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Devil-Devil, Graeme Kent16/07/2012 - 2:27pmWhen it comes to convoluted reasons for picking up a book I suspect this is not a bad one. I've had DEVIL-DEVIL on the piles here for quite some time, but I suddenly realised it was the perfect book to read as a comparison with a manuscript I was looking at. Love it when you have a win-win like this. Set in the Solomon Islands, Ben Kella is a man steeped in island tradition, educated in western tradition. He's worked in London and Manhattan, and is now a sergeant in the Islands' police force as well as holding the hereditary role of Aofia, a peacekeeper of the Lau people ... Read Review |
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Midnight in Peking, Paul French11/07/2012 - 2:35pmAt the end of MIDNIGHT IN PEKING, French writes "I first read of Pamela Werner in a biography of the American journalist Edgar Snow, whose best selling Red Star Over China introduced the world to Mao Tse-tung in the late 1930s. A footnote made reference to Edgar's wife Helen feeling nervous after Pamela's mutilated body was found not far from the Snows' house in Peking....". I'm guessing it's not everyone who would turn such a footnote into an indepth investigation and analysis of a case, although this is a particularly fascinating case. MIDNIGHT IN PEKING is a ... Read Review |
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The Betrayal, Y.A. Erskine10/07/2012 - 4:43pmDate rape isn't a subject that I've come across a lot in my crime fiction reading, so combine that with an Australian setting, a very dark outlook and a number of quite damaged, imperfect characters who crash towards an unusual ending in the second book by local author Y.A. (Yvette) Erskine and it seemed like it could be a winning package. As with the first book, THE BROTHERHOOD, the story is again told with a shifting viewpoint per chapter, unfortunately this time the outcome is a rather drawn out, disconnected feel. I'm not convinced it served the main victim, Police ... Read Review |
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Dougal's Diary, David Greagg (review by Madelyn)10/07/2012 - 2:20pmDougal is an ordinary cat, living an ordinary life as a household pet. His diary tells the story of his life, beginning as a newborn kitten and ending as a happy household cat. Along the way he has several visits to the pound and shares adventures with fellow adoptee Shadow. You discover what Dougal thinks of all the things that happen to him and exactly how he sees the people and other creatures he interacts with. I think this is a very good book. I love how the cats don’t play when human are around, and then play for hours when they are gone. It’s interesting to read ... Read Review |
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The Mistake, Wendy James06/07/2012 - 3:52pmI still remember the profound sense of disquiet that WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? left me with, and Wendy James has done it again with THE MISTAKE. There's something about Jodie Garrow that I suspect is going to trigger differing responses in readers. Personally I couldn't get past a very obvious sense of Stepford Wife syndrome. She's a socialite, immaculately made-up, coiffured, dressed to the part of the wealthy wife of a high profile husband. There's the perfect family - a boy, a girl, a modern house. She's a big fish in a very small pond - a metaphor that extends as the plot ... Read Review |
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Dougal's Diary, David Greagg (review by Chloe)06/07/2012 - 2:21pmDougal’s Diary is about a kitten that tries to be a good cat for his humans but his little sister Shadow doesn’t make it easy. I loved the book from the start and it was very humorous. I would also like to read it again. I, for one, would recommend other children my age to read this book and hope they would like it just as much as I did. Dougal’s Diary kept me interested the whole time. It was also very hard to put it down because I liked it so much. The purpose of the story is to definitely entertain people and also see a cat’s point of view. On every ... Read Review |
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The Namesake, Conor Fitzgerald03/07/2012 - 1:59pmPerhaps I should just start this off by saying Mafia storylines are possibly my least favourite scenarios. Maybe (and probably unfairly) it seems like an easy target, the other possibility is that there's rarely anything new or illustrative about their activities. Either way, I'm acutely aware that this is a personal prejudice which is undoubtedly irrational and unreasonable. Adding to the complication was THE NAMESAKE being the third Commissario Alex Blume novel, and my not having read either of the earlier ones. This meant that Blume, an interesting, enigmatic and ... Read Review |
