For the first time in Russian - the crime novel of the Australian writer Peter Temple "Broken Shore" (2005), awarded a number of prestigious literary awards: "Duncan Lowry's Dagger" (the largest detective award in the English-speaking world), "Australian Book Publishers Association Award" (" Australian Booker"), etc. Not far from the quiet seaside town of Port Monroe, an elderly businessman, respected member of society and well-known philanthropist Charles Burgoyne was mortally wounded in his own mansion. The investigation is led by police detective Joe Cashin, who leads a quiet, almost reclusive life in his hometown after leaving the state police homicide department, where he was seriously wounded and lost his partner. The search leads Cashin and his colleagues to three boys from the “black” Daunt district, whom local authorities are interested in charging; an attempt to detain them ends unexpectedly bloody. This tragedy is only a prologue to further dramatic events, during which a sleepy provincial town by the sea - where the coastal cliff is cut through by stone steps, once knocked out by a local madman, where nimble seagulls catch cigarette butts thrown from the pier in flight and where, despite outward prosperity, a silent spirit hovers the spirit of loneliness and suicide is gradually revealing its long-standing dark secrets...