Best wishes to all for the upcoming festive season however you celebrate (or don't). This year our day will be low key as usual. Board games and no fuss food with friends, all leading up to a chocolate fountain. Which is our sort of Christmas Tree!
As always Boxing Day will be about the books to be read whilst listening to the cricket. Still miss the ritual of the new Cliff Hardy book but I do have the latest by Alan Carter (Franz Josef) and Adrian Hyland (The Redline) so that will do nicely, as would anything from the piles.
Here's hoping the books you wanted arrive, the treats you needed are eaten and everyone gets to the other side in one piece.
Reviews
This time around not a lot of reviews but some great books. I swore I wasn't going to touch anything to do with the trial of Erin Patterson, and then The Mushroom Tapes wandered past my eye, and ... well Helen Garner, and a most unusual approach and I can heartily recommend that true crime / memoir / treatise.
On the fictional side a trio of New Zealand / Ngaio Marsh entries, each very different and each hugely worth reading: The Mires by Tina Makereti, Ōkiwi Brown by Cristina Sanders and A House Built on Sand by Tina Shaw. Another from NZ, set in the US was Turning Point by Wayne Andrewartha and then there's the latest in the Fiji Island Mysteries - Death of a Diplomat by BM Allsopp, as well as Dinner at the Night Library by Hika Harada. Both of these last two have very strong sense of place and culture, and Dinner At the Night Library wasn't at all what I was expecting and utterly beguiling, if not mildly baffling. On the more predictable and all the more satisfying because of that side were Dead Lions by Mick Herron and No Less the Devil by Stuart MacBride. Exactly what they say on the tin.
Finally from the unexpected pleasures pile Quintus Huntley: Botany by Royce Leville was great good fun as well as just very good.
Recent Arrivals / Upcoming Releases (Australia / NZ)
(With apologies for the misfiling last newsletter), and for the number of books - there's a lot in these piles.
THE MILLENIUM JOB, Rob Gerrand Release Date: 4/1/2022
The mafia are trying to track down $1 billion stolen using special computer code written for a bank at the time of the Millennium Bug on 1 January 2000. Detective Inspector John "Winner" Nguyen has his work cut out for him, including visits to New York and Los Angeles, as he tries to discover who the dead man is, how he ended up in Deirdre's bed, and who killed him. Read more about The Millennium Job
ONE ROSE LESS, Pat Flower Release Date: 15/10/2022
Suburbia can be murder … especially with a neighbour like Rose … Sydney, 1961 When Bob Clifton witnesses a disturbing event in a block of flats near his home, everyone tells him he must be imagining things. But Bob can’t ignore his suspicion that he’s witnessed a murder, and there’s one man he knows will listen to him: his friend, Detective Inspector Herbert Swinton. (Added a couple of Flower's books as ebooks as my very ancient paper copies are a bit special). Read more about One Rose Less
A WREATH OF WATER LILIES, Pat Flower Release Date: 15/10/2022
When a chance meeting in Provence leads Detective Inspector Herbert Swinton to the strange vineyard home of eccentric Pearl Langham – and her even stranger assortment of guests – his much-needed break looks set to turn into a busman’s holiday. Stranded with the housemates from hell and missing his Sydney home — and his beloved cold meat pies — he plots an early exit. But his plans are soon turned upside down when one of the guests is found dead in suspicious circumstances. And when a second body is found, it’s clear there’s murder afoot… Read more about A Wreath of Water Lilies
BALACLAVA, Campbell Jeffreys Release Date: 27/8/2023
Climate change. Water shortages. Crowded cities. Economic inequality. Limited opportunity. Unemployment. Politicians who only care about the 1%. People are angry and the world is on edge. Millions of people are ready to fight for the change they want. All they need is a leader. Read more about Balaclava
THE WHITE CROW, Michael Robotham Release Date: 1/7/2025
Philomena McCarthy has defied the odds to become a young officer with the Metropolitan Police because her father and her uncles are notorious London gangsters. On patrol one night, Philomena finds a barefoot child, covered in blood, who says she can’t wake her mother. Meanwhile, three miles away, a London jeweler has a bomb strapped to his chest in his ransacked store and millions are missing. Read more about The White Crow
INSIDE OUT, Kathleen Folbigg and Tracy Chapman Release Date: 2/9/2025
In 2003 Kathleen Folbigg was convicted of killing her four babies. Her trial relied on her husband’s accusations and diary entries expressing her guilt over her children’s deaths. She was sentenced to forty years in prison. In Inside Out Kathleen takes us back to her traumatic childhood, her difficult marriage, her dream of nurturing a family, and the profound souring of that dream into a nightmare. Read more about Inside Out
SEED, Bri Lee Release Date: 30/9/2025
