All the Reviews

Wedderburn, Maryrose Cuskelly

WEDDERBURN is not just a book, it's a small community situated in North Central Victoria - in the area known as the Golden Triangle. Like so many small communities out here, it's battling drought, population decline, and doing a pretty good job at holding back the tide. In 2014 when the unthinkable happened everyone with any connections or knowledge of the place couldn't help but wonder what on earth would trigger such an appalling act. 

The primary reason behind this book, and the reading of it, has to be to search for a meaning. The weirdness of these awful murders was ... Read Review

Murder on Broadway, John Rosanowski

Quirkly written tale of 1870's gold rush New Zealand, with more than enough parallels with local history to make this believable and entertaining reading. Central character Gordon Trembath, is a young, inexperienced police constable, stuck with being the only one on duty over the Christmas / New Year summer break. Whilst he's dealing with a murder executed by sly-groggers in the nearby valley, the town has been overrun with holiday petty crooks - card sharps, liars, cheats and scammers come to fleece the incoming holiday makers of anything they can get their hands on. 

A ... Read Review

A Necessary Murder, M.J. Tjia

The second outing for Heloise Chancey, A NECESSARY MURDER follows on from the promising debut SHE BE DAMNED. In that novel we were introduced to Heloise Chancey, courtesan, independent woman and occasional detective. A combination Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poroit in an 1800's V.I. Warshawski depiction, Chancey is considered, cautious, fearless and disdainful of societal rules and expectations. She's a highly sought after courtesan with lovers and champions in all sorts of places, and a fondness for detecting that makes enormous sense. So far the crimes she's involved in have had a ... Read Review

The Other Sister, Elle Croft

THE OTHER SISTER has some good structural bones in the scene setting and a little included social commentary (as in that we’re all critical posters online) and so the first half of this book flies by. Protagonist Gina has a lot going on in her life, as does her brother Ryan.  The loss of their sister when they were all young children haunts them still and created family rifts that were never repaired. The tension levels off as we find out more of Gina’s family history, and how reliant she is on her present day relationship with her illusionist boyfriend.

The separate ... Read Review

Believe Me, JP Delaney

Yikes.  Be prepared for the push and pull as your suspicions settle on one person and then are shunted briskly away to lay uneasily on the head of another.  Rinse and repeat.

There’s a lot to like in this novel and there’s also a lot that simply doesn’t work.  It’s clever or very clumsy in parts and there’s no continuity with either intent.  Claire’s character is suitably complex and we’re all for seeing female characters showing their dark sides, just as male characters have been able to display for the last billion years in fiction.  As you progress through BELIEVE ME ... Read Review

The Rival, Charlotte Duckworth

We could perhaps say ‘plot twist’ or ‘pivot’ (you know, to be irritating like the cool kids) but either way you are getting a bit more bang for your buck than usual with THE RIVAL.  It is very much like two novels found each other somewhere in the middle and decided to merge; one being a workplace psychological thriller, the other a drama piece about the horrors of new motherhood.  We do have past and present perspectives so there is that fore knowledge that something horrific has happened to Helena since the motherhood train pulled into the station.   We just don’t know during the ... Read Review

Women, Oxford & Novels of Crime, Alison Hoddinott

Sometimes it's good to step outside the fictional world and see where the form has come from, and the impacts had as a result. Alison Hoddinott's analysis of crime novels set within or written by, Oxford University connected women is an eye opener in terms of the range of writers it covers, and the history of women's position within wider society and the halls of Oxford in particular.

A very pointed, short work of 140 something pages, WOMEN, OXFORD & NOVELS OF CRIME nonetheless covers a lot of ground. An academic analysis of writing, place and women's position, it's ... Read Review

A Double Life, Flynn Berry

It was only recently that I watched a documentary about Lord Lucan, of which A DOUBLE LIFE was inspired by, so the release of this book was timely for me.   So armed, was very keen to read Berry’s fictionalized take on such an iconic disappearance story.

UK novelist Flynn Berry’s first book, UNDER THE HARROW was a standout of 2016 and her second outing A DOUBLE LIFE has much of that same bewitching appeal.  Another captivating and intelligent narrator makes no apology for her decisions and none of her incisive observations can be dismissed as unimportant.  It’s all ... Read Review

Forgotten, Nicole Trope

Everyone is saying this is one for fans of Jodi Picoult, which probably explains a lot of my reaction, because I'm not much of a fan of Picoult's books. I also suspect I may have overdosed on domestic noir of the "harried mother / useless father / tedious kids" variety. For that reason this came across as too predictable, and the messaging was too heavy-handed for my liking. Obviously not my thing, and from the your mileage will obviously vary category.Read Review