Fifth Status Report on the Project 'KEEP THE READING QUEUE UNDER CONTROL', with this month the subtitle of, The Wheels Have Fallen Off.
As always - the last fortnight entries and The Next Up Reading List in full.
Successes
- Read / reviewed Unbury The Dead, Fiona Hardy **
- Read / reviewed Lyrebird, Jane Caro **
- Read The Other Mother & Never Forget by Michel Bussi
- Got my hands on a box set of ebooks of the first 8 in the Slough House series by Mick Herron
- Added a number of new books (Last Fortnight)
- Took a week off for our annual Eurovision extravaganza which put a hole in posting and reading.
** If I haven't mentioned those two then take it as read, they should be read.
Failures
- The week off was followed by a week of Government legislative induced madness which meant I still didn't get much of anything done.
- Didn't manage to get to an older book (AGAIN!)
- No reviews written but I'll try to extract the digit later this week.
- Haven't finished the review of the excellent The Freezer, Kim Hunt as well as a few other books that need to have the notes bashed into shape on.
- That bloody library still exists (although on the upside I managed a week without putting a hold on a single book).
- Need to extract the reading digit on the following
Plan
- 17 Years Later, J.P. Pomare
- Hell's Bells, Jill Johnson
- Ripper, Shelley Burr
- A Divine Fury, D.V. Bishop
- Nemesis, Patricia Wolf
- Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex
- The Forsaken, Matt Rogers
- The library list, the Ngaio's List, the NetGalley list and all the other lists...
Although it doesn't sound like it, there does feel like a slight light at the end of the tunnel (which is collapsed book stacks).
Unbury the Dead
Best mates Teddy and Alice are hired hands with flexible moral boundaries. Whatever the mess, they can be relied upon to fix it with no questions asked. But sometimes it's not as simple as cleaning up.
Teddy is searching the suburbs for a missing teenager with her occasional sidekick Art, while Alice's mission is to drive one of Australia's richest men along Victoria's east coast to his final resting place before anybody finds out he's dead. But when a surprise revelation sees their cases collide, Teddy and Alice turn the tables on their wealthy employers to shake out the truth.
Unbury the Dead, Fiona Hardy
Melbourne author Fiona Hardy has broken very different ground with her crime fiction debut Unbury the Dead. Full review at Newtown Review of Books: Unbury the Dead, Fiona Hardy
Lyrebird
Lyrebirds are brilliant mimics, so if they mimic a woman screaming in terror and begging for her life, they have witnessed a crime. But how does a young, hung over PHD student and a wet behind the ears new detective, convince anyone that a native bird can be a reliable witness to a murder, especially when there is no body and no missing person?
And what happens when they turn out to be right?
A sound froze her blood. A woman. A woman screaming in pure terror. Screaming and sobbing—begging—out here, in this desolate place.
Twenty years ago, ornithology student Jessica Weston panicked when she heard a woman screaming for her life in the remote Barrington Tops. Her relief, when she discovers that it is a lyrebird making the sounds, is profound. She is thrilled to have caught his display on video. Then she remembers—lyrebirds are mimics. Whatever the wild creature has heard must have really happened, and happened nearby.
Jessica takes her video to the police. Despite support from newly minted detective, Megan Blaxland, with no missing person reported and no body, her evidence is ridiculed and dismissed.
Twenty years later, a body is unearthed, just where Jessica said it would be.
Horrified they let the case go cold, Jessica, now an associate professor, and Megan, recently retired but brought back to head up the investigation, reunite and join forces. They are determined to find the killer, whatever it takes. What they don't realise is that they are not just putting their lives in danger, but also the lives of those close to them . . .
Lyrebird, Jane Caro
According to the author's notes at the end of the novel LYREBIRD, the idea for this story came on a walk in the bush one day, when Caro crossed paths with a lyrebird. Having previously lived in an area where the sounds heard never quite seemed to match what was going on around us, it's not that difficult to picture the scenario where a lyrebird is filmed mimicking the sounds of a woman screaming in terror, begging for her life. It's also very easy to image the shock that would be for anybody, let along a young, hung over PHD student, out in the bush studying birds. All on her own, having earlier heard unidentifiable noises nearby, the shock, surprise and fright would be astounding. The sounds of that call would go on to haunt Jessica Weston for years to come.
