All the Reviews

I tracked down this book because I enjoyed the first in the series (RIVER OF SHADOWS) very much, but was prompted to actually start reading THE DARK VALLEY because of another book set in Italy. In that book the setting didn't quite seem to work, and I found myself craving something steeped in the location and culture. Got it in spades.

Commisario Soneri is on vacation in his home village in the Appenines reconnecting with places and memories from his childhood, walking in the forest and most importantly collecting mushrooms. Which is frustrating for him as the crop has ... Read review

Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she tries to adjust the menu to suit the sort of clientele she'd like to be attracting, the place is overrun with police nostalgic for canteen style pies.

She's also only slightly reluctant to leap into the role of accidental detective when a rather bizarre death is discovered in the flat ... Read review

The fourth and final book in the GANGLAND franchise, GANGLAND NORTH SOUTH & WEST concentrates on the geographic areas of South and West Australia and the Northern Territory. Using the same style and format of earlier books this is a series of snippets of crimes loosely grouped into subject's on a timeline. The reader is, for example, introduced to some very early commuters who moved from Eastern Australia to the West, and back again. Criminals with connections to Squizzy Taylor, events between the First and Second World War, early Bikers (many of whom were actually pushbikers ... Read review

The great thing about collections like IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU is that it will appeal to readers and writers alike. Published by Allen & Unwin, edited by Michael Robotham, with a terrific Introduction by him into the bargain, this collection of writing from some of Australia's best crime writers reveals their writing secrets. It also asks them for their Five Must-Reads. So why not Five Why-This-Collection-Is-A-Must-Reads in return.

1. For budding, or dreaming writers, this collection has more than enough hints, tips, warnings and suggestions to make any ... Read review

Normally when I get to the stage of actually finishing up a review and publishing it, I've had a good long think, a work through the notes I take as I read, and have formed an opinion that I'm confident I can support. I therefore cannot, for the life of me work out, why THE HANGING still has me unsure.

A confrontational plot, THE HANGING starts out with a death scene that's particularly uncomfortable. The possible reason for the death of five men, left hanging in a school gym, comes much later, with the likely motive a long time before a possible perpetrator. Of course, ... Read review

I shouldn't read this sort of book. It's nearly impossible to make any observations that are measured and considered because there's so much sets my teeth on edge about the entire scenario I can't tell if it's a good version thereof or not.... Alas this was an extremely rare DNF.Read review

When I said yes to a review copy of NIGERIANS IN SPACE, I will admit that it was partly the title. The opening line of the blurb didn't hurt either. Starting to read it, from about chapter 2 I was totally bamboozled, and firmly hooked. (Although I was mildly disappointed that the piece of the moon stolen was pilfered from a laboratory ... for a while I hoped....)

With a story that quickly moves from the early 90's to the present, this is a very smooth, slightly mad debut novel which bodes particularly well for future outings.

It could be that part of the ... Read review

Saw this book referred to somewhere as CSI meets Medium in print. Which will mean something to exactly the sort of readers that HINDSIGHT is pitched directly at.

Needless to say that's not me. Whilst my paranormal allergy has been mitigated slightly over the years by some extremely good books, it alas hasn't stopped the scratching when the story is 100% built around the paranormal aspects being such a central investigative tool. Granted in HINDSIGHT the local cops also start off not that impressed with the idea that Cass Lehman can see violent pasts as she moves into the ... Read review

Winner of the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, SUFFICIENT GRACE is a difficult book to categorise.

Told from the viewpoint of young Ruth, it's a story about life and survival in a brutal climate, in a brutal, bleak, religious community.

Presented particularly to this reader as a crime novel, I've struggled to get this categorisation to work effectively. Partly I suppose you could call this a psychological thriller, partly there is a small crime element to it, but ultimately it seemed more saga than anything else.

It's beautifully written ... Read review