In a Place of Darkness

Detective Constable Angus MacVicar has just landed his dream job – transferred out of uniform and assigned to Oldcastle’s biggest ongoing murder Operation Telegram, hunting the 'Fortnight Killer'.

Every two weeks another couple is targeted. One victim is left at the scene, their...Read more

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Partners in Crime, Stuart MacBride

This is gathering together of two DI Steel short stories, one featuring DS Logan McRae (Stramash) and the other (DI Steel's Bad Heir Day) has her giving Constable Guthrie a day to remember.

DI Steel's Bad Heir Day is set around Christmas with her manically buying / wrapping...Read more

Guilty By Definition

If everyone has a book hidden somewhere in them, it seems, these days, it's probably going to be a crime fiction book. It seems inevitable now that "celebrities" will show up at, touting their wares - some with considerably more success than others.

Susie Dent, famous for her...Read more

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A Town Called Treachery, Mitch Jennings

There have been a number of Australian crime fiction books recently that are tackling the effects of poverty / deprivation / loss and family breakdown in small towns, on small boys in particular. A TOWN CALLED TREACHERY is following, successfully, in the footsteps of authors like Mark...Read more

The Mystery of the Crooked Man

This was one of those fortuitous pickups in the Audio section of the library's BorrowBox app. Probably based on the reference to Magpie Murders in the blurb, which was a TV series I thoroughly enjoyed. It might also be because of the description of the main protagonist:

...Read more
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A Lesson In Dying

Who hanged the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Hallowe'en party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn.

Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster's enigmatic wife, but Jack Robson, school governor...Read more

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An Ethical Guide to Murder

How to Kill Your Family meets The Power in this entertaining and thought-provoking read, that asks:

If you had the power between life and death, what would you do?

...Read more

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The Forsaken

For ten years, Logan Booth served as a contract killer for the CIA – he just never knew it. The first book in a blockbuster thriller series from Matt Rogers, million copy bestseller and 'a bright new talent shaking up the genre ' (Candice Fox).

In the twilight of his career, Logan learns...Read more

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Better Left Dead

DI Nyree Bradshaw and her team have their work cut out for them once again. Local woman Lizzy Bean has been found dead, garrotted with a piece of wire. Lizzy's property, a 1970s beach house overlooking a pristine Northland bay, is overflowing with rubbish. Inside, the house is even worse....Read more

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The Freezer

In the endless tracts of the New South Wales bushland Ranger Cal Nyx finds a dead body under unusual circumstances. It soon becomes apparent this is a historic death. Growing attention on the crime puts the blowtorch to a murderer who’s managed to evade justice. For now.

...Read more

Present Tense

What if justice isn't enough?

Schalk Lourens got out his phone and started filming, something Pieterse taught him years ago. Keep a record. Do it yourself, boykie, every time. That way you can be sure. Cover your arse. Don't trust any of them.

Schalk began...Read more

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Woman, Missing Sherryl Clark

Sherryl Clark is an author with a keen eye for a fascinating central female character, and Lou Alcott is one out of the box. A Melbourne based Private Investigator with a prominent organised crime figure for a grandfather, she's a disillusioned ex-cop with a major attitude when it comes to...Read more

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Liars, James O'Loghlin

Don't be put off by LIARS by James O'Loghlin. It's a biggish book at 464 pages, but it fills that size admirably. Engaging, addictive, and intriguing, it's small town setting is used to build a complex story, with personalities, connections, backgrounds and people that are anything but....Read more

The Bat, Jo Nesbo

Another one of those periodical restarts of a favourite series, some of which actually get off the ground, some of which linger in the piles of unread books, mostly due to lack of time / organisation (which I'm working on).

THE BAT is the first of the Harry Hole series, which...Read more

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Fallen Angel, Chris Brookmyre

FALLEN ANGEL was released in 2019. I hate how behind I'm getting with my all time favourite authors, Chris(topher) Brookmyre being very unfairly on that accidental list. His take on people being people, particularly when some of them are flat out horrible people, is always drily delivered,...Read more

No One Will Know, Rose Carlyle

Eve Sylvester is a young, very naive girl with a lot of tragedy in her life. Raised partly in the foster care system, she's been restlessly moving around most of her life, when a chance meeting with a young Australian man overseas leads to a yacht journey home. It's a short lived period of...Read more

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Death of A Countess, Jenny Harrison

DEATH OF A COUNTESS is set in May, 1957, London. In the aftermath of WWII, a group of friends are gathering for a party. Displaced people, they survived the worst of Hitler's concentration camps, so this party is a chance for them to celebrate their liberty, as well as to reconnect with...Read more

Poison at Penshaw Hall, G.B. Ralph

The 2nd in the Milverton Mysteries featuring Addison Harper, this is a series that's on the cosier, English Village styled end of the mystery scale. Although that setting is delivered with a dry, very wry tone, and a great sense of petty politics in a pretty village. 

It's...Read more

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Southern Aurora, Mark Brandi

Evoking a particularly poignant sense of the time period in which it is set, SOUTHERN AURORA is yet another pitch perfect book from Mark Brandi exploring intergenerational damage, domestic violence, small town and rural life and young boy's experiences - good and bad.

Raw,...Read more

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Kill Yours, Kill Mine

KILL YOURS, KILL MINE (aka SEVEN SISTERS) is a standalone novel from Katherine Kovacic, a beautifully written, powerful, provocative take on the concept of justice and vengeance, coming from a place of grief, guilt and the failure of the justice system. It's based around the deaths of women...Read more

Leave the Girls Behind, Jacqueline Bublitz

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is the latest offering from Jacqueline Bublitz, after the absolutely fascinating BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME. This is a different beast entirely, although it's again set in the USA, featuring a strong, unusual central female character.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a...Read more

Leave the Girls Behind

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender—and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald...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

Shadow City

Sydney, The body of a young woman is found in Chinatown. She's been beaten, tortured - and tattooed with the image of a sun. Called to the scene, Sergeant Jackie Rose asks herself whether this was a drug murder, or something else. But before her investigation can get under...Read more

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Butter, Asako Yuzuki

I (tried) listening to this much acclaimed Japanese book, which is very much focused on cooking and food, with a sideline inspired by the true story of a convicted con woman and serial killer. An unusual sort of a story, it's all a long slow build up, which hints at, but doesn't necessarily...Read more

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