All the Reviews

This is one of those little books that I've been keeping an eye out for over the last few years, finally tracking down a copy recently.  At 141 pages it was just the right size for dropping into the suitcase that we're dragging backwards and forwards between houses at the moment.

Mind you, I didn't really know what to expect with the book, the blurb mentions private investigation and consulting firms, but it doesn't really give much else away.  It turns out that Sam has been called in to investigage possible financial irregularities.  One of the partners thinks that ... Read review

Malcolm Brown is a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he covered (amongst other things) courts, royal commissions and coroners' inquests for more than 30 years.  As well as editing COLD BLOODED MURDER, he has contributed a number of chapters, with remaining sections coming from a range of other journalists all from the region in which the crime was committed.

The book is broken up into chapters about a number of recent notorious crimes in all parts of Australia.  A number of these crimes are particularly well known - the Snowtown, South Australia "bodies in ... Read review

STRATTON'S WAR is the first in an new planned series of crime novels featuring Ted Stratton, a Detective Inspector in the London police during the Second World War.  This book includes a second protagonist - Diana Calthorp, young, socialite, not long and unhappily married and unexpected MI5 agent, involved in a covert operation against sympathisers and spies in the local community. 

It's a very elaborate, multi-layered story.  The death of a silent film star who hasn't worked for many years is the starting point.  It's an investigation that Ted cannot put aside, despite a ... Read review

Whenever an author’s debut book is as top notch as FRANTIC was – I always panic when I pick up their second.  The expectations are always high; the reality is that sometimes those expectations don’t follow through.

Well, Katherine Howell has managed to do it again with her follow up book THE DARKEST HOUR.  The investigating officer, Detective Ella Marconi, is the same as in FRANTIC, however this time the story revolves around a different main character, Lauren.  Lauren and Joe are paramedics working in Sydney.  The book opens in a cold winter’s night with Lauren on her ... Read review

There are some authors who are on my buy immediately list.  Some of these books I can happily hoard - waiting until just the right moment to sit and enjoy them.   And there are the ones that are buy and read immediately.  ARCTIC CHILL has definitely been one of those books.  As soon as it arrived in the house it danced around before my eyes until I could finish what I was reading and start this one.

And you know when you've picked up a fabulous book because you find yourself sitting in the car, reading it - "it's no problem I can wait in the car while you run in and do ... Read review

Sophie Anderson is an Australian profiler working in the USA for the Behavioural Science unit  with the FBI. She is also psychic, she sees through the eyes of the killer, and sometimes the victim, in her dreams.  She is currently based in  Washington DC and soon makes friends with fellow female investigator Sam who is the only person who knows Sophie's abilities.  Sam is assigned a case of a serial killer who has murdered two women and soon makes it clear that he is after her.  When Sam disappears the investigation team know they have between 3 and 5 days to catch the killer. ... Read review

THE EMBROIDERED CORPSE is the sequel to CAPABLE OF MURDER. Our Australian heroine, Belinda Lawrence, has put the events surrounding the murder of her aunt behind her and has now moved permanently to England. She is living quietly in the village of Mitford in the house bequeathed to her by her late aunt. However, her sleuthing days are not over. After a trip to purchase antique furniture for her friend Hazel's shop, Belinda finds herself in the possession of a mysterious piece of tapestry that may, or may not, be linked to the famous Bayeux Tapestry. However, ownership brings danger. ... Read review

Sawbones is a novella, set in the US, not part of MacBride's series books set in Aberdeen.  There are some similarities though - I harbour a fond belief that this author couldn't write out his shopping list without some sly, black humour involved.

There is plenty of humour in SAWBONES.  There's also a lot of gruesome moments, which again is pretty typical MacBride.  He does love to gross you out, make you laugh, then make you stop and think what the hell am I laughing at for goodness sake!  It's quite a tribute to the skill of the author that he can make that work in 114 ... Read review

A large part of the attraction of these novels is the wonderfully grumpy, slightly eccentric, marvellously self-involved Inspector Montalbano.  And the food - the meals that Montalbano insists on partaking on a regular basis are frankly, almost obscenely fantastic.  Of course, for the books to be completely satisfactory there has actually got to be a story, and as with all these books, the story here is superbly Italian in its feel.  The financier Emanuele Gargano has disappeared - as has a large amount of money that a lot of local retirees invested with him.  An investigation had ... Read review