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Between the Lies, Michelle Adams31/07/2019 - 2:55pmLaunch! From the opening pages, this reviewer was hooked. There are so many subtly creepy things going on in BETWEEN THE LIES that you hardly know where to throw your suspicions. Who is the master manipulator here? Why is no one in this family being honest with each other? Amnesia is such a handy little tool to utilize in the writing of a crime novel but we promise there’s no need to groan when you see that it has been used once again in the writing of this thriller. It is this incremental seepage of Chloe’s returning memories that’ll give ... Read Review |
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A Nearly Normal Family, M.T. Edvardsson22/07/2019 - 4:09pmStella is the only child of Adam, a pastor, and Ulrika, a lawyer. Stella is now of legal age and looks forward to soon taking an Asian holiday with her best friend since childhood, Amina. The two teenagers have been through much together and of course, know a lot more about each other’s true selves than their parents do. It’s that degree of separation that Stella prides herself in maintaining, seeing as her parents are both so clueless that they buy her a scooter for her birthday when Stella had clearly stated that she wanted spending money for her trip. There are many things that ... Read Review |
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Hey You, Pretty Face, Linda Coles22/07/2019 - 12:06pmHEY YOU, PRETTY FACE is the opening book in a new series based around detective Jack Rutherford. Previously appearing in a supporting role in DARK SERVICE, NZ based author Linda Coles longer running DS Amanda Lacey series, this book sees Rutherford leading the search for a series of abducted girls and handling an abandoned infant, with a skeleton staff over Christmas. As with the Lacey series, Coles is an author who knows how to put together a good plot outline, this time a trio of missing girls, and a found infant, and clues pointing towards the inevitable exploitation ... Read Review |
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Dark Service / One Last Hit, Linda Coles18/07/2019 - 3:20pmA combined review of DARK SERVICE, and ONE LAST HIT, the 4th and 5th books in the Detective Amanda Lacey series from NZ based author Linda Coles, set in the United Kingdom where Lacey and her investigative partner Jack Rutherford are confronted by a very odd scenario the first outing DARK SERVICE; and Lacey and another investigative partner, Duncan Riley, deal with a threat that comes much closer to home in the second ONE LAST HIT. DARK SERVICE first then. This was my first encounter with Detective Amanda Lacey and DCI Jack Rutherford (who has his own series starting out ... Read Review |
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I Only Killed Him Once, Adam Christopher17/07/2019 - 3:00pmThe third and final instalment in the Raymond Electromatic, I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE sees robot detective, turned gun for hire, in the fight of his "life". "Life" requires a bit of wiggle room here as Raymond Electromatic is a robotic detective / hitman with a 24 hour long memory, and a computer overlady called Ada who sets him off on each job every day with a newly installed memory tape and no idea what he's done, or where he's been before. Except for knowing that he's a robot, that he "talks" to Ada, how to detect and a bunch of other things that may ring some "what the" ... Read Review |
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The Anarchists' Club, Alex Reeve14/07/2019 - 4:31pmA year ago, Leo Stanhope was a crossroads. Leo has plenty of excellent reasons to keep a low profile and is keen to move on from the vivid memories of violence and horror that almost cost him his life. He may not be flush with funds but Leo is comforted by the fact that his life now has a structure of sorts. He has friends, he has work, he has a home. An odd encounter in his landlord’s pharmacy followed by a murder leads to the police coming to visit Leo. At a club frequented by radicals and foreigners, a woman has been murdered and Leo’s address was in her purse. ... Read Review |
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Between, Adele Broadbent12/07/2019 - 2:39pmAs a young adult novel, BETWEEN, is a little firecracker of a story, mostly because Olly is a wonderful character. Grounded, a lot, in the relationship between the slightly naughty Olly, who is constantly drawn to Mad Martha, despite the blanket family ban on contact, the other side of that is the sort of mildly exasperated, slightly amused / confused manner of mums the world over. That he's forbidden to speak to Mad Martha is, exactly as you'd expect, a red rag to a gentle, kindly little bull, who knows his family is a bit fractured, that his father died before he was even born, and ... Read Review |