It was mostly confusing for the young, new to the job detective, Megan Blaxland who was assigned to the potential case. Quite how or what you'd be investigating with the call of a territorial bird and therefore at least an area of impenetrable rainforest to look into your only clues. No missing persons reports, no obvious victim, no obvious attack site. The case goes cold quickly.
Until 20 years later and a body appears as a result of a landslide. By that stage Weston's a biology professor, Blaxland a retired, widowed detective, and a cold case in the middle of a dangerous, threatening bushfire season suddenly becomes an active investigation. Called back from retirement as a consultant because it was her case all those years ago, Blaxland is teamed up with her original partner, and a small team of eager young cops, who find more than they bargained for in that dense forest - more bodies, and their only clue to identity, a home made shoelace.
There's lots of personal dynamics at play in this novel, Blaxland dealing with the grief of loss, Weston with the difficulties of a divorce and a teenage daughter right slap bang in the middle of the rebellious years. There's a bit of guilt from the old partner of Blaxland's as well - he poo-pooed the evidence of the call back in the day, and now he's part of a serial killer investigation. A man with enough personal problems of his own, Blaxland finds their working relationship is all over the place after her year or so away from the job.
It should be noted that this is a story which revolves around human trafficking and sexual abuse, so the subject matter can be quite confrontational and the circumstances that the women who ultimately ended up in graves in the bush like that difficult to process. There's also some aspects of the portrayal of their lives and that of a transgender witness from back in the day that some readers may find challenging. Also challenging is the way that the case story builds alongside the bushfire threat, culminating in a major firestorm and some very risky actions on the part of Blaxland's team. The way that the author has conveyed the reality of trying to function in a huge bushfire was pretty accurate - the lack of hearing (from the roar of the fire and wind), the lack of visibility from smoke, the heat, and the way they combine to affect your breathing, and your thinking, all of that felt very realistic (worth again checking the author's notes, she had some very experienced advice in all aspects of this novel).
It's also a novel that fires some shots across the bows on climate change, lack of resourcing for agencies responsible for managing natural areas, problems in funding educational institutions, and the never-ending misery and viciousness of people trafficking and enforced sex work. All barrows that I think anybody who knows even a smidgen about Caro's background and interests could expect to have included in a crime fiction novel by her. None of which came across as from the pulpit, all of the elements woven in the story fairly seamlessly.
I was slow out of the blocks in starting this novel, but once that initial setup, and that calling lyrebird, and the impact it had on a younger Jessica were revealed it became a couple of sittings read. Another good example of crime fiction that takes a long, hard look at real issues in society, and whilst the serial killer aspect is there, it's not the point. The point is the victims, the survivors and the greyness around the edges.
The Other Mother
Malone, a child of four, starts to claim that his mother isn't his real mother. It seems impossible. The school psychologist is the only one who believes him and he's in a race against time to find out the truth . . .
The Other Mother, Michel Bussi
THE OTHER MOTHER and NEVER FORGET are two Michel Bussi novels that I'd somehow managed to miss reading, until I was reminded recently. Luckily the library had copies of both of them, so that gap, at least, has now been closed.
THE OTHER MOTHER is a very different undertaking from his other books read thus far (BLACK WATER LILIES, AFTER THE CRASH and DON'T LET GO) in that still a thriller in style, the format and approach of this one is very different, and it did take quite a while to get into the flow.
When four year old Malone starts claiming that his mother isn't his real mother, his school psychologist believes him. Despite a lot of evidence to the contrary, provided by his Malone's very annoyed parents, the psychologist persists. Meanwhile police have been trying to find survivors from a heist gone wrong, that left a lot of dead bodies in its wake. I, like many readers, will probably pick where this is going fairly early on, although just how it gets there is quite the ride.
What it turns into along the way is an exploration of family, relationships, loyalty, and the reliability of memory and longing, although this reader could have done without the male opinions on women who succeed "in a man's world" (frankly if the current world is theirs, they've got some explaining to do), but I digress.
The point of Bussi's writing seems to be to surprise, and the structure of this one, in particular did surprise. A lot. If you're new to this writer's work I'd probably suggest starting with one of the three mentioned above - this one involved a bit of heavy lifting and a trust in the author from past experience.
Never Forget
BEFORE
A man running along a remote clifftop path on an icy-cold February morning.
A woman standing on the cliff's edge.
A red scarf on the ground between them.
AFTER
The man is alone - paralysed by fear.
