An Ethical Guide to Murder

The image of the book cover for An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris includes the tagline 'If you had the power over life and death, what would you do?'.

The image has a red and pink background with a dagger to the left that's sitting upright, looking like the scales of justice. There's a woman in one of the balance cups, standing up, and a man lying down in the other, with red blood dripping from his body.

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?

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The Forsaken

The image of the book cover for The Forsaken by Matt Rogers includes the tagline ' A Broken Assassin. A Brutal Deception. A War for Redemption.'.

The image is red / brown in tone with the end of a large, solid bridge with wires / coming off a hefty brick pillar, which has a USA flag at half mast on the top and a couple of high buildings to the right.

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

The image of the book cover for Better Left Dead by Catherine Lea includes the tagline ' Secrets Abound and No One's Telling the Full Story' and the notation 'A DI Nyree Bradshaw Novel.' The image is of a striking pink, purple and yellow sky over a beach that has scrubby trees and bushes right up to the edge. The tide is out and the water is reflecting the colours of the sky.

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

The image of the book cover for The Freezer by Kim Hunt includes the tagline 'a Cal Nyx mystery' and quotes 'Fascinating central character' Karen Chisholm, Austcrimereview and 'tough and incredibly capable Nick Davies, Best Adult Fiction Book, NZ Booklovers Award 2024'

The image is a large blue coloured cliff with a darkened overhanging rock.

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.

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Present Tense

The book cover for Present Tense by Natalie Conyer includes the quote 'A truly remarkable book. South Africa comes to vivid life in these pages' Kerry Greenwood. There are two blue "stickers' with text that's very blurred in this image.

The background is in black, greys and white. It's brooding and dark, with a body of water in the foreground leading towards a single hill in the background with a black, dark, cloudy sky above with a wash of whiter, lighter area just above the hill. There's a small piece of barbed wire sticking out from the right hand side.

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 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 definitely...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

The book cover of Leave the Girls Behind by Jacqueline Bublitz includes the taglines 'a novel' and 'International Bestselling author of Bewfore You Knew My Name'

The image is of a girl's face, turned to the right looking over her shoulder. She's obscured by rain on probably glass / window in front of her. Her face is light by red and blue lighting

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

The book cover of Shadow City by Natalie Conyer includes, in a yellow "sticker" the quote 'Tense, gritty and insightful' Emma Viskic.

The image is looking out from a dark space, probably under a bridge, towards a brightly lit night skyline with a couple of gulls flying across the sky. The title is at the top in white lettering, the author's name towards the bottom in yellow.

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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Unblessed, Roger Simpson

UNBLESSED is the latest in the Jane Halifax series of books, featuring the TV series character of the same name. A forensic psychologist, Halifax has worked with all sorts of criminal types - from serial to opportunistic killers, and in the last book, herself, when she suffers from sudden...Read more

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The Chasm, Bronwyn Hall

The second novel from author Bronwyn Hall, THE CHASM is set in and around a fictional small town in Victoria's rugged mountains. Andy King has returned to Stonefield 10 years after her boyfriend, Will Hoffman, disappeared without a trace, something all the locals blamed her for. Despite the...Read more

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The Call, Gavin Strawhan

THE CALL is a debut crime novel from NZ author Gavin Strawhan and I checked that statement more than a few times whilst reading. It won the Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize in 2023, I did not need to check that. THE CALL is such a strong debut it's hard to know where to start, but let's echo...Read more

The Kamogawa Food Detectives, Hisashi Kashiwai

Nothing like Japanese crime fiction to remind you to expect the unexpected, although to be fair, I wasn't too sure what to expect when I plucked this book from the want to read lists. I also, freely confess, I have no memory of it going onto that list so something must have tweaked interest...Read more

The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz

2nd in the Hawthorne & Horowitz story, THE SENTENCE IS DEATH continues the author's insertion of themselves into a fictional detective story, featuring the investigative skill of PI Daniel Hawthorne and Horowitz's sometimes less successful conclusion drawing.

If you're new...Read more

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