Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Post 9-11 it's hard to think that there hasn't been speculation about the next shock and awe campaign. I bet nobody thought there'd be an Australian, rough and tumble ex-commercial pilot, come spy at the centre of it all. The theory that Michael McGuire proposes in his thriller FLIGHT RISK...Read more
Listening to the radio recently I heard Jane Clifton talking about the thought process behind FLUSH. The end of a long term drought in Melbourne, watching a river running fast, and thinking "What If...". What if a body flushed into the river? What if the cover up of a murder can be derailed...Read more
You really have to worry about Cliff Hardy. Every year he seems to dig himself a bigger, deeper more dramatic hole and he's not as young as he thinks he is.
Or so it seems from these books, but realistically Cliff is timeless. He has to be - don't try to do the maths of how...Read more
Being profoundly disinterested in all things AFL, I will admit that for a while I did think the possibility of a real life Centralian Galahs teams sounded quite feasible. As did the idea that drop kicks weren't just drongo's, but somehow something very undesirable in a game (okay so I had...Read more
It will not come as any surprise to readers of the Nell Forrest series that she's found another body. In a small town like Majic there's an astonishingly high murder rate, even though this unfortunate victim seems to have been in Forrest's backyard for a very long time. About the time that...Read more
FORBIDDEN FRUIT is the 5th book in the Corinna Chapman series by Australian author Kerry Greenwood (probably best known for her Phryne Fisher series). These books are set in modern day, inner Melbourne, are also on the cosier end of the scale. There are enough elements that coincide in...Read more
Grattan Street's Colonial Fiction project is an outstanding idea, with 4 titles now available (https://grattanstreetpress.com/capf/(link is external)...Read more
Everyone is saying this is one for fans of Jodi Picoult, which probably explains a lot of my reaction, because I'm not much of a fan of Picoult's books. I also suspect I may have overdosed on domestic noir of the "harried mother / useless father / tedious kids" variety. For that reason this...Read more
Sitting down to read THE FORSAKEN (late to the party as usual), wasn't at all sure what to expect. The blurb explains that for ten years, Logan Booth, served as a contract killer for the CIA, never knowing that was what he was doing. Finding out he wasn't a rogue hitman for a band of...Read more
First published by Penguin in 1989 THE FORTUNES OF MARY FORTUNE wasn't the easiest book to track down. In fact it took a lot of driving across the Goldfields region of Victoria to get my hands on a copy, which is somewhat appropriate given that the Central Goldfields is one of the...Read more
There's something deliciously intriguing about the machinations in the plot of THE FOUNDATION. Not for one moment would you like to let the major media barons and the undue and partisan influence they wield off the hook, but the idea that they might also be subject to the same sort of games...Read more
Short, sharp and to the point, FOUR DAYS delivers deepest and darkest noir in the unlikely setting of 1980’s Brisbane and Cairns. In the Sunshine State corruption is rife and nowhere more so than in the police force and the licensing department in particular.
Lone wolf...Read more
You 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...Read more
THE FOURTH REICH is the third in the Mitchell Parker series. FBI Agents, with a decided "Australian" feeling about their banter, Parker's team have a fair bit of history which might mean that starting out with the third book is not absolutely ideal. Not that it's not a very readable book in...Read more
FRACTURED is a thriller entry in the expanding local sub-genre of books that look very close to home. Set as close to home as possible, it's the story of Anna, her husband Tony and their baby son Jack.
Using the obvious device of two converging timelines, the lead up to Jack's...Read more
Sophie Phillips is a paramedic and her husband Chris is a cop. When Sophie and her paramedic partner are called to a premature labour case, the results of the early labour are tragic, and despite Sophie and Mick being very sure they have done the right thing, the baby's father - Boyd...Read more
Wow - what a great debut thriller - this was a real page turner for me the suspense was unrelenting.
Sophie Phillips is a paramedic in Sydney, Australia. Not only is her work high stress with a non-stop pace - but her home life is just as busy with a baby boy and policeman...Read more
Howell is a paramedic herself and writes with great credibility about Sophie’s working day. In fact, she writes so well about the working life of a paramedic that I found myself wishing that Howell had room in the plot for more of that aspect of Sophie’s life. I found it truly fascinating...Read more
The third Cal Nyx novel, THE FREEZER, would possibly work as a standalone, but the connections between this and the second novel, THE QUARRY in particular, make the characters here make a lot more sense. Nyx and her partner, DI Liz Scobie, her...Read more
A spy thriller that's slightly different from the run of the mill "one man to save the world", there is much to like about THE FRENCHMAN.
For a start this is obviously a book written by an author who knows the reality of life as an intelligence service agent all too well. The...Read more
I have no idea how this happens, but here I was, reading FROMAGE by Sally Scott, and I suddenly realised... shoes again. Another heroine on the "slightly ditzy side" that's obsessed with shoes. It's so not my comfort zone, although I was looking for something on the lighter, silly side, and...Read more
FRONT PAGE NEWS is the debut novel from former Australian journalist Katie Rowney. From the lighter, intended as humour side of crime fiction, cadet journalist Stacey McCallaghan has her first job in the small country town of Toomey working on the local newspaper. Struggling with the grind...Read more
Jack Furey is 100 years old, in a nursing home, and not a happy man. In the introduction to FUREY'S WAR it quickly becomes apparent that Jack is his own man, not somebody to be trifled with, and definitely not somebody to underestimate, even after a devastating stroke. Inside his head, Jack...Read more
You know how the rule goes, you're not supposed to barrack for the "bad guy", but seriously there's no way I wasn't totally and absolutely on Osgood Sneddon's side from the start. I mean Osgood? No wonder he uses the jokingly dubbed alias of Furt Bent from Aldaheit. Which is just silly,...Read more
Author of THE GALLERIST, Michael Levitt, is a surgeon and health bureaucrat with a considerable list of scientific articles, medical books targeted at the general public and chapters in medical textbooks to his name. He's also an art collector, and has written numerous articles about art...Read more
A convicted killer. A gifted thief. A vicious crime boss. A disillusioned cop.
Together, they’re a missing girl's only hope.
Blair Harbour, once a wealthy, respected surgeon in Los Angeles, is now an ex-con down on her luck. She’s...Read more
Big conspiracies, cyber-threats and nefarious company goings on aren't my favourite thriller material, so I was more than a little worried about my reactions to THE GENESIS FLAW. This is a first book from Australian author L.A. Larkin (who, from her blurb, works for one of Australia's...Read more
The Rowland Sinclair series is up to book number five with the release of GENTLEMEN FORMERLY DRESSED, yet somehow it feels like there should be more of them. That could simply be wishful thinking.
There is much to be admired about these books. The plots are clever and...Read more
The third in a series known as "Sea-Change Mysteries", GERARD HARDY'S MISFORTUNE takes place in Victorian coastal town of Queenscliff, with the pairing of local cops, Chris Blackie and Anthea Merritt back for another outing. In this case, the historic Royal Hotel, site of the local mental...Read more
There were so many reasons I wanted to love GET POOR SLOW. The concept of the most hated book reviewer in Australia being the only suspect in a murder, right down to the belly full of bourbon and the curdled dreams of literary greatness sounds like great fun. And I did so like the opening...Read more