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The Wych Elm, Tana French12/05/2020 - 12:39pmThe Wych Elm is one of those releases that I’ve had circling in my library pile for ages and keep meaning to come back to. All the opinions I’ve heard in the year and a half or more since its release have been positive and fresh off the back of viewing (and reviewing) a Tana French TV adaptation, and in this time of catching up on all of the things, so here we are. Toby has always led a charmed life. Always able to sweet talk his way out of a bad situation or flash the offended a winning smile, it comes to a shock to the young Londoner that he actually isn’t invincible. ... Read Review |
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Can You See Her?, S.E. Lynes11/05/2020 - 1:56pmNot a new concept but so unacknowledged! Yes, the middle aged woman is pretty much invisible. If you're over 40 and female, one could rob a bank, steal a car or murder someone and likely no one would ever think it was you. Can You See Her chronicles the effects of loss and how age erodes the sense of self from a woman and mother. Rachel Edwards is a collector of local true crime news, terrified what the rise of knife crime is doing to her country. With the aim of one day presenting her findings to her local MP, Rachel's hobby causes concern in her family. Her snarky ... Read Review |
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Dark City, Simon Read07/05/2020 - 3:54pmIf there's one thing that DARK CITY reminds the reader of - it's that it doesn't matter what is happening around us, there are always the good, the bad and the downright opportunistic members of the human race. There's always been stories of the strength and determination of the British people during the Blitz and the Second World War in general - their stoicism, the way that they pulled together and survived the dreadful bombardments throw at them in the course of the war. But I don't remember that much concentration on the lesser elements of society. The murderers that ... Read Review |
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Trust Me, I'm Dead - Sherryl Clark04/05/2020 - 7:50pmShortlisted for the 2018 CWA Debut Daggar, TRUST ME, I'M DEAD, is the first crime novel from New Zealand born, Australian resident writer Sherryl Clark, best known for her children's writing, although I understand there's now a sequel to this novel planned for this year. Any possible sequel should be regarded as a very good thing, whenever it is released. Judi Westerholme leads a secluded life, out in a rural area, working her vegetable patch, and mostly minding her own business, she's a woman with a past of her own. She hasn't seen her brother for years, having been ... Read Review |
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Witches Abroad, Terry Pratchett04/05/2020 - 1:27pmAs much as I'm loving revisiting the entire Discworld series, I'm particularly loving the chance to revisit Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax, and in WITCHES ABROAD, Magrat Garlick is still the third witch. All of whom have hit their travelling brooms in a bid to prevent a servant girl from marrying a prince. Along the way we meet Mrs Gogol, a tricky fairy godmother with connections closer to the Witches than you'd expect, and you get an opportunity to consider that age old question, why on earth would the servant girl WANT to marry a prince. Isn't there more to life than that! ... Read Review |
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Poker Chips and Poison, Rodney Strong01/05/2020 - 11:48amPOKER CHIPS AND POISON is the first novel in what's intended to be a series set around 97-year-old Alice Atkinson, resident of Silvermoon Retirement Village, and cunning sleuth. Anybody who has read this author's Hitchhiker series may remember a cameo from Alice, but in this story she's front and centre. She's also bored, resourceful and just the woman for the job when a friend is murdered in the confines of the Village. From the very cosy side of the crime genre, it may seem somewhat unlikely that a 97 year-old woman could possibly run a murder investigation, but this is ... Read Review |
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Where the Truth Lies, Karina Kilmore30/04/2020 - 12:43pmShortlisted for the Unpublished Manuscript Award in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Karina Kilmore’s debut has got a lot of Australian crime fiction fans talking. Full Review at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
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Hide, S.J. Morgan30/04/2020 - 12:07pmSet in 1983, HIDE is one of those novels that clearly demonstrate how a couple of simple life choices can send somebody spiralling into dark territory very quickly. There's nothing unusual in the setup as Alec Johnston moves into the sort of share house we've all probably lived in at some time. A slightly grotty old house, this time in Swansea, South Wales, which he shares with three other young men - Minto, Stobes and Black. Minto is an odd character, a menacing bikkie type with a very young girlfriend who is fragile beyond belief. Johnston, with more than a sneaking ... Read Review |
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Seven Lies, Elizabeth Kay28/04/2020 - 3:05pmThe life-changing influence of platonic female relationships rarely gets covered in fiction, and for this alone Seven Lies deserves a tip of the hat. It’s not a subject matter many writers have invested in and anyone who has ever been or spent time around a teenage girl would know that the connections young women make to each other during their formulative years can be the making or the breaking of character. Best friends Jane and Marnie have always had each other’s backs. If one is in trouble, then the two of them are in trouble, they are that close. Marnie is there to ... Read Review |
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Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett28/04/2020 - 1:33pmWith hindsight, this 11th Discworld novel would have been a pretty good listen in this time of lockdown: "After all, chaos always ensues whenever important public services are withdrawn, and Discworld is no exception." Although to be fair, nothing here is particularly chaotic and nothing is currently threatened by an overrun of undead citizens, but it's been a while since I've cruised the streets of any major town or city, but then how do you pick the undead from the lockdown disheveled these days... REAPER MAN is the sequel to MORT for those ... Read Review |
