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Calibre, Ken Bruen14/02/2012 - 1:57pmWhen your favourite authors start dying even the most reasonable reader should be forgiven for becoming a nervous, obsessed, idiot hoarder of books that can, after all, be re-read should the unthinkable eventuate. Despite an overwhelming desire to continue this hoarding behaviour, eventually the yearning for books like CALIBRE becomes too strong and, as a result, I'm no longer hoarding CALIBRE. (DISCLAIMER: I have no information whatsoever with regard to Mr Bruen's state of health... it's just that he's a favourite author and there's always the chance that any one of my favourite ... Read Review |
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Crime Scene, Esther McKay13/02/2012 - 1:53pm"Day after day my life was consumed by killings, distress and gruesome sites, each one adding another piece to an ever-growing mosaic that seemed to be made up of bloodied disposable gloves, plastic bags and human waste. . ." I don't think there's any way that Esther McKay could describe her life as a forensic crime investigator in terms that would make it comfortable reading for anybody. Which means it's no surprise whatsoever that this book is confrontational, difficult and frequently disturbing, just as the job must have been. McKay has a way of telling ... Read Review |
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Ice Cold, Andrea Maria Schenkel09/02/2012 - 1:02pmWhilst ICE COLD is the second book from German writer Andrea Maria Schenkel, it's the first book - THE MURDER FARM - that I have to start out mentioning. I still remember my reaction to that book - mesmerised, enthralled, vaguely stunned. Needless to say, trying not to set expectations for ICE COLD was a tricky undertaking. Set in 1930's Munich, ICE COLD is the progression of a rapist serial killer. Various viewpoints are told chapter by chapter, each voice eerily intimate, and personal, distinguished by a change in font to give the reader a visual queue, as well as a ... Read Review |
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Silent Fear, Katherine Howell08/02/2012 - 1:18pmIt's odd, the things that can occur to you when you're reading books. In the case of SILENT FEAR I just could not stop thinking how glad I was to be a reader and not a writer. Honestly, how do these people come up with such consistently good characters and excellent plots? Howell makes her life that little bit more difficult by always bringing in a Paramedic thread, mostly with new characters each book, weaving what happens to them on the job into the plot of an excellent crime fiction / police procedural book. Even allowing for a background as a paramedic, I've no idea how she ... Read Review |
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Death and the Spanish Lady, Carolyn Morwood06/02/2012 - 2:34pmDEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY is the first book from Carolyn Morwood for quite a while, and that, if for no other reason was enough to create some interest in these parts. Set in the period immediately following World War 1, in Melbourne, during the Spanish 'Flu epidemic of 1919, the book introduces Sister Eleanor Jones. Returned from nursing soldiers overseas, she has volunteered to work in the temporary hospital that is set up within the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings to treat the huge number of patients who succumb to the epidemic. Given the number of people dying from ... Read Review |
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Miles Off Course, Sulari Gentill30/01/2012 - 5:12pmNot sure what's weirder, talking to fictional characters, or the feeling that you actually know those fictional characters... Either way, you have to think it's quite a feat for a writer to get you to the stage where you're more than happy to regard her characters as real people. MILES OFF COURSE is now the third book from Sulari Gentill featuring Rowland Sinclair and his band of supporters - Edna, Milton and Clyde and that feeling of connection, of reality and authenticity continues ... in spades. The connection is probably helped by the way that Gentill sets her ... Read Review |
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Cocaine Blues, Kerry Greenwood30/01/2012 - 1:54pmI really shouldn't get all impressed by a new cover, but having no idea whatsoever of who Essie Davis is, I was really pleased to see her popup on the re-release of Kerry Greenwood's first Phryne Fisher book COCAINE BLUES. I think the casting people for the upcoming ABC TV series may just have done a very good job! Re-releasing the books is an excellent idea, not just because of the TV tie in, but also because it gives old fans, as well as a new audience a chance to catch up with the opening onslaught of what is now up to 18 or something books, from which 13 episodes are ... Read Review |
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Arms for Adonis, Charlotte Jay25/01/2012 - 4:24pmI have been promising myself for a few years now to go back to some of the older classic Australian Crime Fiction books and reread them with a view to noting something about them on the website. Mostly because all of these books were read a long time before I started writing my own reviews, and I really need something to check my reactions against if I re-visit them again (which I'm inclined to do every now and then). Hence ARMS FOR ADONIS, which Wakefield Press published in 1994, with an excellent afterword by Peter Moss and Michael J Tolley. ARMS FOR ADONIS was first ... Read Review |
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Beyond Fear, Jaye Ford23/01/2012 - 12:01pmBEYOND FEAR is journalist Jaye Ford's first book, billed as an adrenaline-pumped suspense thriller. Which, if you're reading it with that aim in mind it absolutely is. The book starts out with one of those scenes that just make you know something bad's going to happen. Something very bad. Four thirty-something women are heading off for a regular girls' weekend away, champagne in hand, towards a remote, recently renovated barn deep in isolated country Australia. Jodie, the main character of the book, is a woman with a secret from her best friends. So, when these woman are run off ... Read Review |
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The Dinosaur Feather, Sissel-Jo Gazan17/01/2012 - 3:08pmJanuary is often a very good reading month for some reason. That alone doesn't make a lot of sense - it's normally hot enough to melt the tin on the roof, which isn't conducive to concentration. Making THE DINOSAUR FEATHER look like a rather risky choice. At 535 pages it was way too big for any struggle with concentration, and after starting the book and finding myself deep in discussions on paleo-ornithology and not a lot of "crime action", I was feeling somewhat sceptical to say the least. Add to that a central character who is just a little inclined to be whingy, very prickly, ... Read Review |