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Paving the New Road, Sulari Gentill20/06/2012 - 5:31pmThe reader of my reviews will know I've become a bit of a fan of the Rowland Sinclair series (which is quite surprising for somebody who normally prefers to lurk deep on the dark side), so PAVING THE NEW ROAD was a welcome arrival. Basing the story in 1933, sending Sinclair and his companions to Germany all sounded rather interesting. Although I will confess that one of my pet peeves - the inclusion of high profile real-life figures in fiction - made me somewhat nervous. Having said that, if you're going to include a real-life figure, then why not somebody famous for being around ... Read Review |
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Blackwattle Creek, Geoffrey McGeachin14/06/2012 - 1:14pmFollowing on from the excellent THE DIGGER'S REST HOTEL, BLACKWATTLE CREEK sees Charlie Berlin and now wife Rebecca, 10 years on. Married with two kids, they are struggling to make ends meet on a policeman's wage, living in the glaringly new suburbs of Melbourne. With a solid but unremarkable career in the police behind him, Berlin's refuge from the demons that continue to haunt him after WWII, is his happy little family unit, despite his sometimes fractious relationship with his son Peter, despite their ... Read Review |
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Hell's Fury, PD Martin12/06/2012 - 2:31pmBeing a bit of a fan of thriller's, I was very intrigued by PD Martin's HELL'S FURY. Not just because it has a central female protagonist, and there simply aren't enough good, strong female characters in thriller fiction (particularly spy or military style thrillers), but also because there's a very current story thread at the central core - a CIA operative captured by the Taliban, disowned by the CIA, saved with a price to pay for that rescue. I was possibly less intrigued by the concept of "The Committee", being somewhat twitchy about mercenary, outside the law, ... Read Review |
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Zero Hour in Phnom Penh, Christopher G Moore31/05/2012 - 2:46pmSet mostly in Phnom Penh, ZERO HOUR IN PHNOM PENH is based in the early 1990's, at the end of the civil war that tore Cambodia apart, in the wake of the appalling Khmer Rouge regime. UN peacekeeping forces are on the streets, gunfire is regularly heard, and PI Vincent Calvino is looking for an American man - a farang - who has friends in Thailand keen to get in touch with him. With a distinctly noir sensibility, ZERO HOUR takes Calvino from where he is based in Thailand into the dangerous, unpredictable, unstable and decidedly seedy world of underground Phnom Penh. It's a ... Read Review |
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The Frankston Serial Killer, Vikki Petraitis30/05/2012 - 4:35pmTrue Crime is probably best known for it's analysis or concentration on the investigation, the difficulties with identifying a perpetrator, the perpetrator's possible motives or psychology - basically the crimes themselves. In THE FRANKSTON SERIAL KILLER, Vikki Petraitis has covered those expected aspects, but she's also written a compelling story of the victims. The impact that their deaths have had on their families and friends, drawing out the poignancy of the deaths of three young women. The nature of the loss of these women is probably even more stark given the sheer ... Read Review |
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In Her Blood, Annie Hauxwell09/05/2012 - 1:18pmWhilst it's not particularly unusual to have a flawed central protagonist, unapologetic ones are less common. Add being female, and that makes IN HER BLOOD's Catherine Berlin a rather rare beast, and a very welcome one. Set in London after the Global Financial meltdown, Berlin is a government investigator who receives a tip-off about a local loan shark, then finds her informant floating in the Limehouse Basin, brutally killed. The first complication is that her female informant has been anonymous, and even the police seem to have trouble identifying her. The second ... Read Review |
