Trust Me, I'm Dead - Sherryl Clark

Shortlisted for the 2018 CWA Debut Daggar, TRUST ME, I'M DEAD, is the first crime novel from New Zealand born, Australian resident writer Sherryl Clark, best known for her children's writing, although I understand there's now a sequel to this novel planned for this year. Any possible sequel...Read more

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Dead Man Singing, Frances Housden

As the blurb puts it - could a rock-star's first big hit have predicted his death? First in what looks like it's going to be a series DEAD MAN SINGING introduces Detective Joni Johns and private investigator Frankie Buchanan who find themselves investigating the death of rock star Jim Munro...Read more

Shadow of Doubt, SL Beaumont

I will admit to having been a bit of a Brexit junkie, addicted to the podcast Brexitcast from the BBC, which meant SHADOW OF DOUBT arrived at a particularly pertinent time, set as it is in the time of Brexit, with a very interesting central premise - would the overwhelming Remain vote in...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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Death in Daylesford, Kerry Greenwood

First released in Australia in November 2020, DEATH IN DAYLESFORD is the 21st Phryne Fisher book, set in Victoria's Spa Country - between Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, in an area that's all too real, with some fictional places built into this story, as is the tendency with this very...Read more

The Tribute, John Byron

The media release that came with John Byron's debut thriller opens with the following:

"Meticulously researched, hugely ambitious and superbly crafted THE TRIBUTE is the most original thriller of 2021 and heralds John Byron as a formidable new player in

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Private Prosecution, Lisa Ellery

If, like this reader, you're a bit twitchy about "legal" crime fiction, then PRIVATE PROSECUTION could be just the book for you. As the blurb puts it:

"This is a pacy, darkly comic whodunnit with a twist - Andrew knows who did it but the clock is ticking and he

...Read more
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Dance Prone, David Coventry

The blurb puts it best - "DANCE PRONE is a novel of music, ritual and love. It is live, tense and corporeal." For many who were around in the mid 1980's, immersed in the counter culture of hard-core post-punk, indie rock with its wildness and weirdness, there are going to be bells ringing,...Read more

Black Cloud, Sandi Wallace

The fourth book in the Georgie Harvey and John Franklin series, this series is set, in the main, around Daylesford and the goldfields area, with BLACK CLOUD mostly in Korweinguboora, one of my all time favourite place names (and locales). When I was a kid my grandfather loved heading out to...Read more

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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

Shadow Over Edmund Street, Suzanne Frankham

Edwina Biggs has lead a quiet life, battling to make ends meet, working a mundane job with antisocial hours, living a restrained life in a contained neighbourhood. Things were changing at last though as she'd recently swapped the big family home for a small cottage on Edmund Street, learnt...Read more

Waking the Tiger, Mark Wightman

WAKING THE TIGER is set in 1939 Singapore. Dripping with sense of place and time, there's something vaguely reminiscent of Chandler's styling, and the excellent Inspector Le Fanu series by Brian Stoddart in the characterisation and plot.

Inspector Maximo Betancourt is working a...Read more

Four Dogs Missing, Rhys Gard

You wouldn't think reading crime fiction would leave you with a taste for wine, but here we are. 

Set in the idyllic surrounds of the Mudgee (New South Wales) wine region, Oliver Wingfield has set himself up as a winemaker with a fine reputation for his wines, even if everyone...Read more

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Home Before Night, J.P. Pomare

If you were a resident of Melbourne (or any larger city I suppose), the announcement of one of the many COVID lockdowns was a sudden jolt to the nervous system. 

What JP Pomare has done, in HOME BEFORE NIGHT, is add an extra layer of complexity when Lou realises her son Samuel...Read more

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Don't Hang Up

‘You and I are going to have a chat. If you hang up, this girl dies.’

Adam Turner works the mid-dawn shift at his local radio station. From 12am to 6am, it’s his job to fill the airtime with old songs, inane chatter, and the occasional talkback caller. It’s a long way from his...Read more

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The Queen of Poisons, Robert Thorogood

THE QUEEN OF POISONS is book number 3 in The Marlow Murder Club, which is also now a TV series. Not at all surprising, it definitely has a "perfect for TV feeling" to the stories, it's quite good fun, and written by Robert Thorogood, the man behind the Death in Paradise series. ...Read more

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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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

Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton

One of the very best things about reading the entrants in the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards is just how varied a bunch of books they were. BIRNAM WOOD is a eco-thriller, set on New Zealand's South Island, serving up a hefty dose of challenges for the reader to be going on with.

The...Read more

Dying Light, Stuart MacBride

DYING LIGHT is the follow-up book to the much talked about and acclaimed COLD GRANITE and it maintains the high standard that the first book in the series reached.

It is summer in Aberdeen, the sun is shining and it is not raining anywhere near as much as it does in winter....Read more

The Blood-Dimmed Tide, Rennie Airth

The mutilated body of a young girl is found hidden in a wood by ex-Scotland Yard Detective Inspector John Madden. Her face has been brutally battered and she has been raped. Whilst the local police are concentrated on searching for a tramp known to be in the area at the time, Madden is not...Read more

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The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson

Crime fiction fans are frequently a talkative lot, and news of a phenomenally good book spreads very very quickly.  THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO has been "the" book on quite a lot of people's lips for what is actually a startlingly short time since it was released - particularly released...Read more

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Beautiful Death, Fiona McIntosh

Now a little housekeeping before we go too far.  Beautiful Death is the second DCI Jack Hawksworth book, published under the author's real name of Fiona McIntosh.  The first, Bye Bye Baby, was published under the pseudonym Lauren Crow.  Fiona is a well known Fantasy writer in Australia, and...Read more

Australian Outlaw, Derek Pedley

Subtitled "The True Story of Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott", AUSTRALIAN OUTLAW is the authorised biography of Abbott, once a notorious Australian criminal, although, as it turns out from this book, a bit of a mythological figure in some ways.

Abbott actually contributed to the...Read more

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