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Murder in the Midst, Sandi Wallace02/10/2020 - 1:42pmA collection of eight different short stories, many of them past prize winners, all of them featuring crime and women from differing viewpoints. Journalists, police officers and private investigators are some of the occupations of the different central characters. Perpetrators, investigators, good Samaritans and writers amongst the viewpoints. Those switching perspectives are one of the collection's major highlights, allowing for different impacts, different reactions and varied causes. There's also a range of different involvements - personal and professional, insider ... Read Review |
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Prior Violations, Jonathan MacPherson24/09/2020 - 2:57pmHaving been lucky enough to be offered a copy of PRIOR VIOLATIONS for review I was intrigued to see it come with it's own curated Spotify music list. Made for a particularly unusual reading experience although the music would probably mean more to fans of American TV and movies, nearly all of which I've not seen. PRIOR VIOLATIONS is the prequel novella to BRAZEN VIOLATIONS, both of them are high-octane, action based thrillers in styling, dark and violent with a believable, sympathetic central character. Given the restricted length of a novella, there's no mucking about ... Read Review |
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Either Side of Midnight, Benjamin Stevenson23/09/2020 - 11:44amBenjamin Stevenson's first book featuring documentary maker Jack Quick was a revelation, particularly when considered again, in hindsight, from the viewpoint of the second novel in the series. Quoting from my own review of GREENLIGHT at the time:
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Hopjoy Was Here, Colin Watson17/09/2020 - 5:08pmThe third novel in the Flaxborough series, I've always thought that it was here that Colin Watson declared his hand and intentions most firmly. Everything about this novel is slightly wacky, very English in humour and stylings, and slyly clever. As you will get from the opening line of the blurb:
One would hope not, else the net curtains subsequently ... Read Review |
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Thief of Time, Terry Pratchett11/09/2020 - 1:51pmBook 26 in the overall series, number 5 in the Death sub-series, and I've not regretted a single second of the time spent listening to the audio of the Discworld novels from start to finish. This one contains one of my all time favourite Terry Pratchett quotes, with the exchange that leads up to it for context:
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The Murder Club, Nikki Crutchley09/09/2020 - 1:47pmMiller Hatcher made her debut as a character in NOTHING BAD HAPPENS HERE. In my review of that book I noted that she was "a flawed character, frequently almost pathetic, but there's enough in her back story, and the way her problems presented to make her understandable, if not completely sympathetic, and as a result absolutely real". In this second novel, THE MURDER CLUB, she's more stable, together, and focused, and taking some responsibility for her life and her mistakes. And still absolutely real. So real, that the fear she feels over the death of women who live alone, and her ... Read Review |
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The Night Whistler, Greg Woodland08/09/2020 - 5:49pmRecently busted back down to the rank of Constable, Mick Goodenough is the newest cop in town. Once a detective always a detective though, and it’s impossible for the experienced investigator not to speak up when it appears that his new colleagues are ignoring the sinister signs of an escalating killer. The Night Whistler takes the reader back to 1960’s Moorabool, New South Wales. Mick soon discovers that the job of policing country Moorabool mostly involves managing domestic disturbances, investigating low level crimes, tolerating a little political argy bargy and ... Read Review |
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The Truth, Terry Pratchett08/09/2020 - 5:03pmA Discworld take on crime fiction, THE TRUTH features William de Worde, Discworld's first investigative journalist. A job which came about more by accident than desire, but one that he turns out to be remarkedly good at. With assistance from his staff, and the unintentional help of some dark forces who stupidly try to plot the overthrow of Lord Vetinari. When I was grabbing the blurb for this novel from Goodreads I noticed somebody had posted this quote: “There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a ... Read Review |
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Becoming, Michelle Obama07/09/2020 - 3:45pmI wasn't sure what to expect when listening to BECOMING by Michelle Obama, and it was a long listen, it's a big book, but what I got was a masterclass in humanity, care, compassion and understanding. With more than enough hints along the way about the difficulties in having differently coloured skin from others in your community. Extremely well worth reading / listening to / considering - this was instructional in ways I did not expect.Read Review |
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Carpe Jugulum, Terry Pratchett04/09/2020 - 11:52amThere's something very apt about a Discword (number 22 in the series) Witches (number 6 in the sub-series) book that has the title CARPE JUGULUM. Not that I'm suggesting that Magrat or Agnes would get involved in that sort of grab, but I wouldn't be too sure about Nanny Ogg. Being a big fan of the Witches sub-series it's always a joy when one pops up in the re-read (listening) queue that I've been undertaking this year, and this one is an excellent outing as always. Margrat is now Queen and has recently given birth to a daughter, Agnes is a third witch and Nanny Ogg is ... Read Review |
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The Fifth Elephant, Terry Pratchett04/09/2020 - 11:33amWhilst THE FIFTH ELEPHANT is most definitely a novel about diplomacy and the trials and tribulations of preferring to be a policeman, in this outing Sir Samuel Vimes is off to Uberwald with Sybil to attend the coronation of the new Dwarfish Low King. He's there as an ambassador. He ends up being a policeman through and through. Less on the absolutely laugh out loud side, this is, as with all the Watch sub-series novels, a plot driven outing, in this case through the complicated world of inter-personal and cross-cultural interactions. Many of which now happen on a day to day basis in ... Read Review |
