All the Reviews

The Death of John Lacey, Ben Hobson

As I was reading this novel, I was finishing the autobiography THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Miriam Margolyes in audio form and I was struck by the coincidence of some of the things that she says most powerfully and pointedly, about dehumanisation, the utter and abject cruelty of "Empire" and the way that it empowered, and continues to empower, entrenched racism. Add to that the question from Songlines: the Power and Promise, edited by Margo Neale - "What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years?" - and you have a review of THE DEATH OF JOHN LACEY. 

Nobody, for ... Read Review

The Honjin Murders, Seishi Yokomizo

First published in 1946, the story is set in the winter of 1937, in the Japanese village of Okamura. Steeped in both the culture and sensibility of the time, THE HONJIN MURDERS is a classic of Japanese crime fiction, a locked room murder in the style of the Golden Age of crime fiction worldwide.

The grand, and influential family Ichiyanagi, are preparing for the wedding of the eldest son. It should be an auspicious event, but there is disquiet. The bride is the daughter of a fruit farmer, a lower class than the groom's Honjin family. Honjin is the Japanese word for an ... Read Review

The Gallerist, Michael Levitt

Author of THE GALLERIST, Michael Levitt, is a surgeon and health bureaucrat with a considerable list of scientific articles, medical books targeted at the general public and chapters in medical textbooks to his name. He's also an art collector, and has written numerous articles about art and artwork for a range of publications. This is his first work of fiction.

The fictional Mark Lewis is an art lover and former surgeon, now running a small art gallery after the death of his much loved wife Sharon left him lost and grieving deeply. His investigative interest is tweaked ... Read Review

Wild Card, Simon Rowell

Will confess to being more than a bit pleased when WILD CARD, the second DS Zoe Mayer (and her service dog Harry) novel arrived. The initial outing - THE LONG GAME - had all the hallmarks of a long, and good series in the making, and the follow-up does nothing to dispel that belief.

Starting out in a very atmospheric location (if you ignore the dead body lying in burnt-out grassland beside the banks of the Murray River), Mayer, Harry and Charlie Shaw have arrived from Melbourne in response to the shooting death of Freddie Jones, a bikie from the other side of the river in ... Read Review

The Russian Wife, Barry Maitland

My review of the last novel in the Brock & Kolla series, The Russian Wife by Barry Maitland was posted this morning at The Newtown Review of Books:

https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/barry-maitland-the-russian-wife-revi...

"The fourteenth instalment of Barry Maitland’s groundbreaking Brock and Kolla crime series is also the last."Read Review

Hell of a Thing, Michael Botur

The thing with Michael Botur's short story collection HELL OF A THING is that there is going to be something in here for all readers who like a bit of dark, unrelenting, beat you round the head and shoulders styled fiction. 

There's sixteen stories in this collection, described in the blurb:

In Hell of a Thing, a cowardly father seeks a more exciting son; two lovers on a posh date dine on self-delusion; and an author turns his back on his past—until the past demands violent closure. We meet artistic terrorists, renegade daughters, an Uber

... Read Review

Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz

In 2022 Jacqueline Bublitz's novel BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME won both the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories of the Ngaio Marsh awards. It was the first time this had occurred since the award was established in 2010, and there are some really good reasons for that.

There's also some reasons for the delay in posting this review, mostly because when something is this good, writing words about such excellent words is more than a bit daunting. It's taken a long while to decide whether or not I could say anything that was vaguely coherent, other than plead with as many ... Read Review

The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, Georges Simenon

Book 4 in the Maigret series, which I'm wandering back through via the medium of audio books. Which as we all know is successful based hugely on the narrator. In this case Gareth Armstrong does a great job, with a voice that's laid back enough to make it pleasant listening, but not so much as to become soporific. 

At this point in the series most of the fundamentals of Maigret are in place - tenacity, attention to detail, observational and keenly aware of his surroundings and the people around him. This novel however introduces the concept of guilt - and how Maigret deals ... Read Review

Transgression, Roger Simpson

Having been a fan of the Halifax TV Series, starring Rebecca Gibney as Dr Jane Halifax, this book was greeted with considerable excitement. The author, Roger Simpson, is an award-winning screen writer, creating both the telemovie series of Halifax f.p. (which ran from 1994 to 2001) and its sequel, Halifax: Retribution in 2020. For those Australians watching, they might also have heard of some of his other TV work - Stingers, Something in the Air, Silver Sun and Satisfaction.

Needless to say, if anybody knows Dr Jane Halifax it's author Roger Simpson. The question that ... Read Review