Tell Me Something True

The astonishing, emotional epic from Michael Robotham: a mystery, a coming-of-age tale and a love story wrapped into one, set against the simmering tensions of a small Australian town.

I look along the road and notice how many people are standing outside their houses or watching from doorways and windows. Staring. Studying.

‘Do you think this town will ever forgive me?’ I ask.

‘Not in a million years.’

Small towns are quick to anger and slow to forgive, but Arlo Hackett doesn’t expect mercy when he emerges from a twelve-year prison sentence and makes his way back to Yulara, a waypoint on Australia’s Great Southern Road. The last time Arlo was home, his brother Luke was charged with a terrible crime and Arlo was found guilty by association.

His return to the goldrush town is like cracking open a time capsule full of hatred and violence, along with memories of the people he loved – the ones he couldn’t save.

Yulara wants Arlo gone, or worse, but every insult and humiliation pushes him to confront what really happened all those years ago.

The truth will shock you, surprise you, and break your heart.

‘You don’t read a book by Michael Robotham so much as you step into his world.’ The Australian Women’s Weekly

‘Robotham’s brilliant ability to render complex characters, both good and bad, keeps readers unsure of whom to trust, maintaining an air of excruciating suspense until the very last page’ Washington Post ‘A brilliant book from an absolute master of the craft. Deeply felt, utterly memorable and sharp as a razor’ DERVLA MCTIERNAN

Author Biography

Before becoming a novelist, Michael Robotham was a feature writer and investigative reporter working in Britain, Australia and America, and with clinical and forensic psychologists as they helped police investigate complex, psychologically driven crimes.

2024 marked the 20-year anniversary of the publication of his debut thriller, The Suspect, which introduced clinical psychologist Joe O’Loughlin, sold more than a million copies around the world and is now a major TV series starring Aidan Turner on ABC TV. Michael’s standalone thriller The Secrets She Keeps was adapted for TV by Network 10 and the BBC.

Michael is the only Australian to twice win the UK’s prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel, for Life or Death and Good Girl, Bad Girl as well as the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for When She Was Good. Lying Beside You was shortlisted for the Australian Crime Writers Association’s Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2023. Storm Child, the fourth novel in his globally bestselling Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series, was a No. 1 national bestseller in Australia. The White Crow, the second book in his Philomena McCarthy series, following on from the internationally bestselling When You Are Mine, was shortlisted for the 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction.

Arlo’s story, at the centre of Michael Robotham’s 20th novel, Tell Me Something True, has held a special place in his heart since he first dreamt of becoming a writer. Four decades later, he’s ready to share it with readers for the first time.

Michael lives in Sydney.