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Silent Valley, Malla Nunn01/05/2012 - 4:50pmThe Emmanuel Cooper books by Malla Nunn, set in 1950's South Africa, are another excellent series in what is luckily now becoming a bigger range of crime fiction set in various parts of Africa. SILENT VALLEY (aka BLESSED ARE THE DEAD) is the third book now, centred around Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper, a policeman with plenty of demons from his past. Knowing that his past is closely intertwined with a society based on Apartheid will help the reader understand some of the difficulties that Cooper faces, just as understanding the intrinsic brutality of that system will give his ... Read Review |
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Poet's Cottage, Josephine Pennicott13/04/2012 - 2:56pmJosephine Pennicott has written three dark fantasy novels, and won three Scarlet Stiletto Awards from the Sisters in Crime Australia, so it's no surprise that her latest offering, POET'S COTTAGE has a little of the sensibility of both genres. Set in the small, fictional town of Pencubbit in Tasmania, POET'S COTTAGE is really a story about generational memory. Sadie, and her teenage daughter move to Poet's Cottage after Sadie's mother Marguerite dies. The house, childhood home to Marguerite and her older sister Thomasina, and their parents Pearl and Maxwell is also the ... Read Review |
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Promise, Tony Cavanaugh04/04/2012 - 4:33pmI think it would be fair to say that PROMISE by Tony Cavanaugh has been talked up in these parts. Having read the book now, you can see many of the reasons for the general feeling of enthusiasm, although to be fair, the central storyline of this book is going to be problematic for some readers. In Darian Richards, Cavanaugh has created a very interesting central character. Retired head of Victoria's Homicide Squad, shooting victim, not everything is immediately as it seems with Richards. A hard working cop with the victims and their families at the forefront of his mind ... Read Review |
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After the Darkness, Honey Brown20/03/2012 - 3:49pmThe problem I had with an earlier book of Honey Brown's was that whilst the thriller aspects of the book really worked, I was less convinced by the post-apocalyptic scenario and the happy ever after ending. AFTER THE DARKNESS solved those personal prejudices, and presented me with a thriller that worked on just about every level. I just love thrillers that make the hair on the back of my neck stand up, that present a scenario that's unexpected, quietly disconcerting and extremely worrying. Particularly where the tension ramps up, the outcome's not immediately apparent, ... Read Review |
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Say You're Sorry, Michael Robotham15/03/2012 - 6:50pmWhen SAY YOU'RE SORRY was announced I promised myself that this time - straight to the top of the pile. After all, what's not to look forward to - a solid police procedural with a psychological aspect, written by an Australian, set in the United Kingdom. One of the tricks of this series is that Robotham is switching the main viewpoint around between a couple of central protagonists - ex-cop Vincent Ruiz and clinical psychologist, Joe O'Loughlin. Now at a pinch I'd have to say that Ruiz is my favourite of these two characters, but that's not to say that O'Loughlin isn't also a strong ... Read Review |
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Die Twice, Andrew Grant14/03/2012 - 1:53pmI probably should sit down and give a detailed, reasoned and careful analysis of DIE TWICE by Andrew Grant. But can I just go with "I really liked this book". Because "I really liked this book". I'm not sure why to be frank. Perhaps it was the structure - I liked the opening of chapters laying out a principle that the central character David Trevellyan learnt in basic training, which he then went on to demonstrate. Perhaps it was the level of action which was fast paced, tight and very nicely done. Perhaps it was the character of David Trevellyan, a bit of a later ... Read Review |
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Huckstepp: A Dangerous Life, John Dale09/03/2012 - 1:33pmLooking back at the life, and death in 1986 of Sallie-Anne Huckstepp there's a sense of inevitability about her destiny, a long time before she went on television to accuse NSW detectives of shooting her boyfriend in cold blood. HUCKSTEPP is an excellent book of its type - part biography, part investigation into Huckstepp, and her death, the book looks honestly at Sallie-Anne herself, as well as the crooks, cops and colleagues that she had close contact with over her life. Given that there's never been an answer to who killed Huckstepp, this book seems to come as close ... Read Review |