All the Reviews

The Water's Dead, Catherine Lea

THE WATER'S DEAD is the first novel featuring DI Nyree Bradshaw (BETTER LEFT DEAD is out in September), set in the upper north island region of New Zealand, with idyllic scenery, pockets of poverty, a strong, tight knit Māori community, and a lot of fractious relationships.

None more so than the relationships of Huia Coburn, a young woman whose body is found dumped in a rock pool at the bottom of a waterfall by a couple of tourists with a messy story of their own. The complications of Huia's murder are compounded when it's realised that she was looking after a young, ... Read review

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One Of Us Is Missing, B.M. Carroll

In BM Carroll’s latest crime novel, one family’s celebration turns to disaster as a teenager disappears amid a crowd of concert-goers. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books Read review

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It Takes a Town ... to solve a Murder, Aoife Clifford

In Aoife Clifford’s third novel, the death of a local celebrity brings two old schoolmates together to answer some troubling questions. Full Review at: Newtown Review of Books Read review

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Sanctuary, Garry Disher

A new crime novel by Garry Disher is always exciting. In Sanctuary, he introduces a new protagonist: a female lone wolf.

Meet Grace. She’s a very good thief, having been taught by experts and practising since she was a kid. Specialising in small, high-value hauls, she’s mobile and extremely astute – this is a woman who knows her Jaeger-LeCoultre watches from the Patek Philippes. She’s also always moving, very watchful, cautious to a fault. And tired of that life. ... Read review

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The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill

In Sulari Gentill’s new novel, aspiring writer Theo and her brother Gus become embroiled in increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books Read review

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The Beacon, P.A. Thomas

A disgraced son of a powerful Australian media tycoon, the traumatised daughter of a small town newspaper editor, coincidentally owned by the aforementioned tycoon. One is sent to "learn the ropes of journalism" / ie been kicked down the line, the other is in town after something sent her legal career into free fall. Then the local newspaper editor dies in a seeming shark attack and things get messy.

Byron Bay does have a reputation for being a laid back, holiday destination, pumped full of influencer types, and some serious money. So when Jack Harris is sent there to ... Read review

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The Day That Never Comes, Caimh McDonnell

The second book in the Dublin Trilogy (which is probably the 2nd published, but the 6th in the "trilogy", so between this and Adrian McKinty's trilogy which isn't, Ireland obviously does trilogies differently). Anyway, THE DAY THAT NEVER COMES, is also the name of a song by Metallica (or so I'm told), for whatever that's worth, but in the context of this book it's a line from a firey session in front of a crowd of really pissed off citizens of Dublin:

"When is the day when those who brought this country to its knees will be made to stand and face the
... Read review

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Caimh McDonnell

Darkness Runs Deep, Claire McNeel

Growing up in any rural community in the 1970's meant a LOT of talk about football. The boys that played were always the hero's, the girls that watched never mentioned, except if they were connected to the tuck shop at the ground in some way. Or cleaning the change rooms, and the toilets, and running around driving football players here and there. (Well to be fair they still weren't much mentioned no matter how much of the actual work they did). Needless to say I have a deep, abiding, all consuming loathing of all things "aussie football", and the relentless cascade of bullshit that ... Read review

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Deep in the Forest, Erina Reddan

As is the way of the world, there have been quite a few crime fiction books recently that delve into the world of cults, the people that get caught in them, and those trying to get them out. DEEP IN THE FOREST is a slightly different twist on that. It's the story of a small town outcast, who via some coincidental work connections, and the fact that she lives very near the community known as the Sanctuary, finds herself pulled too far into their world.

Charli Trenthan is an outsider in her hometown of Stone Lake, thanks mostly to the local police sergeant who really holds ... Read review

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Home Before Night, J.P. Pomare

If you were a resident of Melbourne (or any larger city I suppose), the announcement of one of the many COVID lockdowns was a sudden jolt to the nervous system.

What JP Pomare has done, in HOME BEFORE NIGHT, is add an extra layer of complexity when Lou realises her son Samuel isn't going to make it home by the cut off time of 8pm, supposedly staying with his girlfriend instead. She's not handling that particularly well, having not been at all convinced by the girlfriend on initial meeting. But that turns to major concern when Samuel doesn't seem to be contactable - he's ... Read review

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Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2024

Dirt Town, Hayley Scrivenor

An outstanding debut novel back in 2022 (good grief has it really taken this long to post this ...), it's very very hard to look past an Australian rural noir novel called DIRT TOWN. Sitting as I am at the moment in the middle of an Australian rural summer that's mostly putting up dust clouds and fire smoke everywhere you look.

