All the Reviews

Murder in My Backyard, Ann Cleeves

I started listening to the audio of this series when it was available at the library, and I felt like something quintessentially "British". These fit that bill perfectly, with central police inspector Stephen Ramsay a laconic, feeling slightly rumpled, divorced cop, new to the area, the force and living on his own in the middle of nowhere. As well as trying to solve murders, he's trying to sort his life out and figure out how to work with a subordinate who seems to resent him, or at least they haven't yet found a way of connecting.

In this example, Alice Parry, seemingly ... Read review

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People With No Charisma, Jente Posthuma

The description of PEOPLE WITH NO CHARISMA starts out:

From the International Booker Prize–shortlisted author of What I’d Rather Not Think About comes a darkly humorous novel about multigenerational family dynamics and individuality in Dutch suburbia.

It's worth stating the bleeding obvious here - humour is a very subjective thing and what's hilarious for one reader will simply be dumbfounding for another. Or there will be readers, like this one, who spend a fair amount of time both amused and profoundly ... Read review

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Dead Heat, Peter Cotton

One day I will finally understand how it is that I can find a book in a series intriguing (DEAD CAT BOUNCE in this case), and then completely and utterly miss the existence of the second novel. I mean there's catching the miss and there's waiting 7 or so years to notice the miss...

Anyway, I've finally managed to notice and DEAD HEAT arrived just in time for a short break to catch up on some reading so I bumped it up the list and sat down to revisit Darren Glass, who really does seem to have gotten his act together well and truly. If ... Read review

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Carved in Blood, Michael Bennett

The dedication in CARVED IN BLOOD is to Mark Bennett (2nd April, 1950 - 20th October, 2024) and Bruce Bennett (20th March, 1953 - 1st February, 2025). Shine bright among the stars, big brothers.

In many ways, this sad dedication, coupled with the moving tribute in the novel's Acknowledgements describing how the great waka with its prow formed by the nine stars of Matariki, from which the navigator, threw out his net, to pick up the author's brothers expands on a theme that ran through the novel. Matariki is the Māori name for the Seven Sisters, or Pleiades star cluster, ... Read review

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Michael Bennett

Like A Bullet, Andrew Cartmel

LIKE A BULLET is the third novel in The Paperback Sleuth series from author Andrew Cartmel, also known for his Vinyl Detective Series. Having now read one from each of these, the overriding aspect of these novels is a slightly over the top humour that is going to be perfect for some readers. And confuse and possibly annoy the hell out of others.

There are, apparently, also a lot of crossovers of characters in both series, so whilst it's not completely necessary to have read any of the earlier books from either set, it would perhaps help a little to have read some of the ... Read review

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The Sunbaker, P.A. Thomas

The second in the series, THE SUNBAKER is another one of those novels that could be read as a standalone, but add THE BEACON to your reading list anyway. For those that haven't yet had the pleasure, Jack Harris, disgraced son of a "major" media baron, was sidelined to the stable's least important paper - The Beacon - located in Byron Bay which turned into a happy career and personal move in the first novel. Caitlin is the lawyer daughter of the longtime, much admired editor of the paper, who met a very grisly end in that story, and she and ... Read review

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I Will Find the Key, Alex Ahndoril

I WILL FIND THE KEY is one of those random choices that a reader browsing the library's audio book selection late at night can make, with absolutely no idea what they are getting into, or even why the choice was made.

Set in Sweden, the story features a private investigator by the name of Julia Stark, who has a physical disability that, to be honest, I never really did quite get to the bottom of how or when it occurred. But she has a lot of stuff going on, not the least of which is a cop ex-husband, who happily takes time off work to help her out particularly in the case ... Read review

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Broke Road, Matthew Spencer

BROKE ROAD is the follow up to the excellent BLACK RIVER, the opening salvo in the series, featuring the determined and dedicated DS Rose Riley, journalist Adam Beaumont, and a serial killer that didn't make this reviewer want to chuck that first book against a wall, hard.

