| Book | Review |
|---|---|
|
|
A Deniable Death, Gerald Seymour23/08/2012 - 4:51pmYou'd think, on the face of it, that this would be a book that would be right up my dark and twisty alley but for some reason A DENIABLE DEATH took an age to read, and I came away from it with a mild sense of disappointment. And try as I might, I can't quite put my finger on why, as there was much about the book that I did like. It's very much a contemporary thriller, with a very strong idea as the central plot, delivered with pace and authority. I suspect what didn't quite work for me was the contrivance of the classic lone wolf - Badger - trudging through a very ... Read Review |
 |
Summertime Death, Mons Kallentoft17/08/2012 - 2:13pmMons Kallentoft is not making any bones about using the weather conditions as a feature in his books - MIDWINTER SACRIFICE, and now SUMMERTIME DEATH. Given that temperatures of 45º+ aren't exactly record breaking in these parts, it's a real testament to the way that this book is written that makes the reader almost physically experience the effects of that heat in such an overwhelming manner. But there's also an ongoing device which is fascinating - the lead detective, Malin Fors, was told many years ago by a mentor to listen to all the voices in an investigation. Kallentoft uses that ... Read Review |
 |
Thirst, L.A. Larkin15/08/2012 - 5:06pmOne of the earliest thriller writers that got me hooked on the genre was Alistair MacLean. Granted that was a very long time ago now, but in my mind, his books always had a sort of triple threat scenario - place, weather and people. Reading THIRST by L.A. Larkin I was really struck by the similar environment, albeit with a touch more romance than MacLean would ever have countenanced. I was also struck by the characterisation of the central male protagonist. Luke Searle, maverick glaciologist, a cool, calm man much like MacLean's hero's, although slightly less cynical, and overtly more ... Read Review |
 |
Babylon, Stephen Sewell27/07/2012 - 4:54pmA young English backpacker gets into a car with an older Australian man somewhere in the Australian outback, and the violence, threatening, rape, pillage, murder and general mayhem commences. Somehow young, innocent, a bit wet Mick the backpacker stays. Despite the drugging and rape of a couple of under-age girls by Dan, despite the weird behaviour, despite the somewhat over the top sense of menace and madness, and especially despite Mick's somewhat wishy washy assertions that "he" didn't rape those girls... but. And that's possibly the big problem with BABYLON. There are ... Read Review |
 |
All My Enemies, Barry Maitland26/07/2012 - 4:27pmAllen & Unwin have re-released Barry Maitland's ALL MY ENEMIES, the third book in the Brock and Kolla series. Given that the book was originally published in around 1996 there were a few things intriguing me. Obviously, whether or not it would stand the test of time, but also, what would it be like going back to a book so early in a series that has since become a favourite. Interestingly I could still remember this book from the first time I read it, mostly because of the way that it starts to build this ongoing team, partly because of the interesting setting in which ... Read Review |
 |
Cue the Easter Bunny, Liz Evans25/07/2012 - 2:44pmGrace Smith has always been one of my favourite of the fraught, vaguely madcap female private detective sub-genre for a bunch of different reasons. Firstly I love Grace herself. Slightly bats definitely, sometimes refreshingly stupid, often times bordering on out of control, there's something refreshingly real and unmanufactured about Grace. She's the sort of girl you could see yourself having a drink with and whilst you might be a bit worried about the state of your shoes at the end of the night, your personal ego's not going to come away feeling somewhat underbaked. ... Read Review |
 |
London Boulevard, Ken Bruen24/07/2012 - 1:25pmTo be honest, I'd read Ken Bruen's to do list, shopping list, just about anything he writes. (I live with this odd fantasy that his to do list would be terse, pointed, poignant, unapologetic, tense and yet hilarious... but I don't get out much and my mind tends to wander into odd places). As is also normal with any Ken Bruen book LONDON BOULEVARD is not for the squeamish. Unapologetic, brutal, violent and very in your face, it is as always, equally touching and somehow hamfistedly gentle. Mitch, fresh out of prison, has a soft side, particularly when it comes to his ... Read Review |
 |
Silence, Jan Costin Wagner23/07/2012 - 4:01pmBecause SILENCE is the second of the Detective Kimmo Joentaa series, I read it third. (Rebellious you may well think, not paying attention is a much better explanation). One of the things that I most love about these three books - ICE MOON, SILENCE and THE WINTER OF THE LIONS is the sheer beauty of everything. The place, the culture and the emotion. Sure Joentaa is in deep mourning for his wife who died too young, but there's no sense of self-pity, this is simply a beautiful example of a man struggling quietly, emotionally, but with enormous dignity to find his path, to ... Read Review |
 |
Tobacco-Stained Mountain Goat, Andrez Bergen19/07/2012 - 11:28amSomething very strange happened to me recently. I loved a book, thoroughly enjoyed reading it, couldn't put it down at points, and still have absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. None whatsoever. Post-apocalyptic Melbourne again. Not my favourite place at all, although in TOBACCO-STAINED MOUNTAIN GOAT we don't seem to be too far in the future, and we don't seem to be that far from current day Melbourne, particularly in the way the city is divided into the have's and the have nots. The division is by way of the Dome - uptown paradise where rampant consumerism and ... Read Review |
 |
The Wreckage, Michael Robotham17/07/2012 - 4:14pmI can't tell you how pleased I was to finally get to read THE WRECKAGE. I've been a fan of this series since it's inception, with only one minor disappointment in the last book which headed off into shock tactics a little too overtly for my liking. THE WRECKAGE, however, is a terrific thriller, with a complex and masterfully executed plot and a sense of pace and tension that is nicely balanced with a bit of romance and some family secrets. It probably doesn't hurt that the action centres around Vincent Ruiz in this book, one of my favourite of Robotham's shifting cast of ... Read Review |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
|
|
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |
 |
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 |