#JustFinished
Dirty! by Taliyah Stone (snuck this one in because .. well I forgot it was here which was very annoying because I'd been looking forward to it!)
#CurrentlyReading
Parrot Heaven by Jessica Howland Kany (because I loved the first one - A Runner's Guide to Rakiura)
A Plot to Die for by Ardal O'Hanlon (audio version)
#NextUp
She Lied First by Dinuka McKenzie (Netgalley)
De'Ath Takes a Holiday, Shaun Micallef (Library)
Red River Road by Anna Downes (after a massive nudge from somebody whose opinions I value)
A Man Called Box by Tina Clough (2026 Ngaio's)
The Writers Retreat by Victoria Brownlee
The Good Father by Liam McIlvanney (2026 Ngaio's)
The Birds Began to Sing by Jeffrey Buchanan (2026 Ngaio's)
Devil Mountain by Inessa Jackson
The Informant by Christine Gregory
Happy Woman
Gwynne Hogg is an enviable woman – until she discovers her beloved dad is a serial killer.
As her dad’s decades-old secrets finally catch up with him, Gwynne struggles to reconcile the man she trusted most with the crimes he’s accused of. She tries to process it all while keeping the wheels of her ‘normal’ life turning. That means caring for her depressed mum, enduring the stares of other parents on the nursery run, and showing up for clients at her PR firm, all under the relentless gaze of the media.
But as the court case unfolds, Gwynne can’t shake the fear that a murderous gene might live inside her too.
Her thoughts grow darker, her once-happy life unravels, and she begins to wonder what she herself might be capable of …
Happy Woman, Abby Corson
Abby Corson's debut novel THE CONCIERGE was an unusual, and really good, crime fiction outing, that quite possibly came with a bit of insider information, given the author's background in luxury travel and lifestyle writing. Which did kind of give this reader just a moment's pause for thought, because in HAPPY WOMAN the central character, Gwynne Hogg, is dealing with the not inconsiderable fallout from her father's arrest, and subsequent confession to a series of serial killings.
I mean it would put you off your stride just a bit, and there is nothing in this world designed to prepare or guide you through that moment when you discover your much loved father had a secret quite like that. Especially as Hogg's father was a man that she implicitly trusted, one that her mother absolutely adored, and somebody who had been quietly looking after his son. It's not surprising that this family, the 3 of them, and her uncle, as well as her husband, and her young daughter, start to find their well-ordered, and it has to be said, financially very comfortable lives, falling apart - some of it gradually, some of it spectacularly, some of it inexplicably. To say nothing of the seemingly inexplicable worry that Hogg has that there is a murderous gene inside her as well - although her drinking leads to some very worrying experiences in her own small family, enough to send her husband into a spiral of concern for his wife, and his daughter.
Told as a message to her young daughter, Gwynne Hogg had a successful PR company, a beautiful home, a loving relationship and a daughter she adored, until the day, at her parent's meal table, that the police knocked on the door. From there, the spiralling is dramatic, told always from Hogg's point of view, there's controlled desperation in her tone, which makes her an interesting reader / narrator interaction. The spiralling is all the more present, as you're inside her head for most of the struggle, as she finds a way to be the support her mother, in particular, as well as keep her father's transport company going as well as her own business, her daughter's routine intact, her marriage functioning, and her drinking under control. Well that last one's probably more wishful thinking than anything else, as her drinking might just become a bigger issue than that whole "my father is a serial killer" thing.
It's not until the final moments of HAPPY WOMAN that the truth behind some members of the Hogg family's reactions to all of this becomes clear. Until that point, readers are already dealing with some very big "what would I do" questions. What would you do if your father suddenly confessed to being a serial killer, your mother had a gentle but very determined breakdown, your friends and frenemies started backstabbing, your husband started feeling left out, your brother and uncle turned out to be pretty useless, and everything that was solid starts to shift dramatically. What would you do, as a reader, if you've no idea quite how or why or what was going on in this novel, and whether or not you get Gwynne Hogg or not?
Corson's developing a very dab hand at this "in the head of" somebody who may or may not be quite what they seem scenario. In her first novel the concierge Harry told a story from his point of view, in this one Hogg is demonstrating a story from her point of view and in both there seems to be an unnerving capacity to take the gloves off, to seem to be as honest about their individual failings as they want to be - a private internal monologue that most definitely should never have been said out loud.
My summation of the first novel at the time was:
It's often tricky to pull off that sort of close in, self-involved voice, yet THE CONCIERGE does it with just enough doubt to make it very engaging, and dare I say, most unusual crime fiction undertaking.
Turns out Corson can, and has, done all of that again.
Dirty!
Jen is seventeen, traveling under her older sister's identity, and married to a bikie. No one knows her real name. No one knows her real age. And no one suspects what she's capable of.
