All the Reviews

Poker Chips and Poison, Rodney Strong

POKER 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

Hide, S.J. Morgan

Set 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

Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett

With 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"After all, chaos always ensues whenever important public services are withdrawn, and Discworld is no exception."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

Born or Bred?, Robert Wainwright & Paola Totaro

Writing 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

The Shifting Landscape, Katherine Kovacic

“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

Coffin, Scarcely Used, Colin Watson

Anybody 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

Sheerwater, Leah Swann

Sheerwater 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

Darkness For Light, Emma Viskic

The 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

Black Souls, Gioacchino Criaco

“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