The woman is on the beach below - dead.
The red scarf is now perfectly - and impossibly - arranged around the woman's broken neck.
A handful of seconds. Two lives colliding.
WHAT HAPPENED?
Never Forget, Michel Bussi
THE OTHER MOTHER and NEVER FORGET are two Michel Bussi novels that I'd somehow managed to miss reading, until I was reminded recently. Luckily the library had copies of both of them, so that gap, at least, has now been closed.
NEVER FORGET (unlike THE OTHER MOTHER) is very much a return to previous thriller stylings in books like BLACK WATER LILIES, AFTER THE CRASH and DON'T LET GO.
The story starts out with a young Arab Para-Olympic contender, on a self-imposed training camp, running along a clifftop on the coast of France in 2014. After picking up an expensive red silk scarf caught on a fence, he then comes across a beautiful, but distressed and dishevelled woman, preparing to jump from the cliff. Despite his attempts to calm her and then draw her away from the edge, she grabs the proffered scarf and jumps to her death. Young Jamal is an easy, dare we say, convenient suspect, despite his prosthetic leg, and the very unlikely possibility that he's either a rapist or a murderer, especially when the reader discovers that two women had already been attacked in the same location, in the same manner, ten years before.
Already distressed by what he has witnessed, and then by being considered a suspect, he starts to receive envelopes with details about the prior murders and investigations, when he discovers that the latest victim is the spitting image of one of the women who were killed in 2004. Which leaves him conducting his own investigation, in an attempt to clear his name, and out of a sense of basic common decency.
In this novel Bussi is exploring not just rape, murder and overt violence, but expectations, aspiration, racism, and attitudes towards disability and difference. He does that in a twisty, dark, psychological thriller style, that will have your head spinning, and any sense of clarity and understanding blown out from under you chapter by chapter. It does beggar belief that despite the timings, despite the witnesses to this latest fall, and despite the unlikeliness of Jamal as a suspect - just based on the time gap between the three rapes and murders, that he would remain prime suspect for a nanosecond, but this is the sort of story where you just have to go with the flow, ride the peaks and troughs and stay with Jamal and his battle to discover the truth.
The Freezer
In the endless tracts of the New South Wales bushland Ranger Cal Nyx finds a dead body under unusual circumstances. It soon becomes apparent this is a historic death. Growing attention on the crime puts the blowtorch to a murderer who’s managed to evade justice. For now.
Detective Inspector Liz Scobie leads the police investigation while her partner, Nyx, uses her own considerable - some might say unorthodox - methods to chase down a killer. With speculation growing in the small community, someone privy to information becomes a new target for the killer.
Join Nyx and Scobie in their dogged pursuit of a bold predator with everything to lose.
The Freezer, Kim Hunt
The third Cal Nyx novel, THE FREEZER, would possibly work as a standalone, but the connections between this and the second novel, THE QUARRY in particular, make the characters here make a lot more sense. Nyx and her partner, DI Liz Scobie, her cousin Dif, and boarder Spike (complicated) are a great group of real feeling people and there's a backstory to how they all got here, together.
Hunt is from New Zealand, but this series is set in Australia - New South Wales - where Nyx is a ranger, working way out in the bush. She comes and goes from her city base, a house that was left to her, and the job, where, during a work outing to check the state of bush trails and general maintenance after a storm she comes across a dead body in unusual (maybe unless you're a ranger) circumstances. It may be an historic death, but the discovery creates attention, and a murderer who has evaded justice until now, is worried that may all be about to implode. Whilst Nyx's partner, DI Scobie is leading the police investigation, Nyx is busy deploying her own, somewhat unorthodox methods in a small community, where it turns out, something that she unearths becomes very dangerous information to know.
Nyx is one of those characters who leaps off the page at the reader. Physically capable, emotionally not always so much, she's loyal, hardworking, brave, and a bit daft on occasion. It's rewarding to read a female character who is independent, strong and good at her job, despite the physical challenges, and remote locations she's working in. Her partner, DI Scobie is a good cop too, and whilst they don't work "together" as such, they compliment each other, when Nyx isn't driving Scobie mad. And then there's Dif - who goes way back with Nyx, and is capable, and complicated all at the same time. That backstory from THE QUARRY would be handy to know although there are hints about the past and the reality of Dif's life in this novel.
