Book Review

Half Past Dead, Jane Clifton

16/10/2013 - 4:04pm

Having originally read this when it came out in paperback form in 2002, it was no chore to re-read ... oh good grief ... 11 YEARS LATER. Now I've got an excuse for not remembering the entire story!

It's always interesting to see how something stands up over the years since publication, allowing of course, for changes in technology, fashions, attitudes and social norms. In HALF PAST DEAD, there's not a lot of need for too much allowance though as there's a timelessness to the central themes. Marriages that are suddenly fraying at the seams, cut-throat business shenanigans ... Read Review

Death on Demand, Paul Thomas

16/10/2013 - 2:59pm

DEATH ON DEMAND came out in 2012 and it is impossible not to question sanity. It sat in my reading queue for over a year before daylight finally dawned.

Needless to say a lot of other worthy books were swept aside, because it's nearly impossible not to love these books. Partly because Tito is such a believable character - even as cop turned vigilante. Actually Ihaka as a vigilante almost sounds right. He's a man with a finally developed sense of justice and a rather ruthless attitude to providing same. 

There is a strong sense of place built into these books ... Read Review

Zero at the Bone, David Whish-Wilson

17/09/2013 - 9:24pm

In Zero at the Bone, the second book in this series, Frank Swann has moved more sideways than on. Working as a PI, he finds himself dragged into the suicide of geologist Max Henderson, whose wife Jennifer enlists Swann’s services to find out the reasons for his death – there is no doubt about the manner of it.  Full Review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/09/17/crime-scene-david- ... Read Review

A Trifle Dead, Livia Day

17/09/2013 - 4:56pm

Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she tries to adjust the menu to suit the sort of clientele she'd like to be attracting, the place is overrun with police nostalgic for canteen style pies.

She's also only slightly reluctant to leap into the role of accidental detective when a rather bizarre death is discovered in the flat ... Read Review

Harry Curry - Rats and Mice, Stuart Littlemore

17/09/2013 - 12:43pm

It’s not really surprising that Stuart Littlemore, well-known legal counsel, would attempt Australia’s answer to Rumpole of the Bailey in a series based on cases where the Defence (in the guise of Harry Curry) rides to victory on the back of some cunning goings-on in the trial courts of NSW. Full Review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/09/17/crime-scene-david-whish-wilson-zero-at ... Read Review

Gangland North South & West, James Morton and Susanna Lobez

06/09/2013 - 1:34pm

The fourth and final book in the GANGLAND franchise, GANGLAND NORTH SOUTH & WEST concentrates on the geographic areas of South and West Australia and the Northern Territory. Using the same style and format of earlier books this is a series of snippets of crimes loosely grouped into subject's on a timeline. The reader is, for example, introduced to some very early commuters who moved from Eastern Australia to the West, and back again. Criminals with connections to Squizzy Taylor, events between the First and Second World War, early Bikers (many of whom were actually pushbikers ... Read Review

Drive By, Michael Duffy

06/08/2013 - 12:21pm

DRIVE BY is fiction although readers may find themselves having to work hard to remember that. From the opening voice of Jabber (John) Habib to the build up of mayhem on the streets of Sydney, obviously comparisons are being drawn between Melbourne's Underbelly Underworld wars and the increasingly violent, and therefore reported on, drug wars in Sydney.

The story of John Habib, his brothers, their involvement in the Sydney drugs trade, and the murder trial of the youngest brother, is interwoven with the story of young cop Bec Ralston. Somewhat inexplicably she's pulled ... Read Review

The Hanging, Lotte Hammer & Søren Hammer

14/07/2013 - 3:29pm

Normally when I get to the stage of actually finishing up a review and publishing it, I've had a good long think, a work through the notes I take as I read, and have formed an opinion that I'm confident I can support. I therefore cannot, for the life of me work out, why THE HANGING still has me unsure.

A confrontational plot, THE HANGING starts out with a death scene that's particularly uncomfortable. The possible reason for the death of five men, left hanging in a school gym, comes much later, with the likely motive a long time before a possible perpetrator. Of course, ... Read Review

A Darkness Descending, Christobel Kent

12/07/2013 - 2:34pm

A DARKNESS DESCENDING is the fourth book from Christobel Kent featuring ex-cop, now private detective Sandro Cellini. As this is the first from the series I've tried, I'm guessing that you may have to start from the beginning to get a handle on the who and hows of these characters. 

Of course it doesn't help that there's a bit of an expectation nowadays that Italian Crime Fiction is going to include fabulous food, a grumpy central detective, an immersion-like sense of place or some combination thereof, but for some reason I struggled with this book. 