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The Carlswick Mythology, SL Beaumont10/07/2019 - 1:55pmThe 5th in the Carlswick series, THE CARLSWICK MYTHOLOGY is a young adult (at the upper end of the age range), slightly female orientated series, based around main characters Stephanie Cooper and her rock drummer boyfriend James Knox. Whilst it's not absolutely necessary to have read any of the earlier books (THE CARLSWICK AFFAIR, THE CARLSWICK TREASURE, THE CARLSWICK CONSPIRACY and THE CARLSWICK DECEPTION), it did help that I'd read the 4th book, and therefore had a bit of an inkling of these two and how their version of a rock star lifestyle works. In this outing James ... Read Review |
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The Chain, Adrian McKinty09/07/2019 - 3:14pmRachel Klein is going about her day when a phone call she receives sends her straight into the pits of parental hell. Rachel’s daughter Kylie has been kidnapped and there is more than just a money ransom that needs to be paid in order for Kylie to be returned safely to her. Rachel is ordered to kidnap and ransom a child herself, thereafter, becoming part of THE CHAIN. THE CHAIN could have been a lot more of a techno thriller than it was but it has enough prods directed at the reader about the dangers of social media and the nasty dark interweb etc that we ... Read Review |
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The Chain, Adrian McKinty09/07/2019 - 3:13pmConsider for a moment what you would do. You've dropped your child off at the bus stop on their way to school, and you're heading towards a normal day. You've had some health challenges yourself recently, but you're getting your life back together. You're going back to work. Your life is taking a turn for the better. Until you answer the phone and a panicked voice tells you, they have kidnapped your child, and then they explain the nightmare scenario that you need to get onto straight away if you ever want to see your child again. It's a choreographed scenario, it's stylised, it feels ... Read Review |
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Bordertown, Gregory James08/07/2019 - 4:13pmRecently a lot of books have passed my way that have, as their central theme, white Australian's mistreatment of Aboriginal Australians. This is, in my humble opinion, not a bad thing. In the case of BORDERTOWN, however, it's not a book that is written from an Aboriginal perspective, rather it's the viewpoint of a white outsider Policeman sent to an outback posting after a disastrous shooting in Sydney, in the early 1980's. There central character, Detective Bo Campbell, comes across shocking abuse, murder and mistreatment of the local Aboriginal's combined with a visceral racism and ... Read Review |
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Down for the Count, Martin Holmén08/07/2019 - 1:38pmThe second in the Harry Kvist series, DOWN FOR THE COUNT follows CLINCH, with the third book, SLUGGER, now available in Australia as well. Think deepest darkest dirtiest noir, of the hardest possible bitten variety, and this series fits the definition perfectly. Add longing for love, and a touching sense of loyalty as well. Harry Kvist is an unlikely hard man, although his initial description would seem to fit the bill. He's a boxer, a brawler, a heavy and a hard man. In DOWN FOR THE COUNT he's leaving behind his latest prison sentence to return to his small flat, above the funeral ... Read Review |
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The Last, Hanna Jameson07/07/2019 - 12:59pmThe scope of THE LAST is reasonably small, and this focus on largely just the one location makes it a very personal account of one visiting American who is displaced at the time of nuclear war. A group of people, only temporarily connected through all staying or working at the same hotel, do not necessarily make for the best collection of apocalypse buddies. Who knows where we will be or who we will be with when it all does finally go to hell and the world has to re-establish a new order that has hopefully learned from the mistakes of its past. That’s the hope, anyway. ... Read Review |
