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Dastardly Deeds, Ilsa Evans16/02/2016 - 1:12pmThe fourth book in the Nell Forrest series, DASTARDLY DEEDS sees heroine Nell on a much needed holiday cruise around the Mediterranean. Except it seems that everyone has decided to go with her - her mother and her partner, her ex-husband and his new partner, her sister, a couple of daughters, and the police detective that used to be her lover. Instead of the chef and a thief though the cast also includes more locals, a class reunion, a murderer and a possible suicide. For new readers to the series, humour plays a very big part in these books. It's a questioning, self- ... Read Review |
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That Empty Feeling, Peter Corris16/02/2016 - 1:07pmThe forty-first Cliff Hardy book came out earlier this year. That Empty Feeling is classic Cliff Hardy - stripped down, hardboiled, quintessentially Australian-noir ticking all the required boxes - pace, twists, turns, sex, violence and pitch-perfect dialogue. This time around, the cynicism and world-weariness have a little poignancy attached to them as well. The discovery of the obituary of an old client - Barry Bartlett sets Hardy off reminiscing, harking back to the late 1980's. Back then, Hardy had taken on a case for Bartlett sorting out a family mystery. ... Read Review |
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City of Light, Keri Arthur31/01/2016 - 2:44pmDoes it sound like there is a lot going on in this novel? There is. Vampires, shifters, wraiths, hybrids, rifts; the reader needs to keep sharp as to what Tiger must do in order to break through every obstacle in her rescue efforts. It’s a little exhausting. A debut fantasy novel must in some ways keep it light on the rules and regs, so that we can easily pickup up the vernacular and have some sense of confidence in knowing how everything works. It’s not so easy to visualize the landscape in CITY OF LIGHT; some elements seem to contradict. Arthur has created a world still ... Read Review |
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Give the Devil His Due, Sulari Gentill29/01/2016 - 1:18pmSulari Gentill’s award-winning historical crime series is written with verve and spirit, the fiction woven seamlessly into actual events of the time. Review of Give the Devil His Due, and the entire Rowland Sinclair series at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
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Dark Murder, Helen H. Durrant19/01/2016 - 2:28pmDARK 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 |
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Good Money, J.M. Green10/12/2015 - 1:52pmSet mostly in the Western suburbs of Melbourne, JM Green’s Good Money introduces Stella Hardy. A social worker by vocation, Hardy is the sort of laksa-loving, inner-city woman who fits into the role of accidental detective with considerable aplomb. Reviewed at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
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Four Days, Iain Ryan10/12/2015 - 1:36pmShort, 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 |
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Blue Wicked, Alan Jones07/12/2015 - 1:26pmBLUE WICKED is the second book by Scottish author Alan Jones I’ve read. Each of them have come with warnings about strong language and use of the Glasgow dialect which is more of an attraction than deterrent for this reader. The author’s first novel, THE CABINET MAKER, was an interesting variation on standard crime fiction fare. BLUE WICKED has a similar concept at the core, ... Read Review |
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Dead Wood, SJ Brown03/12/2015 - 2:33pmDEAD WOOD is the second book from Tasmanian author s.j. brown, located in his home state, featuring Police DI John Mahoney. Set within the fallout of the GFC, the novel explores the haves and the have not’s as a result of financial shakedown, within the framework of the very brutal murder of a prominent member of the local business community. Using that structure provides the author with another angle to explore as well - the big fish in a small pond, and the high profile that salacious goings on can give local events. In the first book in the series, HIGH ... Read Review |
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A Certain Malice, Felicity Young (aka Flashpoint)01/12/2015 - 12:28pmBefore 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 |
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Deadly Diplomacy, Jean Harrod30/11/2015 - 2:51pmThe Author of DEADLY DIPLOMACY has a background as a diplomat working for many years in Embassies and High Commissions in Australia, Brussels, the Caribbean, China, East Berlin, Indonesia, Mauritius and Switzerland. Her indepth knowledge of the workings of that world stands out in this novel, with her protagonist, Jess Turner, the British Consul in Canberra. Called upon to support the sister of the victim, Turner is quickly dragged into the investigation. Setting up a diplomat and a cop being forced to co-operate is an unusual approach, but the inclusion of the ... Read Review |
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Birthdays for the Dead, Stuart MacBride26/11/2015 - 3:46pmSomething went wrong in the reading universe a while ago and I missed that this had been sitting in the unread list, when I picked up and enjoyed the second in the series - A SONG FOR THE DYING. Which weirdly turned out to be a good thing as an introduction to a new character and a new series, BIRTHDAYS FOR THE DEAD is not without problems. MacBride is not the sort of writer who shilly-shally's around with reader sensitivities. So the fact the (fictional) victims here are children and the way that ... Read Review |
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Inside the Black Horse, Ray Berard26/11/2015 - 2:41pmOne 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 |
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Breathe and Release, Katherine Hayton23/11/2015 - 1:28pmIt’s no longer surprising that certain “scenarios” seem to be duplicated in a rush of books - and amnesia and/or dementia causing memory loss is the one that has been showing up a lot recently. BREATHE AND RELEASE is by New Zealand based Katherine Hayton, and in this case, the memory loss is as a result of a car accident, and there’s a complication. Another woman is trapped in an underground hell, unable to escape, barely alive. Readers would be forgiven for assuming that there’s going to be a connection between Elisabet and Lillian, although what the connection is might ... Read Review |
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The Heat, Garry Disher18/11/2015 - 5:14pmThe 8th in the Wyatt series, the resurgence of the best unrepentant, unapologetic and very demanding professional crook in Australian Crime Fiction is something to be very pleased about. Wyatt is not a man who plays well with others, and his danger radar is on high alert after he’s pulled into early planning of a heist by some rank amateurs. A move to Noosa and a commission to steal a particular painting comes at a time when absenting himself from Melbourne and all chance of being connected to that group is particularly welcome. Not only is the intended heist a nice ... Read Review |
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Blood Salt Water, Denise Mina11/11/2015 - 1:43pmDenise 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 |
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Dark As My Heart, Antti Tuomainen10/11/2015 - 6:27pmThe exploration of consequences is beautifully executed in Antti Tuomainen’s mesmerising DARK AS MY HEART. That he is an award winning author comes as no surprise, but of the five novels to his name in his native Finland, the third “The Healer” and this, his fourth novel, are so far the only ones translated into English. Needless to say THE HEALER is now on the TBR pile. Aleksi Kivi was thirteen years old when his mother vanished. Now, twenty years on, he’s still haunted by her murder, and his feelings of recognition and utter belief that the millionaire owner of the ... Read Review |
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Running Towards Danger, Tina Clough22/10/2015 - 2:11pmThe 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 |
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Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett12/10/2015 - 1:29pmProbably my favourite of the Witches books in the Discworld series, WYRD SISTERS is Shakespearean, comedic and a really clever combination of witches being witches, royalty being royalty and subjects being subjects.Read Review |
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On A Small Island, Grant Nicol08/10/2015 - 3:06pmA 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 |