In the ... Read Review

Half Moon Bay, Helene Young

09/07/2013 - 7:38pm

I shouldn't read this sort of book. It's nearly impossible to make any observations that are measured and considered because there's so much sets my teeth on edge about the entire scenario I can't tell if it's a good version thereof or not.... Alas this was an extremely rare DNF.Read Review

Deadly Australian Women, Kay Saunders

08/07/2013 - 2:49pm

It's discomforting to read these sorts of books. They are the stories of women who have murdered and whilst some of these women were undoubtedly guilty,  the tales of the desperate, the poor, abused and betrayed make it hard not to look rather critically at society "norms" and behaviours. Perhaps that's what's important about these sorts of books.Read Review

Hindsight, Melanie Casey

08/07/2013 - 12:07pm

Saw this book referred to somewhere as CSI meets Medium in print. Which will mean something to exactly the sort of readers that HINDSIGHT is pitched directly at.

Needless to say that's not me. Whilst my paranormal allergy has been mitigated slightly over the years by some extremely good books, it alas hasn't stopped the scratching when the story is 100% built around the paranormal aspects being such a central investigative tool. Granted in HINDSIGHT the local cops also start off not that impressed with the idea that Cass Lehman can see violent pasts as she moves into the ... Read Review

Dusty Dexter PI: Her First Case, Jan Richards

08/07/2013 - 11:58am

I think I read somewhere that DUSTY DEXTER PI - HER FIRST CASE started life as a newspaper serial, which if that is the case, makes it the second of this sort of book I've read coming out of Queensland this year. Although this isn't a series of short stories, it's the story of an entire investigation.

The blurb is going to give you a tiny little bit of a hint about the style of this book. It's light-hearted, chick-mystery, accidental, mildly clumsy, enthusiastic rather than necessarily highly skilled, female PI. With surgically enhanced boobs (you'll have to read the book ... Read Review

Heist, Robert Schofield

07/07/2013 - 1:39pm

Set mostly in Kalgoorlie and the surrounding WA goldfields, HEIST is a debut novel which is well worth checking out. Especially if you like a rapidly moving plot, a hefty dose of wounded but not beaten central hero, and some seriously madcap action.

Starting off with the audacious, and perfectly planned heist of a large amount of gold directly from the mine vault, Gareth Ford is the engineering manager who is not completely squeaky clean. The mine is running on skeleton staff because it's a big horse racing day in town, when Ford finds himself seconded as a key man to ... Read Review

A Bitter Taste, Annie Hauxwell

04/07/2013 - 3:46pm

The second in a series set in London and a debut legal thriller show some of the exciting variety of Australian crime fiction on offer. Review at:  http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/07/04/crime-scene-annie-hauxwell-a-bitter-taste-alex-hammond-blood-witness-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read Review

Blood Witness, Alex Palmer

04/07/2013 - 2:22pm

The legal thriller is a fairly common sub-genre overseas, but Alex Hammond’s Blood Witness is the first of this sort of book from a local writer for quite a while. Full review at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/07/04/crime-scene-annie-hauxwell-a-bitter-taste-alex-hammond-blood-witness-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read Review

The Devil's Sanctuary, Marie Hermanson

26/06/2013 - 3:09pm

The back of THE DEVIL'S SANCTUARY says that it has the atmosphere of Shutter Island and the intensity of Jussi Adler-Olsen so I was expecting something... well big.

And for quite a while this was a fascinating scenario. Estranged identical twins, Daniel and Max, were parted by their parents separation when they were very young. Daniel had a fairly normal, if not slightly doted on upbringing by his mother and her parents, Max not quite as lucky staying with his distant father and raised mostly by a nanny. Nothing particularly unusual in that, although Max has been ... Read Review

Deadly Harvest, Michael Stanley

05/06/2013 - 2:48pm

Some of the very best crime fiction explores issues that are relevant to the society in which it is set. Michael Stanley's Kubu series, set in Botswana seems to have really hit its straps in that department in the last couple of books, with DEADLY HARVEST reaching a particular high. The fourth book in the Detective Kubu series, here the author(s) are exploring the disappearance of a number of young girls. The suspicion is that these girls are the victims of a powerful, unknown witchdoctor, looking for victims to incorporate in his muti, or traditional African healing, potions. ... Read Review

Dark Horse, Honey Brown

07/05/2013 - 3:17pm

A classic of foreboding and suspense set in the Victorian High Country.  Full review at The Newtown Review of Books: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/05/07/crime-scene-honey-brown-dark-horse-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read Review

Coorparoo Blues & The Irish Fandango, G.S. Manson

07/05/2013 - 2:37pm

Two novellas, connected by PI Jack Munro, COORPAROO BLUES and THE IRISH FANDANGO are an interesting historical hard-boiled combination of PI, mean streets, fallen women, drinking and the whole nine yards.

The first story, COORPAROO BLUES, introduces Jack, war veteran, ex-cop, nose for trouble, attractor of a simply staggering number of women, PI that you turn to when things are going to get nasty.

The second story, set a few months later, sees the US troop angle switched for political refugees and Communists around every corner, and a suicide that isn't. ... Read Review

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