The Brotherhood, Y.A. Erskine

I remember reading the first book in what is now one of my favourite series quite a few years ago, I really really hoped that the author felt better about life once they'd finished.  I think the same sort of reaction to THE BROTHERHOOD bodes well for what I hope is going to be an ongoing...Read more

Author: 

A Dissection of Murder, Felicity Young

A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the first in a series of books from Western Australian author Felicity Young.  Set in London at the turn of the twentieth Century, featuring Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon, the action in this book takes place in the midst of the Suffragette...Read more

Murder With the Lot, Sue Williams

MURDER WITH THE LOT is set in the fictional Mallee town of Rusty Bore, featuring Cass Tuplin, fish and chip shop owner, mother, and self-appointed private investigator. The story is told all from Cass's viewpoint, a viewpoint which is somewhat skewed towards a ... how should we put this...Read more

Author: 

A Trifle Dead, Livia Day

Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she...Read more

Author: 

Hades, Candice Fox

Sometimes you have to wonder who on earth comes up with the claims on blurbs - but this one "HADES is the debut of a stunning new talent in crime fiction" is so apt the temptation is to call it quits here for this review.

Hades Archer run a junkyard, and desposes of more than...Read more

Author: 

Gun Control, Peter Corris

The 40th book in the Cliff Hardy series, GUN CONTROL takes on a very current issue in the style that we've all come to expect from Peter Corris. It's worth taking a moment to consider that 40 book history. When Cliff Hardy first made an appearance on the Australian landscape (THE DYING...Read more

Author: 

Fireplay, Steve P. Vincent

Housekeeping first - FIREPLAY (Jack Emery) 0.5 is the novella based prequel to THE FOUNDATION, but released after the first full-length novel came out. The action in FIREPLAY clears up some of the backstory in THE FOUNDATION, but it doesn't matter a jot what order you read them in....Read more

Four Days, Iain Ryan

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

Author: 

Hunted, Jasper Wolf

Set in Melbourne, Jasper Wolf's debut crime fiction novel has a serial killer targeting policewomen who all have very similar physical characteristics. Told from two viewpoints - one following the investigation and one inside the mind of a barking mad murderer with a chilling sense of calm...Read more

Author: 

Dead Men Don't Order Flake, Sue Williams

Cass Tuplin has returned in second book DEAD MEN DON'T ORDER FLAKE. Proprietor of the recently rebuilt Rusty Bore Takeway, she's a fish, chip and dim sim dispenser extraordinaire with a sideline in private enquiries. Which means she's one of those slightly nosy women who can find out stuff...Read more

Author: 

Burn Patterns, Ron Elliott

Partly a story around Iris Foster, partly a story around arson, BURN PATTERNS puts a complicated woman at the heart of a story about complicated offenders. Known as "The Fire Lady" Foster is a psychologist with a messy past that she's tried to put behind her. Until mid consultation with...Read more

Author: 

Scrublands, Chris Hammer

Australian Rural Crime has arrived, there are novels showing up everywhere claiming this as their sub-genre, and SCRUBLANDS is the one that everyone is talking about. Film rights have been sold, everyone's reading it, most are raving about the book.

So having a contrary opinion...Read more

Author: 

The Promised Land, Barry Maitland

THE PROMISED LAND is the 13th Brock and Kolla police procedural from Barry Maitland. The first novel in the series, THE MARX SISTERS, was originally released in 1994, and here we are at the 13th outing, and Maitland is still writing as assured, elegant and entertaining a police procedural...Read more

Kittyhawk Down, Garry Disher

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

Author: 

Gone by Midnight, Candice Fox

When Candice Fox opened up GONE BY MIDNIGHT with a missing child and a sick goose I wasn't sure if I could go on. I mean a missing child is one thing, but a sick, possibly life-threateningly ill goose felt like one blow too many. (Don't @ me - they are both fictional and I'm very fond of my...Read more

Author: 

Flamekeeper, TW Lawless

FLAMEKEEPER is the 5th book in the Peter Clancy series, and the first not to be set around the mean streets of Melbourne, within the context of The Truth Newspaper. A real-life sensationalist weekly paper that liked nothing better than personal scandal and a spot of stirring of the pot (...Read more

Author: 

A Creature of the Night

A young Englishman witnesses a murder committed in a deserted house, a murder of such a nature that presents the murderer as a supernatural being. Was the murder really the work of some supernatural forces or were there some earthly explanation?Read more

Cutting the Cord, Natasha Molt

An assassin thriller with a twist CUTTING THE CORD features Amira Knox, a member of a secret terrorist group - the Authenticity Movement. Raised in the group, after being adopted by the leader as an infant, Amira and her siblings have been trained as an elite group of assassins, tasked with...Read more

Author: 

Bruny, Heather Rose

BRUNY is a book which unfortunately (stupidly) sat in the reading piles here for, it turns out, way too long. Luckily our F2F bookclub was scheduled to read it last month, and I've never been so pleased that something was jolted out of stasis and into the current pile. It was, quite simply...Read more

Author: 

The Kill Bill, Richard Evans

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

Author: 

Wipptee, Jai Baidell

I used to keep count of "girl in a hat" (and man standing on a foggy street corner) book covers. But in this case, you know the sort of thing, book covers for rural / romance styled novels with girls looking off into the distance, over fields of golden (dry) grass, akubra style hat firmly...Read more

Author: 

Wild Card, Simon Rowell

Will confess to being more than a bit pleased when WILD CARD, the second DS Zoe Mayer (and her service dog Harry) novel arrived. The initial outing - THE LONG GAME - had all the hallmarks of a long, and good series in the making, and the follow-up does nothing to dispel that belief....Read more

Author: 

Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, Fiona Britton

It's hard not to wonder what the line "Phyrne Fisher meets Underbelly in an arch, out-of-the-box debut historical crime caper" actually means. Turns out it's a bit the timeframe and environment, the character of Violet Kelly, and the situation she finds herself in.

Set in 1930'...Read more

Author: 

The Beacon, P.A. Thomas

A disgraced son of a powerful Australian media tycoon, the traumatised daughter of a small town newspaper editor, coincidentally owned by the aforementioned tycoon. One is sent to "learn the ropes of journalism" / ie been kicked down the line, the other is in town after something sent her...Read more

Author: 

The Fall Between, Darcy Tindale

THE FALL BETWEEN is the debut novel from Darcy Tindale, set in the Muswellbrook area, located in the NSW Upper Hunter Valley. The story features Detective Rebecca Giles, who, after some time in the police force, has returned to her home town in no small part because her father, an ex-cop...Read more

Author: 

The Housemate, Sarah Bailey

A standalone from the author of the well-known Gemma Woodstock series, THE HOUSEMATE is a story told in two timelines. Back to nine years ago when three housemates were sharing a property, one of them is killed, one goes missing, one is accused of murder. The current timeline sees...Read more

Author: 

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

Author: 

Pages