All the Reviews

Cyanide Games, Richard Beasley

Styled as a thriller from the legal world, CYANIDE GAMES introduces Peter Tanner - criminal defence barrister, widower, father. Very much one of the good guys, one of those that takes on a hell of a lot and seems to pull results together despite the odds.

There's some complicated set up underway in CYANIDE GAMES, so a greater part of the book is devoted to what feels like considerable framework construction. Which, given that Tanner is a lawyer, appears to end up involving a large amount of personal investigation, involvement and prodding of various bears with a variety ... Read Review

Norfolk, Noleen Jordan

NORFOLK tells a story that has particular resonance in Australia at present - asylum seekers arriving by boat. The substance of the story is covered by the blurb, but in essence, desperate people quickly overwhelm the idyllic community, and government responses are heavy handed enough to cause revolt. From the early arrivals, and the positive responses of the local people, the plot proceeds in a very straight-forward manner to the difficult situation described.

Along the way a lot of characters are introduced, and expanded well enough to allow readers to follow and stay ... Read Review

A Secret to the Grave, Jane Blythe

Sometimes you just can't shake the idea that an author really doesn't like their characters much. Flaws and troubles aplenty are one thing - but weighing everybody down in a story with just about every possible problem known is another kettle of fish altogether.

We know from the blurb that Detective Parker Bell has just returned to work after shooting dead a killer - which turns out to be somewhat less straightforward than it seems. As does the abduction case he and his partner are handed on his return. A young woman being held, a list of clues pointing to others who will ... Read Review

I'm Travelling Alone, Samuel Bjørk

'Watch out Jo Nesbo!' is printed in a bright red circle on the front of I'M TRAVELLING ALONE. It seemed like a rather brave claim to be making before starting this book, and bordering on rash having now finished it. 

The characterisations are reasonably good. There's a partnership of the highly predictable kind with the sane, placid veteran Holger Munch steering a team of investigators trying to work out who is responsible for the shocking death of very young girls. At his side, by his choice despite her objections, his colleague Mia Krüger is damaged and difficult, ... Read Review

Australia's Toughest Prisons: Inmates, James Phelps

The follow up to a fascinating book Australia's Most Murderous Prison, AUSTRALIA'S TOUGHEST PRISONS: INMATES tells the story of a number of people in prison - for a change not all of the usual role-call of participants that show up in these sorts of books. The definition of "toughest" here is something that's really up to the reader's perception - it could mean hardest to cope with, or most able to cope with dreadful circumstances.

There's something very off-putting about the opening to this book describing the behaviour of Martin Bryant. Perpetrator of one of Australia's ... Read Review

Peepshow, Leigh Redhead

Simone Kirsh (aka Vivien Leigh) has an interesting job history - ex prawn trawler hand and working as a stripper for starters. Simone is determined to change things though, so even as she's still working in peepshows and as a stripper she's finished her Private Investigator's Course; has her ID and she's working to get her best friend and fellow stripper Chloe out of a big lot of trouble. 

Francesco Parisi's been brutally killed and Simone find herself undercover at his table top dancing venue, The Red Room. She has to find out why the police think her friend Chloe killed ... Read Review

Bent Pollies, John Kerr

The problem with bent pollies is that it's all too easy to forget the excesses, the nasties, the downright corrupt. BENT POLLIES is a book that in John Kerr's inimitable style reminds us, all too clearly, to keep an eye on all levels of society.

This book covers some of the stories that seemed to have dropped a bit from public conscience - Milton Orkopoulos from NSW was a sexual predator. Full stop, nothing more to be said really, although Kerr gives us the background of how he managed to get himself into the position he did. Rex Jackson was a Prison Minister, who ended up ... Read Review

Blue Blood, Sara Blaedel

BLUE BLOOD (aka CALL ME PRINCESS) is the debut novel in the Detective Louise Rick series from Danish writer Sara Blaedel. Blaedel is a million copy best-selling author, voted Denmark's most popular novelist three times since 2007, and an international success story.

BLUE BLOOD reads like a traditional police procedural, focused on who perpetrated the crime, and not a lot on why. The initial crime, the vicious beating and rape of a young woman, quickly becomes even more worrying with the sadly preventable death of a second victim, but it does provide the focus - an ... Read Review

The City of Blood, Frédérique Molay

The third novel in the Paris Homicide Series, THE CITY OF BLOOD sees Chief of Police Nico Sirsky trying to solve a 30 year old murder, whilst his mother is desperately ill in hospital.

Readers of either of the earlier two novels will know that Sirsky is one of those wonderful grumpy, rumpled sorts of cops, who had a chequered love life, now resolved as his relationship with one of the specialist that solved his own health problems moves into something more permanent.

The investigation at the centre of THE CITY OF BLOOD's an odd one. Thirty years ago artist Samual ... Read Review