All these books come with intriguing plots, and the build up of that cast of characters, with some social commentary sprinkled in there for good measure. They are a bit on the gritty side without falling into noir, emotional without being over the top, much like Nyx herself, who is very much a female working class hero.
Slow Horses
Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations. But when a young man is abducted, and it’s threatened that he’ll be beheaded live on the Internet, River sees an opportunity to redeem him.
Is the victim who he first appears to be? And what’s the kidnappers’ connection with a disgraced journalist? As the clock ticks on the execution, River finds that everyone involved has their own agenda….
Slow Horses, Mick Herron
Been very intrigued by this series for the longest time, and I'm so glad I finally remembered to add it to the audio queue. Probably been mentioned lots before, but this felt very much like a worthy successor to the espionage thriller crown that sat atop John Le Carre's head for many many years.
Originally published in 2010, Slow Horses is the nickname that the MI5 uses for "Slough House" a division of the service that's a dumping ground for members that have screwed up. Their sins are many, varied yet depressingly similar: secret files left on trains, blown surveillance jobs and drunk and unreliable being examples. In the middle of this is River Cartwright, shunted to Slough House because of a major stuff up on an exercise to prevent a lone terrorist bomber from blowing up a major railway station in London, an exercise which Cartwright swears was deliberately sabotaged. Spending his days on meaningless tasks like transcribing mobile phone conversations, and watching their famous, but now reputationally faded boss, Jackson Lamb lord it over his scruffy and downtrodden domain, Cartwright has plenty of time to seethe. Turns out quite a few of his colleagues have the same attitude, but it's not until a young man of Pakistani origins is kidnapped, with a threat to behead him live on the Internet as payback for terrorist acts, that they all come together. In part as an attempt to redeem themselves, in part due to sheer boredom and frustration.
The story in SLOW HORSES was slow building, intricate and full of asides and descriptions of life for a going nowhere intelligence officer, particularly one like Cartwright who has a family history of the highest standing, and a serious problem with the higher-ups. It turns out Jackson Lamb is not completely different when it comes to that second point, although it does take the kidnapping of that poor young Pakistani man to give him any leeway in some point scoring, proving and returning some not too pointed favours. Lamb's a fascinating character - shadowy in some ways, the ultimate puppet master, he's also vaguely dissolute and totally not quite what he seems. Cartwright on the other hand is a lot more upfront - about his thwarted ambition, his confusion over the situation he finds himself in, and, when required, his willingness to fight back. Not quite quickly enough in some cases, and some of his colleagues at Slough House find themselves backing him, or in the firing line as they chase down the leads they find in an attempt to rescue the young man before he's killed. All of which has the hand of a couple of master manipulators in the background, clutching the ends of a lot of strings, some of which are fraying a darn sight quicker than others.
Thoroughly enjoyed this audio book, have the second one waiting in the wings now.
Dead Lions
London's Slough House is where the washed-up MI5 spies go to while away what's left of their failed careers. The "slow horses," as they’re called, have all disgraced themselves in some way to get relegated here. Maybe they messed up an op badly and can't be trusted anymore. Maybe they got in the way of an ambitious colleague and had the rug yanked out from under them. Maybe they just got too dependent on the bottle—not unusual in this line of work. One thing they all have in common, though, is they all want to be back in the action. And most of them would do anything to get there─even if it means having to collaborate with one another.
Now the slow horses have a chance at redemption. An old Cold War-era spy is found dead on a bus outside Oxford, far from his usual haunts. The despicable, irascible Jackson Lamb is convinced Dickie Bow was murdered. As the agents dig into their fallen comrade's circumstances, they uncover a shadowy tangle of ancient Cold War secrets that seem to lead back to a man named Alexander Popov, who is either a Soviet bogeyman or the most dangerous man in the world. How many more people will have to die to keep those secrets buried?
Real Tigers
London's Slough House is where disgraced MI5 operatives are reassigned to spend the rest of their careers pushing paper. But when one of these fallen spies is kidnapped by a former soldier bent on revenge, the agents must breach the defenses of Regent's Park to steal valuable intel in exchange for their comrade's safety.
The kidnapping is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as the agents uncover a larger web of intrigue that involves not only a group of private mercenaries, but also the highest authorities in the Security Service.
After years spent as the lowest on the totem pole, the spies suddenly find themselves caught in the midst of a conspiracy that threatens not only the future of Slough House, but of MI5 itself . . .
