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Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, Fiona BrittonIt's hard not to wonder what the line "Phyrne Fisher meets Underbelly in an arch, out-of-the-box debut historical crime caper" actually means. Turns out it's a bit the timeframe and environment, the character of Violet Kelly, and the situation she finds herself in. Set in 1930's Sydney, Violet Kelly and her identical twin sister Iris were raised by nuns in an orphanage before breaking free in their own way, leading to a very different set of circumstances. Violet, who is the main character in this novel, actively chooses the life offered at Maison des Fleurs, in a way ... Read Review |
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Traced, Catherine JinksJane McDonald has been working as a contract tracer in Sydney's western suburbs, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Contact tracers get used to working with a huge range of people and they expect to patiently work through all sorts of issues, making sure that everyone keeps themselves, and the community safe during this very unusual time. But it's hard not to get involved, and Jane is really concerned when a close contact of somebody with the virus is hysterical and terrified of what her fiance's reaction will be when it's revealed she's been in contact with her own cousin, who has now ... Read Review |
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Roseghetto, Kirsty JaggerKirsty Jagger’s debut novel is a confronting story about growing up in the worst of circumstances, and how violence and poverty can happen to anyone. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books.Read Review |
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Mad, Bad and Dead, Sherryl ClarkIf you're new to the Judi Westerholme series, it's one of those featuring a slightly older, marginally wiser, female character who's in too deep and doing the two steps forward, one step dance that quite a few of us might recognise. It's a great series, with a believable, slightly manic central character that's keeping her head above water by sheer willpower and, some would say, the slightly delusional idea that she alone will just have to sort it out. Which, to be fair, she's good at. In many ways. The series started out with TRUST ME, I'M DEAD, then DEAD AND GONE, and ... Read Review |
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The Wrong Woman, J.P. PomareTHE WRONG WOMAN is the first foray from J.P. Pomare overtly set in the US, and it was, for this reader, utterly seamless in its evocation of an American feeling small town. Helped a lot by the central character ex-cop, now Private Investigator Reid being from this particular community, and all too aware of the politics therein, the society and personal pressures and how they can lead to all sorts of problems for all sorts of people. The novel relies on a lot of complications on a lot of levels. Starting out with Reid himself, an ex-cop, now private investigator, back in ... Read Review |
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Four Dogs Missing, Rhys GardYou wouldn't think reading crime fiction would leave you with a taste for wine, but here we are. Set in the idyllic surrounds of the Mudgee (New South Wales) wine region, Oliver Wingfield has set himself up as a winemaker with a fine reputation for his wines, even if everyone talks about his reclusive nature and unorthodox techniques. He's a man with a complicated past, which is dragged kicking and screaming into the light after his estranged twin brother Theo suddenly arrives after a fifteen year period of no contact whatsoever, and is promptly murdered. Physically ... Read Review |
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The Yellow Dog, Georges SimenonThe world is a pretty awful place at the moment and there's no way I will stomach listening to a book that casually talks about animal cruelty. So this was a DNF with extreme nope.Read Review |
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A Rake of His Own, A.J. LancasterFrom the Blurb: Marius Valstar doesn’t know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk. The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the misfortune to have a history with. But when Prince Rakken turns up naked and bleeding in Marius’s college the same day a body appears in his greenhouse, scruples must take second place to solving a murder that could unravel the delicate balance between humans and fae. Marius’ ... Read Review |
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A Disappearance in Fiji, Nilima RaoIn the author's notes at the back of A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI, Nilima Rao provides background to the thinking behind this novel, including the structure of the Indian indentured servitude program, established by the British overseen, Indian government, coming into its own when slavery was abolished. Why am I not surprised that this was yet another example of utter bastardry, arranging for Indian workers, desperate to improve their lives however marginally, to be sent to places like Trinidad, Jamaica, and Mauritius on fixed period contracts with working and living conditions that were ... Read Review |
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Vanished, Nicole MorrisIn 2005 Nicole Morris founded the Australian Missing Persons register, an internet resource to help find missing people in Australia. http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/ (your browser may come up with a security alert because the site is missing the encryption layer). A valuable part of that website is the FAQ - http://www.australianmissingpersonsregister.com/FAQ.htm which provides important information if you have ... Read Review |
