Humidity

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 06/11/2024 - 10:51am by Karen

The image of the book cover for Humidity by Dan Kaufman has a drawing of a town pub, The Iron Castle. It's a two story wooden building with a verandah and balcony. There's a Hotel sign on the side, and it's a combination of green posts, white and tan coloured walls. There's an electricity line running in front, a TV aerial on the roof, and a white dog walking down a red dirt road. The I in the title of the book is a cricket bat.

Welcome to an Aussie town where the violence is rampant and the humidity’s hell

Ben doesn’t like being a nude model in a small country town. Then again, the local footballers don’t like their girlfriends ogling Ben.

Broke and desperately lonely, Ben...Read more

The Campers

BOOK ADDED: Sat, 02/11/2024 - 3:04pm by Karen

The image of the book cover for The Campers by Maryrose Cuskelly includes the tagline 'You can't choose your neighbours' and the note 'Bestselling author of The Cane'. The image is looking upwards along the end of a house with a couple of lit windows and the hint of a face standing at one. There's a large gum tree behind it, and a bright blue sky with a few clouds and flying birds across it.

An engrossing and provocative exploration of privilege, hypocrisy and justice by the bestselling author of The Cane.

Leah has a good life. She lives on The Drove, an inner-city cul-de-sac, with her husband Moses and their two children. She and her neighbours - the...Read more

The Cryptic Clue

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 01/11/2024 - 3:12pm by Karen

The book cover for The Cryptic Clue by Amanda Hampson includes the tagline 'Look who's back in hot water' highlighted by a magnifying glass which is making the look and in hot larger in size. The image is a white background with an orange border. To the left there's a dressmaker's dummy with a geometric shift dress on it. Out of a low down pocket on the front of the dress there's a light stick of explosive.

Look who's back in hot water! The highly anticipated new novel in The Tea Ladies cosy crime series, a runaway bestseller of the year. Available for pre-order now!

Welcome back to Zig Zag Lane in the heart of Sydney's rag-trade district, where our intrepid tea ladies, Hazel, Betty...Read more

The Lodger

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 1:53pm by Karen

The book cover of The Lodger by Gabriel Bergmoser is from the audio version that has an Only From Audible yellow strip across the bottom right corner. The image is of this silhouette of a male figure standing with his back to the viewer, arms out from his side looking towards an old shearing shed, grain bin and windmill, with a few trees dotted around. The view behind is across a flat plain, the sky above dark purple, fading downwards to yellow and pinkish in colour.

Ryan and Sophie are a golden couple in Melbourne, the charming, salt-of-the-earth country boy and the charismatic, gorgeous social butterfly. When Ryan’s father dies, leaving them the family farm, it seems like a chance for Ryan to get back to his roots and for Sophie to embrace the bucolic...Read more

The Consequence

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 1:48pm by Karen

The book cover of The Consequence by Gabriel Bergmoser is from the audio version that has an Only From Audible yellow strip across the bottom right corner. The image is of a red and yellow, firey sky above a suburban street with lit streetlamps and a complicated grid of electricity and telephone wires above. There are cars parked, trees and glimpses of houses.

To rogue ex-cop Jack Carlin, running a thug out of town and giving his stolen money to a kid struggling to escape the criminal lifestyle is all in a day’s work. Until it turns out the money belonged to a dangerous drug cartel seeking revenge against anybody who might have been involved in...Read more

The Hitchhiker

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 1:31pm by Karen

The book cover of The Hitchhiker by Gabriel Bergmoser has a yellow "sticker" on the front that says Bestselling Author, Must-Read Suspense, with part of the book cover and the title of The Caretaker in the middle. There's also a quote at the bottom 'I haven't found a cat-and-mouse game this captivating since Misery.' Jack Heath, author of Kill Your Husbands. The image is of a long, rough country road with electricity poles running alongside it, and a rail crossing right in front. There are fields off to the side, and a car barely visible through the dust it is kicking up. Overhead, a cloudy, grey and white vast sky.