London Rules
London Rules might not be written down, but everyone knows rule one.
Cover your arse.
Regent's Park's First Desk, Claude Whelan, is learning this the hard way. Tasked with protecting a beleaguered prime minister, he's facing attack from all directions himself: from the showboating MP who orchestrated the Brexit vote, and now has his sights set on Number Ten; from the showboat's wife, a tabloid columnist, who's crucifying Whelan in print; and especially from his own deputy, Lady Di Taverner, who's alert for Claude's every stumble.
Meanwhile, the country's being rocked by an apparently random string of terror attacks, and someone's trying to kill Roddy Ho.
Over at Slough House, the crew are struggling with personal problems: repressed grief, various addictions, retail paralysis, and the nagging suspicion that their newest colleague is a psychopath. But collectively, they're about to rediscover their greatest strength - that of making a bad situation much, much worse.
It's a good job Jackson Lamb knows the rules. Because those things aren't going to break themselves.
Spook Street
Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail.
Radioactive secrets and unfinished business go with the territory on Spook Street: he's always known there would be an accounting. And he's not as defenceless as they might think.
Jackson Lamb worked with Cartwright back in the day. He knows better than most that this is no vulnerable old man. 'Nasty old spook with blood on his hands' would be a more accurate description.
'The old bastard' has raised his grandson with a head full of guts and glory. But far from joining the myths and legends of Spook Street, River Cartwright is consigned to Lamb's team of pen-pushing no-hopers at Slough House.
So it's Lamb they call to identify the body when Cartwright's panic button raises the alarm at Service HQ.
And Lamb who will do whatever he thinks necessary, to protect an agent in peril . . .
Bad Actors
INTELLIGENCE HAS A NEW HOME
A governmental think-tank, whose remit is to curb the independence of the intelligence service, has lost one of its key members, and Claude Whelan-one-time head of MI5's Regent's Park-is tasked with tracking her down. But the trail leads straight back to the Park itself, with Diana Taverner as chief suspect. Has Diana overplayed her hand at last? What's her counterpart, Moscow's First Desk, doing in London? And does Jackson Lamb know more than he's telling?
Over at Slough House, with Shirley Dander in rehab, Roddy Ho in dress rehearsal, and new recruit Ashley Khan turning up the heat, the slow horses are doing what they do best, and adding a little bit of chaos to an already unstable situation . . .
There are bad actors everywhere, and they usually get their comeuppance before the credits roll. But politics is a dirty business, and in a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing are the norm, sometimes the good guys can find themselves outgunned.
Slough House
'Kill us? They've never needed to kill us,' said Lamb. 'I mean, look at us. What would be the point?'
A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless response from the government has pushed the Service's First Desk into mounting her own counter-offensive - but she's had to make a deal with the devil first. And given that the devil in question is arch-manipulator Peter Judd, she could be about to lose control of everything she's fought for.
Meanwhile, still reeling from recent losses, the slow horses are worried they've been pushed further into the cold. Slough House has been wiped from Service records, and fatal accidents keep happening. No wonder Jackson Lamb's crew are feeling paranoid. But have they actually been targeted?
With a new populist movement taking a grip on London's streets, and the old order ensuring that everything's for sale to the highest bidder, the world's an uncomfortable place for those deemed surplus to requirements. The wise move would be to find a safe place and wait for the troubles to pass.
But the slow horses aren't famed for making wise decisions.
Joe Country
'We're spies,' said Lamb. 'All kinds of outlandish shit goes on.'
Like the ringing of a dead man's phone, or an unwelcome guest at a funeral . . .
In Slough House memories are stirring, all of them bad. Catherine Standish is buying booze again, Louisa Guy is raking over the ashes of lost love, and new recruit Lech Wicinski, whose sins make him outcast even among the slow horses, is determined to discover who destroyed his career, even if he tears his life apart in the process.
Meanwhile, in Regent's Park, Diana Taverner's tenure as First Desk is running into difficulties. If she's going to make the Service fit for purpose, she might have to make deals with a familiar old devil . . .
And with winter taking its grip Jackson Lamb would sooner be left brooding in peace, but even he can't ignore the dried blood on his carpets. So when the man responsible breaks cover at last, Lamb sends the slow horses out to even the score.
This time, they're heading into joe country.
And they're not all coming home.
17 Years Later
Is the truth sometimes best left buried?
