> Skip to content
Read an extract
Play sample
  • Published: 16 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9781760144685
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

Minotaur




A gritty and clever thriller from long-time Penguin author Peter Goldsworthy.

Peter Goldsworthy's new novel features a blind detective determined to deliver justice to the man who shot him, even though his failed assassin has broken out of jail and is equally determined to finish the job. Cleverly structured around the five senses, and with the action confined to one week, it’s pacey and taut, with the cat-and-mouse tension leavened by lighter interludes.

Goldsworthy is interested in all that his protagonist cannot see, as he is forced to meet evil, acting on a trust in his senses, and the ineluctable mystery that is memory.

  • Published: 16 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9781760144685
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 336

About the author

Peter Goldsworthy

Peter Goldsworthy grew up in various Australian country towns, finishing his schooling in Darwin. After graduating in medicine from the University of Adelaide in 1974 he worked for several years in alcohol and drug rehabilitation, but since then has divided his working time between general practice and writing. He has won major literary awards across a range of genres: poetry, short story, novels, theatre, and opera libretti.

Goldsworthy's novels have sold over 400 000 copies in Australia alone, and have been translated into European and Asian languages. His novels have three times been shortlisted for the NSW Christina Stead Fiction Prize, and twice for the Miles Franklin Award. Three Dog Night won the 2004 FAW Christina Stead Award, and was longlisted for the Dublin IMPAC prize. In 2003, his first novel, Maestro, was voted by members of the Australian Society of Authors as one of the Top 40 Australian books of all time.

Five of his novels have been adapted for stage and screen. Everything I Knew, published in 2008, was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Fiction Prize. A collection of short stories, Gravel, was published in 2010.

Also by Peter Goldsworthy

See all

Praise for Minotaur

‘Unputdownable. Hardboiled thriller, psychological comedy, myth — once again his literary insights are the boldest and most original around.’ Robert Drewe

Robert Drewe

‘I read the book in one afternoon, enthralled and excited, eager to know more with each turn of the page. Captures with dizzying intensity the most compelling aspects of literary fiction and detective noir with wit, originality, and sensuality.’

Susanna Moore, author of In The Cut

‘[An] elegant master of language [and] cool magician of plot… [A] gritty, lyrical tale of life on the edges of darkness.’

Carmel Bird, The Australian

Looking can get in the way of seeing but in Peter Goldsworthy’s blind man’s buff, a vision splendid is revealed in lyrical, literate layers, in language that is larrikin laureate.

Richard Cotter, Sydney Arts Guide
penguin pop image
penguin pop image