| Book | Review |
|---|---|
|
|
Police at the Station and They Don't Look Friendly, Adrian McKintyPart history lesson, part social exploration, the Sean Duffy series from Irish-Australian writer Adrian McKinty is required crime fiction reading. Reviewed at: Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
 |
Gun Street Girl, Adrian McKintyGUN STREET GIRL is the fourth book to feature Irish cop Sean Duffy. The Duffy series, has been winning plaudits, praise and awards in all corners of the world and hugely deserved they have all been, which meant fans of both the writer and the earlier three books (THE COLD, COLD GROUND, I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET and IN THE MORNING I'LL BE GONE) ... Read Review |
 |
Points and Lines, Seicho MatsumotoThis has been a book that's been in the back of my mind as a "must read" for a long time. It combines that most fascinating (to me) of components of crime fiction - a mystery and an insight into life and the thinking of another culture - one that's totally different to my own. Whilst a lot of "authority" want the death of the young couple to just be written down to "Love suicide", Detective Torigai is not so sure. Kenichi Sayama has that dining car receipt in his wallet, it's from the last train journey witnesses say he boarded with Otoki. Yet the receipt only mentions a meal for ... Read Review |
 |
American Blood, Ben SandersTaking up the the mantle of hard-boiled, gun obsessed, blood soaked American lone wolf characters, New Zealand author Ben Sanders has created his second book to fit into that world like a clenched fist in a black, leather glove. http://reviewingtheevidence.com/review.html?id=10540Read Review |
 |
I Am Pilgrim, Terry HayesI AM PILGRIM is screenwriter Terry Hayes' debut novel, which I would not have picked without knowing the background up front. Obviously written with a keen visual sense, the novel doesn't read like a screen treatment or a movie script. This is a good old fashioned, seat of the pants, keep you up way past your bedtime, spy thriller. A lengthy book, which when reading in ebook format, didn't even enter my mind. It was only when I noticed a paperback copy on the shelves of a bookshop that it suddenly dawned on me that this is a doorstopper of a thing. Which is even greater ... Read Review |
 |
I Hear the Sirens in the Street, Adrian McKintySet in the early 1980's, I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET is the second book in a trilogy built around Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop working in the reality of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland in the middle of The Troubles. This is when neighbourhoods and towns are divided by religion and loyalty, when unemployment and community disaffection are soaring, and local cops check under their cars for bombs every single morning they head out for work. It's a bit disconcerting to think that this is a timeframe that many of us know well, although it's now regarded as "the past" or ... Read Review |
 |
Kinglake-350, Adrian HylandIn 2008 we decided to move - away from the most fire-prone area on the immediate outskirts of Melbourne - to somewhere where we had more room to move, and co-incidentally where we would feel safer. The possibility of catastrophic fire events had weighed heavily on our minds - as the countryside dried and dried after many years of a devastating drought, and as people moved more and more into places that, frankly, looked like death traps. We're not real old bushies, but we both are country born or raised, and it wasn't hard to see what would happen... somewhere in Victoria... soon. ... Read Review |
 |
Gunshot Road, Adrian HylandGUNSHOT ROAD is the second Emily Tempest novel from Australian author Adrian Hyland. Set in the outback of Australia, GUNSHOT ROAD has one of those magnificently authentic Australian voices that you just know comes from an author who knows his place, and his characters very very well. Emily Tempest is a tricky woman. She's one of those mouthy, stubborn, opinionated women who will do what she believes is right, no matter who or what says no. She's going to stick to her case, she's going to support her people, she's going to follow her instinct - and everybody else, well ... Read Review |
 |
Diamond Dove, Adrian HylandEmily Tempest, drawn back to Central Australia and to the place she grew up, Moonlight Downs, instantly feels at peace with the Warlpuju people. Here are her best friend Hazel and Hazel's father Lincoln Flinders, a much respected tribal elder. The Warlpuju have always been her mob and Moonlight Downs her Country. Emily was instantly accepted and included from childhood even though she is the daughter of a white man and a Wantiya women. She's done her fair share of walkabout since she left the Downs and the mob were driven off by the last station owner, so this is her first return ... Read Review |
|
|
By Any Means, Ben SandersBY ANY MEANS is the second book from NZ author Ben Sanders. Sanders is a fan of writers such as Michael Connelly and Lee Child, which I suspect you can probably tell from his style. Rapid fire, with an opening that will really make you sit up and take notice BY ANY MEANS has a number of intriguing elements to it. It's a complex, shifting plot which moves through viewpoints rapidly. It has a lone wolf style of central character in Sean Devereaux, who despite being a cop, basically plays a solo part in resolving not just the opening shooting of the book, but, it seems, just about ... Read Review |
 |
Collecting Cooper, Paul CleaveAre you allowed to do one word reviews? In which case it's ... wow. If we're not allowed could I just add terrific, twisty, tricky, tantalising, taut and maybe tremendous.