A crime masterpiece by bestselling author J. P. Pomare
The violent slaughter of the wealthy Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation of New Zealand and scarred the small idyllic rural town of Cambridge forever.
All of the evidence pointed to their young live-in chef, Bill Ruatara, who was swiftly charged with murder and brought to justice. The brutal crime is now infamous, and Bill a figure of contempt who deserves to rot in jail for life.
Seventeen years later, prison psychologist TK Phillips is fighting for an appeal. He is convinced Bill did not receive a fair trial. When celebrity true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott takes a sudden interest, it's not long before she uncovers new evidence that could set fire to the prosecution's case.
As TK and Sloane dig deeper into the past, they become tangled in a complex web of danger and deceit. With Bill's innocence far from assured and their own lives at stake, will they risk everything to unearth the truth, or leave it buried for good?
17 Years Later, J.P. Pomare
J.P. Pomare is one of those authors that always, always delivers a slightly different bent on the question "What on Earth is Happening Here?". From the confusion in the reader and character's minds in CALL ME EVIE, to the preconception twisting that's going on in THE WRONG WOMAN and the masterclass in misdirection that was HOME BEFORE NIGHT he's now added the combination of hindsight, expertise and podcasting and reworded the question slightly to "What on Earth Happened Then?" in 17 YEARS LATER.
The story is, on the face of it, a pretty straightforward one. The violent slaughter of a wealthy family when they slept, lead to the identification and lazy investigation of young live-in chef, Bill Ruatara, who was swiftly charged, and then convicted of murder. 17 years later, TK Phillips, a prison psychologist has now thrown a lot of his own life under a bus trying to get an appeal underway, before he walked away from Bill and his case. Then celebrity true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott is guilted into taking an interest in a "non-white" crime, dragging TK with her, leading to the rapid, almost too easy discovery of new evidence and a potential legal binfire.
Which needless to say leads to more digging, and some extremely unhappy onlookers, with the threat to both Philips and Abbott starting to become very immediate, and an intricate web of small town connections that looks like it might be hard to break open.
Told in varying timelines and viewpoints, 17 YEARS LATER allows Bill Ruatara to have a voice in his own case - something that seemed to have been mostly ignored in the investigation. His viewpoint, and timeline, is all about the events that led up to the murder of the wealthy, English family, which gives the author a chance to reveal a lot about their background, and some dodgy dealings that have gone on before the family arrived in New Zealand. It also provides an insight into the life of a young man, a would be chef, from a poor background who tried to find a way to do the right thing by the girl he loved and ended up in more trouble than you'd think would be possible. The current day investigation takes you more inside the head and eyes of podcaster Abbott in some ways, as she actively pursues leads and tries to understand the time and the place that the murders happened in. Phillips provides historical context in that he's been on Ruatara's side for many years, as well as a conduit between Sloane and the man in prison, as well as expertise on human behaviours. And motivations.
There's a lot under the surface of this small town that doesn't like being stirred up by Abbott and Phillips, anymore than it liked what happened all those years ago. Rapidly paced, there's nothing transparent or easy about what could be seen as a pretty straightforward botched investigation, as more and more "what the" moments are revealed along the way. Racial and class bias, flaws, laziness, blindspots, and just plain old screwups are all explored, as are the ethics and motivations of true crime podcasters. Because it's a Pomare novel, at the end of it all, nothing is left behind in the dark.
Hell's Bells
Eustacia Rose's life is beginning to return to normal: she is back teaching at UCL and her relationship with Matilde is blossoming. But when a man is found dead with a needle in his neck, that fragile peace begins to crumble. Eustacia finds a painting of herself with a syringe next to her neck and discovers that there are other people who seem to know more about the killing than they are letting on.
The threat around Eustacia only increases as a PhD student begins to stalk and harass her to gain access to her poisonous plant collection. After Eustacia continually refuses, he contacts a lab that is illegally selling synthetic plant toxins but turns up dead shortly after. As the body count rises, Eustacia has no choice but to investigate the deaths in earnest.
But murders aren't the only thing on her mind as interactions with a new detective cause tensions with Matilde that Eustacia has no idea how to resolve. What's more, run-ins with a mysterious white-haired women are making her recall long-buried memories. Eustacia must solve the mysteries of her past and this case if she wants to escape from this toxic situation unscathed.
