Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Honkaku is a subgenre of Japanese Crime Fiction that came into being sometime in the early 1920's. The original definition was "a detective story that mainly focuses on the process of a criminal investigation and values the entertainment derived from pure logical reasoning". The term was...Read more
Obviously when you're a young ex-con you would restart your life outside using the skills that you learnt in jail. It made enormous sense that young ex-con Brendan Lavin would start a bakery under those circumstances. It also made sense that because the bakery is struggling to survive he'd...Read more
Too Easy continues an absolutely terrific series that falls on the noirish side of comic farce. Full Review at: Newtown Review of BooksRead more
Set in 1951, Indochina, TOO FAR FROM ANTIBES is the story of Jean-Luc Guéry and his quest to find the truth behind his brother Oliver's murder. An avid reader of detective fiction, Guéry has a very firm picture of how investigations should proceed, although the likelihood of him being able...Read more
Little housework first - Melissa Chan is a pseudonym for Dr Jocelynne Scutt, Australian feminist lawyer, writer and commentator. TOO RICH was published in 1991 by Spinifex Press, and I distinctly remember when reading it originally at the time of publication, feeling somewhat "cause...Read more
You can probably imagine the reaction - firstly the blurb "oh no, extreme dislike segueing into romantic tension AGAIN". The front of the book - Stalker. Arsonist. Killer. "deep groaning". The opening lines where a young homeless girl is dying - not caring what happens to her if her much...Read more
It couldn't ever be said that the loss of his Private Investigator's licence has slowed Cliff Hardy down. In TORN APART, the death of his look-alike cousin in Cliff's house, an arrest for importing illegal drugs, a trip to Ireland, a gathering of Irish Traveller descendants, a brush with...Read more
This is the second book translated from this author and it starts out with a torso in a bag being found on a beach in Sweden. The only clue to the identify of the body is a tattoo, and the body, as well as dismembered, has been horribly mutilated.
This crime is soon connected...Read more
1973, from art school to shared housing in run-down Leeds, and Jude (aka Toto) is a chaotic, wild child, living a reckless, slightly crazy life, thoroughly enjoying her youth, blissfully unconnected with the news of random attacks on woman that keep showing up on the news.
What...Read more
In an interesting twist THE TOWER is the first crime novel from former publisher, journalist turned author Michael Duffy. Set in Sydney, the book will introduce readers to two Sydney police characters, the young Detective Senior Constable Nicholas Troy and the older Detective Sergeant Jon...Read more
There have been a number of Australian crime fiction books recently that are tackling the effects of poverty / deprivation / loss and family breakdown in small towns, on small boys in particular. A TOWN CALLED TREACHERY is following, successfully, in the footsteps of authors like Mark...Read more
Jane McDonald has been working as a contract tracer in Sydney's western suburbs, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Contact tracers get used to working with a huge range of people and they expect to patiently work through all sorts of issues, making sure that everyone keeps themselves, and the...Read more
There are a precious few Paddy Richardson books tucked within the stacks of unread novels around here - sort of like secreted Easter eggs, to be unearthed and devoured when required. Needing something that would be reliably good recently, TRACES OF RED was just the thing as Paddy Richardson...Read more
THE TRAIN RIDER is book three featuring Darian Richards - ex-cop, now vigilante walking a very fine line between right and wrong. He's also a violent, psychotic killer magnet.
In this case, THE TRAIN RIDER is the name of the book and the serial rapist and killer who Richards...Read more
A murder in the quiet English village of Chippingholt is only the first in a series of trials that will shape the lives of Brenda Scarse and her lover Harold Burton. Who is the mysterious stranger, so closely resembling Brenda's father, who was seen near the scene of the crime? And why does...Read more
In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.’
Winston Churchill
There are some writers who you’d like to read but just never seem to get around to. Until I’d read Transcription, in my case Kate...Read more
Having been a fan of the Halifax TV Series, starring Rebecca Gibney as Dr Jane Halifax, this book was greeted with considerable excitement. The author, Roger Simpson, is an award-winning screen writer, creating both the telemovie series of Halifax f.p. (which ran from 1994 to 2001) and its...Read more
Living on the edge of the Pyrenees (the ones in Victoria, Australia), surrounded as we are by wineries and winemakers, it's was a rather interesting experience to find myself reading TREACHERY IN BORDEAUX which is steeped in wine-making tradition, methodology, and a dash of intrigue....Read more
The TRESPASSERS CLUB is a great little book for young kids - probably around the 10-13 age group (she says desperately trying to sound like she'd know). It's a combination of action and adventure, with a really strong lead female character in Laura, and an extremely believable plot about a...Read more
The media release that came with John Byron's debut thriller opens with the following:
"Meticulously researched, hugely ambitious and superbly crafted THE TRIBUTE is the most original thriller of 2021 and heralds John Byron as a formidable new player in
...Read more
I think it's only fair that I warn you to stand by for some slightly enthusiastic reviews. I've had one of those outstanding periods of reading where there have just been some fabulous books and TRICK OF THE DARK is one of them.
In this book of masterful storytelling by Val...Read more
Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she...Read more
Set in Wellington New Zealand, Jennifer Mortimer's book TRILEMMA brings her main character - Linnet Mere to a new city in search of lost family connections and love.
Setting this character up with a completely new start gives Mortimer a chance to put her narrator at a loss on...Read more
It's always interesting to see what might get a writer's thinking process started, and from the MM Rochford's bio it seems it's a love of reading crime and thrillers, and opera. Knowing that, the victim in this debut novel makes sense. It's also good to see an author having a go at a PI in...Read more
Brilliantly constructed for the upper age range of YA readers, A TRIO OF SOPHIES reads like a perfect tale for teenagers - female and male. Engaging and cleverly plotted, there's a depth to the characterisations and the manner in which some very current day issues are explored....Read more
THE TROIKA DOLLS is the first novel from new Australian Writer Miranda Darling, and it's a really really interesting debut for a number of reasons.
Stevie Duveen is (according to the blurb) "A new kind of heroine for a new kind of world". To be honest I'm not sure I know what...Read more
TROPIC OF DEATH is the second book by Australian journalist, author Robert Sims, featuring Detective Rita Van Hassel, Criminal Profiler.
Criminal Profiling isn't overly common in Australian Police Forces, and Rita is one of the first in Melbourne in TROPIC OF DEATH. ...Read more
A bit of housekeeping up front. A TROPICAL CURE is the second book from John Hollenkamp to feature cab driver Darren Mangan, following on from STEALTH. That to be honest, I really should have read first up because it took some serious concentrating to figure out what was going on here....Read more
Shortlisted for the 2018 CWA Debut Daggar, TRUST ME, I'M DEAD, is the first crime novel from New Zealand born, Australian resident writer Sherryl Clark, best known for her children's writing, although I understand there's now a sequel to this novel planned for this year. Any possible sequel...Read more