The Driver:

Ahead he could see only the stretch of unending road, on either side brown-scorched plains of dirt and scrub, above it all a soaring blue sky and blinding sun. Desolation that looked, to him, a hell of a lot like freedom. He wasn’t playing by anyone’s rules anymore....Read more

The Inheritance

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 1:18pm by Karen

The book cover for the audio version of The Inheritance by Gabriel Bergmoser includes the tagline 'She's running from the past ... and she's running for her life', as well as 'Bestselling author of The Hunted'. There's a quote at the top 'A heroine you can't look away from, pure thrills and wallop, wilder and gamer than your average Aussie noir - this is fierce storytelling.' Kyle Perry, bestselling author of The Bluffs The image is of a hot, firey red and yellow cloudy sky over a view of a lit up city street crisscrossed with power and telephone lines.

The author of the bestselling The Hunted returns with another unmissable, white-knuckle, gritty urban suspense thriller: think Jack Reacher meets John Wick in a high-octane, high-speed chase on the dark streets of Melbourne.

A young woman is hiding out in a sleepy...Read more

Cutler

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 12:59pm by Karen

The book cover for Cutler by David Whish-Wilson includes the quotes 'Sharp and insightful' Sara Foster and 'A ripping page-turner' Tim Winton. The image is of a fishing net dragging through the ocean, some of visible above a rough sea. The sky above is grey and cloudy, and filled with gulls hovering over the net. The sea is dark grey and choppy.

Paul Cutler is a former undercover operative, now working off the books for his handler, Malik Khalil. When Cutler is tasked with investigating the disappearance of an Australian marine scientist on a Taiwanese distant water fishing vessel, Cutler realises that the apparent murder he' s...Read more

Perversion of Justice

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 11:34am by Karen

The book cover of Perversion of Justice by Steve Matthews includes the taglines 'The Spencer Investigations', 'In the darkest shadows, the pursuit of truth is the only light.' and 'From the bestselling author of the Hitler's Trilogy' The image is of a corridor with barred walls (cells) either side of it. The lighting is subdued. The title of the book is in orange lettering in the middle, the author's name and taglines in white.

In the scorching summer of 2004, a working-class Sydney suburb erupts in turmoil when Percy Fullwood, a respected local, is accused of a heinous crime by his own family. As the media frenzy ignites, Detective Bruce Spencer leads a high-profile raid, branding Percy guilty before trial....Read more

The Dream

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 29/10/2024 - 8:42pm by Karen

The book cover of The Dream by Iain Ryan has the tagline 'This ride has no brakes ....' and a quote at the top '... as hard-boiled as Australian Crime Fiction gets' - Sydney Morning Herald on The Strip. The image is of a moving rollercoaster cart which is blurred, running on a pink lighted track line. The title is at the top in very large yellow / orange lettering.

Corrupt cops, powerful criminals. A PI caught in the middle. The Gold Coast's darkest hour.

In the midst of a violent crime wave, Detective Bruno Karras (The Strip) investigates the disappearance of a wealthy family, confronting corruption within his own ranks...Read more

Present Tense

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 29/10/2024 - 2:13pm by Karen

The book cover for Present Tense by Natalie Conyer includes the quote 'A truly remarkable book. South Africa comes to vivid life in these pages' Kerry Greenwood. There are two blue "stickers' with text that's very blurred in this image. The background is in black, greys and white. It's brooding and dark, with a body of water in the foreground leading towards a single hill in the background with a black, dark, cloudy sky above with a wash of whiter, lighter area just above the hill. There's a small piece of barbed wire sticking out from the right hand side.

What if justice isn't enough?

Schalk Lourens got out his phone and started filming, something Pieterse taught him years ago. Keep a record. Do it yourself, boykie, every time. That way you can be sure. Cover your arse. Don't trust any of them.

Schalk began...Read more

Tags: 

Crime Fiction

Last One To Leave

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 25/10/2024 - 2:22pm by Karen

The book cover of Last one to Leave by Benjamin Stevenson includes the tagline 'A twisty mystery' at the very top of a blue green solid background with a stylised "house" in the middle with lights showing in all the windows, and a round "sticker" to the right of that saying that "By the author of the bestselling Everyone on this Train is a suspect (including the eagle that features on that book cover). The background is divided into two blue green sections, the title of the book in large slanted yellow lettering at the top, and the author's name at the bottom in white. The penguin logo is at the top left.