Riley is back, with her sidekick Priya Patel, and Beaumont, this time in the wine tourism area of the Hunter Valley around Cessnock when a young woman is found dead in an isolated new townhouse, by her husband late one night. No forced entry and no ... Read review

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Matthew Spencer

The Forsaken, Matt Rogers

Sitting down to read THE FORSAKEN (late to the party as usual), wasn't at all sure what to expect. The blurb explains that for ten years, Logan Booth, served as a contract killer for the CIA, never knowing that was what he was doing. Finding out he wasn't a rogue hitman for a band of vigilantes, but rather a means by which governments of the USA furthered their own interests is .. well it's a lot. Starting out reading a book about somebody who is fine with the killing bit, but very particular about the motivation element is something to think about.

Although to be honest ... Read review

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The Body Next Door, Zane Lovitt

Whatever it is you've come to expect from a Zane Lovitt novel, forget it, this is an author who appears not care one jot for expectations. He appears, instead to care about writing wonderful, engaging characters of amazing variety.

His first novel, THE MIDNIGHT PROMISE, introduced John Dorn. Classic gumshoe, his woman has left him, he lives in the office, drinks too much, and specialises in lost causes, hopeless cases, the underdogs and the oppressed. As noted in the blurb - he was drawn to them “as a sledgehammer is ... Read review

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Something in the Waters, Kim M. Watt

The Beaufort Scales Mysteries are another paranormal cosy series from Kim M. Watt - this time with dragons. And tea and cakes, a dodgy water supply, endless rain, a water sprite called Nellie who has vanished, a battalion of furious geese (that one I can get behind, got one of those myself) and a wellness guru.

I mean a wellness guru shows up and you know you're in trouble, unless you've got a dragon who is more than prepared to step in I guess.

You get the picture, this is another series for those that like their crime on the fluffy, crazy side, with hefty ... Read review

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All Out of Leeds / Trouble Brewing in Harrogate, Kim M. Watt

I know, what on earth - bridge dwelling monsters, magical toasties, a caffeine-addicted dog, ducks, deadly brewers, superpowered DJs, raging florists, ALL OUT OF LEEDS (book 1) and TROUBLE BREWING IN HARROGATE (book 2), and this reader. Not a match made in heaven. But it's not always about personal taste, and somewhere there will be readers going ... oooo, who is writing this sort of right up my country lane style paranormal cosy fiction?

Kim M. Watt has a number of series along these lines, these being the first 2 books in the DI Adams set, which as at the date of this ... Read review

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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, ... Read review

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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 ... Read review

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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 ... Read review

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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 ... Read review

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Caught in the Act, Shane Jenek aka Courtney Act

I listened to this audio book, written and then narrated by Shane Jenek mostly because it had been on my to do list for ages, and then the 2025 Eurovision broadcast reminded me how much I enjoy watching and listening to Courtney Act and I just knew there had to be more to the story of how a young boy, raised in the suburbs of Brisbane went from realising he wasn't the same as other little boys, to become the performer she is today.

There is so much to take in from this memoir, the pain and complications of coming to terms with your difference, even though Jenek's family ... Read review

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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 ... Read review

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The Deadly Dispute, Amanda Hampson

The third book in The Tea Ladies Mystery Series, sees Hazel, Betty and Irene take on one of their most dangerous challenges yet, with a real threat to Hazel's life on more than one occasion, Betty finding herself naked in front of a lot of strangers, and Irene hoicking a Molotov Cocktail straight back to where it came from.

All of which might come as a bit of a surprise, even to followers of this lovely series of books, because these three are tea ladies after all. I mean who tries to drown or truss up tea ladies and shove them in wardrobes. Or pitch Molotov Cocktails at ... Read review

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Eden, Mark Brandi

Mark Brandi has always been a writer of great male characters, from Ben and Fab in his standout debut WIMMERA, to Jimmy in SOUTHERN AURORA, Anton and Steve in THE RIP and Jacob in THE OTHERS, they are very real people. He's also not afraid to portray these boys and men as sometimes victims, sometimes perpetrators, struggling, living difficult lives from difficult circumstances, often as a result of societal expectations and failures. As ... Read review

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