The Good Dog, Simon Rowell

THE GOOD DOG is the third novel featuring DS Zoe Mayer and her service dog Harry. The background to why Mayer has Harry, and some of the back story about why a new partner is working with her is in both of the previous books, and touched on enough here to give new readers some hints as to...Read more

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Shadow City, Natalie Conyer

The second novel in the Schalk Lourens series, SHADOW CITY uses his home of South Africa as one location for the story, introducing a new character, Sergeant Jackie Rose to lead the action in Sydney. The story begins with the discovery of the body of a battered and tortured young woman in a...Read more

The Grapevine, Kate Kemp

A slow burner novel, THE GRAPEVINE is the tale of a murder from the perspective of its fallout in a small suburban community in Canberra, in 1979.

It's also a breathtakingly clever takedown of much of what remains flat out stupid - xenophobia, racism, homophobia, misogyny, and...Read more

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Nemesis, Patricia Wolf

The 4th book now in the DS Lucas Walker series, those who are new to it might need a tiny bit of background. Walker is with the Australian Federal Police, but it was on his personal home territory, in outback Australia where he first met Barbara (in book one to be precise), when she heads...Read more

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Sharkbait, Susan Geason

Shark Bait is the 3rd Syd Fish book (and sadly the last), which has been sitting in my shelves for years now, being carefully rationed because there are so few of them.  

Syd Fish is an ex-political minder, turned Private Investigator - there is a touch of the Murray Whelan's...Read more

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Dragon Mountain, Daniel Reid

Captain Jack Robertson, ex-Military, Pilot and CIA Spy is kidnapped in-flight, picking up the latest shipment of opium that the CIA is using to fund covert operations in Asia. Discovering that he has been kidnapped by the deliciously over the top one-eyed, betel juice chewing minion of his...Read more

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Bright Air, Barry Maitland

Maitland has taken a break from his popular Brock and Kolla series with the release of BRIGHT AIR.  It opens with Josh, having recently returned to Sydney after working in London, still mourning the death of his girlfriend Luce, they had both been members of the University climbing club.  ...Read more

A Decent Ransom, Ivana Hruba

A DECENT RANSOM is a story of a kidnapping gone right (according to the tag on the book).  More than that it's a story about a bit of a misfit that somehow ends up okay, despite all the odds being stacked against him.

The storyline is pretty simple to start off with - two young...Read more

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Golden Relic, Lindy Cameron

When local Crime and True Crime Author Lindy Cameron decided to re-release GOLDEN RELIC as an ebook I was very very pleased (DISCLAIMER - I did the conversion of the manuscript into the ePUB file).  I remember the story of STOLEN PROPERTY (as it was originally titled) when it was released...Read more

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Counter Attack, Mark Abernethy

When it comes to writing military intelligence, covert operation styled thrillers there have been some particularly well known authors over the years.  Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Ian Fleming and Len Deighton come to mind immediately.  Until Mark Abernethy created Alan (Mac) McQueen, there...Read more

Silent Kill, Peter Corris

After coming to love the regular January Cliff Hardy fix it was a happy day when SILENT KILL arrived. Reading blurbs though can sometimes be problematic and so it was with this one, and the reference to a "rogue intelligence agent". Recently that seems to have been code for "no idea how to...Read more

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A Madras Miasma, Brian Stoddart

Set in 1920's India, A MADRAS MIASMA takes place in an India that is looking towards independence from the British. With a strong sense of place, culture and time built in, this is debut crime fiction with potential.

The central character, Superintendent Le Fanu is a complex...Read more

Homecountry, TW Lawless

The first of the Peter Clancy books from T.W. Lawless, HOMECOUNTRY takes Clancy to exactly that - home to the town where he grew up, in outback Queensland to bury his mother. With his credo of never looking back this is the first time he's returned to Clarke's Flat since he left, so for the...Read more

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Close Your Eyes, Michael Robotham

The CWA Gold Dagger Winner’s latest novel is a return to his much-loved Joe O’Loughlin series. As is often the way with series books, some knowledge of past novels can enhance a reader’s pleasure, and in this case Shatter (2008) is close to mandatory reading before...Read more

Ghost Girls, Cath Ferla

Steeped in the smells and sounds of Sydney’s Chinatown, weighted by the sinister atmosphere of a private world of terrible crimes,Ghost Girls is a remarkable debut novel.

The combination of plot, character and setting in Ghost Girls is perfectly balanced, and...Read more

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Rubdown, Leigh Redhead

Simone Kirsch is a Stripper (exotic dancer) turned Private Investigator working the fringe of Melbourne constantly, it would seem, in and around the sex industry.

In RUBDOWN Simone and her new PI boss Tony are called in to look for the daughter of a well-known, respectable...Read more

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Flare Up, Felicity Young

If you take absolutely nothing else from author Felicity Young's Cam Fraser series, then it should serve as a reminder of how important volunteer fire services are in rural communities Australia-wide. Young's background in her local service provides a real-life understanding of the embedded...Read more

An Isolated Incident, Emily Maguire

Wouldn't be too quick to classify this one as a psychological thriller as there is very little simmering tension in watching the lead character disintegrate a little day by day. The whole tone of the book is rather desultory, which fits in well with the remote country town setting where...Read more

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The Lost Man, Jane Harper

I'm going to start this review in an odd way, by declaring that I didn't like Jane Harper's second book FORCE OF NATURE as much as I had been expecting to. Initially I thought this was because it read like an idea that Aaron Falk had been hammered into it later on, weakening the plot,...Read more

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Crossing The Lines, Sulari Gentill

"In the beginning she was a thought so unformed that he was aware only of something which once was not."

Edward McGinnity is a successful novelist who wants to write a novel about a crime writer. His character’s name is Madeleine d’Leon, a writer of the popular period crime...Read more

Greenlight, Benjamin Stevenson

There's a something about GREENLIGHT that feels like a non-too-subtle dig at the commercialisation of true crime. There's always been a sub-set of true crime writing that's been about the crims, their exploits, personalities and too big to be believable criminal histories. Ranging from...Read more

Devil's Lair. Sarah Barrie

Bit of housekeeping first because I got myself a little confused early on here. DEVIL'S LAIR is a standalone novel from prolific Australian author Sarah Barrie, sharing some location similarities with an earlier novel - BLOODTREE RIVER. Sarah's past books seem to lean towards the romance...Read more

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Darkness For Light, Emma Viskic

‘He slowed as he took the bend, then sped up and pulled into the kerb. Door half-open, eyes on the mirror. The black sedan rounded the corner. It drew nearer, headlights off, the driver a hazy silhouette. Closer, nearly level. Passing. It kept going, the brakelights flashing once as it...Read more

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See You At the Toxteth, Peter Corris

It is more than fitting that the final word from Peter Corris would be curated by his wife, and long-time editor, Jean Bedford. The chosen short stories are perfect examples of his work, and the 'ABC Of Crime Writing' is every bit as insightful, acerbic, funny and thought-provoking as you'd...Read more

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The Frenchman, Jack Beaumont

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

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Crocodile Tears, Alan Carter

CROCODILE TEARS takes Philip 'Cato' Kwong a long way away from his origins in the Stock Squad in the middle of nowhere. Instead, in this final novel in the series, we start out with Kwong investigating the death of a retiree found hacked to pieces in suburban Perth, ending up in Timor-Leste...Read more

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