Small towns, big secrets, inter-generational trauma, unquestioned deaths, fractured families, kids moving away and never returning, all the sorts of things that sound so very familiar to many of us who grew up in rural Australia from more recent history, back, unfortunately, for generations...Read more
Everyone is going to be talking about EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, because it's fiendishly clever, dryly funny (well as funny as a crime novel with a very high body count is going to get), complicated without being overly so, different, and well, relatable, in a weird sort of...Read more
There seems to have been quite a few dystopian styled novels passing before my reading eye in recent months, and BANJAWARN is the latest.
Josh Kemp's debut novel is Gothic, gritty, depressing, uplifting, disturbing and rewarding - sometimes at different times, sometimes...Read more
If 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 more
I was so looking forward to THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST, and yet, somehow, it's arrival in my ebook queue came as a hell of a surprise. So, needless to say, everything else got swept aside and I settled in for what I hoped would be some days of engaging espionage thriller reading.
...Read more
A psychological thriller with a hefty dose of more than willing suspension of disbelief, THE SAFE HOUSE is one of those bare knuckle roller-coaster rides of a reading experience that may lead to a loss of sleep and a strong desire to avoid anywhere in the bush during long hot summers....Read more
Martine Kropkowski’s debut crime fiction delves into the devastating consequences of the epidemic of violence against women. Full review at Newtown Review of...Read more
Following on from the excellent debut THE FALL BETWEEN, author Darcy Tindale's BURNING MOUNTAIN shows absolutely no sign of the dreaded "second novel syndrome". The action here is as believable, and relevant to the place as in the earlier...Read more
The Fallout is one of the Wyatt Series of Disher's novels. Wyatt is a career criminal involved in everything from art theft, bank robberies, fraud and whatever is going really.
The Fallout is Wyatt's sixth job, taking off where Port Vila Blues finished. On a boat with...Read more
BLOOD SUNSET is the second book from Jarad Henry, HEAD SHOT having already introduced us to Detective Rubens McCauley, his work partner Cassie, his ex-wife Ella and Prince the cat. Don't for one moment get the wrong idea though - the presence of the majestic Prince in these books doesn't...Read more
I really hope Dave feels better after writing this book. I'm guessing that there's a somewhat autobiographical element to the events that happen in this book - it's too starkly drawn surely for just imagination (mind you, if I'm wrong, well it's some imagination this man has!)...Read more
“Write what you know” aspiring writers are often told. Katherine Howell has done that to good effect. She worked as a paramedic for many years and her detailed knowledge of both the job and the physical and emotional toll it takes are vividly portrayed. COLD JUSTICE is Katherine’s third...Read more
Despite constantly "bragging" that we live about an hour from just about anywhere... it does mean that every trip in the car do to anything takes a while. We've recently turned to audio books to fill in the hours of dodging kangaroos and potholes and the most recent that we've been...Read more
Not sure what's weirder, talking to fictional characters, or the feeling that you actually know those fictional characters... Either way, you have to think it's quite a feat for a writer to get you to the stage where you're more than happy to regard her characters as real people. MILES OFF...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
In Zero at the Bone, the second book in this series, Frank Swann has moved more sideways than on. Working as a PI, he finds himself dragged into the suicide of geologist Max Henderson, whose wife Jennifer enlists Swann’s services to find out the reasons for his death – there is no doubt...Read more
A modern day industrial espionage tale, 1.9.7 HAMBURG, the debut novel from Alex Camouro is a very brave undertaking. Moving backwards and forwards in time in chapter jumps, it tells the story of much of Dixon Grace's past life as well as present circumstances. As befits the situation she...Read more
The author of COLD DECEPTION has had many years experience in the Criminal Justice system, and that knowledge shines through in this debut crime fiction offering.
Julia Taylor's release from prison, her struggles to re-establish life and normality, and the way that she balances...Read more
Readers were introduced to Joel Fitch and his mentor Richard Mordecai in the first book of this series, CHASING THE ACE. This second book, FAST AND LOOSE, starts up where the first left off, with Fitch and Mordecai parted ways, and Fitch left holding the cash. Rather a lot of cash straight...Read more
The forty-first Cliff Hardy book came out earlier this year. That Empty Feeling is classic Cliff Hardy - stripped down, hardboiled, quintessentially Australian-noir ticking all the required boxes - pace, twists, turns, sex, violence and pitch-perfect dialogue. This time around, the...Read more
When THE MIDNIGHT PROMISE won the Ned Kelly Award in 2013 it was impossible not to agree wholeheartedly with the judges' decision. That book telegraphed clearly here was an author to be followed closely. Three years on, BLACK TEETH is worth the wait. Unusual, dark, often funny, always...Read more
You have just got to love a book that has an opening scene that takes you deep into the Vietnam jungle, right into the conflict and deep into the complicated politics of the war.
Or at least that's what it could have been like.
Some things are just never what they seem...Read more
ave to be the short version of this review. The blurb on BORN TO RUN didn't bode well to be honest. Politics in thrillers, a bit of pushing the envelope with the chance of the first woman to win the White House. An Australian software whiz, a TV journalist digging for dirt, and terrorists...Read more
AN ISOLATED INCIDENT is one of those books I've been trying to read for a ridiculously long time now, so being able to finally get to it in the context of our f2f bookclub gathering was an added bonus.
This is such a fascinating book, one that worked particularly well for our...Read more
NOTE: This review was originally published in 2013 - the book has now been re-released.
A debut police procedural from Melbourne based, ex-Ballarat dweller, JM (Janice) Simpson, A BODY OF WORK makes good use of both of those locations. Brendan O'Leary is now a Melbourne based...Read more
Julian Edermont lives at the Red House with his ward, Dora Carew and his old friend, Lambert Joad. But things are amiss at the House. First, Edermont suffers a panic attack at church, during the section of the Litany that prays for deliverance from murder and sudden death. Then, he has a...Read more
“…last night’s dreams had slipped into waking hours again, plucking at his thoughts with their blood-stained fingers.”
With her first novel, Resurrection Bay, Emma Viskic not only announced herself as a novelist to watch she also created a lead character in Caleb Zelic...Read more
In May 2019 Text Publishing announced their Text Classics version of Peter Temple's SHOOTING STAR, two decades on from the original release date.
It's well worth getting hold of a copy of this edition for Adrian McKinty's introduction alone, as it gives real insight into the...Read more
With SCRUBLANDS we had the bush, with SILVER we have the sea. It will be interesting to see if Hammer’s next book is set in a grotty city capital, just to complete the trifecta of the Australian way of living.
SILVER is set in a coastal town...Read more
Australians who grew up during the era in which Riptides is set may recognize a heck of a lot of their own experiences; the long road trips on rubbish roads, the relentless heat, Bali (even as it was back then), perhaps even turning on the TV at Christmas time to news of the devastation...Read more