This listing shows posts that went onto AustCrimeFiction.org in the last 14 days. Sorted into post type groups - Blogs (Updates), Books, Reviews.
Another one of those weeks although a wet Sunday did make for some reading catchup, although last night's torrential downpour is probably going to mean some time lost to cleaning up (and washing up muddy dog footprints that are from one end of the house to the other now).
Parrot Heaven by Jessica Howland Kany (even caught up with reviewing this one)
A Spy in the Blood by Paul Warner (library ebook)
This Thursday temptations post is upcoming releases, or books that are out now.
As expected, last week was chaotic, with absolutely no updates posted, one ailing pig plus a now ailing cat, as well as the new cat who is ... overactive, and two elderly dogs who insist on not being quite right. Now we've got bird flu on our minds.
A Plot to Die for by Ardal O'Hanlan (listening)
The Picasso Ransom by A.T. Prewett (yes I know wasn't on any portent lists but it shouted at me - and was good fun!)
In the dying days of 1974, a mysterious yellow sports car speeds into the quiet Riverina town of Gunnawah. While the locals are initially intrigued by the stranger in their midst, nobody is prepared for what comes next.
Pay your debts. Protect your family. Never cross a loan shark.
This blisteringly original crime thriller and exciting debut smashes Mr Inbetween, Monkey Grip and Animal Kingdom into a gutter opera on the vicious, bent and drug-laden streets of Newcastle - written by the Pushcart nominated writer and 2009 shark attack survivor
Therapy just got deadly
When Jess Pendle agrees to attend a support group to meet other women who have lived similar experiences, she doesn’t expect much.
The group has been set up for like-minded women to come together, but when their therapist leaves, they close the blinds and find a new, and altogether more deadly way to support each other…
The world's turned into a lawless free-for-all and you're worried about driving without a licence?
An asteroid is hurtling towards Earth and the human race has just over two months to live. But twenty-three-year-old Haru, stargazer and chronic worrier, is still trying to pass her driving test.
Then she finds a body in the boot of her car: a woman, stabbed and tortured. There's a murderer on the loose. And it turns out that Haru's driving instructor is an ex-cop with a manic devotion to justice.
Moving day…
For single mum Emma, settlement on the Haven St home in posh Yorkwood for her and her daughter should be a triumph. She has the keys, the sold sign is up and all her belongings are in her car ready to move in, but there is a problem – the seller refuses to leave.
Emma, however, has nowhere else to go.
A woman's body is found in a laundry cart aboard the Silver Lady cruise ship. Management says it was a freak accident and her death is quickly covered up, so as not to spoil the voyage for the passengers.
Cesar Cain doesn't want to get involved. He boarded the Silver Lady to disappear. If the cops find him, he's in a cell. If the Hell's Hounds catch him, he's in a grave.
In Regency England, the eccentric Colebrook sisters are amateur detectives who use their wits and invisibility as 'old maids' to fight injustice in this delightful and fiercely feminist novel of mystery and adventure from New York Times bestselling author Alison Goodman.
Welcome to the secret life of the Colebrook twins: unnoticed old maids to most, but unseen champions to those in need - society be damned.
Lady Augusta Colebrook, 'Gus', is determinedly unmarried, bored by society life, and tired of being dismissed at the age of forty-two. She and her twin sister, Julia, who is grieving her dead betrothed, need a distraction. One soon presents itself: to rescue their friend's goddaughter, Caroline, from her violent husband.
Seven friends.
One last weekend.
A mansion half in ruins.
No room for lies.
Someone is going to confess.
Because there should have been eight...
They met when they were teenagers. Now they're adults, and time has been kind to some and unkind to others. None more so than Bea-the one they lost nine long years ago.
Does murder run in the family? The brilliant, unsettling new psychological suspense from the bestselling author of Other People's Houses.
When a teenage girl goes missing, Nicola Miller fears for her own daughter. Not for Abby's mental health or safety, but that she might have had something to do with it. She worries her daughter is a killer. Just like her.
By a Walkley Award-winning journalist, a gripping true crime-meets-political intrigue about East Timor, a place where animistic belief, witchcraft and tribal conflict ensure that truth and justice follow separate, uncertain paths.
A president shot, a prime minister attacked, a rebel leader executed at point-blank range, and a beautiful Australian-Timorese woman accused of orchestrating the chaos. All fifty minutes flying time from Darwin.
It's not just secrets buried at Wild Meadows.
For as long as they can remember, Jessica, Norah and Alicia have been told how lucky they are. Rescued from family tragedies and raised by a loving foster mother on an idyllic farming estate, they were given an elusive second chance of a happy family life.
But their childhood wasn't the fairytale everyone thinks it was. And when a body is discovered under the home they grew up in, the foster sisters find themselves thrust into the spotlight as key witnesses.
Or are they prime suspects?
Ilene, a working-class mother, is struggling to survive and desperate to reconnect with her children, Jack and Lonnie, in the aftermath of a near-fatal tragedy. But her children vanish, setting off a chain reaction within the community.
Suspended detective Omar helps out with the investigation, uncovering disquieting clues, but he keeps getting pulled away by a dangerous cold case.
Benji, a recovering addict, finds peace by breeding lorikeets and caring for his mother, only to have his clean life upended by a stranger’s menacing threat.
Ilene, a working-class mother, is struggling to survive and desperate to reconnect with her children, Jack and Lonnie, in the aftermath of a near-fatal tragedy. But her children vanish, setting off a chain reaction within the community.
Suspended detective Omar helps out with the investigation, uncovering disquieting clues, but he keeps getting pulled away by a dangerous cold case.
