Launched into listening to this on audio without really doing any blurb reading or background checking of any type. Basically grabbed it because we'd recently watched THE MAGPIE MURDERS which we'd loved, and, well it was there.
One of those reinvention style novels, where the...Read more
I can almost feel a collective intake of breath when many crime fiction fans read a blurb that includes mention of "a brave dog". So right up front, the dog's fine. In other news, this is a very interesting novel that uses a mostly female viewpoint for a story that has a past as well as a...Read more
Mark Ariti is back in the third novel in this series, and for the first time, the setting moves from the bush to the seaside. On a short "break" away in the small fishing town of Broken Bay, on South Australia's Limestone Coast, he seems to be approaching it as less holiday, more purgatory...Read more
WARNING: This book discusses sexual offences, and the related trial proceedings.
DICE is a debut novel from NZ author Claire Baylis. The subject matter is confronting, not just because it is seemingly based on a real life case, the styling is inventive, and the outcomes...Read more
First few chapters - what on earth am I doing reading this.
Next few chapters - okay I'm getting this, this is .... different.
Next few chapters - what do you mean you want something ... can't you see I'm busy.
Why do I keep hearing Henning Wehn's...Read more
In Melbourne, in 1868, theatre star Marie St Denis dies in the arms of her best friend, up and coming actress, Lola Sanchez. The accepted cause of death is suicide by laudanum overdose, something that Sanchez refuses to believe. Why would her brilliant, much admired, accomplished dear friend do such a thing? But then why would anyone kill St Denis?Read more
Ten years ago six teenagers hiked into the wilderness and five of them came back alive. They were school friends. Ed (whose family farm was their starting off point), Hugh, Charlotte, Laura, Jack and Alex, close, but with the sorts of slightly complicated romantic attachments and fractures that you find in groups of kids of that age. Nobody for a moment thought that this would be a dangerous hike, they were experienced walkers, fit, and Ed knew this area from a childhood growing up here. Only Ed died, and for the ten years since his mother Mary has had plenty of time to think about her beloved only child's death.Read more
I borrowed a copy of this audio from the library recently on a whim. No idea what drew me to it, but boy am I glad I did. Two sitting listens aren't common in these parts but I was so enthralled by DEAD MILE, I ended up sneaking the earbuds in and pretending to be getting on with other...Read more
The second novel in the Professor Eustacia Rose series, HELL'S BELLS is out, about and well worth reading. For those that haven't met up with this character before, her first outing was in the book DEVIL'S BREATH. The same elements are being...Read more
I started listening to the audio of this series when it was available at the library, and I felt like something quintessentially "British". These fit that bill perfectly, with central police inspector Stephen Ramsay a laconic, feeling slightly rumpled, divorced cop, new to the area, the...Read more
Collins Street Whores starts off very evocatively (for me at least) with a powerful motorbike being ridden along the Dandenong Tourist Road - a hop skip and a jump from our front door. Unfortunately for me, the interest in the story waned pretty soon after that. Overall the plot is fairly...Read more
What do murders, lawyers, politicians and property developers have in common? To find out you'll have to read Christ Nyst's CROOK AS ROOKWOOD.
First an explanation of the title. In Australia, when things aren't good they are “crook”. “How are ya, mate?” “Crook, mate.” When...Read more
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
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
It's the 1920's and it falls to Lucifer Box to save the civilised world (or at least it seems so to him - and probably him alone!) The threat is coming from many fronts - his own superiors are applying more than a little pressure for Box to retire quietly. Meanwhile, somebody must get to...Read more
There are days when the fact that I'm often so far behind with local authors that I could kick myself, and today is definitely one of those days.
HEAD SHOT is the debut novel for Jarad Henry, with Blood Sunset - his second book to be published by Allen & Unwin in 2008....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
There has been a slowly bubbling sub-genre of crime fiction based in the financial world that seems to have been going on for ages in Australia, and every now and then you'll fall across one of those books - normally in a second hand shop now. I can't remember where I spied BANKRUPTS AND...Read more
One thing that will strike readers of A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE firmly between the eyes is how an apartheid society is so incredibly foreign from the ways in which others of us live. That's not to say that there is an overtly "political" agenda in this book, rather the book does not take a...Read more
Fans of Barry Maitland's Brock & Kolla series have had a wait on their hands. The last book - Spider Trap - was released in 2006, with a standalone book Bright Air in 2007. Leaving aside the eagerness with which we fans wait for the next book in a favourite series, there's also the...Read more
DEAD-END ROAD is third novel Detective Harry Mason novel from South African author Richard Kunzmann - the earlier books are BLOODY HARVESTS and SALAMANDER COTTON. It was the first of this series that I've read, and I'm not sure that was necessarily a wise move.
It's been a...Read more
EDEN PRIME is the second Jonas Blackthorne Action thriller. In the first book, author Andy L Semple gave the politicians something to think about. In this outing he's decided to up the pressure just a tad, and give everybody something to think about.
I think it would be fair...Read more
LINE OF SIGHT by Western Australian based writer David Whish-Wilson, uses the real-life murder of brothel madam Shirley Finn as the basis for his fictional murder of Ruby Devine (hat-tip to Tilly perhaps?)
In the fictional version the facts of Ruby's murder are extremely...Read more
Unbelievably violent, amazingly confrontational, searingly honest and profoundly emotional, ZULU is one of those books that you may have to read through spread fingers, but it is almost impossible to put this book down until it screeches to an ending that will make you shudder....Read more
Jockey McAuley is 15 years old, with no idea what he's going to do with his life, when he somehow or other ends up working for Mr Hardaker at Paton Electrical. His job - well it's odd. It's mostly to shadow Mr Hardaker and watch / listen and remember everything that happens. Somewhere in...Read more
Upside, Neil Cross has written some fantastic recent books. Downside, LUTHER THE CALLING has a connection with a TV series which I've never seen. So interesting to see if a fabulous author has written a fabulous book, regardless of whatever's been going on over on the small screen. ...Read more
A DISSECTION OF MURDER is the first in a series of books from Western Australian author Felicity Young. Set in London at the turn of the twentieth Century, featuring Dr Dody McCleland, the first female autopsy surgeon, the action in this book takes place in the midst of the Suffragette...Read more
BLACKWATER MOON is the second book from Australian author B. Michael Radburn, although this has more of a crime fiction / thriller focus. Atmospheric, emotional, poignant and tightly controlled, both books from Radburn mark him out as an author to be watched.
The story is built...Read more
It really shouldn't work. Even in something as dark and noir styled as EIGHTBALL BOOGIE, there should be limits. Sure, hero's can be wise-cracking, dry, lone wolf investigators, or "Researchers". They can obviously have fraught personal lives, and goodness knows Rigby's personal life - what...Read more
Two novellas, connected by PI Jack Munro, COORPAROO BLUES and THE IRISH FANDANGO are an interesting historical hard-boiled combination of PI, mean streets, fallen women, drinking and the whole nine yards.
The first story, COORPAROO BLUES, introduces Jack, war veteran, ex-cop,...Read more