It's really embarrassing that sometimes it can take an age to get to read a book that you knew you wanted to read the day before it came out. COLLECTING COOPER was always going to be an interesting book because Theodore Tate is a tremendous character, and Cleave doesn't always do follow-up books. But if he'd like to do a third, or really any book whatsoever, I've ... Read Review |
 |
Cemetery Lake, Paul Cleave (review by Helen Lloyd)Christchurch private investigator Theodore Tate is attending the exhumation of a man who died two years before. Suddenly bubbles appear on the surface of the small lake in the middle of the cemetery, and several bodies slowly rise to the surface. When the exhumed coffin is opened, it does not contain the expected occupant. And as the identities of the lake bodies are established, their graves are dug up to reveal further unexpected corpses. Could this be the work of the Christchurch Carver who has been terrorising the city for the past two years, or is there another ... Read Review |
|
|
Cemetery Lake, Paul CleaveCEMETERY LAKE is the third book by Paul Cleave, THE CLEANER and THE KILLING HOUR being the first two. None of these books are connected, so you can pick them up in any order, although, being lucky enough to read them in order, you can see a certain style developing in the writing. CEMETERY LAKE tells the story of Theodore Tate. One time police officer, his life has gone seriously off the rails. His young daughter was killed and his wife severely injured by a drunk driver. Bridget - his wife - is in a sort of semi-vegetative state and whilst Theodore visits her daily, ... Read Review |
 |
Blind Eye, Stuart MacBrideDI Steele deserves her own fan club. It would have to be a club where swearing, drinking, smoking and fiddling with your bra strap were perfectly acceptable behaviours of course. You've also got a ready made slogan as fans of the wonderful Logan McRae series from Scottish author Stuart MacBride will be aware. BLIND EYE is the 5th book in this funny, gruesome, funny, ferocious, unflinching, funny series featuring DS Logan McRae and a passing parade of DIs and DCIs. DI Steele makes a very high profile return in BLIND EYE, in fact she's in danger of completely stealing ... Read Review |
 |
Bitter Wash Road, Garry DisherBitter Wash Road is the latest police procedural from Garry Disher. Introducing a new protagonist, and set in the isolated South Australian wheatbelt, this is a book that delves deep into corruption, influence and power. Full review at newtownreviewofbooks.comRead Review |
 |
Call Me Evie, J.P. PomareMarketed under the banner "incredible new literary thriller", CALL ME EVIE is the debut novel of New Zealand born, Melbourne based writer J.P. Pomare. Opening in a manner guaranteed to make readers feel maximum discomfort, a young woman is in a bathroom, hacking at her long hair with a pair of small scissors when she's interrupted by an angry man, shouting and finishing the job roughly with a pair of hair clippers. She screams, he hits, neither of them clearly identified, the relationship and the power dynamic not explained. Gradually snippets of detail emerge, the pair ... Read Review |
 |
Blood Men, Paul CleaveIt always amazes me, how Paul Cleave can start out with a scenario that somehow seems quite normal and "expected" and then make it all go very very good weird, and you don't even notice that it's happening until you finish the book, turn all the lights back on the in house and take a big deep breath. And check the locks. I'm very very partial to Paul Cleave's books and BLOOD MEN was no exception. Noir doesn't really cut it when you're describing these books, they are dense, intrinsically, fundamentally dark books sure, but there's also always something slightly ... Read Review |
 |
A Few Right Thinking Men, Sulari GentillA FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN introduces Rowland Sinclair to fans of Australian historical crime fiction. Set in 1930's Sydney and Yass, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN takes a reader into a world where the affects of the Great Depression are being felt, and the tension between the Proto-Fascists and Communists in Australian society veers dangerously close to civil war. Not that the central character of this novel, Rowland Sinclair, is feeling any of the Depression affects. He is the youngest son of an extremely wealthy, influential farming family. His oldest brother runs the farm ... Read Review |
 |
A Decline in Prophets, Sulari GentillFans of Australian writing (not just crime fiction) if you've not caught up yet with Rowly Sinclair and his wanderings through 1930's Sydney and beyond, where on earth have you been? A DECLINE IN PROPHETS is the second book in the Rowland Sinclair series from Sulari Gentill and after dithering around for a week or so trying to come up with something that describes the book accurately. I'll just have to settle for my first reaction when I got to the last page. Blast - wonder when the next one will be out... In my review of the first book - A FEW RIGHT ... Read Review |
 |
Kittyhawk Down, Garry DisherSecond in the Hal Challis series, Kittyhawk Down is an extremely busy book. Firstly there's the upper class sort of "gated" housing area, the farming area and the housing estates. There's a sinister South African living in one of those big gated houses. There's Monroe, the farmer, who is under increasing financial pressure and a bit of a hot head. There's a local busybody who spends his life reporting people to the relevant authorities and writing snippy letters to the local paper, earning himself the nickname of The Meddler. There's the unemployed, drug using sisters with their ... Read Review |