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A Deadly Game, Laraine StephensThe third novel in the Reggie da Costa series, DEADLY GAME is set in 1920's Melbourne featuring the celebrated, well groomed crime reporter da Costa, and the brave, and very determined Ruby Rhodes. da Costa has a habit of gathering beautiful woman in his life, with problems and complicated lives of their own. None of which stops da Costa looking upon a lot of them (except perhaps the one he should be looking towards) as potential love interests. Needless to say, this never quite works out as he'd hoped. A DEADLY GAME introduces him to Rhodes, a quiet, studious museum ... Read Review |
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Orphan Road, Andrew NetteThe second Gary Chance novel, ORPHAN ROAD, sees Chance move his centre of activities to Victoria, all because of an old friend and former employer, the once notorious Melbourne social identity, Vera Leigh. Owner of a struggling S&M club being circled by property developers, knower of decidedly dodgy characters, it all starts with Chance and another contact of Leigh's in Byron, shaking down a peace and love cult front for a major drug smuggling ring. Which turns into another one of those jobs that could be described by the quote in the blurb:
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Terry Pratchett: A Life With Footnotes, Rob WilkinsTook me a while to start reading this (published in 2022), mostly because this book, of all the books around Terry Pratchett, will mean knowing something personal about the man behind the genius. Written by Terry's long-time assistant, and very good friend, Rob Wilkins, this is an emotional (inspiring / hilarious and frequently brutally honest) walk through exactly that. At the heart of the writing genius was a gloriously grumpy, irascible, kind and funny human being, with a capacity for vision and thought that was utterly astounding. Wilkins came into Terry's life as a ... Read Review |
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Naked AmbitionIf you’ve ever wondered what a crime novel written by Noel Coward might be like, Naked Ambition could provide some clues. Review at Newtown Review of BooksRead Review |
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The Signatory, Stuart BlackTHE SIGNATORY is a thriller set in and around an Australian advertising agency, leaving this reviewer wondering if there's an argument that crime fiction set in the corporate / business world is under-represented. On the face of it, perhaps an unlikely setting, but then again, there are more than reasons to think that there's villainy in day to day business, even if its not strictly illegal. The story of THE SIGNATORY revolves around Sam Pride - who has just sold his start-up company to a US conglomerate for large piles of money. His life is looking good - young, married ... Read Review |
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Fatal Isles, Wild Shores & Cruel Tides, Maria AdolfssonHaving had the urge to try BorrowBox from our Library system recently, I happened upon the first three books in the Doggerland series by Maria Adolfsson - FATAL ISLES (2018), WILD SHORES (2019) and CRUEL TIDES (2020). It looks like there are three more books that haven't yet been translated into English. It's a series featuring Detective Inspector Karen Eiken Hornby, and her (turns out fictional) native island of Doggerland (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doggerland). The opening book, FATAL ISLES, introduces Eiken ... Read Review |
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Beachdaze, TW LawlessBook six in the Peter Clancy series, set in the world of investigative journalism, BEACHDAZE sees Peter back in Australia, out of the day-to-day newspaper game and up to his elbows in neighbourhood dispute from the moment he sets foot in his new home. Readers of the earlier books in the series will find the idea that Clancy has given up the high-octane world of investigative journalism in swinging London slightly surprising. He got there via an interesting route, starting out his reporting days on the old Truth newspaper in Melbourne, Australia (denizens of the state of ... Read Review |
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The Brothers, S.D. HintonSD Hinton’s debut novel uses the structure of a thriller to explore myriad responses to trauma. Full review at Newtown Review of Books.Read Review |
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Wild Place, Christian White"Why do good people do bad things?" is an interesting question, explored fully in WILD PLACE by Christian White. Set in the heart of Australian suburbia, during the height of the summer of 1989, seventeen year old Tracie Reed vanished one night. Her parents in the middle of a fraught divorce, Tracie's behaviour had changed in the leadup and despite her mother's protestations to the contrary, police have basically dismissed her as a runaway. Part of the local neighbourhood watch, Tracie's high school English teacher, and neighbour, starts digging into her disappearance, ... Read Review |
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Dark Mode, Ashley Kalagian BluntThis fierce, unflinching thriller asks timely questions about threatening behaviour. Why don’t we recognise it? Stop it? - Full Review at Newtown Review of Books.Read Review |