All the Reviews

Black Water Lilies, Michel Bussi

Michel Bussi is a renowned crime fiction writer and winner of many awards in his native France, BLACK WATER LILIES being the second of his books translated into English. It would appear from both of them (the first was AFTER THE CRASH) he is particularly good at unusual, absolutely enthralling scenarios. 

Start reading BLACK WATER LILIES and you could be forgiven for double-checking the classification of this book. It doesn't read at all like a ... Read Review

Between Summer's Longing and Winter's Cold, Leif G.W. Persson

As Leif G.W. Persson is a new author for me, I was interested to read the bio in this book:

"Leif Persson is the Grand Master of Scandinavian crime fiction. Over three decades, he has taken a scalpel to the political and social mores of Swedish society in dark, complex and satirical crime novels. His work melds the social realism of a Balzac or a Dickens with the hard-boiled street smarts of a James Ellroy."

Whatever that means..... More importantly, the blurb eventually goes on to note that he is the author of nine novels, with BETWEEN SUMMER'S LONGING and ... Read Review

Dead Men Don't Order Flake, Sue Williams

Cass Tuplin has returned in second book DEAD MEN DON'T ORDER FLAKE. Proprietor of the recently rebuilt Rusty Bore Takeway, she's a fish, chip and dim sim dispenser extraordinaire with a sideline in private enquiries. Which means she's one of those slightly nosy women who can find out stuff, despite objections from her eldest son, and local Senior Constable, Dean. Her propensity to dig until dirt moves out of the way is part of the reason why a local father, Gary Kellett, asks her to look further into the death of his only daughter. Natalie was a journalist in the "big town up the road ... Read Review

Arresting Incarceration, Don Weatherburn

A very detailed, academic analysis of the issue of Indigenous incarceration, ARRESTING INCARCERATION: PATHWAYS OUT OF INDIGENOUS IMPRISONMENT is sobering, difficult, and confronting reading. And it's hard not to feel like a bit of a fraud in discussing it - not being of the community or of any academic expertise.

So looking at the book as an interested and sympathetic observer, the level of statistics quoted, the breadth of the issue, and the length of time in which it has continued to be a major area of concern is embarrassing. A simple comparison figure to give you an ... Read Review

Black Teeth, Zane Lovitt

When THE MIDNIGHT PROMISE won the Ned Kelly Award in 2013 it was impossible not to agree wholeheartedly with the judges' decision. That book telegraphed clearly here was an author to be followed closely. Three years on, BLACK TEETH is worth the wait. Unusual, dark, often funny, always disquieting, this is an intriguing novel.

In it, the lives of two loners, slightly lost men, collide as they search for the same man. One, Jason Ginaff is a technical wiz. He earns his living researching job candidates, finding out the things that people don't want discovered. Raised by a ... Read Review

The Legend of Winstone Blackhat, Tanya Moir (Reviewed by Deb Wood)

In The Legend of Winstone Blackhat, Tanya Moir takes the reader, in a sustained and authentic way, into the world-view of an abused 12 year old. She writes powerfully about a boy, Winstone, (named after a NZ concreting company) who comes from a neglectful and damaging home life. The novel segues effortlessly between Winstone's day to day existence as a run away in the hills of Central Otago and his cowboy fantasy of a journey of revenge across the plains of the American West.

Moir's evocation of the physical landscape is vivid and tactile – a place where the very ... Read Review

A Straits Settlement, Brian Stoddart

The Le Fanu series from author Brian Stoddart is one of those extremely elegant combinations of mystery fiction and historical lesson that also provides entertainment for readers. There's even a bit of good old fashioned romance from the male point of view. In short, there's something for all readers within these pages.

The third book, A STRAITS SETTLEMENT sees Le Fanu promoted above his desired wishes to acting Inspector-General, buried in paperwork and oddly behaving subordinate officers, increasingly desperate to resolve his ongoing faltering love affair with a local ... Read Review

The Blackmail Blend, Livia Day

There is so much to like about the Café La Femme series (of which THE BLACKMAIL BLEND is #1.5), that a novella drizzled into the middle of existing novels, A TRIFLE DEAD and DROWNED VANILLA is a lovely treat - dare one suggest the icing on the cake? It seems that there is a third book in the series KEEP CALM & KILL THE CHEF on it's way now as well.

For those that haven't come across these books before they are funny, clever and charming cosies with recipes, vintage clothes, spendidly elaborate friends, cafe society and a hefty dose of romance, love, lust and murder, ... Read Review

A Murder Without Motive, Martin McKenzie-Murray

True Crime writing seems, to this outside observer, to be a minefield of complications. Personal connections to a real crime event, either of the victim, the perpetrator, or community can create a situation that authors must carefully negotiate. Because of this it does seem that true crime structure either takes a particularly fact based / no conclusions drawn approach, or steps into a very personal viewpoint. Martin McKenzie-Murray grew up in the same neighbourhood as Rebecca Ryle, his brother knew the man found guilty of her murder, and even though the author didn't personally know ... Read Review