Sorted on book title (not in series order)
I really really really hope that, in particular, local fans of spy and espionage thrillers are reading Mark Abernethy's terrific series. Firstly because each of the stories is set in our own region, and secondly because Alan McQueen is such a quintessential Aussie bloke hero type....Read more
The Crime Factory have developed a reputation for publishing wonderful examples of modern noir fiction set in different locations and times. DOUBLE EXPOSURE is, however, a very different animal indeed, combining a past time frame (1948) with a dark and very atmospheric sense of place, and a...Read more
Stef Harris is an award winning indie filmmaker and policeman in his native New Zealand, so it's probably not surprising that he's had a bit on, making it longer than I can remember since his earlier releases. DOUBLE JEOPARDY is worth the wait though, as a good solid crime fiction thriller...Read more
It was only recently that I watched a documentary about Lord Lucan, of which A DOUBLE LIFE was inspired by, so the release of this book was timely for me. So armed, was very keen to read Berry’s fictionalized take on such an iconic disappearance story.
UK novelist Flynn Berry...Read more
Harrowing and insightful, DOUBLE LIVES by Kate McCaffrey is a very topical exploration of issues around gender, identity, acceptance and truth. There is, for some readers, some confrontational and topical subject matter being addressed here, revolving as it does around the murder of...Read more
The author of DOUBLE MADNESS, Caroline de Costa is a professor at the School of Medicine at James Cook University in Cairns, and the book is set amongst the medical profession, in Cairns. Writing obviously about a couple of worlds that she knows well, this debut novel combines a strong...Read more
Faith is a newspaper woman - a war zone junkie; authority hating; vodka addicted; bad tempered; foul mouthed; loud; opinionated; single; with young baby; conflicted; tetchy; complicated newspaper woman with a history. Part of that history is personal - she's got this distant boyfriend Eden...Read more
The second in the Harry Kvist series, DOWN FOR THE COUNT follows CLINCH, with the third book, SLUGGER, now available in Australia as well. Think deepest darkest dirtiest noir, of the hardest possible bitten variety, and this series fits the definition perfectly. Add longing for love, and a...Read more
Captain Jack Robertson, ex-Military, Pilot and CIA Spy is kidnapped in-flight, picking up the latest shipment of opium that the CIA is using to fund covert operations in Asia. Discovering that he has been kidnapped by the deliciously over the top one-eyed, betel juice chewing minion of his...Read more
A woman wants her errant husband tracked, an undocumented Cambodian girl is found dead, the city’s two biggest criminal societies vie for power, a loan shark wants his money back, and a corrupt cop is pulling strings from the shadows. It’s just another day in Hong Kong.
Former...Read more
A VIP Protection job goes wrong, the brutalised body of a young man is found in the jungle, a triad wants its $2.5 million back, a girl goes missing and a friend is murdered. Galahad Jones’ world is about to tilt.
When a simple VIP Protection job goes horribly...Read more
A husband and father is betrayed, a son chases a ghost through the decades, a Russian arms dealer wants his hands on a priceless ruby, a young woman disappears with the keys to the mystery, and a female insurgent fights for her life. The Past and the Present are on a collision course....Read more
The fourth book translated into English by this Icelandic author takes a wide sweep through Iceland and time in THE DRAINING LAKE. In the Cold War era bright, left-wing Icelandic students were sent to study in Communist East Germany. The only lead and possible connection between the...Read more
If you were young, suddenly single again, and feeling a bit lost and unsure - what would you do if you were offered money to tell a harmless little lie? If you were camping out at a friend's house after the break up of a relationship that had been just cruising along anyway, what would you...Read more
DRIVE BY is fiction although readers may find themselves having to work hard to remember that. From the opening voice of Jabber (John) Habib to the build up of mayhem on the streets of Sydney, obviously comparisons are being drawn between Melbourne's Underbelly Underworld wars and the...Read more
The 11th Inspector Sejer novel from Karin Fossum, specialising again in the why of a crime. Why in this instance is a series of very big questions. Why did a young toddler end up dead in a pond near his house? Why did nobody think that secure fencing would be necessary for any child that...Read more
Slightly girly, crazy comic crime fiction is not my normal cup of tea, and add a plethora of recipes and this reader should, by rights, be groaning and moaning and whinging. But not with The Culinary Crime / Café La Femme series of which DROWNED VANILLA is the second book. (As opposed to...Read more
Set in Depression era America, DROWNING CITY is set on one night when life, business and the future explodes in Fontana's face. A bootlegger by trade, it's a business that has a limited lifespan with political mumblings about getting rid of Prohibition. Meaning what money there is to be...Read more
My review of Bryan Brown's first full length crime novel - The Drowning has been posted at Newtown Review of Books:
https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/bryan-brown-the-drowning-...Read more
There are books stacked up in the corners of this house that I look at fondly and think I must read that.. I've got to read that... and next thing you know it's a few years down the track and I'm still mumbling must to myself. DRY DOCK is one of those books that wants me to take myself...Read more
It was rather pleasing to see DUBLIN DEAD, mostly because O'Donovan's first book, The Priest, actually managed to get me to rethink my "over serial killer" books stance. So no pressure on this one... at all.
There is some reference back to The Priest in DUBLIN DEAD, which is...Read more
The Dublin Trilogy by Caimh McDonnell is now made up of 9 entries, two of which are novellas. Bear with me:
In Order of Publication:
A Man with One of Those Faces
The Day That Never Comes
Angels in the Moonlight
Last Orders
...Read more
I'm really not sure how Peter Corris, or Cliff Hardy manage to keep up the pace, but I'm very very relieved they do, as the New Year tradition of a new Cliff Hardy book, a couch and the Test Cricket on the radio has become rather important over the last few years.
One of the...Read more
It's not uncommon for crime fiction from any location to address societal issues up front, and DUST by journalist / author Michael Brissenden is doing exactly that - tackling drought, and the deprivation in rural communities that goes alongside that, as well as the rise of the Sovereign...Read more
I think I read somewhere that DUSTY DEXTER PI - HER FIRST CASE started life as a newspaper serial, which if that is the case, makes it the second of this sort of book I've read coming out of Queensland this year. Although this isn't a series of short stories, it's the story of an entire...Read more
THE DYING BREED is the third book in the Irish PI Ed Loy series from Declan Hughes, Ed being an Irishman who went home after living in the US for many years. A broken marriage and the tragic death of his young daughter are events that shaped him there, but his childhood in Ireland shaped...Read more
DYING GRASS MOON is the 2nd book in the Hennessey Reed Mystery Series, following on from ONE FOR ANOTHER. Set in the early 1800's in Idaho in the USA, Hennessy Reed is a bordello madam, amateur sleuth, hidden mother, astounding woman and an absolute force to be reckoned with.
...Read more
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
DS Stevie Hooper, recently seconded to the Serious Crime Squad in Perth, is working with her old friend DI Monty McGuire. When the naked, hairless body of a young woman is found, poised carefully outside a Bank in the main part of the city, sprayed totally with bronze paint there not only...Read more