She has a secret. And that secret has a name.
By October 1983, she's executed the perfect crime.
Not with violence—though she's capable of that too. Not with chaos—though she leaves it in her wake.
The birth certificate says one thing. Biology says another.
The adoption is fraud. The mother is erased.
And everyone who witnesses it believes they're watching an act of mercy.
DIRTY! is the second book in the Bloodline Series—a cold-eyed examination of sociopathy, manipulation, and what happens when monsters wear the mask of mothers.
Dirty!, Taliyah Stone
DIRTY! is the second novella in the Bloodline series, BANG! being the opening salvo. It's a series that might not have to be read in order, but would certainly benefit from doing so - the central characters are the same, the storylines follow on, and the themes are as dark as they could possibly be, with DIRTY! ramping that up just a bit more.
Events in BANG! bought bikie, but bewildered and surprisingly compliant, Toby into contact with Jen. This novella takes Jen's story, in particular, forward, but not in a way you'd expect from the background of murder, bikie gangs, drugs and organised crime. Jen's been using her older sister's identity, as she's underage for most things she's been involved in, including marrying Toby in a quickie ceremony in a small country town, after they both fled Perth in the wake of the murder at the centre of the first story. It's not just Jen's identity that's under question though, she's not at all what she seems - manipulative and cold as ice, she's utterly psychopathic.
Jen grew up in a reasonably normal suburban family in Melbourne. There's no particular reason why they would spawn a daughter quite like her - one who went from stabbing her younger sister repeatedly with a compass, to working her way across Australia in brothels, a wild child with a distinct facility for violence, but a preference for manipulation and control. There's questions about the death of a man in Kalgoorlie where she was working, before she arrived in Perth and set her sights on Toby, an easily manipulated young man, perfect as a foil, and a way into a dangerous lifestyle. Where Jen thrives - a lot more than Toby it has to be said. There's something frighteningly ruthless about Jen though - and when her younger sister falls in love with Toby, and finds herself pregnant to him, Jen's reaction is not what anyone expected.
DIRTY! is a short sharp, and very clear-eyed foray into manipulation and extreme antisocial tendencies with the less expected scenario of a young woman being the case study. Jen is, as the blurb puts it, a monster wearing, eventually, the mask of a mother, and this story really gets into some potentially challenging areas for readers to contemplate. Particularly when you consider there is a third planned outing in this series. The ruthlessness of Jen, with what seems like a complete lack of triggers, reasons, motives, justification for why she behaves as she does is particularly sobering - that whole idea of whether somebody can simply be born evil, or it's down to circumstances / conditioning. It's both fascinating and utterly repellent, presented as it is in these novellas - short, sharp, pointed and as cold and clear as you'd imagine Jen would be if you were unfortunate enough to come across somebody like her in day to day life.
The Ledge
When human remains are discovered in a forest, police are baffled, the locals are shocked and one group of old friends starts to panic. Their long-held secret is about to be uncovered.
It all began in 1999 when sixteen-year-old Aaron ran away from home, drawing his friends into an unforeseeable chain of events that no one escaped from unscathed.
In The Ledge, past and present run breathlessly parallel, leading to a cliff-hanger nobody will see coming. This is a mind-bending new novel from the master of the unexpected.
She Lied First
Sisters make the best flatmates ... except when they are both keeping terrible secrets.
The stunning new standalone psychological thriller from the author of the popular Detective Kate Miles series.
The dream apartment. The start of a grand adventure. And two lives that are about to unravel.
Devika is living her best life, moving out of home in her final year of university. Close to the beach and away from her mother. Independent and self-sufficient, just like Kalyani. There's just one awful secret that Kal can never find out about.
Kalyani has it made. A new job. A unit she can afford, and her little sister as her roomie. She's finally achieved the life she's always wanted. Except for the one big thing she's yet to confide in Devi. A truth that gets harder to reveal the longer she waits.
When their lives are torn apart by betrayal, and Kal refuses to forgive her sister, Devi must peel back everything she thought she knew to rediscover Kalyani, lie by lie and secret by secret.
Parrot Heaven
BDTH! The Foveaux Fisherman Facebook page posts this acronym to advise Rakiura Stewart Islanders to ‘batten down the hatches’ before severe weather events.
New Zealand’s southernmost librarian Maudie Sanderson reckons this warning could be applied to her life in general these days.
Haunted by a parrot and falsely accused of soliciting d**k pics, Maudie navigates a minefield of rabbit holes and mental health crises as she struggles to be a fit and proper person in a pandemic-hungover world. Sidelined by buggered knees, the avid runner needs projects to maintain sanity.
