All the Reviews

Dead Mile, Jo Furniss

I borrowed a copy of this audio from the library recently on a whim. No idea what drew me to it, but boy am I glad I did. Two sitting listens aren't common in these parts but I was so enthralled by DEAD MILE, I ended up sneaking the earbuds in and pretending to be getting on with other things, glued to the story of a locked room mystery on an inescapable section of freeway (motorway in English parlance).

Sergeant Belinda Kidd (unsurprisingly with the nickname of 'Billy') is on return from a career sabbatical in Australia, ready to resign from the police after a series of ... Read Review

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 

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A Fly Under the Radar, William McCartney

This book should have come with a warning - I mean a blurb that simply said 'Lawyers, drugs, deaths, and sneakiness, in New Zealand.' just doesn't cut it. 

It should have mentioned:

• Shouldn't be read in public unless you want people to think you're having a breakdown;
• Definitely shouldn't be read if you're planning a serious and earnest career in the law;
• Might not necessarily reflect the reality of the practice of law in New Zealand (that one's more of fervent hope than a warning);
... Read Review

Miss Caroline Bingley Private Detective, Kelly Gardiner & Sharmini Kumar

Fans of Jane Austen are going to feel right at home with Miss Caroline Bingley for a lot of reasons - the style of this novel fits right into the period, the central characters are reimagined versions of those straight out of Pride and Prejudice, and the sense of place and time is strong. Granted Miss Bingley and her dear friend Georgiana are considerably more ... what's the word .. active, maybe freer than the original version. Granted also it's been a long time since I read Pride and Prejudice and I'm no Janeite (if that's the right word). 

Set a couple of years after ... Read Review

Purgatory, Robert M. Smith

Originally published in 2022, this is a series that slipped past me, but something drew my attention to the setting mostly, and after this last awful summer, reading about Mallee towns in the heat sounded like a fictional pursuit that might distract from the reality outside the door.

In this series, Greg Bowker is a  young senior constable who got himself in a bit of bother in Ballarat, and was transferred to a one-officer station in Manangatang, town that is still going despite all declarations of the imminent death. In an interesting twist the author was raised on a ... Read Review

The Private Island, Ali Lowe

Not for a moment would this reviewer wish to suggest that this is a time in history when the murder of an obnoxious rich person, on a luxury island, busily engaged in being obnoxious and threatening to all and sundry is an enjoyable idea, but it did come across, in this novel, as particularly pleasing. In a not as uncomfortable as as you'd think way.

THE PRIVATE ISLAND by Ali Lowe is a take on a locked room scenario, combined with some filthy rich unpleasant people and some not so filthy rich, but guests as well people, who all come together with a lot of motives to want ... Read Review

Humidity, Dan Kaufman

The opening line of HUMIDITY made me laugh:

Word gets 'round when you're a nude model in a small country town.

That would most definitely get around our nearby small country town, even though it could never be said that we have the rampant violence and hellish humidity referred to in the book's blurb.

An unusual crime novel, HUMIDITY is set in a one of those small towns that has lost most of its economic basis and is slowly dying as a result. The story revolves around Ben, a broke, desperately lonely, lost sort ... Read Review

The Housemate, Sarah Bailey

A standalone from the author of the well-known Gemma Woodstock series, THE HOUSEMATE is a story told in two timelines. Back to nine years ago when three housemates were sharing a property, one of them is killed, one goes missing, one is accused of murder. The current timeline sees journalist Oli Groves, who worked on the original murder story as a junior reporter, still a reporter, drawn back to a case she has always been obsessed with, when the missing housemate turns up, possibly as a suicide, at a Dandenong Ranges property.

The basis of this story is an intriguing one ... Read Review

The Reunion, Bronwyn Rivers

Ten years ago six teenagers hiked into the wilderness and five of them came back alive. They were school friends. Ed (whose family farm was their starting off point), Hugh, Charlotte, Laura, Jack and Alex, close, but with the sorts of slightly complicated romantic attachments and fractures that you find in groups of kids of that age. Nobody for a moment thought that this would be a dangerous hike, they were experienced walkers, fit, and Ed knew this area from a childhood growing up here. Only Ed died, and for the ten years since his mother Mary has had plenty of time to think about her beloved only child's death.Read Review