Karen Chisholm
Cato Kwong is back in the much anticipated fourth novel in the series, and I'm blissfully happy about that.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Back in pre-computer days when the History taught in our schools seemed to be fixated on Medieval England to the exclusion of everywhere and everything else (including Aboriginal history which has always pissed me off in the extreme), we, unsurprisingly given the myopic focus, never explored events surrounding either of the World Wars. Since then my forays into education in this sphere have been shamfully sporadic so I'm grateful for this novella and essay which is casting some light into this corner.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
From the shamefully overdue pile (turns out I have quite a few shameful piles...)
From the Blurb:
Cocaine. Construction. Corruption.
The unholy trinity of Sydney
Self-made property mogul Tina Leonard has already lost her business, her home and custody of her children because South East Banking Corporation left her bankrupt. Now it appears she is being framed for the murder of her banker Oliver Randall, a senior executive of the corporation. Her motive? Revenge for ruining her life and her business.
Karen Chisholm
I remember very well when this triple murder occurred, so I'm hoping this book will cast some light into dark places.
From the Blurb:
'The slaughter was extravagant and bloody. And yet there were people in the small town of Wedderburn in Central Victoria who, while they did not exactly rejoice, quietly thought that Ian Jamieson had done them all a favour.'
Karen Chisholm
Another from the was reading pile (I've been computer avoiding for a few days).
From the Blurb:
Four years ago, in the small town of Birravale, Eliza Daley was murdered. Within hours, her killer was caught. Wasn’t he?
So reads the opening titles of Jack Quick’s new true-crime documentary. A skilled producer, Jack knows that the bigger the conspiracy, the higher the ratings - and he claims Curtis Wade was convicted on flimsy evidence and shoddy police work. Millions of viewers agree.
Karen Chisholm
This is the latest in the rural noir pile, and 50 or so pages in feels like a very good entry indeed.
From the Blurb:
Perhaps if Sweetapple hadn’t stopped to help the idiots who had just near run him off the road in their ute, things may have gone entirely differently.
Karen Chisholm
Backcountry mystery outshone big city crime at WORD Christchurch Festival on Saturday evening as Alan Carter and Jennifer Lane were named the winners of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
Karen Chisholm
Post the #neddies it is sometimes hard to get back in the reading groove, so I'm starting with something rather different from what I'd normally contemplate going near. So far the plan is working...
From the Blurb:
The Girl on the Train meets Before I Go to Sleep with a dash of Bridget Jones in this chilling tale of love gone horribly wrong …
Karen Chisholm
From the just finished pile.
From the Blurb:
An outsider detective. The vigilante killer with a message. A cold case they both want solved.
From Amazon Bestseller S.D. Rowell comes a heart-pounding crime mystery that will keep you thinking until the final page…
Karen Chisholm
In 1942 Peter Corris was born in Stawell Victoria. 122ks away, I arrived in a similar part of the world sometime later. In 1980 I was newly arrived in Melbourne, and by absolute happenstance, a crime fiction fan, living around the corner from Murder Inc in Auburn Road, Hawthorn. My delight at that stage was the discovery of a ready source of John Wainwright's books. And then Malcolm, the lovely and profoundly knowledgeable gentleman who ran Murder Inc, asked me if I'd like to try something local for a change. The Dying Trade was my first Cliff Hardy novel.
Karen Chisholm
So on the weekend we (as in the ACWA Committee(link is external) - Rochelle Jackson, Robert Goodman, David Whish-Wilson, Louisa (LA) Larkin, Andrea Thompson, Jacqui Horwood, Deb Crabtree, Georgina Heydon, Meg Vann and I) did a thing.
Karen Chisholm
Big change of pace, but I'm actually reading something written by someone who is not from our neck of the woods!
From the Blurb:
Murder wasn't the hard part. It was just the start of the game.
Joshua Kane has been preparing for this moment his whole life. He's done it before. But this is the big one.
This is the murder trial of the century. And Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house.
But there's someone on his tail. Someone who suspects that the killer isn't the man on trial.
Karen Chisholm
From the heaving great pile of reading matter that I'm very behind with.
From the Blurb:
When Andy and Mel’s double date turns into a snuff film, Andy fights back, killing one of her attackers, leading to an unwanted aftermath of attention and threats.
Detective Daniel Connor links the attack to the recent discovery of six female bodies found buried in bushland on Sydney’s Northern Beaches – three double homicides now thought to be part of an organised snuff-film ring.