How far will they go to win the prize?

Seven strangers are invited to compete to win a clifftop mansion. The rules are each contestant must have at least one hand in contact with one part of the house at all times. The last one to take their hand off, wins the...Read more

The Woman Who Knew Too Little

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 24/10/2024 - 2:19pm by Karen

The book cover for The Woman Who Knew Too Little by Olivia Wearne includes the tagline '1948, Somerton, Adelaide. A Dead Man. An unsolved mystery.' at the bottom with the title of the book in slanted lettering in the middle across the image of a woman in a 1940's style coat with rolled hairdo, a handbag and a hat in her hand. She's walking away from the viewer towards a car with headlights lighting the cobblestone roadway she's walking on. The overwhelming colour is green with a foggy green sky light by a single street light.

1948. An unidentified dead man is found on Somerton Beach, Adelaide. Officer Kitty Wheeler yearns to work the case - but the city's women police are typically assigned to more domestic matters. A wryly funny, sharply observed novel about one of Australia's great mysteries, and the...Read more

Woman, Missing

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 23/10/2024 - 3:44pm by Karen

The book cover for Woman, Missing by Sherryl Clark includes the tagline 'Will her first case be her last?' and the quote 'A pacy race against time that keeps you turning the page.' Vikki Petraitis, author of The Unbelieved The image is of a stairwell with a window to the right tiles, and wooden steps to the left. There's a female figure running up the stairs, she's got blond hair trailing behind her, as is her skirt. She's taking a big step up the stairs and is only partly visible.

She's the one to turn to when you need saving. But first she has to save herself...

Lou Alcott is turning over a new leaf as a private investigator. Formerly police, she was forced to resign when she attacked a domestic violence perpetrator. She's always vowed to be...Read more

Everyone This Christmas Has A Secret

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 22/10/2024 - 4:03pm by Karen

The book cover for Everyone this Christmas Has A Secret by Benjamin Stevenson is a white background with a greyed out dotted line joining the words of the title: Everyone - green with a Christmas light forming the o This - slightly angled in two shades of green Christmas - red with a Christmas tree with white lights on it forming the a Has A - slightly angled two shades of green with a white dove to the left standing on top of the S in the next word down Secret - Green lettering, slightly angled, with a top hat in front of / slightly under the T with a red explosion coming out of the top, pushing the T slightly upwards The Author's name is at the top of the book directly under the line 'The International Bestseller' with a quote at the very bottom 'An ingenious and hilarious meta-murder mystery.' Sunday Times

If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe...

My name’s Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found...Read more

Everyone on this Train Is A Suspect

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 22/10/2024 - 3:45pm by Karen

The book cover for Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson is a white background with a greyed out train line joining the words of the title: Everyone - grey with a poison bottle with an orange label as the o On this - grey with a wedgetail eagle in flight to the left, holding a burning twig in its talons Train - large orange lettering with go fast echoes Is A - grey letter slightly smaller Suspect - grey lettering with the U showing signs of fire on the inside lines. The Author's name is at the top of the book directly under the line 'The International Bestseller'

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously,...Read more

Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 22/10/2024 - 3:35pm by Karen

The book cover for Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson is a slightly blurry white background with an elaborate overlay in the style of a family tree with connectors between the various words in the book title: Everyone - blue with the o shaped like a coffin In My Family - blue with the L shaped like a handgun pointing upwards Has - two different shades of blue with a pigeon standing to the left of it, feet balanced on the next work Killed - in red with the i shaped like a downward pointing knife Someone - back to the different shades of blue All of those then connect to the two words of the author's name just above the quotation: 'Utterly original, hugely entertaining. A must-read for every fan of the mystery genre.' Jane Harper

Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate.