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The Last Continent, Terry Pratchett03/09/2020 - 3:39pmBook 22 in the Discworld series, this is book 6 in the Rincewind subseries, Rincewind being a wizard, if you believe his hat, and an adventurer by accident, definitely not choice. In THE LAST CONTINENT Pratchett is taking a good hard look at evolution and I just absolutely love the blurb on this book, and the whole darn book made me laugh, a lot. Which is high praise as obviously The Last Continent is a reference to Australia, and god knows so many satirists get everything and everybody in this place wrong so often, you can't help but marvel. Pie floaters get ... Read Review |
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Jingo, Terry Pratchett02/09/2020 - 3:58pmThe 4th in the City Watch subset of the Discword series, JINGO, is about the daftness of war, with some timely observations about racism on the side. Whilst it's mainly a City Watch novel, so Sir Samuel Vimes, Carrot, and the whole team are front and centre, there's also a more hands on appearance from Lord Vetinari than in earlier novels. Cleverly done as usual, a new land has surfaced, giving rise to old feuds and tensions. As two armies take to their feet, Sam Vimes has got a mere few hours to marshall his small band of crime fighter's against the biggest crime there ... Read Review |
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Hogfather, Terry Pratchett01/09/2020 - 4:02pmIn very fortunate timing just before I started listening to this, we'd finished watching the television movie made of the book staring Ian Richardson as the voice of Death (and narrator), David Jason as Albert, Marc Warren as Teatime, and Michelle Dockery as Susan. Really enjoyed this adaptation, not least because the cast really worked. And, it turned out, that the plot although obviously condensed considerably from the book wasn't bad either. I do love the books featuring Susan. The ultimate governess type with the slightly disapproving manner and the deadly attitude when ... Read Review |
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Girl From the Tree House, Gudrun Frerichs31/08/2020 - 4:07pmThe author of GIRL FROM THE TREE HOUSE, Gudrun Frerichs, worked for 25 years as a psychotherapist specialising in trauma. She's now written this astounding book, a fictional and moving account of Elizabeth, a thirty-two year old woman with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). Elizabeth has many personalities, and this story is told from the perspective of the four core identities, avoiding any graphic descriptions of the reasons how Elizabeth was traumatised to this extent, providing a moving, clear and informative outline of the difficulties she battles every day of her life. ... Read Review |
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Whatever It Takes, Paul Cleave31/08/2020 - 10:58amChristchurch based author Paul Cleave has had a way of creating scenarios, and settings for his novels that have kept this reader awake and mildly anxious for a long time now. WHATEVER IT TAKES is a bit of a departure from his previous style, set in the USA, eschewing a lot of the slight paranormal elements that have been part of his previous books - making this particularly intriguing reading. Cleave is, as fans of his are acutely aware, one of the great storytellers. His characters inhabit the places they move through, and the plots they encounter with considerable ... Read Review |
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The Wild Card, Renée28/08/2020 - 3:36pmThe author of THE WILD CARD, Renee, is a much loved and prolific writer of novels, memoir, poetry and plays in her native New Zealand. She won the NZ Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2018, following which she wrote this, her first crime novel, at the age of 90. Tagged by the author as "cosy noir", it comes as no surprise that Renee would have set her first crime novel partially in the world of theatre, given her experience of that environment, and the rest of the premise is strikingly done. THE WILD CARD blends that theatrical background into a story ... Read Review |
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Not Bad People, Brandy Scott27/08/2020 - 1:53pmNew Years Eve often involves some reflection, some celebration, and some odd goings on. For Aimee, Melinda and Lou, starting out their celebration with an illegal Chinese lantern ceremony. Filling each lantern with their own resolution, the women light them and they lift off, after which they soon notice a flare of fire in the distance. Was it lucky, or something very bad (and for this reader why the hell didn't they ring the fire brigade, or the police or do SOMETHING it's JANUARY IN AUSTRALIA for god's sake!) The next day, and the discovery that the flare was a small ... Read Review |
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The Strength of Eggshells, Kirsty Powell26/08/2020 - 12:41pmAnother in a long line of amazing family saga novels out of New Zealand, THE STRENGTH OF EGGSHELLS is the debut novel of Kirsty Powell. A tale of the women of three generations of one family, this novel is the story of discovery, understanding and acceptance. In the present day Kate is self-conscious about her height, and unsure of her background, and the circumstances of her birth mother Jane's residency in a mental hospital. Jane's story is told mostly by the Medical Officer there, Dr Bean, Jane having been badly burnt in a fire. He is a gentle man, and he ... Read Review |
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Cryptobyte, Cat Connor26/08/2020 - 12:10pmThis review comes with what is now the standard warning, this really is a series that needs to be read in order. There's a lot going on with Special Agent Ellie Iverson and it always feels like the backstory helps enormously when keeping everything that is happening sorted out. In short, SAC Iverson works for a special unit within the FBI - known as Delta teams. There are multiple Delta teams out there, and Iverson is now in charge of three of them, but still working in the field with Delta A - a group of officers that she knows and has cared about for a long time now. ... Read Review |