All the Reviews

A Florentine Death, Michele Giuttari

Michele Giuttari is a real-life Italian policeman, head of the Squadra Mobile for around 8 years in his own right, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe that his central protagonist, Michele Ferrara, is more than a little autobiographical.  The author has allowed his character to be slightly quirky, but undoubtedly he is the hero of the piece, and given the cases that Giutarri investigated, including the Monster of Florence, the reader has to assume that some of the events aren't that far from real life as well.  

As the bodies are found, seemingly pointlessly ... Read Review

As Darkness Falls, Bronwyn Parry

A difficult setting, and a difficult task for the debut novelist.  Bronwyn Parry does a fine job with bringing a small Australian bush town to life and this is the great strength of the read.  You can taste the dust in the air and truly really picture everyone talking out the sides of their mouths (so thus to avoid the blowflies).  Where it would be a stretch is in calling this a  a crime novel, or even one of romantic suspense as there is no real mystery to solve or any pretense in constructing one.   As a developing relationship drama it serves very well, and will draw the reader in ... Read Review

A Carrion Death, Michael Stanley

Set in Botswana, A CARRION DEATH introduces the reader to, amongst a lot of other characters, Assistant Superintendent David Bengu.  David is a big man.  A very big man.  As a young man, his friend Angus coined the nickname Kubu - which means Hippopotamus in Setswana.  That friend belongs to one of the families in Botswana - his father, until he died, and his uncle have run the Botswana Cattle and Mining Company for many years. His friend - Angus and his twin sister Dianna are about to reach the age at which they inherit and they can take over from their uncle Cecil.

In ... Read Review

Disco for the Departed, Colin Cotterill

If you haven't followed the adventures of Dr Siri, his nurse Dtui and his morgue assistant Mr Geung, then you're really missing out.  In DISCO FOR THE DEPARTED, Dr Siri and Dtui are sent into the mountains to investigate the mummified body of a man found buried under a concrete path at the mountain hide-out of the President of the People's Republic of Laos.  The investigation has a certain level of sensitivity because of where the body was found needless to say.  Mr Geung remains in Vientiane to look after the morgue and he takes his responsibilities very seriously.

Cuban ... Read Review

Flesh House, Stuart MacBride

If you are teetering on the edge of fully-fledged vegetarianism FLESH HOUSE could be the trigger that pushes you over.  MacBride is one of those author's who seem to be able to take the grotesque, the frequently cruel and absolutely obscene and wrap that in humanity.  FLESH HOUSE is one of those books.  At points you're giggling away at the magnificently over the top DI Steel, feeling for the put upon DS McRae, wondering whether DI Insch is really going to burst a blood vessel, and at the next minute you're peeking through your fingers reading some truly confrontational scenes. ... Read Review

Double Shot, Anna Blundy

Faith is a newspaper woman - a war zone junkie; authority hating; vodka addicted; bad tempered; foul mouthed; loud; opinionated; single; with young baby; conflicted; tetchy; complicated newspaper woman with a history.  Part of that history is personal - she's got this distant boyfriend Eden.  Distant in their relationship - mostly because she keeps him that way, despite him being the father of her beloved baby Ben.  Distant because he's headed off to Tuscany to write "those" sorts of columns - in Faith's words I mean, if that isn't money for old rope I don't know what is. 'As the ... Read Review

By Death Divided, Patricia Hall

BY DEATH DIVIDED is the 14th book in the Thackeray and Ackroyd series.  Laura Ackroyd is a journalist - her partner Michael Thackeray is a DCI.  Fitting the double central characters, BY DEATH DIVIDED has two main threads - a missing Asian woman and her husband (which Thackeray is investigating) and domestic violence (which Ackroyd is reporting on).  Both of these threads - probably predictably - meet up as the book draws to a conclusion.  Mind you, there's nothing wrong with the predictability of this joining up, as it's done with a fair amount of aplomb and some darn good reasons ... Read Review

The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson

Crime fiction fans are frequently a talkative lot, and news of a phenomenally good book spreads very very quickly.  THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO has been "the" book on quite a lot of people's lips for what is actually a startlingly short time since it was released - particularly released in English.  Needless to say, the publicity has been pretty well universally positive.  So reading the much vaunted book was an interesting experience. Often when a book is talked about so much, you can subconsciously approach it with just a little reservation - could it possibly live up to the ... Read Review

Appeal Denied, Peter Corris

When Hardy got himself into hot water in THE UNDERTOW, you just had to wonder if this was the end of Sydney's most famous hard-boiled detective.  In APPEAL DENIED he doesn't get his licence to be a private investigator back; he's got no money; his house and car are falling apart and his love life takes a disastrous turn.  But it takes more than murder, bureaucracy and falling down houses to keep Cliff down.  Sort of.

In typical Cliff Hardy style APPEAL DENIED has events that really should see a hard man give up slightly, but when murder gets very very close to home, Cliff ... Read Review