Karen Chisholm
I've been wanting to read this interesting analysis for sometime now so yesterday sat down and did so.
From the Blurb:
Alison Hoddinott writes about the history of crime fiction set in Oxford, from the early decades of the 20th century to the present. Her emphasis is on novels written by women and the ways in which their fiction deals with both the mystery and its solution and with the situation of women within the university and in the wider community.
Karen Chisholm
You've probably noticed that there are a few of us posting here, and recently it's turning into a bit of a three way tussle who gets in first with a review (okay 2 way, it's rarely me :) ) so given that predictabilty - my turn to read this now.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
There's a LOT of buzz going around about this one.
From the Blurb:
In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself.
Karen Chisholm
My round up of the 2018 Ned Kelly Awards shortlist is now at Newtown Review of Books
Karen Chisholm
Slight (okay extreme) change of pace.
From the Blurb:
Rebecca wondered if she was looking at an elaborate hoax. She wasn't.
Along with a dozen other journalists and food-industry celebrities, she had just witnessed the unveiling of the baked head of one of Adelaide's most celebrated chefs. The head of Leong Chew sat on a pewter platter. The cloche had just been removed, revealing Leong Chew, clearly not at his best.
Karen Chisholm
One that I finished over the weekend - review to come asap.
From the Blurb:
A fugitive in the present. A runaway in the past.
Eliza Carmody returns home to the country to work on the biggest law case of her career. The only problem is this time she’s on the ‘wrong side’ – defending a large corporation against a bushfire class action by her hometown of Kinsale.
Karen Chisholm
So I read this one over the weekend but it's another that a review will come out in the next day or so, in the meantime ... read it.
From the Blurb:
‘Her name is Sammy Went. This photo was taken on her second birthday. Three days later she was gone.’
On a break between teaching photography classes, Kim Leamy is approached by a stranger investigating the disappearance of a little girl from her Kentucky home twenty-eight years earlier. He believes she is that girl.
Karen Chisholm
Twenty-five years ago, serial killer Paul Denyer terrorised the Melbourne bayside suburb of Frankston.
It began on 11 June 1993 when Elizabeth Stevens was murdered on her way home from the library. Then, on 8 July, Debbie Fream left her new baby boy with a friend while she dashed out for milk. She was abducted and killed.
True crime writer Vikki Petraitis was researching her second book, after writing The Phillip Island Murder (Kerr Publishing, 1994), when she unexpectedly found herself in the middle of the hunt for a serial killer.
Karen Chisholm
Catching up on some of the true crime books stacked about the place.
From the Blurb:
Career criminal John Killick was involved in the most audacious prison break in Australian history when he escaped from Sydney’s Silverwater prison after his partner in crime Lucy Dudko commandeered a scenic helicopter flight at gunpoint.
Australia’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ spent 45 days on the run before being caught… Killick was sentenced to 23 years jail; Dudko to ten. After his release, the pair meet up again but are they the same people? Is the magic still there?
Karen Chisholm
Following on from Gideon Haigh's A Scandal in Bohemia, a factual account of the life and fate of Molly Dean, now The Portrait of Molly Dean, a fictional look back and Molly's life from the point of view of independent art dealer Alex Cayton. A fabulous read.
From the Blurb:
An unsolved murder comes to light after almost seventy years...
Karen Chisholm
This year’s longlist for the Ned Kelly Awards announced by the Australian Crime Writers Association celebrates the novels of well established crime writers and talented newcomers.
“Crime Fiction is one of the most popular genres in the world and Australian authors have a strong and distinctive voice.” says ACWA chairperson Rochelle Jackson.
“These longlists celebrate the best of Australian fiction and non-fiction crime writing and show that we are up there with the best in the world.”
Karen Chisholm
Finished this late last night because I wanted to read it and because next up (after a bookclub read) it's Katherine Koviac's book The Portrait of Molly Dean.
From the Blurb:
An unsolved murder takes one of Australia’s foremost writers of non-fiction into the 1930s Bohemian demi-monde, exploring the fate of a talented young woman trying to make her way in that artistic, sexualised, ‘liberated’ world.
