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The Alexandrite, Dione Jones17/08/2020 - 3:08pmWhen Pamela, Lady Scawton discovers a stranger dead in the woods near the family home, Ashly House, it triggers a multi-generational, multi-timeline search for the truth. The stranger was carrying an odd stone in his pocket, along with a letter addressed to Pamela's dead husband. Pamela is a good person, generous and very down to earth, unaffected by the title although greatly attached to the estate she has called home for many years. She has, however, endured many years of abuse from her overbearing husband and a selfish, over-entitled brat of a son. The stone turns out ... Read Review |
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A Madness of Sunshine, Nalini Singh11/08/2020 - 5:02pmIt's always interesting when an author best known for non crime fiction works steps into the genre. The author of A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE is better known for her paranormal romance works, of which there are around thirty New York Times bestsellers. Fans of crime fiction specifically will probably not notice this background at all, as this novel is told in pure crime fiction style, with a touch of romance and absolutely no paranormal elements in view. Instead the sub-story is that of Anaherea, world famous concert pianist, and new cop in town, Will. Anahera is returning to ... Read Review |
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When She Was Good, Michael Robotham11/08/2020 - 12:22pmMichael Robotham’s crime novels have always had an easy grace about them, somehow managing to be dense works without appearing to be so. As with all second novels, the second novel of a new series has much on the line in proving to fickle readers that their leap of faith into new territory was warranted. We visit again with criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven in When She Was Good. Evie Cormac, the infamous ‘Angel Face’, is now approaching legal age in which she will soon be processed out of the failing model that is the British foster home system. Evie is still keeping ... Read Review |
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Bump In the Night, Colin Watson06/08/2020 - 5:02pmThe second book in one of my all time favourite series, the Flaxborough Chronicles, BUMP IN THE NIGHT, sees DI Purbright on temporary secondment to Chalmsbury after a series of monuments explode. Things get a lot more serious though when local "identity" Stan Biggadyke is blown up on the nights he normally spends with Police Chief Hector Larch's wife - the same Inspector Larch who volunteers at the local civil defence centre that is missing boxes of explosives. By this second book Watson had really hit his straps with eccentric characters, elaborate and stagey plots, a ... Read Review |
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The Shifting Landscape, Katherine Kovacic06/08/2020 - 1:47pmThe third book in the Alex Clayton Art Mystery series sees a shift of setting to the Western District of Victoria and one of those big pastoral leases that were such a part of the landscape down there. The title of the novel "The Shifting Landscape" is quite cleverly pitched referring as it does to the way that farming has changed in recent years, the way that succession creates issues for so many of those generational farming families, and the way that changing perceptions of the landscape are finally starting to come about. Along with the main thread, that of the ... Read Review |
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The Jaded Spy, Nick Spill04/08/2020 - 2:24pmTHE JADED SPY is the second in the Jaded Trilogy (the first being THE JADED KIWI), a series of stand-alone-ish (so far) manic thrillers with a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek humour and sense of place and time. Set in 1976 the earlier book concentrated on the war on drugs in New Zealand. THE JADED SPY comes from the same time period, but tackles the growing Maori Land Rights movement, student riots, a Soviet Spy Scandal and a political party with no scruples and an overwhelming desire to stay in power, no matter what (sounds familiar....). Told as the story of Alexander, ... Read Review |
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Cutting the Cord, Natasha Molt04/08/2020 - 12:37pmAn assassin thriller with a twist CUTTING THE CORD features Amira Knox, a member of a secret terrorist group - the Authenticity Movement. Raised in the group, after being adopted by the leader as an infant, Amira and her siblings have been trained as an elite group of assassins, tasked with the elimination of affluent Europeans, identified as enemies of the movement's purpose by her father. What you end up with in CUTTING THE CORD is a classic thriller styled novel, with an unusual premise in that this assassin is searching for meaning in her own life, increasingly aware ... Read Review |
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Death in the Latin Quarter, Raphaël Cardetti28/07/2020 - 4:45pmDEATH IN THE LATIN QUARTER is the first novel by Raphael Cardetti, translated from the original French, released in English in 2010. Categorised on the cover as a "treasure-hunt tale", this is a book set in the halls of academia and the world of art collection, restoration and museums. The story, as outlined in the blurb, revolves around Valentine Savi, a talented young restorer, taking in private commissions to clean and restore artwork on behalf of the great general public. She has fallen from grace, fired from a prestigious job after a mistake, which is slowly revealed ... Read Review |
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A New Name for the Colour Blue, Annette Marner27/07/2020 - 1:00pmEvery now and then a book sneaks into my reading pile that absolutely and utterly defies this reader's ability to describe it, the affect it had, and the experience of reading it. A NEW NAME FOR THE COLOUR BLUE was simply amazing. Beautiful, moving, haunting, fragile and deceptive: actually deceptive doesn't cut it, sneaky is better, in a good, clever and enlightening way. Incredibly sneaky in the way it weaves a tale of domestic violence, of control and expectation, grief, abandonment, and the pain of growing up and away from family; into the slide into acceptance of the past and how ... Read Review |
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Cry Baby, Mark Billingham21/07/2020 - 12:48pmTwenty novels and twenty years later, British crime author Mark Billingham takes his fans back to where it all began with his latest crime fiction thriller, Cry Baby. The year is 1996, and Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is already a ten year veteran of nightmares born from a case that will never leave him. With his workmates being a good mixture of both the inept and the insightful, Thorne always expects a hammering now and then for his past actions on the job. There is also always the possibility with every case of a new cock up to provide fresh cannon fodder for ... Read Review |