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Agent Running in the Field, John John le Carré27/04/2020 - 2:59pmI listened to this via Audible, largely because I was rather intrigued by the idea of the author as the narrator. Which overall was an interesting way to listen to a book, although I will admit, it did take a while to get used to the very dead-pan presentation style. The book revolves around the world of Britain's SIS, and the Russia Department, concerned it seems mainly these days with the rise and rise of Russian oligarch's, this is less "spy thriller" than Le Carré's earlier works, with a strong emphasis on current day politics, but with little or limited evidence of ... Read Review |
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Born or Bred?, Robert Wainwright & Paola Totaro26/04/2020 - 4:18pmWriting a book about true events must be a complex undertaking. If those events are within recent history, then it must make the task even harder. If the events are as horrific as what occurred at Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996, then the reader may find themselves in very difficult territory. The history of the writing of this book appears to have been somewhat complicated into the bargain, with Martin Bryant's mother Carleen starting to write her own account, a possible collaboration with the authors of this book, and her subsequent withdrawal from the project. I understand since then ... Read Review |
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Elly, Maike Wetzel24/04/2020 - 3:04pmElly was once a sister to Ines, and a daughter to Judith and Hamid. She lives on in the stories told by others and most importantly, in the stories told by her own family. Elly is a curious novella that depicts the isolated roads that we journey through grief, surrounded by others but essentially always alone. Elly exits the stage with no explanation, leaving only a backpack in the middle of the road to mark her last interaction with a world that had always seemed safe and secure. The fissure that was already present in her parent’s marriage has now widened and the ... Read Review |
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The Shifting Landscape, Katherine Kovacic22/04/2020 - 1:46pm“I step over the threshold. The day is drawing in and the room is shadowy, so it’s not until Mac snaps on the light that I see it. I almost trip over a coffee table in my rush to get to the fireplace or, more specifically, the painting hanging over the marble mantelpiece.
I stare for a moment then spin around and look at Mac. He’s closed the door but hasn’t advanced into the room and is standing there, arms folded, watching my reaction.”
Art dealer and I hesitate to say amateur sleuth Alex Clayton ... Read Review |
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Coffin, Scarcely Used, Colin Watson16/04/2020 - 4:30pmAnybody new to the Flaxborough Chronicles by British writer Colin Watson might not be aware of the author's body of work. Born in 1920, dying in 1983, Watson wrote twelve Flaxborough novels in total, renowned for their dry comic styling, set in the small fictional town of Flaxborough, widely believed to be based on Boston in Lincolnshire. Watson worked as a journalist in the area and the characters in his books are rumoured to be caricatures of people he met during his journalistic time. There are two main people in the novels - Inspector Walter Purbight, a solid, good ... Read Review |
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Sheerwater, Leah Swann13/04/2020 - 3:26pmSheerwater is an emotionally charged work of both hope and despair, beginnings and endings. Calling this book a thriller won’t be doing it a disservice, but it may give the expectation to the reader that they are about to dive into a work of suspense with no lingering take-homes to mull over. Sheerwater is a nuanced novel that illustrates how dangerously the pendulum swings when one person in a relationship decides that enough is enough. On the run from her unstable partner, Ava is cajoling along her two young sons in the car as they head for the Victorian coastal town ... Read Review |
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Nest of Vipers, Luke Devenish12/04/2020 - 11:50amNEST OF VIPERS is the second book in the Empress of Rome series. Author Luke Devenish has a resume that seems to hint at an ability to build a fantasy world. A novelist, screenwriter, playwright and Lecturer, Devenish was a Script Producer with Neighbours and a writer on Home and Away. Ancient Rome in Devenish's hands is a complicated, gory, deadly, lustful, obsessive place full of elaborate and complicated characters (maybe that's where the Neighbours and Home and Away comparisons have to stop...although I'd expect that comment's going to get me more hate mail). NEST OF ... Read Review |
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Darkness For Light, Emma Viskic07/04/2020 - 2:46pmThe third book in the Caleb Zelic series finds him working hard rebuilding his life and his business after the very heated ending of the previous novel, AND FIRE CAME DOWN. In the time since his on again / off again business partner Frankie has disappeared, but his ex-wife Kat, now pregnant with their child, is back. He's getting therapy for his problems (albeit frequently standing around in the Victoria Market), and he's reconnected with long time friends in the deaf community. Newcomers to this series will find themselves having to sort through some rapid fire ... Read Review |
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Black Souls, Gioacchino Criaco04/04/2020 - 2:09pm“They called us the “children of the forest,” we descendants of the people who had inhabited the woods of Calabrian massif for millennia, we who’d transformed it into a place of evil, we who’d given up the Aspromonte to conquer another world.”
“Convinced I was saving them, I led them to perdition.”
In the remote Aspromonte Mountains in southern Calabria, Italy three boys, Luciano, Luigi and the unnamed narrator, want to change the life they have. They’re peasants, they’re supposed to know their place, to know ... Read Review |
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Riptides, Kirsten Alexander02/04/2020 - 2:41pmKirsten Alexander’s second novel evokes 1970s Queensland as it explores the fallout of a tragedy. In her acknowledgements at the end of Riptides, Kirsten Alexander touches on the difficulties she faced in writing about her home town: Anyone who grew up in Brisbane understands how complicated a relationship with a city can be. I love the place and couldn’t wait to get away from it, and I’m not sure I fully understand either of those responses. Riptides reflects some of that tension in an unusual crime ... Read Review |