Karen Chisholm
Because I've been doing a lot of "required reading" recently, I decided to indulge myself in random dips into the Discworld series on audio. Of course a while ago I also promised myself I'd read the entire Discworld series from start to finish again, so I'm blithely ignoring myself and am, as a result, all over the place - Unseen Academicals being Book 37 in the series. I'd pretend that I picked it because of the coincidental timing with the World Cup but we all know that's tosh. I picked it because I picked it.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Turns out that injury to my partner (he's okay) is something that will bite into your reading time. Things ground to a bit of a halt last week what with himself managing to require hospitalisation for a back injury. He's feeling a lot better now and might have got off with one of those dreaded "you're not as young as you think you are" warnings over a back which we all know is dodgy. Anyway, this has been lurking on the reading pile for way too long.,
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Started this one last night.
From the Blurb:
Not all murder victims are mourned, but the perpetrator must always be punished ...
For Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women.Inmate Grace O'Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she becomes the chief suspect.
Karen Chisholm
I am sort of keeping pace with myself again, having just finished this book...
From the Blurb:
All she wanted was to escape. But why does she still feel trapped. A gripping psychological drama by the author of Mothers and Daughters and Into My Arms.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the pile up of things I should have mentioned a week ago.
From the Blurb:
A top executive dies suddenly.
An accident?
A murder?
An inside job?
Hundreds of suited suspects in one city office.
Detective Sergeant Brian Shaw is recalled from Yorke Peninsula.
From sleepy country town to throbbing city throngs, clashing personalities, old scores to be settled, frustrated ambitions, jealousies, and something new: female tellers.
A hotbed of suspicions from managing director to tea lady.
Karen Chisholm
Latest, just finished read. Hopefully this is the start of another series.
From the Blurb:
The young detectives call Alan Auhl a retread, but that doesn’t faze him. He does things his own way—and gets results.
He still lives with his ex-wife, off and on, in a big house full of random boarders and hard-luck stories. And he’s still a cop, even though he retired from Homicide some years ago.
Karen Chisholm
A memoir originally published in 2015 I listened to Sue Perkins on the audio version of this and thoroughly enjoyed it.
From the Blurb:
When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?'
Karen Chisholm
I am actually reading this one right now. I'm all caught up in other words!
From the Blurb:
Ten years after surviving special operations in Afghanistan, Danny Clay is working as a scriptwriter in the emotional war zone of TV production. His best mate and editor is Vietnamese neighbour Zan who may or may not have killed a man with her bare hands. When their writer friends start dying in mysterious circumstances, Danny must resurrect his old army sapper skills to prevent himself and Zan becoming the next victims.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the have read pile - this is the 3rd book in the Natalie King series.
From the Blurb:
Natalie King has been hired to do a psychiatric evaluation for the children’s court. A custody dispute. Not her usual territory, but now that she’s pregnant she’s happy to do a simple consult.
Turns out Jenna and Malik’s break-up is anything but simple. He claims she’s crazy and compulsive; she claims he’s been abusing their daughter Chelsea.
Karen Chisholm
Okay so there's a spot of catching up going on - I have been so busy reading, I've forgotten to post updates.
From the Blurb:
Three bodies… three killers?
A taxi driver disappears, his burnt-out cab the only evidence of his last stop. In the same desolate area, a body is found in the boot of a stolen car half-submerged in a muddy creek. It’s not the cab driver…
Karen Chisholm
Really like the way that Ellie Marney creates the settings for these books - they feel very real and the people in them authentic.
From the Blurb:
Boozer, brawler, ladies’ man – nineteen-year-old Harris Derwent is not a good guy.
Karen Chisholm
Nearly caught up now - finished this earlier this week.
From the Blurb:
Meet Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a psychopath with a dark secret, and the FBI's last resort.
A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a terrifying ransom call. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads.
Karen Chisholm
It's been quite a while since I caught up with these listings as you can probably tell by now.
From the Blurb:
In a single day, a simple mistake will have life-altering consequences for everyone involved.
A moment of distraction, an unlocked car and a missing baby. How on earth could this happen?
All Malia needed was a single litre of milk and now she's surrounded by police and Zach has disappeared.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the past reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Six international artists are invited to a residency in southern Spain. What could possibly go wrong?
Writer’s block and paintings of oranges.
Love, lust, revenge.
A sculptor left for dead on the side of a mountain.
Part love story, part thriller and wholly page-turning, Dig Two Graves shows us once again that ‘Morwood is a classy act.’ – The Australian
For readers who like their crime/thrillers gore-free and more refined.
Karen Chisholm
Two authors who returned to crime writing after more than a decade away have today been named among an eclectic longlist for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
Karen Chisholm
Having just posted a media announcement on the 2018 Ngaio Marsh longlist (the media announcement is here), now for a few personal comments. Firstly and most importantly, if you've been standing by waiting for a review to be posted (especially if your book was in the submissions list), this is the reason for the delay.
