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Fast and Loose, Nicholas J. Johnson05/08/2015 - 1:12pmReaders were introduced to Joel Fitch and his mentor Richard Mordecai in the first book of this series, CHASING THE ACE. This second book, FAST AND LOOSE, starts up where the first left off, with Fitch and Mordecai parted ways, and Fitch left holding the cash. Rather a lot of cash straight out of Mordecai's life long ill-gotten gains. Fitch's not altogether comfortable with this as the double-cross he thought caused their split, wasn't at all, and he feels very guilty that his old friend and teacher is now on the lam. Fitch has led a fractured sort of a life, so it makes ... Read Review |
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Kingdom of the Strong, Tony Cavanaugh04/08/2015 - 4:56pmKINGDOM OF THE STRONG is the fourth Darian Richards novel from screenwriter, producer and novelist Tony Cavanaugh. Readers of the past novels will be aware of the background of Richards. A high ranking cop in Victoria for many years, he has a darker side, with a history of ensuring justice for victims even if it means he steps into the role of avenging angel. Readers of the earlier books will also be aware of a tendency towards the barking mad, evil, utterly over the top, random serial killer. Which, frankly, made this reader struggle with them, no matter how compelling a character ... Read Review |
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Disgrace, Jussi Adler-Olsen30/07/2015 - 3:35pmDISGRACE is the second book in the Danish series featuring Carl Mørck, who heads Copenhagen's cold case squad. A department made up of one very grumpy, sidelined cop; one civilian assistant who used to be the cleaner, and as of DISGRACE, one secretary who seems to have been shunted down to the basement with the other two because she's caused havoc everywhere else. If you've not read the earlier book - THE KEEPER OF LOST CAUSES - a little background of the characters. Mørck is wonderfully cynical, grumpy and tricky to get on with. Which doesn't seem to worry his Syrian ... Read Review |
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The Big Whatever, Peter Doyle30/07/2015 - 1:20pmMusic and popular culture provide the backdrop to this long-awaited new Billy Glasheen novel. It’s no surprise that Peter Doyle, authority on popular culture, slide guitarist, university professor and social historian, has written a series of novels that chronicle a time in Australian history when American pop-culture first became really influential. Starting out in 1996 with Get Rich Quick (set in 1952), then the 1998 release Amaze Your Friends (set in 1957), through to 2001 and The Devil’s Jump (set in 1945) and ... Read Review |
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My Name is N, Robert Karjel27/07/2015 - 1:43pmWhen this review book arrived it was added to the teetering pile beside the couch, from where it was plucked by my partner on a cold Saturday afternoon, probably because he couldn't be bothered moving too far. Which turned out to be the last movement he made for quite some time. Needless to say he was enthralled enough to tweak my interest. The territory covered in MY NAME IS N is wide and unexpected. From the 2004 Thailand tsunami a group of people emerge united in their loss, eventually determined to wreak havoc against a bigoted religious leader who uses the tsunami ... Read Review |
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Pop Goes the Weasel, M.J. Arlidge16/07/2015 - 1:29pmThe second novel in the DI Helen Grace series POP GOES THE WEASEL returns to Grace's life in the aftermath of her sister's death, and that of a much loved colleague in the first book EENY MEENY. Because the events in that first novel were so fundamental to everything that Grace is and how she behaves, this is definitely a series that would work best if you can start at the beginning, something that this reader would have highly recommended anyway. Arlidge has taken a brave approach with the development of Helen Grace as a character. She's prickly, standoffish, often ... Read Review |
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Double Exposure, Kat Clay15/07/2015 - 3:13pmThe Crime Factory have developed a reputation for publishing wonderful examples of modern noir fiction set in different locations and times. DOUBLE EXPOSURE is, however, a very different animal indeed, combining a past time frame (1948) with a dark and very atmospheric sense of place, and a hefty dose of the paranormal. Which obviously isn't going to be for all readers, but for those that are interested in something different and very well done, then DOUBLE EXPOSURE is well worth reading time. The Photographer, never named, is centre of all of the action in this taut ... Read Review |
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The Lost Swimmer, Ann Turner14/07/2015 - 4:13pmWriters who take the decision to build their novels around characters who are less than sympathetic, veering towards frustrating, appear to be making one of the braver literary decisions you can come across. Needless to say Rebecca Wilding is a difficult prospect in THE LOST SWIMMER. The central narrator, with the story told in the first person, Rebecca has the sort of mind that's difficult to spend time in. Incredibly passive and dangerously whingy she seems to almost relish the things that go wrong in her life. For somebody who is a Professor, and Head of Department she ... Read Review |
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Dead Guilty (aka An Act of Reparation), Susan Godenzi13/07/2015 - 1:41pmOriginally published under the title AN ACT OF REPARATION, DEAD GUILTY uses the complex subject of domestic abuse as a vehicle to explore the ongoing abuse and exploitation of women in very vulnerable situations. Starting out with the murder of an abusive husband Sean Laidlaw, journalist Lexie Reed stumbles upon the subsequent disappearance of his wife and daughter's from a local crisis shelter. Whilst the police are initially focused on the murder, which was caused a particularly brutal head-injury inflicted by a wood splitter, they are forced by Reed's discoveries to ... Read Review |
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Before It Breaks, Dave Warner10/07/2015 - 4:34pmSometimes the world is very kind to a dedicated fan of Australian Crime fiction, particularly when two new books from authors that we've not heard from for a very long time arrive. Peter Doyle and Dave Warner each played their part, many years ago, in engaging an interest in our own stories and voices. The release of BEFORE IT BREAKS caused excitement and slight trepidation. Slight trepidation because Warner's earlier Andrew "Lizard" Zirk series (Murder in the Groove, Murder in the Frame and Murder Off-Season) has always been a nostalgic ... Read Review |