Island life keeps her busy. Maudie is drawn into an axe cult, scraps with the preschool teacher, discusses The Epic of Gilgamesh in a jailhouse book club, and mis-manages a community astronomy course. When a shocking crime wreaks havoc on her family, she dons her deerstalker cap and dives into the investigation.
All the while, Maudie feels a growing kinship with the ancient desert king Gilgamesh, as the words from 5,000-year-old clay tablets guide her through life’s myriad of mysteries.
Red River Road
On the Coral Coast of Western Australia, solo traveller Katy is on a mission to find her free-spirited sister, Phoebe, who disappeared along the same route a year ago. But as she drives her campervan further into the wild north, Katy realises she's not as alone as she'd first believed. Soon she is pulled into a complicated web of secrets, lies, myths and stories that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her sister.
In this nerve-shredding outback thriller, our obsessions with freedom and beauty collide with our fear of what lies in the wilderness, and the truth behind Phoebe's disappearance proves stranger and darker than Katy could ever have guessed...
A Man Called Box
Sam thought the worst part of living alone was the loneliness. She was wrong.
When a hunted man arrives on her doorstep late one night and asks for sanctuary, she agrees to hide him and to not call the police. The mention of a cabal of corruption is enough to convince her to do what he asks.
A decision based on compassion, which will soon change her life, force her to abandon everything and flee to avoid being killed.
But hiding and leading a lonely, anonymous life locks Sam into a situation she cannot resolve.
Thomas, searching for his long lost sister, finds a fugitive living alone in the mountains. Two stubborn people surrounded by danger and distrust, in a situation where one misstep will get them killed.
Who can you turn to if even police can’t be trusted? And who is the man called Box?
The Writers Retreat
A wickedly twisty and atmospheric thriller set at a writers' retreat in the South of France, The Writers Retreat is Knives Out meets Anna Downes’ The Safe Place from an exciting new voice in the thriller/mystery space.
Welcome to The Writers Retreat – a creative haven for writers to hone their plotlines and sharpen their characters while soaking up the Provençal atmosphere. But this year’s retreat offers something different, as real-life blurs with fiction, and suspense isn't contained to the page.
Kat Hale is a bestselling Australian author crumbling under the pressure of writing her second novel. On a whim, she has fled to a writers retreat in the South of France run by internationally acclaimed author Helen Thorne. What Kat hopes will be two blissfully uninterrupted weeks to focus on her writing in anonymity quickly turns into something more sinister, when Kat begins to suspect that Helen isn't quite as perfect as everyone seems to believe.
Will Kat’s drive to uncover the truth about Helen be any match for Helen’s desire to hold onto her career, her reputation and her writing retreat, or is Kat at risk of falling victim to a more dangerous climax?
The Good Father
Gordon and Sarah Rutherford are normal, happy people with rich, fulfilling lives. They have a son they adore, a house on the beach and a safe, friendly community in a picture-postcard town.
Until, one day, Bonnie the labrador comes in from the beach alone. Their son, Rory, has gone - the only trace left behind is a single black sandal.
Their lives don't fall apart immediately. While there's still hope, they dig deep and try to carry on.
But as desperation mounts, arms around shoulders become fingers pointed - at friends, family, strangers, each other. Without any answers, only questions remain. Who can they trust? How far will they go to find out what happened to Rory?
And the deadliest question of what could be worse than your child disappearing?
When the truth begins to emerge, they find themselves in a world they could barely have imagined.
The Birds Began to Sing
In the harbour city of New Plymouth in the 1960s there’s a fizz of seedy sexuality beneath a veneer of respectability. Godfrey’s world is the Balmoral Hotel his parents own, where visiting sailors drink and local fringe-dwellers congregate.
When Reggie, the openly gay barman, goes missing Godfrey senses something sinister. There’s a prevailing attitude of inevitability. Godfrey doesn’t get it, but he’s hungry to understand. Guided by his daytime-television and pulp-fiction detective heroes and a very active imagination, he attempts to solve the mystery—in the process stumbling into his own sexual adventures and discovering a new-found power in a perplexing adult world.
Out on the Ice
One brief but tragic moment out on a frozen Reykjavík lake changes Sóley’s life forever. Now, looking back on the last twenty-three years of her life, she attempts to make sense of it all. The tears, the pain and the lives lost along the way.
No one ever told her bringing up a son all on her own would be easy but not in her wildest dreams did she imagine it might be so hard.
Together Jakob and her have walked alone through the worst that Iceland could throw at them and now she’s here to tell you her tale.
Donkey Drop
It's 1999. Joel likes suburban life just fine: dole cheques rolling in, hanging out with his best mate, and the future comfortably on hold.
That is, until he lands a job at a smash repair shop.
Under the wing of a charismatic car thief, he learns panel beating, discovers pride in his work, and enters a world of responsibility, risk, and unspoken rules.