Karen Chisholm
This is the third book now in the Agatha Christie Book Club series.
From the Blurb:
It was supposed to a frivolous night out. The champagne was flowing, the rugs were arranged, and the Agatha Christie Book Club had settled in to watch their favourite mystery Evil Under the Sun on the moonlit screen above.
Yet it all comes to a crashing halt when a woman’s lifeless body is discovered lying between the jumble of picnic baskets and blankets. She has been strangled and discarded like an empty champagne bottle.
Karen Chisholm
Set in Mexico, among the worst of the worst behaviour of the cartels, and to be frank, men, a union activist makes a stand. Tim Baker has created wonderful characters in Pilar and Fuentes.
From the Blurb:
The only thing more dangerous than the cartels is the truth...
In Ciudad Real, Mexico, a deadly war between rival cartels is erupting, and hundreds of female sweat-shop workers are being murdered. As his police superiors start shutting down his investigation, Fuentes suspects most of his colleagues are on the payroll of narco kingpin, El Santo.
Karen Chisholm
2nd in the Lewis Trilogy, I've pretty much started this one straight after the first, The Blackhouse.
From the Blurb:
A body is recovered from a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis. The male Caucasian corpse is initially believed by its finders to be over 2000 years old, until they spot the Elvis tattoo on his right arm. The body, it transpires, is not evidence of an ancient ritual killing, but of a murder committed during the latter half of the 20th century.
Karen Chisholm
Turned into the perfect read for a hot Saturday afternoon.
From the Blurb:
Amy is a store detective at Cutty’s, the oldest and grandest department store in the country. She’s good at her job. She can read people and catch them. But Cutty’s is closing down. Amy has a young baby, an ailing mother, and a large mortgage. She also has a past as an activist.
Karen Chisholm
Launch by Maggie Baron (former forensic scientist): 6 for 6.30pm Wednesday 20 June
Readings St Kilda, 112 Acland Street., St Kilda
Free event, but please RSVP by Tuesday 19 June to carmel@shute-the-messenger.com
Karen Chisholm
Started this one last night, it's due for publication sometime soon and so far it's really engaging.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Latest from the audio pile.
From the Blurb:
Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past. Winner of Prix Ancres Noires 2010. The Blackhouse was published in French as L'Ile des Chasseurs D'Oiseaux before publication in English, and won the prestigious 'Prix des Lecteurs' (readers' prize) at the Le Havre festival of crime writing.
Karen Chisholm
Started this one over the weekend and didn't get nearly enough reading time to finish it, which has turned out to be a bit annoying as it's very good.
From the Blurb:
Can a man who’s lived a life of crime ever escape his past? The world’s most reluctant private investigator is about to find out.
Former bad boy turned local hero, Bill Murdoch, should be happy with his little piece of paradise. After all, he’s got the fancy car and the big house by the beach. The only trouble is he’s slowly suffocating in small town life.
Karen Chisholm
Technically this is a was reading, as it's been bubbling along in the background as a just a couple of chapters book, until it got to the point where sleep was lost finishing it.
From the Blurb:
When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting thirteen-year-old Claire Bingley, he hoped the Queensland rainforest town of Crimson Lake would be a good place to disappear. But nowhere is safe from Claire’s devastated father.
Karen Chisholm
As you can possibly tell, the weather's gone a bit cooler. So there is more time for reading.
From the Blurb:
Set in New Zealand, Rat Bait is a tense thriller which follows the activities of Zack Garroway as he pursues a one-man crime spree after being released from prison. Being part of a small community has its drawbacks despite the lengths to which he goes to cover his tracks, and the local police are not as laidback as they appear.
Karen Chisholm
Listening to this on audio for a change - first book in the DCI Daley series, that I confess to having randomly chosen from a list of audio books.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
One from the weekend's pile
From the Blurb:
Detective Ngaire Blakes is back on the case when a skeletonized murder victim is discovered - a crime that took place during the Springbok Tours of 1981. A period that pitted father against son, town against city, and police against protestors.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the currently reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Former Special Forces soldier Jeff Bradley is meeting with the mafia in Bari, Italy, to discover the whereabouts of his nemesis—criminal overlord Avni Leka—when he receives a message from an old friend. Barry is on board a tourist bus that has been hijacked by terrorists near Istanbul. Strapped with explosives, it is racing across Turkey to the northern borders of Syria, Iraq and Iran.