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Pieces of a Lie, Rowena Holloway09/07/2015 - 2:53pmThis debut novel is set in small town South Australia, using many of the up and downsides of living in small communities as devices throughout the novel. Protagonist Mina Everton has lived in this town all her life, she knows everybody, and everyone knows her, and her family. Which made life very difficult when her father, a man with a criminal past, abandoned Mina and her desperately ill mother. It's bad enough that the man she adored did a runner like that, but because he swindled a lot of money from a lot of locals, many residents have treated them with some suspicion since. ... Read Review |
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The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay, David Murray08/07/2015 - 2:55pmMany with a passing interest in the news might remember aspects about the case of the murder of Allison Baden-Clay. Unfortunately she is yet another woman, killed by their domestic partner, for reasons which are impossible to justify. David Murray has done an outstanding job in THE MURDER OF ALLISON BADEN-CLAY in relating the stories of both sides of this case without resorting to either sensationalism or conclusion. Whilst plenty of time is spent looking at the personality, behaviour and family background of Gerard Baden-Clay, equally Murray takes the time to introduce ... Read Review |
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The Abrupt Physics of Dying, Paul E. Hardisty06/07/2015 - 1:02pmSet in Yemen, THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING is an eco-thriller from an author who writes about the issues explored with authority and a vivid sense of place. Claymore Straker is a South-African born engineer, working on environmental approval reports for a major oil company in Yemen, a country teetering on the brink of civil war. Held up, with his local Muslim driver, at gunpoint by a local armed militia group, Straker is forced to investigate the potential of environmental contamination in a village close to oil fields. Children are dying, mothers are miscarrying, and the ... Read Review |
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The Mystery Of The Venus Island Fetish, Dido Butterworth03/07/2015 - 1:59pmStay with me here, this is going to get complicated. THE MYSTERY OF THE VENUS ISLAND FETISH is a satirical, comic crime novel set within the realms of Sydney Museum. Written, supposedly by museum curator of worms, Dido Butterworth, the first complication is that the story comes straight from the voice of Assistant Curator Archibald Meek (more on that coming). Introduced by well known environmentalist and Australian identify Professor Tim Flannery, the next complication is that he actually wrote the thing, Dido Butterworth being a fictional character as well. To make ... Read Review |
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Nest, Inga Simpson01/07/2015 - 1:06pmWonderfully evocative and beautifully delivered, NEST was utterly mesmerising. I'm very grateful that the inclusion of NEST in the 2015 Ned Kelly Submissions meant that this wonderful book by Inga Simpson came to my attention. I'm not sure that I'd call this a crime novel, but it's beautiful, engaging and extremely readable. Reflective and languidly paced, NEST sees Jen Vogel return to the bush town of her childhood. Her mother has recently died, her long-term relationship ended and Jen has returned to her "nest", to the place where she feels ... Read Review |
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Wrath, Anne Davies30/06/2015 - 2:37pmReading the blurb of WRATH the final statement seemed like a pretty brave one - "A novel about a mistake we could all make and redemption". Especially when you know that the inspiration of the book is the real-life story of a 24-year-old Tennessee man who was executed for murdering his mother and stepfather when he was 13. Even allowing for a position that implacably rejects the concept of capital punishment, that's, you can't help but feel, a bit more than a mistake on many levels. But given that the book is set in Western Australia it was safe to ... Read Review |
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The Case of the Cock Robin Killer, C.S. Boag29/06/2015 - 2:48pmNumber 5 in the Rainbow series, and THE CASE OF THE COCK ROBIN KILLER might be blue about lots of things, but it won't make you blue to read it. In fact you'll probably find yourself snorting with laughter, or at least rolling your eyes as the puns fly left, right and centre. The reader of any of my earlier reviews of this wonderfully silly, oddball series will know that I'm a bit of a fan. They are the sorts of books that you pick up late on a Sunday afternoon when you just want to be amused, and not think about the ills of the world. Obviously they are meant to be ... Read Review |
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After the Crash, Michel Bussi26/06/2015 - 3:24pmAFTER THE CRASH opens with private eye Credule Grand-Duc preparing to take his own life after spending nearly eighteen years failing to discover the truth behind the miracle of the baby who survived a plane crash. Preparing his papers for handover, and setting the scene for his dramatic final act, he contemplates once more the front page from the local newspaper the day that the crash happened. And suddenly realises he finally knows the answer. Occurring at a time well before the advent of DNA testing, any chance of establishing the parentage of the baby at the ... Read Review |
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The Unbroken Line, Alex Hammond25/06/2015 - 5:32pmThis unpredictable legal thriller is no courtroom drama and brims with action. The first novel in this series, Blood Witness (shortlisted for the 2014 Ned Kelly Best First Crime), set Will Harris up as a strong and believable central character. A lawyer with a social conscience and questionable taste in business partners, his love life is constantly under threat from the ... Read Review |
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The Grand Cru Heist, Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen24/06/2015 - 4:22pmIt's hard not to become increasingly enamoured of this wonderful series of books (of which there are now 8 translated), based in the gloriously described wine regions of France, featuring the curmudgeonly, slightly arrogant, ever vigilant Benjamin Cooker, his assistant Virgile and wife Elisabeth. In THE GRAND CRU HEIST, sadly Elisabeth who is missing in action for much of the novel. This story starts out with our renowned wine critic being bashed and robbed one night in Paris. Bad enough that the young, violent villains pinched his beloved Mercedes, but it ... Read Review |