Sorted on book title (not in series order)
It must take real writing skill to create a novel around 3.5 of the most unpleasant, conflicted, dysfunctional and frequently flat out awful people you'd ever read about, and make it as compelling and downright fascinating as KEEP HER SWEET.
The premise is quite the...Read more
There's a new Wyatt on the way, and that means it's as good a time as any to do a little tidying up of the back catalogue.
Wyatt is a very careful man, because he has to be. Wyatt robs banks, lifts payrolls, gets girls, leaves girls, lives the life of a loner, trusts few,...Read more
THE KILL BILL is the second book in the Referendum Series by ex-politician Richard Evans, and boy can you pick that this author knows all about the back-room machinations that go on in the political world.
In this case we're talking about those around changes to the...Read more
Plan for the best, expect the worst, note the exit points.
Good bit of general life advice this, although at the time Wyatt is standing, motionless, waiting for any signs his entry into the house he's about to rob has been noticed. Perhaps not...Read more
Bit of background to commence - KILL YOUR HUSBANDS is billed as a follow up to KILL YOUR BROTHER, which I've not read / listened to yet. None of which seemed to matter a jot, although I understand there is some character crossover it's definitely didn't feel like I should have read these in...Read more
A thriller set in what's becoming the familiar territory of Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan's status as a nuclear nation plays into the action in KILL ZONE.
The idea of nuclear devices the size of briefcases going missing isn't a new one in thriller world, and to be frank I've...Read more
THE KILLING HANDS doesn’t quite have the pace and suspense of P.D. Martin’s previous books. Because Sophie is working with a gang task-force, it is necessary for the author to give the reader an overview of the structure and remit of the various agencies that investigate gang-related crime...Read more
Anybody with a passing interest in notorious Australian "identities" in the not so distant past isn't going to take too long to twig on whom Mendoza is based, and that same reader probably is going to be excused for any guesses about the writer who narrates this fictional book....Read more
KING OF THE ROAD is Sydney based author Nigel Bartlett's debut novel. Gritty, complicated and fast-paced it takes the reader into the uncomfortable world of abduction of young boys and paedophile rings. From the moment that young Andrew disappears from David Kingsgrove's home there's a...Read more
KINGDOM OF THE STRONG is the fourth Darian Richards novel from screenwriter, producer and novelist Tony Cavanaugh. Readers of the past novels will be aware of the background of Richards. A high ranking cop in Victoria for many years, he has a darker side, with a history of ensuring justice...Read more
Author Tony Cavanaugh has had a long and illustrious career in film and tv and thus brings that excellent crafting of place and character to his crime novels. All of his creations are wholly convincing and though sketched with typical Australian economy, they are entirely recognizable in...Read more
In 2008 we decided to move - away from the most fire-prone area on the immediate outskirts of Melbourne - to somewhere where we had more room to move, and co-incidentally where we would feel safer. The possibility of catastrophic fire events had weighed heavily on our minds - as the...Read more
I've only ever met one spy (... that I know of), and he wasn't anything like Charles Bishop. Never took on a powerful arms-dealing organisation (as far as I know), never got stabbed, shot at, beaten up, taken prisoner, made friends with a Russian spy, or slept with the enemy either (as far...Read more
Second in the Hal Challis series, Kittyhawk Down is an extremely busy book. Firstly there's the upper class sort of "gated" housing area, the farming area and the housing estates. There's a sinister South African living in one of those big gated houses. There's Monroe, the farmer, who is...Read more
Third in the Dan Forrester series, we're into classic thriller mode now with this series. Heaps of action, a fast moving, multi threaded plot, this one creates a partnership quickly between Forrester and ongoing series character Lucy Davies that works well. Again we have a couple of main...Read more
The Koldun Code is Book 1 of the Trinity Trilogy, the second book being not far away if memory serves correct. Set in modern Russia, Sophie Masson has certainly involved a wonderful sense of place and culture in this book:
"They'd left a mild gray London spring
...Read more
The first in a new series of books set in India, THE KOLKATA CONUNDRUM is lyrical and amusing writing, steeped in a sense of place and culture that will leave readers craving more.
Young Orko Deb is the much doted on son of a mechanic father, not at all interested in stepping...Read more
It's great to see police procedurals set in rural Australia that don't assume that everything's sinister and vaguely barking mad, and that reflects some of the dry humour, and resilience of both the cops and the locals.
KUNDELA perhaps errs a little to much to that descriptive...Read more
THE LABYRINTH OF DROWNING is Canberra based author Alex Palmer's third book featuring (now) ex-cop Paul Harrigan and his agent partner Grace Riordan.
The body of a sex-worker in Sydney bushland quickly becomes not just another case for Grace, as the violent injuries trigger...Read more
A new collection of 17 short stories, 4 of which are previously unpublished, THE LADY WITH THE GUN ASKS THE QUESTIONS would be the perfect introduction point for anyone new to the Phryne Fisher series, or for those of us looking for a bit of diversion in unusual times.
It's...Read more
Bit of explaining first - LAST ONE TO LEAVE and FIND US are available as stand-alone ebooks / novellas. They are also available together in printed form under the title FOOL ME TWICE. I read the two separate novellas, but...Read more
This is a novella that I picked up from Amazon based on some comments I'd seen about the author's writing style, which turned out to be right. This is a great little novella that introduces a murder, an investigator and his sidekick, fleshes out his background and gives me some personality...Read more
LEFT LUGGAGE is the debut novel of Sydney based author Andrew Christie. Set mostly in and around Newtown and inner Sydney it combines an unlikely cast of central characters: John - an ex-Army house renovator; Betty - his Australian-born, French resident, famous war photographer mother;...Read more
The second Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper book LET THE DEAD LIE has now been released, following on the from highly praised A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE.
LET THE DEAD LIE takes Cooper into different physical circumstances, working in a very bleak city, doing menial labour and...Read more
Set in Australia, but with a decidedly American feel to it, LETHAL IN LOVE is a serialised novel in six parts. Fascinating idea and one that I've always wondered why somebody hasn't done. Released over a period of time, each episode is probably best described as a long novella in length,...Read more
It's been a Long Time since I was a young adult - or whatever it was that they called us in those days. I should declare I'm not 100% sure I know why I was reading a book that's so obviously for young adults as LIAR is. I should also declare that I'm profoundly and very dogmatically...Read more
Alec de Payns is on the run - and wanted for murder - in the new thriller by the bestselling author of The Frenchman
While recruiting a Russian human source embedded in the shadows of illicit financial networks, French spy Alec de Payns...Read more
LIBERATION ROAD is billed as a novel of World War II, but it's really a story of two men. Rabbi Ben Kahn is a Chaplain with the American Army in France - his personal crusade is to find out what happened to his son - a missing fighter pilot. Joe Amos is a black truck driver on the Red...Read more
The 4th novel in the Reggie da Costa series, LIES AND DECEPTION is a nicely twisty tale of the just desserts served up to a serial conman and his accomplices by a determined crime reporter and his ... accomplices.
If you're new to this lovely series, set in the early 1920's in...Read more
In her first full length novel for adults, educational and children's writer Carmel Reilly has delivered a crime fiction book that tackles sibling relationships and family secrets full on.
Set in two main timelines, in 2016 Lori receives a visit from a policeman to tell her...Read more