Mitchell is a brilliant biologist, committed to the environment and the growing global antinatalist movement. For one month each year he lives with his colleague Frances in a utopia of radical equality and scientific dedication in Antarctica. They are concluding the Anarctos Project: a seed vault in an isolated, secret location. It is a biodiversity insurance policy against humanity’s devastating effects on the rapidly warming planet. Read more about Seed
KILLING FOR SPORT, Dwayne Russell Release Date:14/10/2025
On the eve of their wedding, Jackson discovers something he can’t forgive about his fiancee Sara. As he tries to make himself disappear so that he won’t be found by her and her violent family, he connects with international art dealer Sebastian Lee who offers him an escape route – but at what cost? Read more about Killing for Sport
DIRT TRAP, Michael Burge Release Date: 1/11/2025
Journalist James Brandt lives in a brittle truce with his partner Dylan and his family, never talking about the homophobic attacks he exposed in his rural hometown, including the brutal death of a beloved cousin twenty years ago. But this illusion of peace is ripped apart by the start of the state's historical gay-hate crime inquiry, and the reappearance of the Joneses, who waltz back into Kippen professing to be queer allies. Yet when one of that notorious dynasty is found dead at a local water tower, it is James who stands accused. Read more about Dirt Trap
WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW, Sandi Wallace Release Date: 3/11/2025
Home on a secluded island should be safe… but isn’t. Tess and Joe are living the dream on Wyeebo Island. She writes children’s mystery books and loves having her husband home on weekends. He has it all, a travelling job he excels in and a wife he adores. But how well do they really know who they’re married to? Read more about What You Don't Know
NOT QUITE WHITE IN THE HEAD, Melissa Lucashenko Release Date: 4/11/2025
Not Quite White in the Head offers unprecedented access to one of the nation's greatest writers as she invites us into the conversations that truly matter. Read more about Not Quite White in the Head
THE MUSHROOM TAPES, Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein Release Date: 4/11/2025
The Mushroom Tapes brings together three renowned writers of true crime: Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein. For this extraordinary book, the lone wolves became a team. Garner, Hooper and Krasnostein tracked Erin Patterson’s preliminary hearings and trial, joined the media scrum at the Latrobe Valley Law Courts, slept over in Morwell and spent countless hours in fervent discussion of the case and the themes it raises: love, hate, jealousy, revenge, marriage, money, mycology and murder. Read more about The Mushroom Tapes
THE GREEN JOB, Rob Gerrand Release Date: 20/11/2025
Scientist Dr Chen Du is poisoned in his lab at the Badeker Institute, where he is researching wheat. There have been protests from Green groups outside the Institute demonstrating about GM or "frankenfoods". Investigating the death are Detective Inspector John "Winner" Nguyen with Sergeant Graham Brothers and young Constable Carol McTeish, fresh from their work on The Millennium Job. Read more about The Green Job
A CHANCE ENCOUNTER, JP Pomare (audio) Release Date: 2/12/2025
In an encounter straight out of fiction, Katie might have met Mr Right on the long-haul flight from Melbourne to New York. Richard Sinclair is charming, handsome, wealthy, cultured—and married. In an open marriage, according to him. When he invites her to join him in his lush lakeside villa in Italy as his son’s au pair, it might just be the opportunity for a reset that Katie has been longing for. Read more about A Chance Encounter
THE CASINO, Iain Ryan Release Date: 30/12/2025
This place is paradise. A gleaming, golden paradise, and mark my words, we intend to keep it that way, by any means possible. You can bet on it. Detective Lana Cohen thought she had found a slice of peace on the sun-drenched Gold Coast, but her respite is shattered when a severed hand is found on a local beach. Read more about The Casino
HOW TO KILL A GUY IN TEN DATES, Shailee Thompson Release Date: 3/2/2026
When Jamie Prescott attends a speed-dating event at the behest of her best friend, Laurie, she expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and have a few laughs. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. When the lights come back on, there are more bodies on the floor, the doors are locked, and there’s a murderer among them. So much for a fun night. Read more about How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
THE GAMBLER, JP Pomare Release Date: 24/2/2026
PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing. But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life? Read more about The Gambler
HAZE, Sam Elliott Release Date: 24/2/2026
A town engulfed in flames. The dying coastal town of Broughlet is being torn apart by wildfires, and the locals suspect arson. A cult devoted to fire. The sinister People's Cleansing Light is suspected of setting the blazes. A missing child. Read more about Haze
