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Gentle Satan, My Father Abe Saffron, Alan Saffron17/02/2009 - 1:37pmSubtitled My Father, Abe Saffron GENTLE SATAN is the story of Alan Saffron - the son of Sydney's "Mr Sin" from the '60s and '70s. The book does promise to tell some tales of his notorious father, and whilst there is some skirting around the subject, it is probably most notable for what it doesn't, rather than what it does tell. It's obviously not easy being the son of a notorious, flamboyant, controlling and overwhelming man. It's also obviously not easy being the wife of an openly unfaithful, controlling and overwhelming man. But at the heart of this book there's ... Read Review |
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Deadly Intent, Lynda La Plante14/02/2009 - 12:32pmDEADLY INTENT is the fourth book in the Anna Travis series, made up of ABOVE SUSPICION, THE RED DAHLIA and CLEAN CUT. It's been a series which I've really enjoyed... up until this book, which I have to say disappointed. Anna is a dogged sort of a detective character, who has had a complicated personal life - having had a short-lived but dramatic affair with her previous boss - James Langton. She is still feeling the loss of that relationship and finding dealing with Langton on a daily basis very difficult. When he steps into overall control of the investigation of the ... Read Review |
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A Darker Domain, Val McDermid29/01/2009 - 2:09pmVal McDermid has tackled some social history that is obviously very dear to her own heart in A DARKER DOMAIN, and it has to be said, she's done it with considerable style. Not only does this book give you a fascinating glimpse into the social chaos and personal pain caused by the Miner's Strikes in early 1980's Britain, it carries the story of three unfathomable disappearances. Cold Case squad detectives DI Karen Pirie and DS Phil Parhatka are initially looking into the disappearance of Mick Prentice - reported missing 22 years after he supposedly broke ranks and joined ... Read Review |
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English Toss on Planet Andong, Dave Franklin27/01/2009 - 1:33pmI really hope Dave feels better after writing this book. I'm guessing that there's a somewhat autobiographical element to the events that happen in this book - it's too starkly drawn surely for just imagination (mind you, if I'm wrong, well it's some imagination this man has!) Paul Taylor has taken a job - along with a lot of other people trying to escape from something - in Andong, South Korea. Teaching English to young Korean children. The fascinating thing is that horrible kids are basically horrible kids - no matter what country they come from, and teaching English ... Read Review |
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Devil's Peak, Deon Meyer (review by sunniefromoz)11/01/2009 - 12:56pmWhat makes a book special for you? For me it’s when the characters and the story stays with you after you’ve closed the book. All too often once the book is finished , the details begin to fade almost immediately. Not so with DEVIL’S PEAK by Deon Meyer The alcoholic detective is something of a staple in crime fiction; to the extent that it frequently becomes a cliché. Not so Benny. Meyer writes about Benny’s struggle , self-recrimination and the realisation of the full impact of his drinking on his life, his family and his colleagues with a great deal of sensitivity . ... Read Review |
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Connie's Secret, Anne Lovell31/12/2008 - 2:28pmAuthor Anne Lovell found out by accident that her aunt, Connie Sommerlad, had been murdered by John Trevor Kelly in 1939. John Kelly goes down in Australian history with the dubious honour of being the last man to be hung in NSW. Connie’s name had never been mentioned by any of the older members of the family – her life, and death, had remained a secret. Why? As Anne investigates her late aunt’s life, she discovers that it was not the horrific murder that embarrassed the family into silence but something quite different. Connie and her younger brother Eric ran the ... Read Review |
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A Beautiful Place to Die, Malla Nunn24/12/2008 - 1:46pmOne thing that will strike readers of A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE firmly between the eyes is how an apartheid society is so incredibly foreign from the ways in which others of us live. That's not to say that there is an overtly "political" agenda in this book, rather the book does not take a step backwards in depicting South Africa under Racial Segregation laws. It also starkly draws a picture of the various societies within that - the 'English' South African's, the Afrikaner South African's and the native South African's. It is not a particularly pretty picture, and it's delivered ... Read Review |
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The Final Bet, Abdelilah Hamdouchi19/12/2008 - 1:40pmRemarked upon often as the first Arabic detective story translated, THE FINAL BET is a very slim volume that has a strong central message. The book really isn't particularly about Casablanca the place, or even the people. It's very much targeted straight at the way that the Moroccan legal system functioned at the time that it was written - and you can pick that thread up very clearly even without reading the afterword by the translator of the book - Jonathan Smolin. Othman has often thought about killing his elderly wife. The marriage is complicated by the difference ... Read Review |
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Life, Law and Not Enough Shoes, Judith Fordham18/12/2008 - 1:18pmAll right, all right. All those people who know me personally can stop snorting with laughter. The idea of me and a book about the love of shoes doesn't work. We all know that. Now if it had been hats, well maybe. But shoes. I've never seen the point - you've only got one pair of feet after all, and there's nowhere that a reasonably clean Blundstone can't take you if you look like you might bite back. But I digress. LIFE, LAW AND NOT ENOUGH SHOES is a memoir from Judith - a top criminal barrister and Associate Professor in Forensics in Western Australia ... Read Review |
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Fedora Walks, Merrilee Moss05/12/2008 - 1:22pmThere are simply not enough of these short novella books being published these days. Not only do they give you a real taste of (frequently) lesser known writers, they are perfect little handbag books - stocking stuffers if you want. FEDORA WALKS could definitely stuff the stocking of a lot of readers. If you're fans of the supernatural, if you're a fan of theatricals, if you're a lover of lesbian fiction (crime or not), or if you simply want something funny to fill in a few pleasant hours, then FEDORA WALKS is a great little book. Now I'm not much of a shoe shopper, but ... Read Review |