Hell's Bells, Jill Johnson
The second novel in the Professor Eustacia Rose series, HELL'S BELLS is out, about and well worth reading. For those that haven't met up with this character before, her first outing was in the book DEVIL'S BREATH. The same elements are being explored again here, Rose's experience as a neurodivergent woman in a world not designed to be easy to navigate, full of personal interactions, a relationship that she really values, but doesn't know how to say it, and a return to work as a professor with students, and a research lab and all that brings with it.
If you've not read the earlier novel, then Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology, whose particular interest, some might say obsession, is with obscure, poisonous plants. As with the earlier novel, this knowledge puts her partly in the role of expert, partly suspect when a man is found dead on the streets, with a needle in his neck. Then an increasingly erratic and dangerous young student who has been harassing and stalking Rose, is found dead, after buying illegal synthetic plant toxins, the likes of which he believed Rose was denying him access to, and she's right in the middle of a big mess that, of course, she'll have to resolve. Solving puzzles, understanding connections, setting things in order is exactly what Professor Eustacia Rose yearns to do, and in this case, there's a portrait painted with a hidden needle poised beside her neck to give her that extra bit of impetus. Although when it comes to intimate personal relationships she's lost and way out of her depth. Thank goodness for her kindly elderly neighbour and friend, deliverer of both impetus and potential solutions. Meanwhile the final mystery is another elderly white-haired woman that is triggering some very weird memories.
As with the first novel, Johnson writes her character in a matter-of-fact manner. She's observational, often mildly confused, and possessed of profound one-track mindedness. Which makes the question mark over her relationship with Matilde (who readers meet in the first novel), a distraction, until she's aware that it can no longer be such and it's time to make some moves. Guided by her gentle, but firm neighbour who it turns out is quite good friends with Matilde, again post events in the first novel.
If push comes to shove, HELL'S BELLS probably would stand alone, but really it would be a much better experience to read this series in order. Getting to know Professor Eustacia Rose is the key to understanding how the flow of these investigations work, why she spends so much time on her roof with now, just a telescope and a few easy to care for plants, and what's she's lost. Her beloved father dead, her mother vanished when she was a child, her life's purpose taking a battering in both novels, Professor Rose is a very relatable woman, with foibles, eccentricities and heaps of personal twitches, yet she's liked, even loved by those closest to her. If she can just work out what that means.
Ripper
Gemma Guillory knows her once-charming town is now remembered for one reason, and one reason only.
That three innocent people died. That the last stop on the Rainier Ripper's trail of death seventeen years ago was her innocuous little teashop.
She knows that the consequences of catching the Ripper still haunt her police officer husband and their marriage to this day and that some of her neighbours are desperate - desperate enough to welcome a dark tourism company keen to cash in on Rainier's reputation as the murder town.
When the tour operator is killed by a Ripper copycat on Gemma's doorstep, the unease that has lurked quietly in the original killer's wake turns to foreboding, and she's drawn into the investigation. Unbeknownst to her, so is a prisoner named Lane Holland.
Gemma knows her town. She knows her people. Doesn't she?
Outrageous Fortunes
The gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son
When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place.
After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author. The Detective's Album was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years – but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about 'unladylike' subjects.
When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In Outrageous Fortunes, Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune's astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime, and Melbourne's literary bohemia consorts with the criminal underworld.
A Divine Fury
Florence. Autumn, 1539.
Cesare Aldo was once an officer for the city’s most feared criminal court. Following a period of exile, he is back – but demoted to night patrol, when only the drunk and the dangerous roam the streets.
Chasing a suspect in the rain, Aldo discovers a horrifying scene beneath Michelangelo’s statue of David. Lifeless eyes gaze from the face of a man whose body has been posed as if crucified. It’s clear the killer had religious motives.
When more bodies appear, Aldo believes an unholy murderer is stalking the citizens of Florence. Watching. Hunting. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike again . . .
The Forsaken
For ten years, Logan Booth served as a contract killer for the CIA – he just never knew it. The first book in a blockbuster thriller series from Matt Rogers, million copy bestseller and 'a bright new talent shaking up the genre ' (Candice Fox).
In the twilight of his career, Logan learns he has been a vessel for furthering government interests, not a rogue hitman for a band of vigilantes. The revelation destroys him.
But when Jorge Romero – an investigative reporter and Logan's oldest friend – is brutally and inexplicably murdered, Logan allows his fury to deliver him from despair.
