Sorted on book title (not in series order)
We've got this little dog... Jedda is a 3 year old Australian terrier female. She's short, red-golden haired, extremely independent, determined to the point of obsession, friendly but can switch quickly into extreme bolshie and she is absolutely and utterly incapable of stepping away from...Read more
Paul Cleave is an absolute master of the art of the expected unexpected, especially when Theodore Tate pops up. On the expected front you know that things are going to get messy weird, and you know that Tate is going to go out of his way to try to do right by victims, regardless of the...Read more
Horror isn't a sub-genre I spend a lot of time reading, so PAINTED, being a mystery with a horror overlay, wasn't a book that came with much in the way of preconceptions or expectations. The premise is that when an extremely reclusive artist instructs a law firm on the manner in which is...Read more
Finn Bell made quite an impact on the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards with two shortlistings - his first novel DEAD LEMONS in Best First Novel, and PANCAKE MONEY in Best Crime Novel. Grouped together as The Far South Series, these aren't series books as such, so you can read them in...Read more
Because I'd read (and loved) A RUNNERS GUIDE TO RAKIURA by Jessica Howland Kany first I was prepared for PARROT HEAVEN. Which was handy because the slightly chaotic styling of the first novel is ramped up even more in...Read more
A vengeance styled thriller, set in Asia, PAYBACK tackles sex-trafficking and child abuse head on. Opening with the recounting of a young village girl being trucked off to the south of the country, along with many others, to be forced into a child sex ring. The resourcefulness this young...Read more
Book 13 in the Hana Du Rose Mysteries series and boy oh boy do I wish I'd read at least one of the earlier novels as I really struggled to work out what and who and how and why coming in at this point. Young Adult series that moves around the extended Du Rose family as far as I could tell,...Read more
Well this is surprising, and a testament to the power of a bit of a tidy up sometimes, because in the process of doing so I discovered I'd not published these notes ... a long time ago. Apologies to the author - this is a series of four books set in Iceland, from Kiwi Author Grant Nicol....Read more
PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB comes with a wonderfully evocative sense of place and people, delivered with an affectionate comic touch. There's something reminiscient in here of lots of these styles of novels set in developing nations, where the people in positions of power and leadership are over...Read more
This is now the second book by NZ author David McGill that I've read, both of which share a central detecting character, and a style being a combination of true history and crime fiction. The first novel, THE DEATH RAY DEBACLE was set in 1935, and this one, THE PLOT TO KILL PETER FRASER, is...Read more
Set in New Zealand, written by an Australian author, POISON BAY by Belinda Pollard is one of those novels that you just can’t help but wonder what tourism authorities reaction would be...
Located in one of New Zealand’s most rugged and beautiful locations - Fiordland - the...Read more
I was very intrigued by the idea behind Brisbane journalist Belinda Pollard's debut novel - a 'who's the unknown killer in the group' adventure thriller set in one of New Zealand's most ruggedly gorgeous national parks: Fiordland. A sort of And Then There Were None in the heart of...Read more
Not being at all adverse to a big suspenseful thriller I was more than pleased to get my hands on a copy of NZ author Steve Malley's book POISON DOOR.
Even more pleased that I didn't dither around like I'm wont to do and sat down and read it. There's an awful lot to like about...Read more
POKER CHIPS AND POISON is the first novel in what's intended to be a series set around 97-year-old Alice Atkinson, resident of Silvermoon Retirement Village, and cunning sleuth. Anybody who has read this author's Hitchhiker series may remember a cameo from Alice, but in this story she's...Read more
The promotional material pushes the connection, and it's hard not to get a vibe of THE SLAP from the blurb of this one - young families, a tragedy at a bbq that implodes relationships, crumbles friendships and all, but fear not if you're feeling like this is another commentary on parenting...Read more
Written by New Zealand based author Cat Connor, PSYCHOBYTE is book 8 in the Byte series based around FBI Agent Ellie Conway. Reading this series has always been a mixed experience for this reader - sometimes I find myself really enjoying them, sometimes I'm just not getting it at all. ...Read more
PUZZLE ME DEAD is the story of Careen Tamley, a survivor of the Clown Killer. On her nineteenth birthday, she survived a terrifying assault by a still unidentified serial killer, eleven other girls were not so lucky. Each murder scene included a card, numbered two to twelve. Careen moved on...Read more
Seeing something you shouldn't have makes life on the margins a whole lot scarier.
Ranger Cal Nyx works alone in the vast NSW bushland reserves but is pulled away from the quiet and solitude by a coded message that only one other person could understand.
Dif, the...Read more
THE QUARRY is now the second novel in a series featuring NSW ranger Cal Nyx. If you're new to these, it's a series that's going to be well worth following. There's no immediate requirement to read the earlier book first (THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD), although it will give you a slightly fuller...Read more
QUBYTE is the 10th in the "Byte" series from NZ Author Cat Connor, featuring FBI Agent Ellie Iverson. A series that probably would be best read in order, and is definitely one for readers who enjoy a spot of supernatural goings on with their crime fiction.
This is a series that...Read more
A slow burn psychological thriller, QUIET IN HER BONES is beautifully executed with a pace that seems to stroll along, focusing mostly on a range of characters that stand out from the page.
Socialite Nina Rai vanished ten years ago, along with a quarter of a million dollars in...Read more
Hands up those of us raised on a reading diet of Trixie Belden and the Famous Five, who sneakily always wondered why nothing "interesting" ever happened at home. RAIN FALL is a young adult novel set in rural, green, lush New Zealand, in a place that did seem strikingly similar to the green...Read more
From the Blurb: Marius Valstar doesn’t know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk.
The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the...Read more
Des Hunt was a science and technology teacher for many years, interspersed with periods of curriculum development both in New Zealand and overseas, and he's an author that seems need little or no introduction to readers in his native land. RED EDGE is, however, the first of his books I've...Read more
Historical crime fiction with a political basis, Jonothan Cullinane's RED HERRING is set in 1950's Auckland during a time of confrontation between workers and the government. Based on the waterfront it's fascinating how this sort of pitched battle resonates in difficult places, across...Read more
I'm not going to pretend for a moment that I've the slightest idea what's going on with the Inspector Giovanni 'Rex' Matsuko series, of which The Reluctant Gunmen is book number 5 (and I've read a couple of the earlier ones as well).
I'm not even sure I can describe them,...Read more
Despite these two books being part of a series called "The Retired Assassins Guide", these are cosy crime, with some surprising twists.
Particularly when you consider that Dante has come to a small coastal town in New Zealand to forget his past career and the large number of...Read more
Following on from INTO THE VOID, RETRIBUTION continues to feature DSS Archie Baldrick and DC Ben Travers - in this outing, investigating the death of a very mysterious woman indeed. After Lucy is found dead on the beach, finding out who she is, or anything about her is the most tricky part...Read more
Following on from the excellent first novel in this series, BETTER THE BLOOD, RETURN TO BLOOD is centred, once again, around Hana Westerman. Only now she has turned in her police badge, abandoning a career as a detective in the Auckland CIB, she's returned to her hometown of Tātā Bay to do some running repairs.Read more
REVEALED IN MIST is weighted heavily on the romance side, with a tendency towards a showy style of descriptive text to reinforce the period setting. Possibly one for fans of historical romance as opposed to crime fiction, and definitely not for those who like their crime front and centre of...Read more