Michael Robotham's first Australian novel was written in his twenties — and sat in a drawer for nearly 40 years

Michael Robotham's 20th crime novel has an origin story unlike almost any other in Australian fiction. The manuscript behind Tell Me Something True — his first novel set on home soil — was originally typed on a Remington typewriter when Robotham was just 22 years old, came agonisingly close to being published in England in 1988, and then spent the better part of four decades sitting in a bottom drawer while its author built one of the country's most successful crime-writing careers.

Now 65, Robotham spoke about the book from what he cheerfully calls "The Cabana Of Cruelty" — a writing cabin tucked into the backyard of his home in Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches. The room, lined with bookshelves and anchored by a comfortable couch, is where one of Australia's most prolific crime writers does his work. And for the first time, that work is unmistakably, unapologetically Australian.

A journalist who became a storyteller

Before Robotham was a crime novelist, he was a journalist. He landed a cadetship at The Sun in Sydney — one of just 16 teenagers chosen from 10,000 applicants — before moving to The Sydney Morning Herald and then, in the mid-1980s, to England. There, he joined a major British Sunday newspaper that, in his words, "had the money to send you anywhere in the world."

His list of on-the-ground assignments reads like a highlights reel of late 20th-century history: he was present for Nelson Mandela's release, witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, and became, he says, the first Western journalist to gain access to the Moscow State Archives. "I count myself very lucky," he reflects.

It was during his twenties, while immersed in that journalistic life, that he began writing the novel that would eventually become Tell Me Something True. By the time he was 28, a literary agent had come calling and attempted to sell it. The manuscript came within a single vote of being acquired by the respected English publishing house Heinemann — only to be rejected on the grounds that its Australian small-town setting made it too difficult to market in 1988. The agent was told that had it been set in England, Ireland, Scotland or Wales, the answer would have been yes.

"Obviously now authors such as Jane Harper and Liane Moriarty have completely changed that situation," Robotham notes dryly. The broader story of Australian history and culture finding its voice on the global stage is reflected in that shift.

Ghostwriting, glory and a long detour

Rather than persist with the rejected manuscript, Robotham pivoted — first into ghostwriting celebrity memoirs. His roster of subjects included Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, singer Lulu, actor Ricky Tomlinson, forensic psychologist Paul Britton, and yachtsman Tony Bullimore. He also wrote Rolf Harris's autobiography, though he is careful to note that book no longer features on the shelf where he displays his ghostwriting work, following the revelations about Harris's crimes.

His breakthrough as a crime novelist came in 2002, when a partial manuscript of The Suspect — the first book featuring psychologist Joe O'Loughlin — sparked a bidding war at the Frankfurt Book Fair. That novel has since sold more than a million copies, been translated into 25 languages, and was adapted into a television series. Eight more books in that series followed.

Returning to an old manuscript — and an old story

When the time came to write his 20th novel, Robotham finally retrieved the long-dormant manuscript. Re-reading it produced a mixture of reactions. Some passages made him cringe — "a bit self-indulgent," he admits, or "a bit naive." He recognised the fingerprints of his influences, describing his younger self as "a bit of a poor man's John Irving or Peter Carey." But other sections genuinely surprised him. "Shit, that 22-year-old could really write!" he recalls thinking.

He rewrote the book substantially — the decades of craft are evident — but the core story and its characters remain exactly as he conceived them all those years ago. Tell Me Something True follows Arlo Hackett, who returns to a small Australian town after serving 12 years in prison as an accomplice to rape and murder in the late 1980s.

For a writer who has set his books everywhere but Australia across a long career, it is a significant homecoming — one that almost happened 37 years ago, and has been worth the wait.