All the Reviews

Wyrd Sisters, Terry Pratchett

Probably 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

On A Small Island, Grant Nicol

A 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

The Glass Kingdom, Chris Flynn

The 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

The Disappearance of Signora Giulia, Piero Chiara

Wonderfully 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

The Loney, Andrew Michael Hurley

Claustrophobic, atmospheric, dark and insular, THE LONEY is part psychological thriller, part literary character study, and one of those books that is hard to categorise.

The central narrator of the book is a young boy who is forced, yearly, to endure an odd religious pilgrimage to a windswept, damp, dismal and isolated location in England with his deeply religious Catholic parents, friends and family priest. Part of the reason for his family's quest is to seek a cure from God for their intellectually handicapped eldest son, and the choice of this location with its bleak ... Read Review

Come to Harm, Catriona McPherson

Having 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

Leona: The Die is Cast, Jenny Rogneby

Any 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

A Time to Run, J.M. Peace

There'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

Double Madness, Caroline de Costa

The author of DOUBLE MADNESS, Caroline de Costa is a professor at the School of Medicine at James Cook University in Cairns, and the book is set amongst the medical profession, in Cairns. Writing obviously about a couple of worlds that she knows well, this debut novel combines a strong sense of the place, and the climate, with a well-delivered intricate plot.

The body of Odile Janvier is found deep in the rainforest outside Cairns by sheer chance when local doctor Tim Ingram and his wife take a very unlikely shortcut, a little known back track which is a dodgy proposition ... Read Review