With an ally in Alice Mason, a homeless witness with a target on her back, Logan goes to war. Against whom, he isn't sure, but he knows powerful forces are at work behind the scenes.
Now, to deliver justice, Logan and Alice must confront their demons and win a savage battle that could destroy their lives ... even if they survive.
Nemesis
A DANGEROUS CHASE. A SADISTIC KILLER.
DS Lucas Walker is on assignment for the AFP, and it couldn't be more personal. This is his last chance to take down Stefan Markovich - the Vandals leader who tried to have him killed after Walker uncovered his drug operation, and has evaded justice for years.
Having tracked Markovich to Berlin, Walker heads to Germany to lure his nemesis out of hiding and into custody. And there is another draw for Walker in he finally gets to see Barbara again.
Still dealing with the trauma of her sister's ordeal in outback Australia, Barbara is working her own case - a suspicious death that casts a dark shadow over a peaceful lake colony. Everything about the horrific scene tells Barbara it's murder, and when a second body emerges she realises she is hunting a killer who is watching their victims die in agony.
As Walker and Barbara grapple with their cases, they must also face their feelings for each other - amid the constant threats of the world they inhabit.
Nemesis, Patricia Wolf
The 4th book now in the DS Lucas Walker series, those who are new to it might need a tiny bit of background. Walker is with the Australian Federal Police, but it was on his personal home territory, in outback Australia where he first met Barbara (in book one to be precise), when she heads from her native Germany to the area to look for her missing sister. Long story short, her sister endured an horrific experience, but survived, there was the spark of something between Walker and Barbara, and their lives moved on. Having kept in touch since that time, it's NEMESIS now that brings them back together on Barbara's home territory, in Berlin. She's working a mysterious multiple murder by plant toxins at a collection of rustic cabins lakeside, out of Berlin, and he's in town to try to catch the bikie Stefan Markovich that was also part of the earlier storyline.
Is this therefore a novel that won't work as a standalone? Not if you crave the full backstory to Barbara and Rita's ordeal, and Walker's involvement. If you're happy to let a lot of that just be, then yes, because the personal romantic tension / will they / won't they is a big part of this outing, as is Barbara's local case. It might help to have read the earlier books as well as the "fish out of water" aspects of this are tipped on their head here - deliberately - and there's a bit of a gotcha there in who handles what best.
But, Walker's in Berlin because the notorious Vandals motorcycle club leader Stefan Markovich has been tracked there. The whys and wherefore's of that are laid out at the start of the book, and then the action switches to the death of a man that is eluded to in the prologue. In an idyllic, rustic settlement made up of small off-grid cabins, a man dies horribly from a poisoning that is eventually identified as a plant based toxin. There are then more poisonings, and a local police service more than keen to make sure the Berlin incomers take the blame, rather than the local weirdo stalking around in the bushes. Meanwhile there's a developing romance between Barbara's sister Rita and her local offsider cop, and the will they / won't they thread around Barbara and Lucas. So quite a bit going on.
The local investigation is interesting, and it was great to get to "see" Barbara on her home turf, determined to solve this case in the light of feeling very much like her bosses don't appreciate her. Meanwhile Lucas is lurking alone, around the streets of Berlin, a country where he can't speak the language, with a cover story of being a forger, trying to flush Markovich in the face of a lot of disinterest from local police until a drive-by shooting is linked in, which leads to a bit more co-operation. To be honest a lot of the reasons for Lucas being in Berlin and the whole chasing Markovich thing didn't quite jell, it all felt a bit "hammered" into place to get Lucas to Berlin on any pretext so the relationship between the two could be explored. At one point I thought well just have him show up on a holiday and a romance fishing expedition - that would have worked as well, and not have had to led to some slightly distracting goings-on at one point around Barbara, and a final "storyline" which whilst had a bit of crash bang excitement about it, felt a bit plopped into place.
Which all makes this sound like the book wasn't an enjoyable read, which is unfair, because in most things it was. As a reader of the first couple of books, it was almost expected that there would be something between Lucas and Barbara and pushing that fish out of water angle to the other side was worthwhile. Her local investigation was also really well done, the use of plant based poisons really well explored, and the sense of place of those murders really strong.
Having said all of that, NEMESIS is definitely going to be a police procedural designed for people who like a hefty dose of tortured romantic attachment thrown in.
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