Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Given the juxtaposition of this review, and my recent one for THE STONING, I probably should mention that Aoife Clifford was the author I was discussing rural noir versus rural crime with. To my eye, Clifford is one of the great writers of rural crime in Australia at the moment, and she's...Read more
What would you do if your teenage sister just simply disappeared when you were a little girl. And then reappeared at about the same time as your mother's estate was to be distributed?
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Wendy James explores what Susan and Ed Middleton do when Susan's long...Read more
You hear these rumours, and they can panic a person. "Christopher Brookmyre has gone straight with his latest book." I was twitchy. How could he (either to his readers or to himself)? Surely the man cannot possibly have lost his acute sense of the bizarre, his sly, dry and clever sense...Read more
"Professor Liam McIlvanney, the son of novelist William McIlvanney, was born in Kilmarnock in Ayrshire, and studied at Glasgow and Oxford Universities. After ten years lecturing in Scottish and Irish literature at the University of Aberdeen, he moved to Dunedin in New
...Read more
No idea whatsoever how or why, but WHERE THE DEVIL CAN'T GO by Anya Lipska wafted into my somewhat dodgy attention span recently, and I started reading it immediately. As in read the sample, bought the ebook and read it as soon as it downloaded.
Sometimes the universe is very...Read more
Shortlisted for the Unpublished Manuscript Award in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Karina Kilmore’s debut has got a lot of Australian crime fiction fans talking.
She was slipping away. The further she fell, the closer the
...Read more
WHISKY FROM SMALL GLASSES is the first in the DI Jim Daley (yes he does go to the gym daily) and DS Brian Scott series, which I've started listening to, as opposed to reading, and very fine listening it is. Narrated by David Monteath, the series is now up to book 6.
Starting...Read more
You sometimes just have to wonder about the bravery of the people who select the blurbs for the front of books. THE WHISPERER, debut book by Italian author Donato Carrisi, comes with the attribution "The most eagerly awaited thriller in the world? It is written by an unknown Italian' Il...Read more
Put a book with Garry Disher's name on the cover down on the table at our place and there's bound to be a bit of sighing from certain quarters. Fair enough, it normally means that all forms of communication will cease until the book is finished. Whilst I will admit a slight preference for...Read more
Book Five now in the Reggie da Costa series of historical crime fiction set in and around Melbourne (with some trips to Geelong incorporated in this one), THE WHITE FEATHER MURDERS really has cemented these novels as a favourite in these parts.
If you're new to the series, it...Read more
It's an absolute given that one of the great strengths of crime / thriller fiction is the way that it gets into issues from the time and place in which it is set and WHITE GOLD is no exception. There's an increasing number of these sorts of books, looking at things from an environmental and...Read more
What more effective tool of terror is there than your own high school reunion looming on the horizon to make you take a long hard look at how far you’ve come – or not? Who We Were drags the past of a group of thirty somethings back into the present as the prospect of being again in the...Read more
WHY NEVILLE SHOT GUS is a novella with author foreword and afterword, from Tasmanian based author, David Owen, best known for his series of crime fiction novels featuring DI 'Pufferfish' Franz Heineken.
The foreword explains how this project came to be:
...Read more
Having just loved WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? when I read it last year, I was really pleased to find this collection of short stories by Wendy James. Whilst not crime fiction,...Read more
Second novels are tricky beasts loaded with expectations, particularly when they come on the heels of recent stellar debuts. Australian author Christian White has written another confidently executed work of family drama and generational intrigue that will take up a just a few hours of...Read more
"Sure thirty years is a long time. Sure the case was closed. Well, never really a case as such. Fifteen-year-old brown girl tops herself, who cares? Turn the page. That bloody notebook, thought Club. God knows what was in it. Who knew that little bitch could even write?"
Ruby...Read more
One foggy morning on the banks of the Murray River, a body is found in a burnt-out area of grassland. The heavily tattooed victim, who has suffered two bullet wounds to the head, is identified as Freddie Jones, a bikie from Moama.
Detective Sergeant Zoe Mayer is on the case,...Read more
The author of THE WILD CARD, Renee, is a much loved and prolific writer of novels, memoir, poetry and plays in her native New Zealand. She won the NZ Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in 2018, following which she wrote this, her first crime novel, at the age of 90....Read more
Will confess to being more than a bit pleased when WILD CARD, the second DS Zoe Mayer (and her service dog Harry) novel arrived. The initial outing - THE LONG GAME - had all the hallmarks of a long, and good series in the making, and the follow-up does nothing to dispel that belief....Read more
Detective Inspector Karen Hornby returns in this second thrilling novel from international bestselling author, Maria Adolfsson.
One terrible truth will create a perfect storm.
While her colleagues enjoy the seasonal festivities, DI Karen Hornby is called to...Read more
In 2016 the unpublished manuscript of Wimmera won the UK Crime Writers’ Association debut dagger – now it’s published and we can see why. Reviewed at ...Read more
Many years ago there was a specialist bookshop tucked away in Auburn Road, Hawthorn run by a crime fiction expert and massive enabler (I think his name was Malcolm Campbell). He was one of those real-life people that made me thankful I'd made the trek from the bush to the big city, and...Read more
The 11th Montalbano book this is a series that I'm tragically reading out of order, behind the publication dates and sadly not often enough.
Of course fans know about the food, and the scenery, and the grumpiness of Montalbano. Combine that with the vague lunacy of the members...Read more
WINK MURDER is the debut book from ex-journalist and sub-editor Ali Knight. Given that the book is set within the cut-throat and odd world of tabloid television, perhaps her background has informed the way that the world of the media (albeit she worked in print) works.
There...Read more
I cannot believe, firstly that I've left the last two books in this series unread for so long, and secondly I'd be daft enough to read the third, THE WINTER OF THE LIONS out of order. Not that it made a lot of difference to the experience. It's hard to use the word enjoyable when you're...Read more
Familial love, tension, friendship and interconnections are all part of Laurence Fearnley's novel WINTER TIME, set in New Zealand's MacKenzie Basin, a location which absolutely stars in this story. A place in which breath frosts, mists are all encompassing, peaks are starkly white, snow...Read more
I used to keep count of "girl in a hat" (and man standing on a foggy street corner) book covers. But in this case, you know the sort of thing, book covers for rural / romance styled novels with girls looking off into the distance, over fields of golden (dry) grass, akubra style hat firmly...Read more
In Adrian Hyland’s latest crime novel, Jesse Redpath is back, stationed in a new town during a time of stormy weather.
The much anticipated follow-up to Canticle Creek, The Wiregrass is set in the temperate rainforest area of Victoria in the fictional...Read more
There's something profound and slightly unsettling about how much the idea of killing off politicians appeals. At least for a reason like this one. Let's face it - there's probably very few of us that haven't longed for something similar - if not actual death - than at least a tad painful...Read more
This will be a lukewarm review, although I can't entirely put my finger on why. It wasn't a bad book but I think it has some genre identity issues. It is touted as an action thriller, but there's too much of the "thriller" getting in the way of the action, and there's too much explained...Read more