Is it ever okay to do the wrong thing for the right reason? Or to do the right thing for the wrong reason? In author Mark Smith’s fifth book (his second crime novel for adults) WHERE TRUTH ENDS (Pan Macmillon 2026), he explores these questions amidst the contemporary setting of climate emergency and collapse, the unsustainability of fossil fuels, revolution, intimidation, violence, extreme protest action, extinction, floods, fires and oceans full of plastic.
The story is told in two timelines: the present day, when university student Meg is on the run from a peaceful protest gone horribly wrong, and three months earlier, when she first encounters the group No Planet B (NPB) and makes a conscious decision to help them in their attempts to protest in such a way that the government and large corporations are forced to take notice. But the plan doesn’t go as suspected, and Meg is confused about whether this was accidental, or whether she has been caught up in something much bigger and more sinister than she imagined.
Smith’s novels always centre on environmental issues, and his strong advocacy for climate change, climate attention and climate action are woven seamlessly through strong plot lines of crime, survivability or tragedy. In WHERE TRUTH ENDS, the reader is allowed deep into the interiority of Meg’s mind as she goes about her normal life, with her loving parents and her long-term partner, while sizzling inside her is the determination to ‘do something’ about the environment she witnesses failing around the planet. She thinks she is connecting with good, like-minded people who support her vision, but as time goes on, it becomes obvious that she knows little about the people she has chosen to trust, and that she faces very real and dire consequences as a result of her involvement.
The two timelines are a very effective and clever way of incorporating how – over a period of only three months – someone might be indoctrinated into a world view that is perhaps misleading, exaggerated, misidentified or even criminal. The novel then evolves into the limited choices Meg has to redeem herself and make things right.
The other characters, especially Meg’s parents and some of the others in the protest group, are well-drawn and complex. Smith makes it comprehensible to see just how easy it would be to become drawn into a complicated activist group without being able to see the whole picture. Meg (and her parents) have some extremely difficult ethical questions to answer, and the wrong choices may have life-long effects.
I love Meg’s enthusiasm, her vivacity, her ideals and her motivations. I love how dedicated she is to her beliefs and to how she thinks she can best effect change. She is smart, enthusiastic, vulnerable, morally and emotionally intelligent, and thinks deeply about issues of the world and issues closer to home, regarding those she cares about. She is a flawed heroine who must negotiate unexpected challenges while staying true to her beliefs, and finding out not only where the truth begins, but also where it ends.