I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd...Read more

Liars

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 22/10/2024 - 10:43am by Karen

The book cover for Liars by James O'Loghlin includes the tagline 'Speak your truth. Or at least the truth you want others to believe.'. The image is looking out across a small beach to a small cluster of buildings. There are green trees amongst the buildings and grass rolling down a small hill to the sand. The sea is yellow green in colour with small waves. The sky above is blue green, cloudy with a shelf of cloud above the buildings. The title of the book is in large white lettering in the middle of the sky and there are seagulls flying around.

A sleepy coastal town. Deep secrets. Deadly truths.

'Speak your truth. Or at least the truth you want others to believe.'

Handywoman Barb Young has lived in the sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point for over fifty years - and frankly, in...Read more

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder

BOOK ADDED: Mon, 21/10/2024 - 8:08pm by Karen

The book cover of Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne with the tagline 'Can she trust her memories?'. There's a quote at the top 'A book you will devour.' Sally Hepworth. The book cover is red, with the caricature of a female figure with her head forwards, hands over her eyes. She has a lot of wavy black hair and is wearing a yellow top and shoes, and black skirt. The title of the book is very large below that figure in white lettering.

Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.

She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a...Read more

A Town Called Treachery

BOOK ADDED: Sun, 20/10/2024 - 9:59pm by Karen

The book cover for A Town Called Treachery by Mitch Jennings has the image of a child kneeling on the floor, drawing or writing with a pencil in their hand. The tagline 'A deadbeat dad. A curious boy. A journo drowning in the past. ... And a town full of secrets.' There's also a quote from Malcolm Knox 'One of A Kind'. The image is orange and brown in town with a large window above the child glowing golden brown / orange.

A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It's a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it's a major inconvenience. He didn't take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He'd sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can...Read more

Make-Up For Murder

BOOK ADDED: Sat, 19/10/2024 - 3:55pm by Karen

Image of the book cover for Make-Up For Murder, in which the same nun as the earlier covers is standing in front of another elaborate building, this time it's mauvish with a pale orange sky. Underneath her is a panel with a big old TV camera and lights, with somebody standing behind the side on view of the camera, a lot of makeup brushes and makeup towards the bottom left, and a woman's face, half visible, looking distressed.

Mother Paul, the incomparable nun-detective, is faced with her most perplexing case when a former pupil at her convent school is murdered at their annual reunion.As a schoolgirl Maisie Ryan was often bullied by her peers, but a decade later she’s a TV star, the glamorously...Read more

Tags: 

Newtown Review of Books

Faculty of Murder

BOOK ADDED: Sat, 19/10/2024 - 3:55pm by Karen

Image of the book cover for Faculty of Murder. This time the nun is, again in full habit, with the cross around her neck and glasses on. She is standing in front of a building with a tower, and the sky is greenish whilst the building is brown. There's the stylised image of a girl with closed eyes and flowing hair in a greenish background at the bottom, looking for all the world like somebody who is floating.

Faculty of Murder is set at Brigid Moore Hall, a girls' hostel in the University of Melbourne, where "freshettes" are shocked by a new arrival, Judith Mornane, who announces that she intends to discover her sister's murderer. Her sister, Maureen, had mysteriously disappeared from the hostel...Read more

Tags: 

Newtown Review of Books

Reservation for Murder

BOOK ADDED: Sat, 19/10/2024 - 3:53pm by Karen

The book cover for Reservation for Murder by June Wright - Mother Paul Investigates is made up of a drawing of a nun in full habit, with a cross around her neck. She is wearing glasses and standing between the outline of a convent type building and a wrought iron fence. There's a skull showing behind the fence. The sky is orange, the building teal green and the fence (and the nun's face) are also slightly orange. It's a caricature.

June Wright had already published three popular mysteries by the time she created her most memorable detective, the Reverend Mother Mary St Paul of the Cross. The kindly Mother Paul may seem vague and otherwordly, but little escapes her attention―she has a shrewd grasp of everything that’s...Read more

Tags: 

Newtown Review of Books

The Grapevine

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 18/10/2024 - 4:33pm by Karen

The book cover of The Grapevine by Kate Kemp is made up of an old fashioned telephone handset which is orangey/yellow in colour. It's hanging by its cord in front of an elaborate pattern of vine leaves etched out in yellow green and white against a blue green background.

