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On Track for Murder, Stephen Childs09/11/2015 - 3:11pmSet in early settlement Western Australia, ON TRACK FOR MURDER, is an interesting look at the period, taking the main viewpoint as that of a young woman, recently arrived from England, carer for her younger, disabled brother; seeking reunion with their father, and their stepmother. After a fraught journey with some threatening behaviour from a sailor, young Abigail and her brother Bertrand then have to battle an unwelcoming and downright nasty stepmother, and the murder of their father, as well as the re-emergence of the threatening sailor on shore, with only the ... Read Review |
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Poison Bay, Belinda Pollard28/10/2015 - 3:13pmSet in New Zealand, written by an Australian author, POISON BAY by Belinda Pollard is one of those novels that you just can’t help but wonder what tourism authorities reaction would be... Located in one of New Zealand’s most rugged and beautiful locations - Fiordland - the place and the circumstances combine to create some real menace for a group of high school friends on a trekking holiday that goes horribly wrong. Starting out with a flashback to the tragic death of one of their friends, the focus switches quickly to the current day and a reunion with a difference. A ... Read Review |
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Close Your Eyes, Michael Robotham27/10/2015 - 1:41pmThe CWA Gold Dagger Winner’s latest novel is a return to his much-loved Joe O’Loughlin series. As is often the way with series books, some knowledge of past novels can enhance a reader’s pleasure, and in this case Shatter (2008) is close to mandatory reading before you sit down to enjoy Close Your Eyes – mainly to ensure that you get the full impact of the family changes that confront consulting psychiatrist O’Loughlin in his latest outing. There is a very close correlation between the two books, although definitely not enough to avoid ... Read Review |
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The Doctor of Thessaly, Anne Zouroudi26/10/2015 - 11:50amReading a series in order, I’ve decided, is too normal. Or at least that’s the best excuse I can come up with for starting the Hermes Diaktoros series at book number three - THE DOCTOR OF THESSALY. Set in a tiny Greek village, a crying jilted bride, leads quickly to the discovery of the groom, and local doctor, horribly scarred and blinded by an attack on the morning of his wedding. Surprisingly almost sanguine about the attack, the doctor is rushed off to hospital, refusing to see his intended bride, as the village slips back into its day to day activities of sniping at ... 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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Shwedagon, Noleen Jordan20/10/2015 - 1:36pmThere’s not a lot of crime fiction around, unfortunately, for readers who prefer a heist / non-death scenario, but SHWEDAGON is one that delivers exactly that. Author Noleen Jordan’s taken an unusual approach with this novel and, in the main, come up with something that’s engaging, and a bit of a romp. It’s unusual not just because this is a heist novel, but also because the heister is sixty-year-old Australian photographer, thrill seeker and jewel thief Hannah Nolan. Can’t tell you how amused I was by the central concept of this novel. Nolan has an underground history of ... 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 |
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Resurrection Bay, Emma Viskic25/09/2015 - 2:48pmA deftly handled plot, strong characters and a sly, dry humour make this an outstanding debut crime novel. - Review at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
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The Glass Kingdom, Chris Flynn22/09/2015 - 1:17pmThe second novel from Irish born, Australian resident Chris Flynn, THE GLASS KINGDOM is one of those books that you're either going to get, or be horribly confused by. Set in the weird and wild world of travelling carnivals, there's nothing whatsoever normal and straight about Ben, his sidekick Mikey, Ben's girlfriend Steph or their life. Undercover of the Target Ball stand, Ben makes his money as a major meth dealer. A serious king-pin meth dealer, with cooks and labs spread all over Australia, a complex and well-managed distribution scheme that includes the special blue ... Read Review |
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Europa Blues, Arne Dahl16/09/2015 - 4:32pmEUROPA BLUES is the first of Arne Dahl's books I've been fortunate enough to read and it definitely won't be the last. A combination of a slightly eccentric, dedicated and very determined investigation group full of strong individuals, who work as a team; and a confrontational and some very pointed crimes and their backgrounds, perpetrated for very believable reasons made this novel a stand-out read. When an unknown Greek gangster is murdered and then disposed of in the wolverine enclosure of a local zoo, the likelihood of even identifying him, let alone resolving the ... Read Review |
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The Disappearance of Signora Giulia, Piero Chiara15/09/2015 - 4:37pmWonderfully evocative, THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SIGNORA GIULIA imparts much information about the society in which it is set in a short, but beautifully balanced novel. When Signora Giulia goes missing, police detective Sciancalepre follows the investigation with dogged determination over a number of years. For much of this time it seems that the Signora has simply vanished into thin air. No body is found, nor are there sightings of her that lead to more than new questions. Coming from a small village as they all do, there is however, much gossip about her taciturn, older ... Read Review |