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Death of an Agent, David McGill16/07/2020 - 2:58pmDEATH OF AN AGENT is the fourth "kiwi spy story" featuring ex-detective / spycatcher Dan Delaney. Historical crime fiction, based on real-life events this is a series that's been getting better and better, with this outing pleasingly comical in some places, as well as a rip-roaring yarn into the bargain. Set in 1965, Ru Patterson, NZ's leading broadcaster is organising a protest against US President Johnson's envoy - Henry Cabot Lodge - to pressure New Zealand to send troops, whilst around him, the anti-Vietnam war protests are expanding. When Patterson is found ... Read Review |
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Angel of Death: Dulcie Markham, Femme Fatale of the Australian Underworld, Leigh Straw14/07/2020 - 3:57pmDulcie Markham might have been known as "deadly to know" according to newspaper accounts from the time, but all these years later, it's more striking how little is really known about a woman who was notorious at the time. Coming from the same era as Kate Leigh and Tilly Devine, Markham was young when she left home, got involved in the Sydney underworld of the 1920's, and young (only 62) when she died. She lived a life blighted by violence, and loss, a prostitute by the age of 15, a gangster's "moll" by 18, she saw multiple lovers and/or husbands stabbed and gunned down; she was ... Read Review |
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The Other Passenger, Louise Candlish14/07/2020 - 2:29pmWanting what others have fast becomes a fatal obsession in The Other Passenger. Whether that be your job, your house, your bank balance or your relationships, perhaps there is always someone in your circle of friends and acquaintances who feels that for you in particular, it all came a bit too easy. Unable to cope with the suffocating commute that is the London underground, Jamie has been instead working nine hours a day at a café not far from the Thames. For a man in his late forties, it’s a bit of a step down from his previous corporate position, but as time goes on, ... Read Review |
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Interesting Times, Terry Pratchett13/07/2020 - 11:25amI'm going to have to take issue with some stuff in the blurb for this Discworld outing. I really don't know what's wrong with being 5 foot tall (ish), or what's wrong with surgical sandals... but Cohen the Barbarian is just the sort of hero you need. He's crazy brave, crazy about a fight, and well flat out a bit crazy really. And the idea that Rincewind is the world's dumbest wizard, when he's as quick on his toes in the other direction in the event of danger as you'd expect somebody with a hefty dose of smarts and a very deep down knowledge of their own weaknesses to be. But the ... Read Review |
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Maskerade, Terry Pratchett13/07/2020 - 11:20amI've said before how much I particularly love The Witches subset of the Discworld novels, and I think this is possibly my favourite of them all. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are particularly resourceful, difficult, funny, enterprising and very determined in their desire to sort out the mess at a big city opera house, when a shadowy Phantom figure is killing people and frightening the living daylights out of many others. They are aided in their quest by a famous opera singer who is well sick of foreign food for reasons that aren't known to many - except the enquiring mind of Nanny ... Read Review |
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The First Time He Hit Her, Heidi Lemon10/07/2020 - 1:44pmTestament to the recent societal understanding that to observe the presence of coercive control in an intimate relationship is to witness ‘a murder in slow motion’, THE FIRST TIME HE HIT HER is an exhaustive examination of the events that preceded the death of a young Australian mother in 2015. (I am hesitant to say ‘led up to the death’ as this removes the responsibility of humane choice away from Tara Costigan’s killer). What is common once again from the stories of Tara’s family and friends is that none expected things to go so far, even though on the day of the ... Read Review |
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See You At the Toxteth, Peter Corris08/07/2020 - 4:02pmIt is more than fitting that the final word from Peter Corris would be curated by his wife, and long-time editor, Jean Bedford. The chosen short stories are perfect examples of his work, and the 'ABC Of Crime Writing' is every bit as insightful, acerbic, funny and thought-provoking as you'd want it to be. The columns from Newtown Review of Books are the icing on the very satisfying cake that is SEE YOU AT THE TOXTETH. Those of us who were lucky enough to be around when Corris first started writing the Cliff Hardy novels will remember many of the original collections from ... Read Review |
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Dead Man Singing, Frances Housden02/07/2020 - 2:54pmAs the blurb puts it - could a rock-star's first big hit have predicted his death? First in what looks like it's going to be a series DEAD MAN SINGING introduces Detective Joni Johns and private investigator Frankie Buchanan who find themselves investigating the death of rock star Jim Munro. Johns because it's her job and Buchanan when he's hired by the members of Munro's band - We Own the Night. Only problem is that Johns is the person responsible for ending Buchanan's police career, so needless to say there's a bit of tension there. Given the reference to the first big ... Read Review |
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Spiked, Bruce Melrose02/07/2020 - 2:49pmWhen it comes to knowing anything at all about sport, if it's not cricket, then I'm the last person you want on your trivia team (and then only if you're really short of subject matter experts). The author of SPIKED, on the other hand, seems to know a lot about this environment, particularly when it comes to the Olympic games - and all the behind the scenes rivalries, and the internecine carrying on. SPIKED is a bit of an unusual crime novel in that it's set very much within the world of professional rivalry in amateur sport (I think the Olympics are still "supposed" to be amateur ... Read Review |
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Fauna, Donna Mazza01/07/2020 - 1:39pmIn the near future, a child is created using the DNA of three parents; mother Stacey, father Isaac, and a long deceased ancestor of mankind. This child will not be able to hold a passport, live a normal life, or even be issued with a birth certificate. She is Fauna. Stacey and Isaac, a young Western Australian couple, prepare to embark upon the perilous journey into parenthood for the fourth time. They have agreed to partner up with LifeBlood, a clinical research company that offers financial incentives for parents to create and nurture a genetically modified child. ... Read Review |