When a reckless decision involving a stolen car goes wrong, Joel is left with guilt he can’t outrun.
As pressure from work and the people he has begun to care about closes in, he is forced to confront the cost of loyalty and the uneasy truth about the person he is becoming.
Donkey Drop is a gritty Australian coming-of-age novel about friendship, consequences, and the choices that stay with us long after they’re made.
Lit
What would you do if someone you knew came back from the dead?
Gin is an architect on the brink. LIT, the Auckland-based practice she shares with her girlfriend, Clary, has been precarious since their third partner – Clary’s ex, Billy – disappeared, presumed dead.
Now, several years later, LIT’s financial problems and Gin’s personal debts are snowballing. Clary – emotionally fragile since the disappearance – is growing increasingly remote and elusive. When Gin begins to be haunted by glimpses of Billy, she blames stress and guilt. But could he be back, threatening to expose the past?
Trapped in a web of secrecy and betrayal, Gin’s downward spiral gathers force as she begins to suspect her paranoia hides an even more shocking truth – one that will send her whole life up in flames.
This stunning debut literary-suspense novel from award-winning writer Anna Woods explores the insidious charm of those who gaslight us, and examines the blurry line between love and control.
Devil Mountain
A wickedly dark police procedural with a hint of the supernatural, this crime novel is Dinuka McKenzie meets The Bluffs.
When Detective Sergeant Anastasia Brown is sent to investigate a grizzly murder in a small NSW town, she welcomes the chance to run from heartbreak and humiliation. But she quickly discovers that this is no ordinary murder. A popular doctor's body has been found on the mountain, chained and burned, with arcane symbols carved into the soles of his feet - and the boy who found him swears he saw a ghost lingering in the trees.
Is this a clever killer with a flair for the macabre? Or the work of an elusive Wiccan coven that worships on the mountain? Or, even stranger, are the local murmurs of the mountain being haunted more than just folklore??
As the investigation grows ever murkier, Ana realises that everyone in town has a secret… and some are deadly.
The Informant
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ...
The town of Hopeville is thrown into chaos when the body of Silas Ziccone, president of the notorious bikie gang the Outcasts,is found next to his abandoned car on a dirt road. Evidence suggests Silas was not alone when he was murdered, but there are no witnesses and the locals aren’t talking. When Silas’s son Anton steps into his role determined to get revenge on those responsible police fear an all-out bikie war.
Journalist Lars Nilsson is writing a book on outlaw motorcycle clubs and is sent by his former editor to cover the story. Police warn Lars to stay away, but undeterred he pursues a lead that takes him into the centre of the gang rivalry.
With debts to pay and a teenage son to raise alone, all Silas’s girlfriend Ashley wants is to escape to Western Australia and start afresh but Anton is keeping her close. There’s one person who may be able to help her get out but when your whole life’s a lie, how do you know who’s telling the truth?
The Informant is a simmering crime thriller that gives a window into the world of outlaw motorcycle gangs, organised crime and police corruption that will keep readers gripped until the heart-stopping end.
A Plot to Die For
The first in a mystery series from the much-loved Irish actor, writer and comedian, for readers who enjoy the warmth of Graham Norton and the mystery of Death in Paradise , all wrapped up in one small Irish town.
When beloved celebrity gardener Finn O’Leary returns to his hometown of Abbeyford in Ireland to care for his aging mother, he is naturally roped into the Tidy Towns committee.
The Tidy Towns is a competition fanatically fought over by every town and village in the land. And for his best friend’s sister, Aoife, it’s a competition she’s determined to win. With everyone’s favourite gardener on board, she is sure that this year Abbeyford will take home the prize. But Finn’s not been back long when an alto-baritone at his mother’s choir practice drops dead during a rendition of ‘What the World Needs Now’.
With more at stake than just winning Tidy Towns, Finn soon finds himself trying to solve a murder – or two. For one of his many qualities is that people tend to confide in him…
With his mother, her carer and Aoife in tow, Finn sets out to discover just who has brought murder to Abbeyford.
De'Ath Takes a Holiday
‘If I wasn’t dead, I would sue.’—Bram Stoker
This is the origin story of the first real vampyre (not Dracula).
The trouble with immortality is that eventually you get sick to death of it, and so to soothe his sickened soul, the Comte De’Ath decides to take a trip. From psychoanalysis in Vienna to blood transfusions in London, the Comte learns that a holiday is as good as a change. On the way, he meets the Queen, brings her husband back to life, helps win the Second Matabele War, matches wits with the Elephant Man, inspires Henry Ford to pursue the American Dream, almost solves the crisis in the Middle East and even falls in love. Will he become mortal again in time for his funeral in Carfax Abbey? Ah – but what a fine book this would be if we gave away the end of the story in the blurb.
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