Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Kjell Westo is a Swedish speaking Finnish author, who has previously published poetry, short stories and three novels. LANG is his first suspense / crime novel.
The central character, Lang, is a twice divorced, well-known novelist and host of a TV discussion panel show in...Read more
Shocking news reaches the Thursday Murder Club.
An old friend in the antiques business has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.
As the gang springs into action they encounter art forgers, online fraudsters and drug dealers, as well...Read more
The biggest problem I'm finding with the audio versions of the Thursday Murder Club entrants, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE being the latest, is that the blasted things fly past in the blink of an eye. Even at silly number of chapters they just simply disappear, leaving me wanting more too quickly...Read more
Trust No One used to be a favourite mantra in a previous life, so it gave me a bit of a smile to see that as the heading on the back cover of this book when it arrived.
This was one of those books that a few trusted reading compatriots had been discussing, so I thought I would...Read more
J.P. Pomare won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel with his debut CALL ME EVIE. Since then he's carved out a name for himself when it comes to precisely plotted, atmospheric, tense psychological thrillers populated by cleverly constructed characters, designed to keep readers...Read more
Bit of explaining first - LAST ONE TO LEAVE and FIND US are available as stand-alone ebooks / novellas. They are also available together in printed form under the title FOOL ME TWICE. I read the two separate novellas, but...Read more
Firstly, it has to be said - the book blurb doesn't do Reich any favours and if he was a real person he'd have every right to be slightly miffed about the description of himself as boorish. Sure he's a little stiff and formal in the early part of the book, but that's all it is - he's not...Read more
The blurb for LAST SEEN LEAVING outlines a particularly interesting concept - high-flying, New York District Attorney, with a happy personal life is struck down by a viral eye infection which renders her blind. Now running a small, suburb based law practice, her ex-fiancée is reported...Read more
New Zealand author Fiona Sussman has created something absolutely remarkable in her blended crime and contemporary fiction novel THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE. Winner of the ...Read more
Being a huge fan of Japanese crime fiction I admit to being particularly intrigued by THE LAST TRAIN. Set in Tokyo the viewpoint of this novel, written by an ex-pat American professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuin University who has now lived in that city for twenty years, was a...Read more
The scope of THE LAST is reasonably small, and this focus on largely just the one location makes it a very personal account of one visiting American who is displaced at the time of nuclear war. A group of people, only temporarily connected through all staying or working at the same hotel,...Read more
One of my current audio quests is to go back to the beginning of the Inspector Maigret series and work my way through. THE LATE MONSIEUR GALLET is the third book in the series, so it was particularly interesting to note how firmly the characteristics of Maigret are established already. His...Read more
This is a novella that I picked up from Amazon based on some comments I'd seen about the author's writing style, which turned out to be right. This is a great little novella that introduces a murder, an investigator and his sidekick, fleshes out his background and gives me some personality...Read more
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
A mystery thriller that turns into an unresolved dystopian nightmare was not what I was expecting when I started LEFT BEHIND. Nor was it necessarily obviously where it was heading as the story of a camping trip to K'gari started out. Two couples, connected through...Read more
LEFT LUGGAGE is the debut novel of Sydney based author Andrew Christie. Set mostly in and around Newtown and inner Sydney it combines an unlikely cast of central characters: John - an ex-Army house renovator; Betty - his Australian-born, French resident, famous war photographer mother;...Read more
The Crime Fiction genre is a broad church. Delivery styles, subject matter and purpose can vary wildly from the light-hearted to the darkest noir, from purposely vicious and cruel to accidental and panicked. There's even shades in terms of how or why. Investigation and resolution with all...Read more
In The Legend of Winstone Blackhat, Tanya Moir takes the reader, in a sustained and authentic way, into the world-view of an abused 12 year old. She writes powerfully about a boy, Winstone, (named after a NZ concreting company) who comes from a neglectful and damaging home life....Read more
Craig Russell is best known for his series of novels featuring Hamburg based detective Jan Fabel, but LENNOX is (it is reported) the first in a series of neo-noir styled novels, this one set in Glasgow, post World War II. Lennox is a Canadian ex-soldier who bears the psychological and...Read more
Any readers looking for something different - LEONA: THE DIE IS CAST could be just the ticket. There's so much here in the writing, and the styling that is very brave of this author.
Leona Lindberg is both a highly regarded investigator and an outsider. She has a personality...Read more
Who hanged the headmaster in the playground on the night of the school Hallowe'en party? Almost everyone in Heppleburn either hated or feared the viper-tongued Harold Medburn.
Inspector Ramsay is convinced it was the headmaster's enigmatic wife, but Jack Robson, school governor...Read more
One of those book series in audio format I've been borrowing from the library on and off now, A LESSON IN DYING is the first in the Inspector Simon Ramsay series, which is one of those quintessentially British, small town mystery, where the murders often have that slightly dotty sense about...Read more
The second Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper book LET THE DEAD LIE has now been released, following on the from highly praised A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE.
LET THE DEAD LIE takes Cooper into different physical circumstances, working in a very bleak city, doing menial labour and...Read more
LET THE DEAD SPEAK is the 7th novel in the Maeve Kerrigan series. A sobering thought for me given how much I liked this character in book number 1 and yet still I've now managed to miss books 2 through 6. Which means I can definitely say even if you've never read any of this series, LET THE...Read more
Set in Australia, but with a decidedly American feel to it, LETHAL IN LOVE is a serialised novel in six parts. Fascinating idea and one that I've always wondered why somebody hasn't done. Released over a period of time, each episode is probably best described as a long novella in length,...Read more
After listening to the first two books in the Lewis Trilogy pretty much one after the other, I've done it at all the wrong time of the year. I'm a bit partial to listening to, or reading, books from cold, wet climes in the heights of our summer, and all predictions are indicating we're in...Read more
THE LEWIS PASS is the second book in the Dylan Harper series - the first being THE FORGOTTEN LANDS (I believe aka DEAD GROUND but that needs confirmation - they sound like the same book but it could be a rewrite). Anyway, it's an interesting little series, although it's probably one that...Read more
It's been a Long Time since I was a young adult - or whatever it was that they called us in those days. I should declare I'm not 100% sure I know why I was reading a book that's so obviously for young adults as LIAR is. I should also declare that I'm profoundly and very dogmatically...Read more
Alec de Payns is on the run - and wanted for murder - in the new thriller by the bestselling author of The Frenchman
While recruiting a Russian human source embedded in the shadows of illicit financial networks, French spy Alec de Payns...Read more
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