All the Reviews

Folded, Tina Clough

The 3rd book in the Hunter Grant series, FOLDED sees Hunter and Dao reluctantly pulled into the darkweb and dangerous human traffickers.

After office-worker Grace finds a series of calls for help, folded in tiny origami shapes, dropped outside a high-rise city apartment building on her way to and from work, followed by a physics textbook with tiny writing between the lines, she turns to a work friend for help instead of the police, and then disappears herself. Which leads to the work friend, Linda, asking Hunter and Dao for their help. Initially reluctant, Hunter and Dao ... Read Review

The Lady in the Van, Alan Bennett

Very readable, very engaging, very short little tale about a woman who starts off like a bit of a "classic English eccentric" but ends with quite a sad story.Read Review

Death at the Belvedere, Sue Williams

The fourth book in the Cass Tuplin mystery series, set in the dryland farming areas of Victoria, somewhere sort of north west of Bendigo (I think), in the fictional town of Rusty Bore, with a takeaway that always makes me think of Wycheproof. (There's nothing whatsoever in these books that makes you think Rusty Bore is anything other than completely fictional and I've no idea why that's been in my head since the opening novel..., but I digress.)

Which I think is probably encouraged by reading the Cass Tuplin series - she of (as it turns out in this novel), "a lot of ... Read Review

I Wanna Be Yours, John Cooper Clarke

The soundtrack of your life often reflects the time when you were a teenager, when everything sears into the memory, embeds itself deep in the psyche and remains with you. Come my old age, my nursing home will have a very different soundtrack to the Hits of the Blitz that the grandparents favoured. For me it will be The Clash, The Slits, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees and of course, The Saints. Interspersed with the most unlikely offerings that came with the disco era. What can I say, the 70's and 80's were a weird, weird, gloriously outrageous, ... Read Review

Ghost Child, Caroline Overington

Short commentary as this was read for our face to face bookclub meeting yesterday. Lovers of this book will be pleased to know I was very much in the minority because I really did not like this book. Partially that's because of some stereotypical coincidences between the characters in this and the last book by the same author read - damaged / fragile women and more balanced / carefree despite trials blokes. Partially it's because there was so much telling it felt like there'd be an exam to pass at the end. Mostly it was because read the prologue, you've pretty much read the whole book ... Read Review

A Perfect Spy, John le Carré

Immersive, almost meditative listening, I started John le Carre's A PERFECT SPY in Audio version recently, and was amazed by it. Partly a spy thriller, but really it's a character study in two parts. Magnus Pym, a young boy growing up with a con-artist for a father, who has become a successful officer in British Intelligence, marrying a fellow member of the service, having his own child, disappearing, holed up in a second life, in a bed and breakfast, with a new identity and an alleged book to write. The other the story of a con-man father, Rick, a man of huge appetites, mostly for ... Read Review

The Carter of 'La Providence', Georges Simenon

The second in the Maigret series (although there's some suggestion it could be the fourth although I've done zero fact checking one way or the other), this one really re-affirmed my decision to go right back to the start, and work my way through the audio versions of this series (the anti-semitism and casual racism in the first one nearly derailed the quest). Of course the timing of this series has to be taken into account so this time, so the vaguely censorial nature of the commentary of the victim, and the "set" she socialised in was sort of to be expected, although the slight sense ... Read Review

The Stoning, Peter Papathanasiou

In a conversation with a well known author of Australian Rural/Regional crime fiction on twitter recently, we talked about the differences between "rural noir" and "rural crime". She clarified the difference between rural crime fiction and rural noir fiction for me perfectly - a projection from the author about the place that they are writing. In noir you get the sense that the author feels this place is without hope, lost and struggling to find a future. In rural crime there's more of a sense of affection or hope for a setting, both of which often extends to the handling and ... Read Review

Consolation, Garry Disher

Australia’s leading writer of rural crime fiction, Garry Disher, has been quietly crafting an excellent series set in the dry wheatbelt of South Australia. Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review