Sorted on book title (not in series order)
A seemingly foolproof plan to make some quick money turns into a race for their lives…
It’s the mid-nineties and methamphetamine casts its shadow over the Californian city of Santa Lucía. Nathan, happy running a small marijuana grow operation with his two best...Read more
There's a quote on the blurb for this book which goes:
Guy Ritchie meets Elmore Leonard – this is a fast-paced humorous crime thriller with splashes of dark and sinister
Which is where I could leave this review because it sums it...Read more
When Adam hears that his brother Theo is dead, fallen overboard from his fishing vessel and washed ashore on the Bounty Islands, he knows something isn't right. Adam joins forces with Theo's girlfriend, Emma, and what begins as a quest for answers quickly becomes a dive into an icy current...Read more
Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards.Read more
One of the very best things about reading the entrants in the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards is just how varied a bunch of books they were. BIRNAM WOOD is a eco-thriller, set on New Zealand's South Island, serving up a hefty dose of challenges for the reader to be going on with.
The...Read more
The novel is set largely on Waiheke Island, off the coast of Auckland City, Aotearoa New Zealand. The central character is a man with a secret past, who interrupts a home invasion and becomes embroiled in a series of events which lead to his prosecution for multiple murders.
He...Read more
Two eyes bore into him from across the room. They're not her eyes. They're the same colour and shape, but they're not her eyes.
'I see you.'
Silas didn't have a happy childhood. Aunt Bunny made sure of that. But out of money and almost...Read more
BUNNY is written by S.E. Tolsen, a husband and wife writing team, who won Best Horror Novel of 2023 in the Australian Aurealis Awards, making it to the longlist for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh awards based on it's thriller categorisation.
A combination of a straight up thriller, with...Read more
A heart-wrenching story about Sam, a 14-year-old girl from a struggling homeless family, who is already involved in petty crime. She must face her own fears and her sense of what is right, to defy a dangerous drug criminal, and rescue starving dogs and their pups from an inhumane backyard...Read more
An isolated, empty ski resort in the off-season. A woman who doesn't want to be found. A man who may not be who he appears to be. A game of cat and mouse - with deadly consequences.Read more
Gabriel Bergmoser's one of those author's that is building a back catalogue of creepy, tense thrillers full of interesting psychological analysis and, frankly, disturbing scenarios. Which is exactly what you're given in THE CARETAKER.
Charlotte is on the run from a controlling...Read more
t’s not just a rippling ‘scam’ job. Has Australia been infiltrated at levels they’ve never known?
Elaina Williams uses a Cobra Pose in her Yoga studio to boost her energy – she will need it! Elaina’s father, Edward, is in trouble. He’s disappeared.
As a solicitor...Read more
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In the best traditions of the murder mystery genre, The Death of Father Ryan has all the twists and turns of a page turning whodunnit.
There is the usual gallery of engaging characters we have come to expect from this author. Be it the hasty Police investigator, the diligent...Read more
Populist political parties are increasing their influence across the world. It couldn’t happen in New Zealand, could it?
Journalist Grace Marks is investigating two unrelated stories – New Zealand’s alt-right, and the emergence of a new organisation, ProtectNZ. When she finds ‘...Read more
I've always been better with plants than people . . .
Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule...Read more
Devil’s Breath is the first novel in a new crime series built around a neurodivergent professor of botanical toxicology, Eustacia Rose.
Eustacia Rose is currently ‘separated’ from her position at a university, disgraced after an...Read more
A compelling courtroom drama, Dice is an incredibly timely exploration of how sexual violence is viewed in our society.
Four teenage boys invent a sex game based on rolling dice and doing what the numbers say.
They are charged with multiple sexual offences against...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
Frank Winter is an ex-cop, a former hard-boiled Boston detective with a soft centre living in curmudgeonly retirement with his beloved dog, Dolly. But when his daughter's killer is released on parole, Frank's back, a man on a mission, and it's yesterday once more. But first, Frank's got a...Read more
Stef Harris is an award winning indie filmmaker and policeman in his native New Zealand, so it's probably not surprising that he's had a bit on, making it longer than I can remember since his earlier releases. DOUBLE JEOPARDY is worth the wait though, as a good solid crime fiction thriller...Read more
Regardless of why struggling actor Lou Galloway upped sticks from Los Angeles landing in Mexico, going from attending yet another audition in which he didn't get the job to sitting around in bars with cheap mezcal and no demands, the last thing he expected was to end up at the wedding of...Read more
A seasoned police detective and a dog with a nose for crime. One dead body. Twelve suspects.
Sydney, Australia, 1933 : Wealthy impresario and amateur Egyptologist Roland Cuthbert Barry is murdered on his 60th birthday, and everyone attending the evening’s celebrations is a...Read more
It's going to come as no surprise to any readers of EVERYTHING TO HIDE, that author K.V. Martins is a fan of historical crime fiction, in particular, the work of Dame Agatha Christie. It should also come as no surprise that she has a background in history and archaeology.
This...Read more
A killer targeting pregnant women.
A detective expecting her first baby…
The shocking murder of a heavily pregnant woman throws the New Zealand city of Dunedin into a tailspin, and the devastating crime feels uncomfortably close to home for Detective Sam Shephard...Read more
The 5th novel in the Sam Shepherd series set in Dunedin, New Zealand, EXPECTANT is the latest work from Vanda Symon, the author Val McDermid refers to as "New Zealand's modern Queen of Crime" (fiction one hastens to add).
Sam Shepherd is an experienced, tough, up for anything...Read more
When brilliant but emotionally-tortured New York journalist Bec Corelli learns her father has died mysteriously on vacation in India, she walks out on her job and heads to Delhi. Pharmaceutical CEO Ernst Reiniger, facing ruin over a failed drug, has hatched a chilling plan to save his 300-...Read more
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Following on from 'A Kind of Catharsis' and 'The Push', this book is the end of the trilogy when justice finally prevails. The main character with a new sidekick continue their drug dealing murderous ways until finally their past catches up with them.Read more
A stalker that will stop at nothing to get what he wants.
Sometimes, lying is easier than telling the truth, but it can lead down a dangerous road.
Terrance Tiller is on a quest to prove Mark Wentworth's innocence. He thinks he knows who framed Mark for the...Read more
Inside every person you think you know, there is someone you dont know. Contemporary crime thriller set in the grimy tangled innercity laneways in Melbourne.
In a grimy graffiti covered recess a woman is found stabbed and strangled. "why would anyone want to kill her, she was...Read more
The follow on from FOR REASONS OF THEIR OWN, GLASGOW SMILE is set (the title relates to something specific in the surroundings), in Melbourne, where the discovery of a woman's body stabbed and strangled late at night in the graffitied and dark tangled laneways of the innercity sets off a...Read more