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The Delectable Lady D'Estelle, D.A. Crossman04/07/2019 - 3:51pmFlagged as an erotic thriller THE DELECTABLE LADY D'ESTELLE made me think. Unfortunately mostly about how erotica is a tricky undertaking and how, combining it with thriller aspects, you flirt with some very fine lines. I suspect it takes a lot of writing skill to avoid a step over from one to the other, and I'm also acutely aware that there could be some gender bias here that's hard to avoid. Because however I tried to work this one out, the plot, the motivations and the fundamentals of who did what why and when, never became believable. The dialogue didn't convince and it just ... Read Review |
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Devil's Lair. Sarah Barrie03/07/2019 - 2:35pmBit of housekeeping first because I got myself a little confused early on here. DEVIL'S LAIR is a standalone novel from prolific Australian author Sarah Barrie, sharing some location similarities with an earlier novel - BLOODTREE RIVER. Sarah's past books seem to lean towards the romance side of the equation, with DEVIL'S LAIR billed as romantic suspense. The novel starts out with events leading up to the violent death of Dale Jones, unfaithful husband and business partner of Callie Jones. Fleeing the aftermath of his death, Callie lobs up in a neglected mansion house, in ... Read Review |
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The Autumn Murders, Robert Gott25/06/2019 - 1:57pmAs per the blurb, this is a series that started out with THE HOLIDAY MURDERS, then came THE PORT FAIRY MURDERS and now THE AUTUMN MURDERS. At this point it's very much a series that needs to be read in order, as the back story here is really going to be important to a reader understanding the implications of George Starling's plans for revenge. Starling is a very different sort of villain for Robert Gott to be tackling. He's almost all consuming, particularly in THE AUTUMN MURDERS, and whilst there are the good guys, Detective Joe Sable and Constable Helen Lord in ... Read Review |
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One for Another, Andrea Jacka20/06/2019 - 1:16pmA mystery set in 1880's Idaho with a bordello madam Hennessy Reed at the centre of it, that has a lot going for it. I know.... Hennessey Reed is a bordello madam with a liking for laudanum, irish whiskey and the local marshal. Although they keep that last one on the quiet as much as possible. Reed is more than a bit annoyed when her 3 young girls are murdered near her town, Melancholy, where she's part come to hide out and start again. When her own daughter goes missing, she's into the hunt, whether US Marshal Rafael Cooper likes it or not, and she's convinced that a ... Read Review |
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Front Page News, Katie Rowney19/06/2019 - 12:47pmFRONT PAGE NEWS is the debut novel from former Australian journalist Katie Rowney. From the lighter, intended as humour side of crime fiction, cadet journalist Stacey McCallaghan has her first job in the small country town of Toomey working on the local newspaper. Struggling with the grind of making front page news out of the daily goings on in a small town, it's almost like the first dead body is heaven sent for McCallaghan's journalistic ambitions. The hassle, as always with humour, is that it's only going to work for some readers. Needless to say this reader won't be ... Read Review |
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The Nancys, R.W.R. McDonald17/06/2019 - 1:04pmHands up those of us who thought we'd grow up to be Nancy Drew, although I will confess I was more in the Trixie Belden camp. But those books, The Secret Seven, The Famous Five and the Three Investigators series probably had a lot to do with anybody around our age addicted to mysteries, thrillers and crime fiction. Although I doubt anybody quite expected the homage that is THE NANCYS by Kiwi-Australian writer R.W.R. McDonald. And potential readers should be warned - this is not a book you'd be giving to your average 8 year old. Unless you're of a particularly broad mind and even then ... Read Review |
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Devil's Lair. Sarah Barrie17/06/2019 - 12:58pmCallie Jones has never had any reason to mistrust her husband Dale, until the day that derails her entire life. How could Callie have been so wrong about the man she had chosen to spend the rest of her life with? Fleeing from the eyes of the press after Dale’s violent death, Callie takes up the offer of a friend to stay in a cottage in the grounds of a lovely old mansion that has sadly been allowed to decay in the hands of its elderly owner. It’s a lovely place for Callie to rethink her options, and she is not deterred by the spooky stories attached to the main house ... Read Review |