as the story speeds towards a revealing conclusion. Chrissie is hit with several gut-wrenching setbacks – just when she seems to be making headway, she’s forced backwards again. But like all compelling protagonists, she ploughs on, undeterred. Karina Kilmore’s confident writing style and talent for telling a great story, teamed with her flawed but extremely likeable main character, makes it easy to see why this novel was shortlisted for the Unpublished Manuscript Award at the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards in 2017. Like Chrissie, you’ll be racing to the end to find out who, if anyone, is telling the truth.

Love a crime book set in Australia! Where The truth Lies is a twisty and gritty story that kept me hooked. The main character is a messed up journalist who is trying to escape her past but struggling to move on. I look forward to reading more of this character

Chrissie O'Brien has moved to Melbourne from NZ after world is torn apart. She is a troubled women who is constantly battling her demons, unable to put her past behind her. Her boss resents her and she wants a story that packs a punch to impress him and prove her place on the team. She is sent to interview the first Australian women to operate a crane on the wharfs. The next day the women is dead, in apparent work[place accident. But Chrissie is not having any of that. Something wicked in happening on the wharf in Melbourne and she is determined to find out what.

Thanks to Simon and Schuster Australia and Netgalley for my advanced copy of this book to read. All opinions are my own and are in no way biased.

Where The Truth Lies by Karina Kilmore is a marvellous debut novel as it is full of intrigue and mystery that held my attention right throughout the story. Chrissie’s personal story is interwoven into the overall story which revolves around her working as a journalist at The Argus newspaper in Melbourne, Australia. She gets involved in researching and writing a story of deaths and corruption on the wharf front of Melbourne. Corruption at all levels emerges and someone is leaking what she is coming up with - who can she trust?

Beside Chrissie there are a lot of well developed characters who add a lot to the depth of the story. In particular I loved Mike, the nerdy computer guy, who is her neighbour and friend with Mr Skinny their shared cat. Also there is Harry, the grumpy boss at The Argus who adds colour to the story as he is never happy with Chrissie as her employment was made without his consultation. The detectives Bannister and the sinister Dorn provide interesting but contrasting characters.

A refreshing story of a woman searching for personal release from her past while also trying to re-establish herself as a professional journalist which she had to leave behind in New Zealand.

Highly recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and publisher Simon & Schuster Australia for a copy to read and review.

This well written debut novel features a young journalist, who becomes interested in the poor safety record of a shipping terminal at the Melbourne docks resulting in deaths and serious injuries. After an experienced female crane operator she had just interviewed for a feature, falls to her death from a crane she becomes convinced that something illegal is going on at the waterfront.

The journalist, Chrissie O'Brian is still trying to find her feet at the newspaper. After losing her husband in a horrendous car crash in New Zealand, she moved to Melbourne for a fresh start but her hiring has caused resentment by the rest of the staff who had recently lost colleagues through forced redundancies. While she feels there is an important story to be exposed at the docks, her editor has assigned her to routine work, forcing her to spend her free time working on the investigation. With the Unions and Management each blaming each other and a leak at the newspaper, Chrissie isn't sure who she can trust.

The plot moves along at a good pace as Chrissie and her computer nerd neighbour Mike start to peel back the layers of what has been going on at the docks and Chrissie starts to get threats aimed at her. Chrissie is a great character, a flawed young woman still struggling to come to terms with the mistakes of her past and go on living every day, but determined to find out the truth for those who died on the docks. The author's long experience as a newspaper journalist is telling in her depiction of the newsroom characters, such as the editors and heads of sections, who are so well drawn that they make the newsroom come to life with the buzz and excitement of deadlines and a whiff of newsprint. I hope we'll get to meet Chrissie again in a future sequel.

A great Australian thriller mystery. I enjoyed this book. The journalist as the protagonist is quite a known angle, but the story line was good

3.75 stars. Where the Truth Lies is a great debut novel by author Karina Kilmore. I love the protagonist who is essentially a misfit with something to hide. She’s struggling with her past as well as her present, and in many ways doesn’t trust herself, yet she’s determined to prove herself professionally in spite of the obstacles in front of her. I love how this was set in Melbourne and the author captured the atmosphere and many things iconically Melbourne. I also loved the mystery and suspense of the story, there were twists and turns and I wasn’t even sure there’d be a resolution under the very end. Chrissie O’Brian is a journalist at The Argus in Melbourne. After conducting a profile interview on Australia’s first female crane operator Masina (Mas) Weber, Mas is the victim of a workplace accident. The more Chrissie looks into this, the more things don’t add up. On the docks where Mas had been working there is growing hostilities between the company and the union, accidents are happening and people are looking the other way. Chrissie is determined to get to the truth yet she’s not sure who she can trust with her investigation and her own anxiety is getting worse. She’s close to the truth but when she finally gets to where the truth lies, there are still more challenges to overcome to report it.