OLD GAMES, Fiona Hardy Release Date: 24/2/2026
Morally flexible best mates and private investigators Alice and Teddy pride themselves on fixing every kind of mess imaginable, no questions asked. So, when they're tasked with locating the recently-stolen ashes of long-dead celebrity tennis player Ashley “Perry” Perrineau, it should be a routine job. Read more about Old Games
SHELLYBANKS, Louise Milligan Release Date: 3/3/2026
On the sands of Shellybanks, where tides can quickly turn treacherous, journalist Kate Delaney once nearly drowned. Years later, reeling from a violent crime that has upended her life in Melbourne, she returns to Dublin to comfort her beloved aunt Dolores—only to discover Dolores has her own buried trauma. As a teenager, Dolores was drawn into a disturbing religious movement that stole her youth, her freedom, and so much more. With Kate's help, she is determined to confront the powerful network that made her endure years of silence and shame. Read more about Shellybanks
REDBANK CROSSING, Candice Fox Release Date: 31/3/2026
Blood is thicker than water. But too much leaves a trail . . . Russell and Evan Powder are cops. The brothers haven’t spoken for five years, since a violent confrontation tore their family apart. Now they are both assigned to the murder of a young journalist, Chloe Lutz, in the small town of Redbelly Crossing (population 205). Read more about Redbelly Crossing
THE HOUSEWIFE, Natalie Barelli Release Date: 30/6/2026
Jodie always dreamed of being a housewife. And after a whirlwind romance, she marries renowned psychologist Dr. Roy Davies and moves into his perfect Beverly Hills home. But the fairy tale fades fast. Roy is distant, his friends view her as a gold-digger, and the house still reveres his late wife, Deborah, whose presence still looms over everyone and everything. Read more about The Housewife
Recent Arrivals / Upcoming Releases (Other Places)
Some of these are review books, others are simply books I've wanted to read.
THE SPIRAL STAIRCASE, Ethel Lina White Release Date: 1933
Helen Capel is hired as a live-in lady-help to the Warren family in the countryside. She enjoys the eccentric household and her duties, but her peaceful and simple life is soon disturbed by a series of mysterious murders in the isolated community. Read more about The Spiral Staircase
THE CLOCK HOUSE MURDERS, Yukito Ayatsuji Release Date: 1991
The remote Clock House is filled with priceless timepieces from across the world. It is also rumoured to be haunted by the spirit of a dead girl. A team of ghosthunters visit the mansion to investigate, but their stay has barely begun when one of them is gruesomely murdered, and the survivors realize that they are trapped inside the house with a killer... Read more about The Clock House Murders
THE PERPETUAL ASTONISHMENT OF JONATHON FAIRFAX, Christopher Shevlin Release Date: 2012
When Jonathon Fairfax accidentally helps a murderer bump off Sarah Morecambe, the secretary of a senior politician, he sets off a chain of events that astonishes him. Jonathon is wrong-footed by even the most everyday things, so he's particularly startled to find himself caught up in a conspiracy that goes right to the heart of government. Read more about The Perpetual Astonishment of Jonathon Fairfax
ONE TRUE WORD, Snæbjörn Arngrímsson Release Date: 2022
Why did she do it? After a day of simmering tension, Júlía snaps and abandons her husband Gíó on an uninhabited island in a freezing fjord in the depths of the Icelandic winter. When she returns the next morning, he is nowhere to be found. The police launch a manhunt, but soon their suspicion falls on Júlía. She spins them a story to hide her involvement, but she can feel the net closing in. Read more about One True Word
THE NORTH LIGHT, Hideo Yokoyama Release Date: 2023
Minoru Aose is an architect whose greatest achievement is to have designed the Yoshino house, a prizewinning and much discussed private residence built in the shadow of Mount Asama. Aose has never been able to replicate this triumph and his career seems to have hit a barrier, while his marriage has failed. He is shocked to learn that the Yoshino House is empty apart from a single chair, stood facing the north light of nearby Mount Asama. Read more about The North Light
NO ONE WAS SUPPOSED TO DIE AT THIS WEDDING, Catherine Mack Release Date: 13/5/2025
Attending your best friend’s wedding should be a piece of (wedding) cake, but not for bestselling mystery author Eleanor Dash. Because murder seems to follow her every time she goes on holiday – and is her uninvited plus-one to this special occasion . . . Eleanor’s best friend, Emma, is starring in a movie alongside her co-star and fiancé, Fred. As filming wraps, they invite the whole cast and crew to their wedding at nearby Catalina Island. Read more about No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding
THE MALT WHISKY MURDERS, Natalie Jayne Clark Release Date: 5/6/2025
Whisky is a bloody business . . .