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Befriend and Betray, Alex Caine (review by Sunnie Gill)03/12/2008 - 3:09pmBEFRIEND AND BETRAY is an insider’s story of this complex and murky world where you can trust no one. Not only did Caine have to be wary of the gang he was infiltrating, but he also had to be circumspect about who he trusted in law enforcement. His is a story of creating alternative identities and living on his wits, often for months at a time. It makes compelling reading. Just how such people live, how they maintain their own identity and the effects on their relationships outside their work is as fascinating as the details of the work itself. In some instances Caine’s ... Read Review |
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Love is in the Air-Conditioning, Scott Bywater02/12/2008 - 2:51pmThis is one of those little books that I've been keeping an eye out for over the last few years, finally tracking down a copy recently. At 141 pages it was just the right size for dropping into the suitcase that we're dragging backwards and forwards between houses at the moment. Mind you, I didn't really know what to expect with the book, the blurb mentions private investigation and consulting firms, but it doesn't really give much else away. It turns out that Sam has been called in to investigage possible financial irregularities. One of the partners thinks that ... Read Review |
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Cold Blooded Murder, Malcolm Brown14/11/2008 - 12:33pmMalcolm Brown is a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, where he covered (amongst other things) courts, royal commissions and coroners' inquests for more than 30 years. As well as editing COLD BLOODED MURDER, he has contributed a number of chapters, with remaining sections coming from a range of other journalists all from the region in which the crime was committed. The book is broken up into chapters about a number of recent notorious crimes in all parts of Australia. A number of these crimes are particularly well known - the Snowtown, South Australia "bodies in ... Read Review |
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The Black Path, Åsa Larsson13/11/2008 - 3:11pmTHE BLACK PATH is the sort of book that you need to read with your preconceptions and expectations firmly locked in a drawer. Having not read the second book in the series yet, I know something happened to Rebecka in that book, but the details aren't important to understanding, from the start of THE BLACK PATH, that she has been through a traumatic experience and she's struggling back into normal life. But one thing you will find with THE BLACK PATH is that Rebecka, or Anna-Maria or any of the other characters that either reoccur from earlier books, or step forward into ... Read Review |
Arctic Chill, Arnaldur Indridason31/10/2008 - 1:15pmThere are some authors who are on my buy immediately list. Some of these books I can happily hoard - waiting until just the right moment to sit and enjoy them. And there are the ones that are buy and read immediately. ARCTIC CHILL has definitely been one of those books. As soon as it arrived in the house it danced around before my eyes until I could finish what I was reading and start this one. And you know when you've picked up a fabulous book because you find yourself sitting in the car, reading it - "it's no problem I can wait in the car while you run in and do ... Read Review |
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Death Among the Vines, Richard Young26/10/2008 - 1:36pmIt's refreshing to see more Australian Crime fiction moving out from the suburban and city streets - into the regional areas. DEATH AMONG THE VINES sets most of its action in and around the Ashcombe Vineyard in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. Col Ashcombe - a well known winemaker - is bashed to death in a creekbed on the winery, just as his son - Tim - is seeking finance to give the New York based advertising agency he is a partner in, a boost to take on some higher profile and larger accounts. Tim has only recently been in Australia - a flying visit during ... Read Review |
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Body Count, PD Martin (review by Sally906)25/10/2008 - 11:47amSophie Anderson is an Australian profiler working in the USA for the Behavioural Science unit with the FBI. She is also psychic, she sees through the eyes of the killer, and sometimes the victim, in her dreams. She is currently based in Washington DC and soon makes friends with fellow female investigator Sam who is the only person who knows Sophie's abilities. Sam is assigned a case of a serial killer who has murdered two women and soon makes it clear that he is after her. When Sam disappears the investigation team know they have between 3 and 5 days to catch the killer. ... Read Review |
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The Calling, Inger Ash Wolfe19/10/2008 - 3:21pmTHE CALLING is one of those books. One of those books that I found sometimes utterly compelling; was bored witless in some passages; laughed out loud in others; found myself heartily confused about some of the procedural elements; and was slightly repelled by some parts. It is a serial killer book, and I will admit that I'm getting to the point where I'm over the whole serial killer thing. I'm particularly over the barking mad, out there motive serial killer thing. And there's certainly a barking mad impetus behind the killer in THE CALLING. Luckily, the plot is a ... Read Review |
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Sawbones, Stuart MacBride11/10/2008 - 3:55pmSawbones is a novella, set in the US, not part of MacBride's series books set in Aberdeen. There are some similarities though - I harbour a fond belief that this author couldn't write out his shopping list without some sly, black humour involved. There is plenty of humour in SAWBONES. There's also a lot of gruesome moments, which again is pretty typical MacBride. He does love to gross you out, make you laugh, then make you stop and think what the hell am I laughing at for goodness sake! It's quite a tribute to the skill of the author that he can make that work in 114 ... Read Review |
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The Scent of the Night, Andrea Camilleri03/10/2008 - 6:51pmA large part of the attraction of these novels is the wonderfully grumpy, slightly eccentric, marvellously self-involved Inspector Montalbano. And the food - the meals that Montalbano insists on partaking on a regular basis are frankly, almost obscenely fantastic. Of course, for the books to be completely satisfactory there has actually got to be a story, and as with all these books, the story here is superbly Italian in its feel. The financier Emanuele Gargano has disappeared - as has a large amount of money that a lot of local retirees invested with him. An investigation had ... Read Review |