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Murder and Redemption, Noel Mealy04/01/2012 - 3:02pm2011 was an interesting year in Australian Crime fiction with quite a few excellent debut books appearing. In 2012 we've started off with the release of MURDER AND REDEMPTION by Noel Mealey, another debut, another book set in outback Western Australia, and another book aiming for a quintessentially Australian voice and viewpoint. Blurbed as "moody and atmospheric" and "following in the traditions of both Peter Temple and Carl Hiaasen", somebody is setting the bar for MURDER AND REDEMPTION rather on the high side. As you'd expect from those comparisons the ... Read Review |
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Comeback, Peter Corris04/01/2012 - 1:17pmBefore everything comes across just a bit gushy, there was a point somewhere in the middle of the Cliff Hardy series where I seriously lost interest. Whilst there are some elements of the books that are always going to be the same, somehow the sameness became very obvious, there was something slightly flat about the storylines and, to this reader at least, nothing much engaged my interest. I never totally gave up reading the series, but most definitely didn't shove things aside as each new book arrived. And then, a few years ago, things changed. Around the time that ... Read Review |
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Bound, Vanda Symon31/12/2011 - 1:55pmDetective Sam Shephard is back, promoted (no longer a Detective Constable), working in the same squad as boyfriend Paul and still in head on confrontation with the boss, and slightly off centre confrontation with her mother. Which is particularly difficult as in BOUND Sam's much loved father is dying, just as the case of a brutal home invasion takes most of Sam's attention and energy. There are some absolute givens in the Sam Shephard series. There's going to be an opening to the book which should have the reader paying attention. Sam is going to be part energiser ... Read Review |
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Defender of the Faith, Chris Allen20/12/2011 - 12:31pmIf, like me, you grew up on a diet of Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre novels, there is a chance you're a bit of a fan of fast paced, military, espionage style novels. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is a recent entry in the what is rapidly becoming a large pool of choice for Australian readers. Set within our geographical and political sphere, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH introduces readers to Alex Morgan, special forces operative, good bloke, and all round bit of a hero. The action in this book is really very realistic, and it's not difficult to believe highly informed ... Read Review |
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Dublin Dead, Gerard O'Donovan14/12/2011 - 12:22pmIt was rather pleasing to see DUBLIN DEAD, mostly because O'Donovan's first book, The Priest, actually managed to get me to rethink my "over serial killer" books stance. So no pressure on this one... at all. There is some reference back to The Priest in DUBLIN DEAD, which is unavoidable really given that both books feature journalist Siobhan Fallon and policeman DI Mike Mulcahy. If you've not read the earlier book, that shouldn't put you off completely, as there is some recapping of what happened, particularly to Siobhan. Whilst it should be enough to allow new readers ... Read Review |
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Harry Curry - Counsel of Choice, Stuart Littlemore17/11/2011 - 12:37pmThere's increasing signs of "write what you know" in Australian crime fiction, so it's probably not at all surprising that well known QC, and media commentator Stuart Littlemore has followed exactly that path. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure I agree 100% with labelling HARRY CURRY: COUNSEL OF CHOICE as crime fiction. Whilst the idea is definitely that our hero, Harry Curry, is a criminal defence lawyer, this book is less about the crimes and a lot more about the exploits of Curry in getting all and sundry off, each and every charge thrown at them. HARRY CURRY etc ... Read Review |
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Compulsively Murdering Mao, Bill Green01/11/2011 - 11:54amA little book I've had salted away for quite some time, it took the sad death of Bill Green to get me to stop dipping into and out of it, and sit down and read it. Having finished it, the quote from Mungo McCallum on the back sums up the political component:
But there's also a little more to this book, knowing, from chatting to the author, that part of the action - something about a plucky Australian going up against a CIA ... Read Review |
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ABC Dead, Ethan Youngblood31/10/2011 - 4:00pmThis book has been sitting on the pile in the corner that came from somewhere I've completely forgotten about - and it's been on that pile for quite a few years now. So I thought I should pick it up and "get on with it". Probably shouldn't have bothered. Definitely not my style - trying too hard to be arch and sort of funny, with a plot that simply didn't work on any level and to be honest, when I got to "he said satanically" very nearly became a DNF. Really only got to the end out of sheer bloodymindedness on my part.Read Review |
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Counter Attack, Mark Abernethy27/10/2011 - 3:42pmWhen it comes to writing military intelligence, covert operation styled thrillers there have been some particularly well known authors over the years. Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton come to mind immediately. Until Mark Abernethy created Alan (Mac) McQueen, there have been fewer options to choose from set in this part of the world, seen from an Australian perspective. Mac is our super-spy, the covert operative who knows everyone, works in our geographical region, is fearless in pursuit of the goal of whatever operation he's sent on, and frighteningly able to ... Read Review |
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Dark Water, Caro Ramsay25/10/2011 - 3:29pmOkay, so I'm a more than a bit of a fan of Caro Ramsay for a lot of reasons. DARK WATER is her third book, featuring a number of ongoing characters, but somehow there's not quite a feeling of a series about these. If you've not read ABSOLUTION, the first book, that will probably sound a bit odd - but let's just say at the end of that book something I've always thought of as quite brave from an author happens. The second book SINGING TO THE DEAD has to move on as a result, and again here, we've got a slight switch in the pairings, the characters and the goings on in this book. ... Read Review |