Set in the sweltering (can identify) small Australian town of Durton, this place is referred to mostly as Dirt Town by the locals (and why wouldn't they). There's a particularly apt quote:

Dirt town. Dirt and
... Read review

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Hayley Scrivenor

Halfway House, Helen FitzGerald

Helen FitzGerald is one of those authors who really knows how to write engaging and very offputting central characters that you care about, despite their obvious failings, flaws, and downright stupidity from time to time. As is the case in HALFWAY HOUSE where central character Lou O'Dowd is .. well ... quite something.

Infuriating, annoying and quite beguiling, she's part ingénue, part ruthless user, and oddly extremely sympathetic and relatable. Maybe it's the wide eyed devil may care"edness" of her lifestyle, maybe it's the sneaking suspicion that she's well aware of ... Read review

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Helen FitzGerald

Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus

Read for our f2f bookclub gathering, most of the other member's liked this one. I don't have the right sense of humour obviously but I just didn't get the funny and frankly found the misogyny awful, the superiority got up my nose, and the homophobia....

It also smacked of revisionist history and right now, at this point in time, with the way the world is, DO NOT try and pretend to me that back in the 1950s women had options.

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I Am Behind You, John Ajvide Lindqvist

The thing with any novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist is to remember the stages of reading.

Stage One is always, oh wow, why do I take so long to pick up these books. This is just amazing.

On the whole his work is amazing. It's horror sure, and that's something I'd normally go out of my way to avoid, but it's his version of horror, which always has something extra. It's not just about the shock, it's about the why's and where's of human behaviour, and the how did we get here's. Or at least that's what all his novels I've read have felt like to me.

... Read review

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John Ajvide Lindqvist

To The River, Vikki Wakefield

I can almost feel a collective intake of breath when many crime fiction fans read a blurb that includes mention of "a brave dog". So right up front, the dog's fine. In other news, this is a very interesting novel that uses a mostly female viewpoint for a story that has a past as well as a present.

Sabine Kelly disappeared many years ago, after confessing to setting the fire that killed nine people in a remote caravan park 12 years ago. Since that time she's been living life on the run, hiding out on an old houseboat with her dog Blue for company, returning sometimes to ... Read review

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Vikki Wakefield

A Better Class of Criminal, Cristian Kelly

There's a quote on the blurb for this book which goes:

Guy Ritchie meets Elmore Leonard – this is a fast-paced humorous crime thriller with splashes of dark and sinister

Which is where I could leave this review because it sums it up perfectly.

Fast paced: A BETTER CLASS OF CRIMINAL belts along, mind you that's a word worth keeping in mind, there's belting violence aplenty here which comes at the reader like a battering ram.

Humorous: If you like dark, cynical, pointed and very "gangster" styled ... Read review

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Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2024

Ngaio Marsh Shortlist 2024

Rings on Water, Madeleine Eskedahl

RINGS ON WATER is the second novel in NZ author Madeleine Eskedahl's Matakana Series, set in and around the idyllic rural winemaking and tourist destination near Auckland. The series features local cop, Sergeant Bill Granger, and his Swedish wife Annika, their family, and their lifestyle in what should be a quiet, relaxed sort of a place. Except in Eskedahl's series where the location and life is cozy and laid back and the crimes are violent and confronting.

In a switch from the environmental conditions of the first novel, BLOOD ON VINE, this one is set in the wet, rainy ... Read review

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Madeleine Eskedahl

Death Off Camera, B.M. Allsopp

Book number five in the Fiji Island Mystery series featuring local rugby hero, now policeman Inspector Joe Horseman and his team, this time investigating the death of a fit young reality TV star who dies most unexpectedly on a small island off the coast of Fiji, in the middle of filming a wildly popular show which features, for the first time, a Fijian contestant.

Readers who are new to this series would be able to step in at any point as the author here plays very fair with just enough personal background to get where Horseman, and his 2IC, DS Susie Singh, in particular ... Read review

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Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

Read for our f2f bookclub, it certainly elicited an interesting, lively and at times quite loud discussion. Most of which I couldn't contribute much to because I just didn't get this book. At All.

After, what is to be fair, a really captivating start with an engaging voice and a character that I really liked, then found mildly annoying, and then utterly exhausting, it's a bit undertaking - subject matter wise and size wise. Leaving aside the whole question of whether or not a reimagining of David Copperfield needs to be a thing to explore the ravages of the opioid crisis ... Read review

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Barbara Kingsolver

The Concierge, Abby Corson

The author of THE CONCIERGE, Abby Corson, has been a luxury travel and lifestyle writer for over 10 years, and it shows in the way that she's able to depict a luxury hotel in the English countryside, with it's own concierge, Henry Harrow, the narrator of this, her first novel.

Now 73 years old, Henry has worked at the Cavengreen Hotel since he was 16. After a shocking murder, a very intense investigation, and a hotel ownership change, he finds himself narrating the story behind all that, in his own, rather unique voice. The blurb introduces him thus:

... Read review

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