Crossing the Line is a 2023 non-fiction book by Australian investigative journalist Nick McKenzie. The book was published by Hachette Australia. It recounts McKenzie's investigation, carried out with fellow journalist Chris Masters, into war crimes allegations against Victoria Cross for Australia recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, and the defamation trial that followed.
Synopsis Structured in three parts and told largely in chronological order, the book traces the origin of the allegations against the Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) to a report commissioned by the Australian Defence Force after the 2014 Lindt Café siege, written by consultant Samantha Crompvoets to assess options for greater military involvement in domestic counterterrorism. McKenzie recounts how these allegations reached Chris Masters and then himself, and how the pair sought out named and pseudonymous soldiers and other witnesses prepared to describe alleged murders of prisoners and civilians in Afghanistan, tracing the story's shift from the newsroom to the Federal Court of Australia. Chapter subtitles are dated to help readers follow the timeline, although McKenzie notes the sequence is not always strictly chronological.
The book also covers the personal toll of the reporting and litigation on McKenzie, including his anxiety through the trial. In an author's note, he states that the account draws on the perspectives of the SASR soldiers alleging war crimes and from Roberts-Smith himself.
Alongside the central narrative, the book profiles individual soldiers, including a sergeant given the pseudonym Boyd Keary, whose conduct in Afghanistan is framed against the Anzac tradition of soldierly honour, and Liberal MP and former SAS soldier Andrew Hastie, portrayed as reconciling the demands of combat with a personal code of ethics.
Reception Writing in The Guardian, journalist Ben Doherty described the book as a "tour de force" and called it a "vital reminder of the power of journalism". In Crikey, reviewer Johan Lidberg, head of journalism at Monash University, called the book a "testament to tenacious journalism". In her review, Bridget Brooklyn from the University of Western Sydney wrote that the book "delivers a coherent and absorbing account of this shocking story" and that it is "a story that, after all the media coverage that made it so familiar, is one worth telling and worth reading". Writing in The Conversation, Andrea Carson from La Trobe University, praises McKenzie's book. She writes that "McKenzie artfully uses literary devices, such as first and third person narratives, to weave together multiple threads", moving though his investigation, the courtroom drama, and his own experience of anxiety through the process. Pat Sheil, writing for The Sydney Morning Herald, praises the book, describing it as "the forensic dismantling of a legend".
Writing for The Australian, author Tom Gilling praises the book as a "riveting account". However, Gilling notes that it was written and published against the clock so that McKenzie could beat Masters's own account, Flawed Hero, to market and that this shows at times. Gilling points out a factual error regarding the gap between Queen Victoria creating the Victoria Cross and Queen Elizabeth I's earlier appointment of Francis Bacon as the first Queen's Counsel. Gilling also states that an otherwise exciting story could have done without repeating the same line six times in one chapter.
Awards and nominations 2023 Walkley Book Award – Shortlisted 2023 Australian Political Book of the Year – Shortlisted 2024 ABIA General Non-Fiction Book of the Year – Shortlisted 2024 BAD Sydney Danger Award for Best True Crime – Won
See also Roberts-Smith v Fairfax Media Publications Pty Limited
References