Michael Robotham, an Australian author, recounts how his first novel, written when he was 22 years old and nearly published in the early 1980s, has finally seen light after being stored away for 35 years. The novel, now titled "Tell Me Something True" and significantly revised from its original draft, is a crime story set in Australia and marks Robotham's return to his homeland as a setting after decades of writing British-set novels.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-09,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Michael Robotham was a 22-year-old journalist working for a Sydney newspaper when he began writing his first novel in the early 1980s.
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he → work → 1980s
"[It] was going to be my great Australian novel … [and] win me every prize in the world," Robotham tells ABC Arts.
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Robotham → go → Arts
He finished it six years later, when he was living in London.
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he → finish → London
It came very close to being published.
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It → come → ?
Set in a small country town based on his hometown of Gundagai in the Riverina region of NSW, the novel had the working title Blessed Are the Meek.
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Blessed → Set → title
"I missed out by a single vote in an acquisitions meeting for a major publisher," Robotham says.
"
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Robotham → miss → publisher
I was told that it was really the setting …
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They just felt it was a little bit too hard for them to market, because this was obviously well before Jane Harper and Liane Moriarty and few Australian-set books had ever done well internationally."
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Harper → feel → ?
He consigned the manuscript to his bottom drawer and spent the next decade working as a journalist and then as a ghostwriter.
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He → consign → ghostwriter
Robotham returned to Australia in the 90s, but when he eventually began writing a new novel he recalled the advice he'd been given and set it in the UK.
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he → return → UK
That book, The Suspect — the first instalment of what would become the popular Joe O'Loughlin series — triggered a bidding war at the London Book Fair before it was published in 2004.
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it → become → 2004
It has since sold more than 1 million copies worldwide and was adapted for television in 2022.
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It → sell → 2022
Now, two decades later, Robotham has finally set a book in Australia.
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Robotham → set → Australia
Tell Me Something True, Robotham's 20th novel, is a "seriously rewritten and re-imagined" version of that first manuscript.
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"All the story and the characters remain the same, but it's been in the bottom drawer since the 1980s," he says.
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he → remain → 1980s
Robotham wrote the first version of Tell Me Something True on a Remington typewriter, so the first step of the rewriting process was transferring it to a computer.
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step → write → computer
When he cast an appraising eye over the original story, he recognised both strengths and weaknesses in his work.
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he → cast → work
"I read some sections and thought, 'Wow, that guy could really write!
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guy → read → sections
Whatever happened to him?!'
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And then I read other sections that I thought, 'Oh, that's so naive.
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that → read → sections
"
He also found that the world had moved on in many ways.
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world → find → ways
"There was no such thing as a sensitivity reader all those years ago," he says.
"
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he → be → reader
It's amazing how you'd put things in books 20 years ago that you wouldn't put in a book today.
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you → put → book
The original story unfolded chronologically.
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story → unfold → ?
"Back then, it was the story of Arlo Hackett and his brother Luke … and into their life I dropped this very feisty, opinionated teenage girl, Saxon, who arrives in a stolen car," he says.
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he → drop → car
"I wasn't writing it as a crime novel.
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I → write → novel
I saw it as a coming-of-age novel and a story about brotherhood and family."
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I → see → brotherhood
In the published version, Robotham created a second storyline set in the present as Arlo returns to his hometown of Yulara after his release from prison.
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Arlo → publish → prison
To contemporary readers, Tell Me Something More belongs to a well-established tradition in Australian publishing of mysteries set in the bush, also known as outback noir, kicked off by Jane Harper's 2006 novel, The Dry.
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Tell → tell → novel
But, as Robotham good-humouredly points out, his novel predates the trend by decades.
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novel → point → decades
"I did this first," he says.
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he → do → this
"Well before the others did it, I'd done it."
Small-town secrets
Robotham describes Tell Me Something True as his most autobiographical work.
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Robotham → do → work
"It's my most personal book in a sense," he says.
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he → say → sense
"There are scenes in it that are lifted straight out of my childhood."
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that → be → childhood
Robotham's father was a teacher, and the family moved often when he was a child.
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he → move → ?
His primary school years were spent in Gundagai, a town of 2,000 people on the Murrumbidgee River known, among other claims to fame, as the resting place of 19th-century bushranger Captain Moonlite.
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years → spend → Moonlite
While Robotham says the town is easily recognisable to anyone familiar with its geography and history, he chose not to use its name in print, renaming it Yulara instead.
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"In small towns there is only one high school and one high school principal and only one senior police officer," he says.
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he → be → towns
"I didn't want people playing a guessing game as to whether I based any of this on real-life characters."
As the popularity of outback noir attests, a small town is a fertile setting for a fiction writer.
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town → want → writer
"Small country towns are very slow to forgive," Robotham says.
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Robotham → forgive → ?
…and 24 more, not listed.
The Aporia