There are secrets behind every closed door in the Warrah Place neighbourhood, and who killed Antonio Marietti is the biggest one of all . . .

It's the height of summer in Australia, 1979, and on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Canberra a housewife is scrubbing...Read more

Boney Creek

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 18/10/2024 - 4:24pm by Karen

Book cover for Boney Creek by Paula Gleeson with the tagline "A Thriller". The image shows a typical rural weatherboard small church in the distance, on dry red dirt, with a couple of dead saplings at the forefront and a small what looks like stone building off to the right. There's a really big sky above it, which is slightly hazy brownish yellow, with lots of black birds circling overhead.

When several small-town locals die under mysterious circumstances, an aspiring journalist is determined to prove the connection between them, only to discover the dangerous secrets they left behind.

Boney Creek is a dying town where not a lot happens. The...Read more

Gunnawah

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 18/10/2024 - 3:52pm by Karen

Image of the book cover of Gunnawah by Ronni Salt with the multi line tagline of: It's 1974 in the Riverina. The weather is hot. But the body in the Murray River is stone cold ...' The image is a wide flat river with blue green water reflecting the cloudy sky above. There is a line of Mallee gums on the far bank, and a large bird standing no top of a tree stump in the water.

It's 1974 in the Riverina

The weather is hot

But the body in the Murray River is stone cold . . .

A captivating and compulsive crime thriller about guns, drugs and a young woman dead on the...Read more

Tags: 

Newtown Review of Books

The Chilling

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 18/10/2024 - 2:59pm by Karen

Image of the book cover for The Chilling by Riley James with the tagline 'Winter in Antarctica. Going outside can kill you. But so can staying in.' The image is a snowy view of somebody rugged up walking away at the top, and a sled or similar at the bottom. It's all in white and grey's, and there are two quotes 'One hell of a ride' Margaret Hickey and 'You won't be able to put it down' Chistian White

An isolated research station. A storm approaching.
There's nowhere to run. But so much to hide.

Keen to flee the wreckage of her marriage, Australian scientist Kit Bitterfeld accepts a coveted winter research position at Macpherson...Read more

Best Served Cold

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 03/10/2024 - 12:36pm by Karen

The book cover for Best Served Cold by Kel Robertson includes the notation 'A Brad Chen Novel'. The image is mostly made up of a yellow and orangeish sky blending downards to purple hills with a large tower in the middle, standing over a few lights hinting at parts of Canberra.

After failed attempts to make a different future, Brad Chen returns to the Australian capital to reprise his role as the city's number one murder investigator. Where others see mere coincidence in the deaths of three friends, Chen soon sees clear and sinister purpose. His efforts to bring...Read more

Prize Catch

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 03/10/2024 - 12:11pm by Karen

The book cover for Prize Catch by Alan Carter includes the tag line 'From the Winner of the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel'. The image is a series of fish farm ponds in two lines out into a flat water bay with a small range of hills in the background and a cloudy, orange / red sky above. There's a small boat pulling away from the centre of the ponds.

A quest for the truth becomes a race for survival in this pacy new crime novel from award-winning author Alan Carter.

When Roz Chen's wife, Niamh, is killed in a hit-and-run on a lonely Tasmanian road, the grieving widow begins to wonder if Niamh's death was an...Read more

When It Rains

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 03/10/2024 - 12:07pm by Karen

The book cover for When It Rains by Dave Warner includes the notation 'A Dan Clement Novel' and 'From the Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction'. The image is looking straight down on a body of water which has a crocodile swimming in it to the right hand side / top of the book. The water is slightly swirly with reeds t the left. The author's name is in large white lettering, and the book title in slightly blue lettering just below that

For Broome detective Dan Clement, it seems that crime is as plentiful as wet season rain. When his sergeant is beaten up, and a woman is brutally assaulted, it seems like the same two suspects are behind both incidents. But when a woman' s hand is discovered in crocodile-infested waters,...Read more

Pages