Benji, a recovering addict, finds peace by breeding lorikeets and caring for his mother, only to have his clean life upended by a stranger’s menacing threat.
The most painful of Evie Cormac's memories have been locked away, ever since she was held prisoner as a child - a child whose rescue captured hearts and headlines.
Forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven's mission is to guide her to something near normality. But today, on a British beach, seventeen bodies wash up in front of them. There is only one survivor, with two women still missing. And Evie's nightmares come roaring back . . .
An Australian True Crime investigation of wrongful imprisonment by the bestselling author of The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop
Nine wrongful imprisonments. Nine innocent men and women freed.
Even the worst person has a best friend.
A chilling black comedy, The First Friend imagines a gangster mob in charge of a global superpower.
The Soviet Union 1938: Lavrentiy Beria, 'The Boss' of the Georgian republic, nervously prepares a Black Sea resort for a visit from 'The Boss of Bosses', his fellow Georgian Josef Stalin. Under escalating pressure from enemies and allies alike, Beria slowly but surely descends into murderous paranoia.
A group of old friends. A grieving mother. A lying bride.
Adele and Jason are childhood sweethearts. Their wedding day on the sunny Australian coast is a chance to reunite and celebrate with friends and family.
But Adele isn't telling the truth about her relationship. And some of the wedding party – still reeling from a tragic death in the group a decade before – hold secrets of their own.
What happened on the jetty all those years ago was an accident, everyone agrees.
Newly widowed beauty entrepreneur Vivi Savidge's fortieth birthday is fast approaching, and she plans to celebrate it at the Palazzo Stellina, a historic former convent in the foothills of the Italian Alps run by disgraced chef Marco Bianchi and his elderly grandmother.
Vivi's little sister, Alice, is flying from Brisbane with her sixteen-year-old twins in tow. Ex-colleague Pete and his new husband, Nick, are coming from Boston, and old friend Caroline is driving from Turin. Every one of them is hiding a shameful secret.
It's an ordinary Tuesday morning when Ruby Williams' name starts trending online.
She's uploaded an interview that has outraged journalist Felicity Cartwright, a social media personality who has built her profile by policing exactly what women are allowed to say and how they're allowed to say it. Ruby is at the centre of a brutal public shaming, watching on in horror as her reputation is torn apart.
A REMOTE ISLAND
It's been eighteen years since the accidental explosion that killed The Cedrics Band lead singer Jonny Rake, and a special documentary is bringing the rest of the band back to play together for the first time. With Jonny's daughter, Monet, stepping into her father's role, and a private island secured as the perfect reunion backdrop, it's set to be a special occasion.
A body on the beach. An inheritance. A family pulled apart. Bestselling Australian author Fiona Lowe returns with her most engrossing mystery to date, perfect for readers of Liane Moriarty and Sally Hepworth.
A desperate phone call. A decade of questions. A deadly race to the truth.
A new heartstopping thriller to keep you up all night, from critically acclaimed Rae Cairns
Twelve years ago budding journalist Geneva Leighton received a phone call that stopped her life in its tracks. Her terrified sister, Amber, was locked in the boot of a moving car and begging Geneva for help. Amber was never heard from again.
A thriller exploring rural Australia’s simultaneous celebration of harsh country and stoic people – a tension that forces its inhabitants to dangerous breaking points.
On a remote property in western NSW, nine-year-old Parker fears that something is wrong with his brain. His desperate attempts to control this internal chaos spark a series of events that gallop from his control in deadly and devastating ways.
A murder is witnessed by thousands, but who pulled the trigger?
Dahlia and Duncan Crews are rich, famous, glamorous - they share their lifestyle and picture-perfect family with hundreds of thousands of online subscribers. The Crews have it all - until they don't. Shot dead in the middle of a livestream, the couple's teenage daughter, Karma, is the sole survivor. And the prime suspect.
Mark Wolfe was the greatest spy of his generation. Now he's been put out to pasture. Gone are the days of dead-drops beneath railway station clocks in foreign lands that no longer exist - of dry-cleaning, double agents and triple crosses. Now Mark's stuck behind a desk in Vauxhall Cross in charge of recruiting the next wave of spooks, his only excitement fending off advances from deep-pocketed private security companies. Yet his discontent is just another secret to add to the pile.
Christian White is an author who can always be relied upon to come up with an unusual scenario, great characters and a rollercoaster plot that will keep readers enthralled, and vaguely baffled from start to finish.
Back in 1986 I wouldn't have had as much understanding of the opening line of this blurb as I do have today, as 70 year old Phoebe and her two similarly aged friends Eva and Dave are escaping from the back of the arts school near the National Gallery of Victoria, stolen painting in hand:
'Can we try escaping just a little slower?'
Fans of historical crime fiction have hopefully caught onto the Reggie Da Costa series by Melbourne based author Laraine Stephens by now. Particularly readers who like a bit of dash, humour, romance and intrigue, served up with a great sense of time and place, and impeccable male fashion. Reggie Da Costa, crime reporter, happily recently married, faithful son, fast car lover and intrepid investigator is the sort of person that's easy to spend time with, as is his brother-in-law and colleague Dusty, and his beloved wife, and helpmate in many things investigative Ruby.
Because I'd read (and loved) A RUNNERS GUIDE TO RAKIURA by Jessica Howland Kany first I was prepared for PARROT HEAVEN. Which was handy because the slightly chaotic styling of the first novel is ramped up even more in this one - to frequently hilarious levels, although anybody new to this series may just wonder what the actual... .
The reader might remember I said something about things stabilising at the end of June. More fool me. This newsletter is late for a bunch of IRL reasons which I won't bore you to tears with. Onto the book chat instead.