When a dilapidated distillery comes up for sale in rural Kintyre, Eilidh and her wife Morag jump at the chance. But their ambition to run the first women-owned whisky distillery in Scotland seems to be scuppered when a grisly, decades-old secret is revealed: two dead bodies have been stuffed into barrels, perfectly preserved in single malt. Read more about The Malt Whisky Murders
A DEADLY INHERITANCE, Charlotte Vassell Release Date: 14/7/2025
Two murders. Rosie wakes up at 3am already feeling the twinges of a brutal hangover - an afternoon spent day drinking with her uni pals has left her rather the worse for wear. She creeps downstairs for a glass of water - only to stumble onto a shocking, bloody scene in the kitchen. One will. Read more about A Deadly Inheritance
THE MAN WHO DIED SEVEN TIMES, Yasuhiko Nishizawa Release Date: 14/8/2025
In the middle of the family New Year's gathering at his home, Grandfather Fuchigami is murdered. But not for the last time. For his grandson, Hisataro, has fallen into a mysterious time-loop, in which he must relive the same day again and again. Every morning after his grandfather's death, Hisataro wakes up with a chance to find the culprit and prevent the murder. But day after day he fails, despite stumbling across clues aplenty in the shape of secret plots, illicit love affairs and jealous rivalries. Read more about The Man Who Died Seven Times
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER, Ragnar Jónasson Release Date: 21/8/2025
One winter evening bestselling crime author, Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance and it is up to young detective, Helgi, to crack the case before it's leaked to the press. As he interviews the people closest to her – a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge – he realises that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than her stories. Read more about The Mysterious Case of the Missing Crime Writer
THE VANISHING CHERRY BLOSSOM BOOKSHOP, Takuya Asakura Release Date: 28/8/2025
As the last petal falls, the final page is turned… Welcome to The Cherry Blossom Bookshop, a haven for book lovers that only appears during the fleeting cherry blossom season. Nestled amidst the bloom of delicate petals, you’ll find a sanctuary for those burdened by regrets and past sorrows. Here, Sakura, the mysterious young owner, and her wise calico cat, Kobako, patiently await the arrival of souls in need of solace and healing. Read more about The Vanishing Cherry Blossom Bookshop
TOO OLD FOR THIS, Samantha Downing Release Date: 28/8/2025
You’d never guess Lottie Jones had skeletons in her closet. She’s lived in town for decades now. She’s getting older. She lives for the simple pleasures of weekly bingo games at church, and gossiping with her friends about their children’s love lives. But when investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past, and specifically about her connection to numerous unsolved murders, well, Lottie just can’t have that. Read more about Too Old For This
LAST RITES, Ozzy Osborne Release Date 7/10/2025
People say to me, if you could do it all again, knowing what you know now, would you change anything? I'm like, f*** no. If I'd been clean and sober, I wouldn't be Ozzy. If I'd done normal, sensible things, I wouldn't be Ozzy. Look, if it ends tomorrow, I can't complain. I've been all around the world. Seen a lot of things. I've done good... and I've done bad. But right now, I'm not ready to go anywhere. At the age of sixty-nine, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world. Read more about Last Rites
QUANTUM OF MENACE, Vaseem Khan Release Date: 23/10/2025
Q is out of MI6 . . .
. . . and in over his head Read more about Quantum of Menace
WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT, Nicci French Release Date: 31/1/2026
After nearly thirty years in prison for the murder of his university friend Leo Bauer, Tyler Green is finally free. Meeting up with the group of friends who were there the night that Leo died, Tyler is looking to reconnect – but he’s also looking for answers. When another friend is found dead that night, his new found freedom is put in jeopardy. Detective Maud O’Connor is called to investigate – but can she discover the truth, or is Tyler Green never going to be free?
AND THE CORPSE WORE TARTAN, Stuart MacBride Release Date: 10/2/2026
Move Over Miss Marple . . . The great and the not-so-good are gathered at Skirivour Castle Hotel, in the heart of the Highlands, for the wedding of the year – but they weren’t expecting Detective Sergeant Roberta Steel to crash their party. And get horribly, horribly drunk. Read more about And the Corpse Wore Tartan
A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage, M.K. Oliver Release Date: 12/2/2026
There’s a dead body in my living room. I’ve not called the police because it was I who stabbed him. Seven times in all. The truth is, it’s surprisingly difficult to dispatch someone with a vegetable knife. In case you’re wondering, the dead man is not my husband. I do resent our pitiful sex life and his woeful lack of ambition, but I wouldn’t murder him for it. Not yet, anyway. Right now, I have far more pressing concerns: scheming to get my daughter into the perfect school; buying my dream home in Hampstead; and disposing of a corpse. Read more about A Sociopath’s Guide to a Successful Marriage
As always I've undoubtedly missed something, so feel free to nudge me if there is anything that should be included next time around. Whenever that is.
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