In the simmering summer where everything changes, Charlie learns why the truth of things is so hard to know, and even harder to hold in his heart. And in vainly attempting to restore the parts that have been shaken loose, Charlie learns to discern the truth from the myth, and why white lies creep like a curse. With his secret like a brick in his belly, Charlie is pushed and pulled by a town closing in on itself in fear and suspicion as he locks horns with his tempestuous mother falls nervously in love and battles to keep a lid on his zealous best friend, Jeffrey Lu. Jasper takes him through town and to his secret glade in the bush, and it's here that Charlie bears witness to Jasper's horrible discovery.

So when Jasper begs for his help, Charlie eagerly steals into the night by his side, terribly afraid but desperate to impress. Rebellious, mixed-race and solitary, Jasper is a distant figure of danger and intrigue for Charlie. His visitor is Jasper Jones, an outcast in the regional mining town of Corrigan. Late on a hot summer night in the tail end of 1965, Charlie Bucktin, a precocious and bookish boy of thirteen, is startled by an urgent knock on the window of his sleep-out. debut, focuses on the town's ugly underbelly, as well as the troubles in Charlie's family, the novel is gripping enough to overcome its weaknesses. The banter between Jeffrey and Charlie drives the novel's lighter scenes, but can distract, feeling more like Tarantinoesque pop culture asides than anything else. The town of Corrigan is rife with racism, which is directed mainly at the half-aboriginal Jasper and Charlie's Vietnamese best friend, Jeffrey.

The boys, assuming that Jasper will be blamed, hide the body, and Laura's disappearance combines with the boys' guilt and lies to create an ongoing spiral of stress. That secret turns out to be the dead body of Laura Wishart, Jasper's occasional paramour and the older sister of Charlie's own crush, Eliza. Charlie, 13, is woken up on a hot summer night by teenage outcast Jasper, who wants to show him something secret. Australian author Silvey wears his influences (notably To Kill a Mockingbird) a little too obviously on his sleeve in a novel about crime, race, and growing up in a 1960s Australian mining town.

Jasper jones book