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The Tokyo Zodiac Murders, Soji Shimada15/09/2015 - 3:30pmHonkaku is a subgenre of Japanese Crime Fiction that came into being sometime in the early 1920's. The original definition was "a detective story that mainly focuses on the process of a criminal investigation and values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning". The term was coined to clearly differentiate Honkaku mystery fiction from other subgenres and it was used for both local and Western writers, although a distinct Japanese form became increasingly common in the 1950's. Adding depth to long tradition, the author of THE TOKYO ZODIAC MURDERS, Soji Shimada ... Read Review |
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Mrs Mort's Madness, Suzanne Falkiner28/08/2015 - 2:50pmSydneysider's might have more knowledge of this true crime case, although given we're talking about 1920, it could be that it's slipped from memory there as well. Suzanne Falkiner has used a combination of the facts of the case, and both the victim and perpetrator's life and fleshed that out with non-fiction elements, expanding on the facts to create a logical, and believable narrative. Working with some materials from the time including newspaper reports and legal / court documents, the story combines the true facts with a storytelling style that attempts to create a ... Read Review |
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Come to Harm, Catriona McPherson27/08/2015 - 1:24pmHaving never read anything by Catriona McPherson before, this made it into the To Be Read Mountain based on the blurb - which appealed. Looking at her back catalogue this is an author who is not afraid to try different things and COME TO HARM is a perfect example of that difference. Set in a small Scottish town, Japanese student Keiko Nishisato is a student in residence, sponsored by the local Traders association, provided with an apartment to live in, more food and supplies that you can poke a stick at, and enough to keep a student of Psychology scribbling notes on a ... Read Review |
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Quota, Jock Serong24/08/2015 - 1:39pmIt's not unknown for crime fiction followers to point out that it frequently explores the rights and wrongs of society and human behaviour. Because of that it's reasonable to expect that the settings, and central subject matter have unlimited scope, but I think this is the first book I can recall that gets into the question of over-permit limit Abalone catches, as well as the more predictable drug smuggling. The storyline of QUOTA centres around a dispute between two families in a small coastal town and the murder of Patrick Lanegan's brother on a fishing boat, just offshore, late at ... Read Review |
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Leona: The Die is Cast, Jenny Rogneby21/08/2015 - 2:44pmAny readers looking for something different - LEONA: THE DIE IS CAST could be just the ticket. There's so much here in the writing, and the styling that is very brave of this author. Leona Lindberg is both a highly regarded investigator and an outsider. She has a personality disorder which makes her a tricky person to work with, and an even harder protagonist for a reader to establish a connection with. Her internal dialogue clearly shows she's aware of her limitations, that her interactions with others are flawed, and able to moderate that to some extent. Every now and ... Read Review |
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The Insanity of Murder, Felicity Young20/08/2015 - 5:37pmThis is the latest in a series of intelligent, well-researched and engagingly written crime-fiction novels set amid the suffragette battles of early 1900s England. http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/2015/08/20/crime-scene-felicity-young...Read Review |
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A Time to Run, J.M. Peace13/08/2015 - 5:14pmThere's a lot of crime fiction out there that is all about the investigator and the protagonist, but A TIME TO RUN tips that right on it's ear, setting up a scenario in which an investigator (cop) is the next victim of a mad, dangerous man who makes a sport out of hunting down the women he's abducted. So, not a book for those readers that find that concept of the randomly selected victim and the barking mad, vicious killer too much. Particularly as this killer is appalling and very clever about it. It's not until a cop goes missing that a very dedicated policewoman sees ... Read Review |
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Australia's Most Murderous Prison: Behind the Walls of Goulburn Jail, James Phelps12/08/2015 - 2:09pmA book where the title is utterly unambiguous, AUSTRALIA'S MOST MURDEROUS PRISON is about Goulburn Jail. It refers to events in the jail as much as many of it's inmates crimes. It is also provides a brief history of the construction, background and management of the jail, where the worst of NSW inmates invariably end up. Written in a light style that initially might seem almost irreverent, it works incredibly well when it comes to relating many of the events that occur within the jail, and in particular when discussing the "activities" of some of the more notorious ... Read Review |