Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Combining history with mystery and a hefty dose of romance, A HISTORY OF CRIME was both a fascinating and slightly frustrating read.
The background to Frédérique Bonnell and her connections to France and New Zealand were unknown territory for this reader - as was the idea that...Read more
Meaghan Wallace is invited to one of the "must be at" social events in Sydney - a party at the very very rich Cavanagh household. When her escort (and boss) finally passes out, she stumbles across Damien, the very spoilt son of the family, arguing with other men in the same room as a bed,...Read more
Fans of the Bee Gees might find themselves with psychological issues post reading or listening to THE HITCHHIKER. I'm not sure I'll hear the particular track that's on high rotation in the car at the centre of much of the action here without a slight twitch ever again to be honest....Read more
You know the type - small time crims / druggies / fringe dwelling bikers who cause havoc. Only this time the violent robbery they've just committed gets a lot worse when they kill the very young daughter of a family who were just out on a bit of a day trip. Turns out the law catching up...Read more
This title was reviewed for the Newtown Review of Books(link is external)
This novel of murder and military intelligence in wartime Melbourne is inspired by history.
...Read more
The second psychological thriller from Lyn Yeowart, THE HOLLOW GIRL, is set in the West of Victoria around Ballarat, Ararat and Horsham, employing the dual timelines of the 1960's when a home for 'girls in crisis' near Horsham known as Harrowford Hall, takes in young, unmarried, pregnant...Read more
Grabbed a copy of this after seeing it on the list of Ned Kelly entrants for 2017 - without paying a lot of attention to the category it was entered in. (I've been cherry-picking from the list when I see a copy of the book available anywhere). I have to confess I went back and checked as I...Read more
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
HOME TRUTHS is the second novel I've been lucky enough to read by author Charity Norman that uses characters and connections to drive home an important, and devastating message. In REMEMBER ME she explored the complications of family,...Read more
The first of the Peter Clancy books from T.W. Lawless, HOMECOUNTRY takes Clancy to exactly that - home to the town where he grew up, in outback Queensland to bury his mother. With his credo of never looking back this is the first time he's returned to Clarke's Flat since he left, so for the...Read more
First published in 1946, the story is set in the winter of 1937, in the Japanese village of Okamura. Steeped in both the culture and sensibility of the time, THE HONJIN MURDERS is a classic of Japanese crime fiction, a locked room murder in the style of the Golden Age of crime fiction...Read more
Set in an unnamed USA city, JM Calder's second thriller AND HOPE TO DIE is chilling. The book opens as a package is received by the parents of a kidnapped little girl. Finding out that this little girl is the 4th child taken by the same kidnapper and then discovering that even though the...Read more
The third novel in the Flaxborough series, I've always thought that it was here that Colin Watson declared his hand and intentions most firmly. Everything about this novel is slightly wacky, very English in humour and stylings, and slyly clever.
As you will get from the opening...Read more
Comedic crime fiction has to be one of the hardest sub-genre's to pull off. Comedy is so subjective, and crime fiction often tackles tricky subject matter. Add to that a hefty supernatural component and HOT FLUSH is a book that's appealing to a specific sub-set of readers.
The...Read more
Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre carpark. Important work files—and her job as a result. Her marbles? ‘Mild cognitive impairment’, according to the doctor. Time for a nursing home, according to her daughter, Rose.
Rose
...Read more
I was sent this book to read for a review, and I've now made numerous attempts to read it and I just can't.
It's not just that the wait for something to happen seems interminable, I think the fundamental problem I'm having is with the relationships.
Alex is...Read more
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
There must be a group of readers out there that are a sucker for a fabulous book title (or it could be a group of one) but HOW I BECAME THE MR BIG OF PEOPLE SMUGGLING is one of those eye-catching titles that luckily coincides with a terrific story.
We've all done it, or dreamed...Read more
It's just so heartening to know that the Pufferfish Series lives on that it's difficult to remain objective about the latest book. HOW THE DEAD SEE is the second of the re-emergence of David Owen's much loved, acerbic, dry, funny, dark and quite prickly Detective Inspector Franz Heineken...Read more
I'm really only slightly obsessed with this author's work. Slightly in that just about everything he has written now is automatically high on the read / listen list.
Sometimes, into every life, a bloody good laugh, a bit of craic, some distraction from the general godawfulness...Read more
The opening line of HUMIDITY made me laugh:
Word gets 'round when you're a nude model in a small country town.
That would most definitely get around our nearby small country town, even though it could never be said that we have the...Read more
If you do what I did, and get these two books out of order, they will still work, but dear me, combined they tell one hell of a tale about a strong, resiliant young woman called Maggie.
A young woman who grew up in very difficult circumstances with a missing mother, and a...Read more
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
I blamed Chris Allen for a lot of things whilst I was reading this book. Dog's were left hoping for games and walks. Not my fault. Cat's balefully batted toys on sticks with nobody holding onto the other end. Nothing to do with me. Pet pigs resorted to throwing their food bowls around in...Read more
Way back when AustCrimeFiction first lurched into life, it felt like keeping up with the local crime and thriller book output would be achievable. That's been one of the wider and deeper and more delusional pipe dreams of many. Which needless to say makes THE HUNTER the first Tony Park...Read more
Digging into the parental guilt that is heaped upon all new parents, HUSH LITTLE BABY is that needling little voice in your head telling you that you're not doing it right, and that someone else could probably do it better. Sally's character alternates between maternal confidence and...Read more
On the face of it, THE HYPNOTIST should be a book that's right up my alley, and yet, somehow it's taken quite a few attempts to get to the end of, and the feeling left has been one of vague confusion and a little disappointment.
Dr Erick Maria Bark was once a renowned...Read more
Less of a review - closer to a drool, HYPOTHERMIA is the latest in one of my all time favourite series of books from Icelandic author Arnauldur Indridason. If you've not read any of the earlier books, coming to HYPOTHERMIA from the start could still work, but part of what is really...Read more
I AM PILGRIM is screenwriter Terry Hayes' debut novel, which I would not have picked without knowing the background up front. Obviously written with a keen visual sense, the novel doesn't read like a screen treatment or a movie script. This is a good old fashioned, seat of the pants, keep...Read more
Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime. But a torso in a suitcase is pretty close.
Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is. A tattoo. So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of...Read more