All the Reviews

All These Perfect Strangers, Aoife Clifford

In 2013 Aoife Clifford was awarded an Australian Society of Author's mentorship to help bring this debut novel - ALL THESE PERFECT STRANGERS - to fruition. To be fair to those who have read it and are finding the idea that this is a debut novel hard to believe, she has form. Shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger, Clifford won the Ned Kelly / S.D. Harvey Short Story Award and a Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto. What she has now produced is an assured, clever and profoundly disconcerting psychological thriller.

In the manner of all good slow burner ... Read Review

Crime Scenes Stories, Zane Lovitt (editor)

Taking a central theme of "is there really such a thing as an innocent person?" and asking a combination of well known and emerging Crime Fiction Writers from Australia to address the question, has culminated in the creation of CRIME SCENES - a short story collection which works on a number of levels.

Short story collections like this provide a reader with glimpses into an author's style and voice, sometimes presenting something very different from known series books or previous works. In the case of previously known authors, this can confirm a liking for their work, or ... Read Review

Dark Murder, Helen H. Durrant

DARK MURDER is the first book in a new series built around the character D.I. Stephen Greco. Greco first appeared as supporting cast in an earlier series of books by Helen H. Durrant, but now he's mirrored his ex-wife's move to a new town after their divorce, wanting to continue a good relationship with his young daughter Matilda. His new job at Oldston CID starts off with a series of baffling murders, where the brutal disfigurement of the victims seems to be the only connection. Greco instantly has a number of problems when it comes to solving these cases - the lack of a clear motive ... Read Review

Four Days, Iain Ryan

Short, sharp and to the point, FOUR DAYS delivers deepest and darkest noir in the unlikely setting of 1980’s Brisbane and Cairns. In the Sunshine State corruption is rife and nowhere more so than in the police force and the licensing department in particular. 

Lone wolf Detective Jim Harris isn’t exactly lily-white himself, with a complicated backstory of illicit love affairs and drug use, to say nothing of family relationships that would challenge most genealogy software. He is, however, seemingly the only cop dedicated enough to pursue the truth behind the death of a ... Read Review

A Certain Malice, Felicity Young (aka Flashpoint)

Before WA based author Felicity Young commenced her extremely good Dr Dody McCleland series, she published a series of police procedural novels one of which built around the central character of Sergeant Cam Fraser in it. FLASHPOINT, originally out in 2005, has recently been re-released in ebook format.

Years ago this reader did read FLASHPOINT and some of the elements remained and obviously a lot didn't (the first version of this review muddled up the Cam Fraser and Stevie Hooper series utterly - with apologies to Felicity Young). FLASHPOINT looks back to recent events ... Read Review

Inside the Black Horse, Ray Berard

One of the great strengths of really good crime fiction is the exploration of big issues at a local level. INSIDE THE BLACK HORSE is set within a smaller community, revolving around life in the local pub / pokie venue, exploring the destruction and chaos that comes with illicit drug use, and distribution.

Setting the story around a Maori community also gives the author an opportunity to explore the good and the bad effects of drugs on those communities in particular. There’s an interesting comparison of elders trying to keep their traditions alive, a young widow trying to ... Read Review

Blood Salt Water, Denise Mina

Denise Mina is one of those authors that you can always trust to spin a good yarn, and once in a while an absolute ripper. BLOOD, SALT, WATER is somewhere on this reader’s scale between really good and ripper.

Taut and pointed, her ability to skewer character’s personality traits - good and bad - is razor sharp as usual, with a beautiful turn of sarcasm when required. Putting those characters in a realistic small-town location in Scotland provides not just a wonderful sense of place, but an interesting juxtaposition of have’s and have-nots, whilst leaving more than enough ... Read Review

Running Towards Danger, Tina Clough

The central premise of RUNNING TOWARDS DANGER is a fascinating idea. What would you do if the flatmate that you knew very little about, and saw even less of, is suddenly gunned down in front of you, and the investigation into his death starts to reveal some very worrying facts about his life? Which again, you knew nothing about, but everybody, including the police, don’t believe you.

Would it be to suddenly go into hiding, head off into a small community and try to settle into that world using a different name (Cara), in the hopes that dropping off the radar will ease the ... Read Review

On A Small Island, Grant Nicol

A New Zealand born, Australian and Northern Ireland dwelling, now Iceland based author has written a book set in his adopted city of Reykjavík, with a central female character whose life is turned upside down in a very short space of time, that really works. Read ON A SMALL ISLAND so you can tick one off from your most unlikely working scenario list or simply read it because this is a really good book.

Ylfa Einarsdóttir has a relatively predictable, quiet life in downtown Reykjavík, even allowing for the friction between her elderly, grumpy farm dwelling father and her ... Read Review