One Boy Missing, Stephen Orr

Set in the heat, dust and community of the South Australian Mallee there is much that is visceral in ONE BOY MISSING. From the opening in which a young, vulnerable boy desperately tries to avoid a pursuer, to the character of DS Bart Moy who is back in Guilderton, possibly because his...Read more

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All These Perfect Strangers, Aoife Clifford

In 2013 Aoife Clifford was awarded an Australian Society of Author's mentorship to help bring this debut novel - ALL THESE PERFECT STRANGERS - to fruition. To be fair to those who have read it and are finding the idea that this is a debut novel hard to believe, she has form. Shortlisted for...Read more

Black Ice, Leah Giarratano

Leah Giarratano, forensic psychologist, crime fiction writer and consummate storyteller has just released her third novel - BLACK ICE. As with both of the earlier books, Giarratano takes the reader deep into a specific world of crime and criminal behaviour, the theme in BLACK ICE is illegal...Read more

Gunshine State, Andrew Nette

GUNSHINE STATE has been compared to Garry Disher's Wyatt series for a very good reason. The anti-hero characterisation here is as crisp and clear as you'd want, with Gary Chance the sort of loner survivor that has stepped straight from the pages of classic noir into the bright lights and...Read more

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Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty

After a few attempts, managed to finish BIG LITTLE LIES over the weekend. There's a reason this has been a bit of a chore explained below.

Funny and quite cleverly constructed, BIG LITTLE LIES is about every day lives. If you're a mother, an ex-wife, a daughter, a second wife or...Read more

An Isolated Incident, Emily Maguire

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

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Just Play Along, Megan Daymond

JUST PLAY ALONG is Megan Daymond's debut novel, and she's taken on quite confrontational subject matter. A double date that turns into a snuff film, with one of the girls fighting back and killing one of the attackers in the struggle to survive. From there things go from bad to worse as...Read more

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A Coin of Edward VII

The Morley family--a husband, his wife and her three children from a former marriage, one young ward, and a governess. Add in Giles Ware, a young man who was engaged by a family agreement to the young ward, and the fact that he's in love with the governess, and you have the start of a...Read more

The Promised Land, Barry Maitland

It has been a long time between drinks.  Author Barry Maitland has always had a dab hand with the police procedural, and it is a relief to once again encounter the sensibilities and stoicism of his stellar creations David Brock and Kathy Kolla. Paired even in retirement, the two continue in...Read more

Boxed, Richard Anderson

I know that summer is supposed to be finished, but no one told the sun and its mate, the wind that blisters off the plain, making me feel like a dry frog stranded between water points. But I see the plains grass is still green, the dust is holding low, and the kurrajong tree leaves are...Read more

Boxed, Richard Anderson

Bush crime, or rural noir if you prefer, is having quite the moment as we all know.  The challenges of such extreme geographic isolation in the hostile environment of outback Australia lends itself well to works of crime and dramatic fiction.  It’s possible there is going to be no one...Read more

Sheerwater, Leah Swann

Sheerwater is an emotionally charged work of both hope and despair, beginnings and endings.  Calling this book a thriller won’t be doing it a disservice, but it may give the expectation to the reader that they are about to dive into a work of suspense with no lingering take-homes to mull...Read more

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Murder in the Midst, Sandi Wallace

A collection of eight different short stories, many of them past prize winners, all of them featuring crime and women from differing viewpoints.

Journalists, police officers and private investigators are some of the occupations of the different central characters. Perpetrators...Read more

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Cutters End, Margaret Hickey

First off, let me break all the "rules" of reviewing and say from the outset that I really enjoyed CUTTERS END.

Set in the South Australian outback town of Cutters End, this is a two timeline mystery, with the story harking back to the death of Michael Denby in the scrub off...Read more

When We Fall, Aoife Clifford

Given the juxtaposition of this review, and my recent one for THE STONING, I probably should mention that Aoife Clifford was the author I was discussing rural noir versus rural crime with. To my eye, Clifford is one of the great writers of rural crime in Australia at the moment, and she's...Read more

The Consequence, Gabriel Bergmoser

One of my recent audio book listens, THE CONSEQUENCE by Gabriel Bergmoser features hardman, rogue ex-cop Jack Carlin who's the sort of bloke that finds running thugs out of town, and handing over all of the money they'd stolen to a struggling kid de rigueur. The drug cartel, whose money it...Read more

Beachdaze, TW Lawless

Book six in the Peter Clancy series, set in the world of investigative journalism, BEACHDAZE sees Peter back in Australia, out of the day-to-day newspaper game and up to his elbows in neighbourhood dispute from the moment he sets foot in his new home.

Readers of the earlier...Read more

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Murder in Punch Lane, Jane Sullivan

In Melbourne, in 1868, theatre star Marie St Denis dies in the arms of her best friend, up and coming actress, Lola Sanchez. The accepted cause of death is suicide by laudanum overdose, something that Sanchez refuses to believe. Why would her brilliant, much admired, accomplished dear friend do such a thing? But then why would anyone kill St Denis?Read more

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Pig's Head, David Owen

An old release - originally published in 1994, Pig's Head is the first in the 4 Pufferfish novels by David Owen and so far it's been the only one I've never been able to get my hands on. Imagine my sheer delight when Kill City in Swanston Street revealed 2 copies!

Detective...Read more

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Open File, Peter Corris

I wondered where Peter Corris would take Cliff after the loss of his PI licence (which, it seems, he's unlikely to ever get back), but I didn't really expect it to be the 1970's.  Once you're back in that old case with a few well chosen "commentaries" Corris places you firmly in the 1970's...Read more

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Death Among the Vines, Richard Young

It's refreshing to see more Australian Crime fiction moving out from the suburban and city streets - into the regional areas.  DEATH AMONG THE VINES sets most of its action in and around the Ashcombe Vineyard in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales.  

Col Ashcombe - a well...Read more

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Dark Country, Bronwyn Parry

You'd be hard put to think of another mystery series, with a female protagonist that is set in the Australian outback so on this alone, perhaps author Brownyn Parry has chosen her setting and thus her market very well. We have somewhat of an old fashioned girl leading the action in this...Read more

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Paydirt, Garry Disher

Wyatt is back in a new adventure set on the far side of morality. Introduced in Kickback, Garry Disher's fast-selling, widely praised crime novel, Wyatt reappears in the South Australian outback, intent on snatching a payroll. But Wyatt is not the only one eyeing the funds. The Outfit has...Read more

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Murder and Redemption, Noel Mealy

2011 was an interesting year in Australian Crime fiction with quite a few excellent debut books appearing.  In 2012 we've started off with the release of MURDER AND REDEMPTION by Noel Mealey, another debut, another book set in outback Western Australia, and another book aiming for a...Read more

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