Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Set in the early 1980's, I HEAR THE SIRENS IN THE STREET is the second book in a trilogy built around Sean Duffy, a Catholic cop working in the reality of Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland in the middle of The Troubles. This is when neighbourhoods and towns are divided by religion and loyalty...Read more
The third and final instalment in the Raymond Electromatic, I ONLY KILLED HIM ONCE sees robot detective, turned gun for hire, in the fight of his "life".
"Life" requires a bit of wiggle room here as Raymond Electromatic is a robotic detective / hitman with a 24 hour long memory...Read more
I WILL FIND THE KEY is one of those random choices that a reader browsing the library's audio book selection late at night can make, with absolutely no idea what they are getting into, or even why the choice was made.
Set in Sweden, the story features a private investigator by...Read more
The first book in a series by Norwegian author Heine Bakkeid, I WILL MISS YOU TOMORROW was released in 2016 with at least 5 books in total in the series, the first two available in translation. The stories revolve around Thorkild Aske, a disgraced ex-policeman, he's fresh out of prison and...Read more
Whilst ICE COLD is the second book from German writer Andrea Maria Schenkel, it's the first book - THE MURDER FARM - that I have to start out mentioning. I still remember my reaction to that book - mesmerised, enthralled, vaguely stunned. Needless to say, trying not to set expectations...Read more
Somehow the format that worked so well in "The Murder Farm" doesn't seem to have quite the same impact in ICE COLD. Whether it's because of the story of that the novelty of the unusual format isn't as fresh, I'm not sure.
Perhaps it was the blurb on the book jacket which asked...Read more
Recently finished, ICE MOON by Jan Costin Wagner was an unexpected pleasure. It seems that Wagner has a bit of a reputation in his homeland of Germany for turning the "traditional" form of crime fiction on its head and if that's the case then he's done it again with ICE MOON.
...Read more
Billed, somewhat confusingly for me at least, as "the best selling thriller" from "Sweden's Agatha Christie", I was interested to read a quote from the author that said "When I write these stories, it is not the gory and macabre details that interest me; it is the psychology behind the...Read more
THE ICE SHROUD is a very promising debut fictional novel from New Zealand wildlife photographer and non-fiction writer Gordon Ell. Structured as a combination village mystery and closed room scenario, the locations in this novel are beautifully described, the plot is good, the dialogue...Read more
Dafydd Woodruff was a very young surgeon when he made a nearly fatal mistake on the operating table. Shaken to the core by this event, he takes a locum position in the northern Canada wilderness to recover from his guilt and reassess. He spends a year in Moose Creek - just enough time to...Read more
The second book in the Syd Fielding series, THE ICON MURDERS follows on closely from the opening salvo, MURDER AND REDEMPTION.
Syd Fielding is a WA based cop who, in the first book, got himself into a lot of hot water with a drugs investigation and the death of a childhood...Read more
The great thing about collections like IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU is that it will appeal to readers and writers alike. Published by Allen & Unwin, edited by Michael Robotham, with a terrific Introduction by him into the bargain, this collection of writing from some of...Read more
Less a review, more a few comments on Les Allen's IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES, published in June 2022.
Set in 1982, New Zealand, the story revolves around an unlicensed private investigator who, whilst living under a false identity, forms an unlikely alliance with a small town...Read more
Jefe Javier Falcón is undoubtedly one of those slightly rumpled, thoughtful, urbane, complicated and delightful detectives that fans of crime fiction will love to spend time with. THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD is the last book in this series, beginning with THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE, then THE...Read more
INSIDE DOPE by Paul Thomas won the inaugural Ned Kelly Award and I blinked and then struggled to get my hands on a copy. I managed to track down GUERILLA SEASON years ago, and then not so long ago at the end of a long quest I found a copy of INSIDE DOPE. But still the search went on. The...Read more
ILL-GOTTEN GAINS is the second Nell Forest Mystery by Ilsa Evans set in the imagined country town of Majic (somewhere out near Bendigo if I remember from the first book :) )
When reviewing the earlier book, NEFARIOUS DOINGS ...Read more
'Watch out Jo Nesbo!' is printed in a bright red circle on the front of I'M TRAVELLING ALONE. It seemed like a rather brave claim to be making before starting this book, and bordering on rash having now finished it.
The characterisations are reasonably good. There's a...Read more
Choosing the remote island of Lark to relocate to is a decision made by the Kendricks in the wake of enormous loss. Viola and her mother Deborah will never be the same again now it is only the two of them, and the safety offered by the tiny community of Lark seems heaven sent at just the...Read more
If you, like me, have been more than a bit concerned about regular reading habits with the retirement of Rebus, I'm happy to report that at least I'm no longer fearful. Well about the loss of a fictional companion anyway. Now I can spend long periods of time worrying about Ian Rankin's...Read more
So we are rolling along with all the old gang (though the lovely wee dog is relatively new); Rebus, heir apparent Siobhan Clarke, Malcolm Fox, Big “Ger” Cafferty etc. There’s a huge comfort in the familiarity of seeing the same people in each outing, though you do wonder how much longer...Read more
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
Whilst it's not particularly unusual to have a flawed central protagonist, unapologetic ones are less common. Add being female, and that makes IN HER BLOOD's Catherine Berlin a rather rare beast, and a very welcome one.
Set in London after the Global Financial meltdown, Berlin...Read more
No use pretending that the basic premise of this novel, the use of an AIDE entity to assist in a stock standard cold case investigation, headed up by a (not unsurprisingly) sceptical DCS Kat Frank, was what grabbed my attention. So much noise about AI, so little accuracy, so why not an AIDE...Read more
What is always surprising about cults is that they consistently manage to attract seemingly intelligent people who leave their ordered lives to join bizarre communities run by petty tyrants with delusions of grandeur. What is sadly not surprising is that at the centre of cults there are...Read more
I distinctly remember years ago, standing in a bank queue behind a small, blonde, immaculately turned out woman, who I eventually recognised as Anne Hamilton-Byrne. At the time I mused why it was that nobody had written Australian crime fiction about the sorts of cults that she was...Read more
Writing a long term series has to create some issues for authors that probably some of we fans rarely consider. All we want is the next book. IN THE COLD DARK GROUND is the 10th in the Logan McRae series from Stuart MacBride, and I'm really sorry about this but I want the 11th pretty well...Read more
If somebody could explain to me what I did with my common-sense I'd be very grateful. I have this list of favourite authors, and a tendency to hoard their books. Makes no sense whatsoever when I think about it, but IN THE DARK got caught in the daftness and lurked on the shelves here for...Read more
A bit of a surprise package, IN THE DYING DAYS is an engaging tale of an ex-cop, private investigator plying his trade on the means streets of ... Canberra.
Starting off with a bit of business about a son looking for his father's story, the action quickly shifts to Canberra in...Read more
A spectacular escape and a man-hunt that could change the future of a nation - and lay one man's past to rest. Sean Duffy's got nothing. And when you've got nothing to lose, you have everything to gain. So when MI5 come knocking, Sean knows exactly what they want, and what he'll want in...Read more
The structure of trilogies must have some appeal for McKinty, not just because he has previous form. From the outside you can see that it could be quite a challenge to build a character's life and explore events in a proscribed number of books. And then it's over. For this reader it's a...Read more