All the Reviews

Sepulchre, Kate Mosse

SEPULCHRE certainly appears to be a formidable prospect when you consider the weight of historical content, and of course simply the weight of the edition as it is another house brick sized novel (as was the hugely successful LABYRINTH).  Both novels have utilized the same tact of luring in an audience expecting some riveting tease of a mystery lost in time and then found again by the present day heroine.  SEPULCHRE is pretty vanilla flavoured in that regard, and what could have been a wonderful sub plot with Debussy is sadly never explored.  There seems to be other pieces of writing ... Read Review

The Final Bet, Abdelilah Hamdouchi

Remarked upon often as the first Arabic detective story translated, THE FINAL BET is a very slim volume that has a strong central message.  The book really isn't particularly about Casablanca the place, or even the people.  It's very much targeted straight at the way that the Moroccan legal system functioned at the time that it was written - and you can pick that thread up very clearly even without reading the afterword by the translator of the book - Jonathan Smolin.

Othman has often thought about killing his elderly wife.  The marriage is complicated by the difference ... Read Review

Fedora Walks, Merrilee Moss

There are simply not enough of these short novella books being published these days.  Not only do they give you a real taste of (frequently) lesser known writers, they are perfect little handbag books - stocking stuffers if you want.  FEDORA WALKS could definitely stuff the stocking of a lot of readers. If you're fans of the supernatural, if you're a fan of theatricals, if you're a lover of lesbian fiction (crime or not), or if you simply want something funny to fill in a few pleasant hours, then FEDORA WALKS is a great little book.

Now I'm not much of a shoe shopper, but ... Read Review

Befriend and Betray, Alex Caine (review by Sunnie Gill)

BEFRIEND AND BETRAY is an insider’s story of this complex and murky world where you can trust no one. Not only did Caine have to be wary of the gang he was infiltrating, but he also had to be circumspect about who he trusted in law enforcement.  His is a story of creating alternative identities and living on his wits, often for months at a time. It makes compelling reading.

Just how such people live, how they maintain their own identity and the effects on their relationships outside their work is as fascinating as the details of the work itself.  In some instances Caine’s ... Read Review

Love is in the Air-Conditioning, Scott Bywater

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

Cold Blooded Murder, Malcolm Brown

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, Laura Wilson

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

The Darkest Hour, Katherine Howell (review by sally906)

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

Arctic Chill, Arnaldur Indridason

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