Sorted on book title (not in series order)
An interesting idea that takes off from page one, involving a talk back radio host. Tongue in cheek in style, there's an unlikeable central character and a tell don't show style - mimicking that idea of talk back. The telling of the tale from a dialogue point of view starts out well, but...Read more
In the middle of reading this novel an Antiques Roadshow episode popped up that included an old tally stick, bought in by an elderly gentleman who had kept it in a drawer for many years. Very useful and timely to be reminded that they were used as an aid to memory, often for financial or...Read more
Playwright, poet, and spy Christopher Marlowe is a man who doesn't much care about the consequences of anything that he does. He's dissolute, reckless and playing a dangerous game. London is a grimy, insular, frightened place – with the plague and war threatening, strangers are treated with...Read more
Small towns, big secrets, inter-generational trauma, unquestioned deaths, fractured families, kids moving away and never returning, all the sorts of things that sound so very familiar to many of us who grew up in rural Australia from more recent history, back, unfortunately, for generations...Read more
If you happen to find yourself feeling slightly confused and muddled in the early chapters of TATTLETALE - hang in there. It takes a while for everyone and everything in this novel to fall into place, but once they do - hang on for the rest of the ride.
Using an unusual...Read more
TATTLETALE is a bit of a muddy experience initially as the characters are established. As doubt begins to direct Mags in her investigations, the pace picks up and we are questioning everything that she has been told about the life of her brother. Mags is a terrific character (would love...Read more
The second novel in the cosy, chatty BOOKSHOP DETECTIVES series, TEA AND CAKE AND DEATH sees intrepid bookshop owners Garth and Eloise sniffing out a prolific poisoner ahead of a fundraising event - the Battle of the Book Clubs. Most of the actual sniffing is done by rescue dog Stevie, with...Read more
THE TEA LADIES by Amanda Hampson is one of those interesting sort of novels that tippy toes a line between its cosy(ish) setting and some considerably more ruthless plot lines with a deftness that made for a really enjoyable reading experience.
Set in Sydney in 1965 in the...Read more
Dan Forrester and Lucy Davies return in the second novel in this series: TELL ME A LIE. It's hard to say that these novels must or must not be read in sequence, or if there's enough leeway for readers to start anywhere. There is a bit of back story in this second outing that should help...Read more
It increasingly feels like the things you can be guaranteed of when starting a new book by J.P. Pomare are it's going to be a fast paced, high tension thriller; it's likely as not going to frighten the daylights out of you; and it's going to be littered with twists, turns, red herrings,...Read more
Disclaimer's First: I was one of the publisher's minions, and whilst I don't always participate in considering possible submissions, in this case I was fortunate enough to read an early draft - and well did a bit of barracking.
So think of this as less of a review and more a...Read more
Two books in and the Zigic and Ferreira is a new much anticipated, favourite series.
If you've read the first book, then as soon as you start TELL NO TALES, you're straight back with characters that you really know, in a place that you're comfortable in, even though there is...Read more
This is the end – for now – of the Ella Marconi series by Australian thriller writer Katherine Howell.
In 2007 paramedic Katherine Howell caused quite a stir in crime-fiction fan circles with the release of her debut novel Frantic. Detective Ella...Read more
Sometimes a book just simply drops out of nowhere straight into the best of the year list with minimal fanfare. TELL THE TRUTH, SHAME THE DEVIL is undoubtedly going to remain one of the best things I've read this year for a whole lot of reasons.
The publisher website has this...Read more
Somebody called Jess Lowther has been demanding that I post reviews of a couple of Mike Boshier's books that were entered in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards. These reviews have been queued up on the site for sometime now, and I've been resisting posting them as there's nothing much I can...Read more
A psychological suspense novel with touches of paranormal, TESS is a beautifully balanced, chilling, claustrophobic and clever novel.
Set in small town New Zealand, at the turn of the millennium, TESS is, as the blurb puts it "a gothic love story about the ties that bind and...Read more
I've done a daft thing (again). After a lot of hints from others, I've finally gotten around to the Eddie Flynn series by author Steve Cavanagh and like an idiot I've started in at the fourth novel in the series.
It's really good. Fast paced with a vaguely crazy plot that works...Read more
The forty-first Cliff Hardy book came out earlier this year. That Empty Feeling is classic Cliff Hardy - stripped down, hardboiled, quintessentially Australian-noir ticking all the required boxes - pace, twists, turns, sex, violence and pitch-perfect dialogue. This time around, the...Read more
Called out to confirm a suicide, Thorne feels there is a need to look further into the life of the deceased, Phillipa Goodwin. Death by train was a horrific way to go, and according to Goodwin’s sister, there had been someone new in Phillipa’s life who may have driven her to end it all....Read more
Kiwi-Irish author Julie Parsons book THE THERAPY HOUSE is an intricate pscyhological observation, interweaving current day crime with Irish history to great effect.
Exploring history and crime in terms of it's impact on survivors and/or families and on society in general, THE...Read more
Brief but beautifully evocative, sparse yet hugely informative, THE THIEF is another example of Japanese noir sensibility. Told in first person, Nishimura is a pickpocket who targets the rich by preference. Working his highly skilled way through the crowds of Tokyo, he's an unrepentant...Read more
Fans of the lighter, softer side of crime fiction should take a look at the THIRTEEN from the MESDAMES OF MAYHEM.
The book was suggested to me by a rather circuitous route (cousin of / who is a work colleague of / who mentioned it to...), which is the only reason I would have...Read more
Every year the Ngaio Marsh Awards for New Zealand Crime Fiction include something that makes this reader marvel at the depth and quality of work coming out of that country. Dame Fiona Kidman came to THIS MORTAL BOY as (paraphrasing her own words) an accidental crime writer, but she has form...Read more
Melbourne in the late 1980s, and journalist Peter Clancy is working for The Truth. Which, for those of us who were around in those days, in that place, conjures up a very clear vision. Booze, coffee, dodgy goings on and journalism from the... well extreme-tabloid end of the scale....Read more
I'm not good with the end of things that I've really loved but when it came to the Caleb Zelic series by Emma Viskic, it turns out there was only so long I could hold out.
The earlier books in the series, RESURRECTION BAY, AND FIRE CAME DOWN, and DARKNESS FOR LIGHT, introduced...Read more
When three 16 year old boys on a school hiking trip run into perilous surf, the only witness is Grace Disher, the teacher in charge of the trip, who reluctantly defers to the first rule of rescue: don't create another casualty and stands helplessly by as the boys disappear.
...Read more
THE THREE DEATHS OF MAGDALENE LYNTON is the first in a new series from New Zealand author Katherine Hayton, followed by THE SECOND STAGE OF GRIEF and THE ONLY SECRET SHE KEEPS. The last of these, THE ONLY SECRET SHE KEEPS, has been long listed in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards which will come...Read more
Followers of NZ Crime fiction from the cosy end of the spectrum may have come across a couple of this author's previous series - The Silvermoon Retirement Village and The Hitchhiker novels. Both...Read more
Fans of big, larger-than-life political thrillers where the threat is enormous, the conspiracy deep seated, and the need for a hero overwhelming could do worse than get on board with the Dan Taylor series.
Book three, THREE LIVES DOWN, could be read as a standalone, although...Read more
THREE MURDER MYSTERIES by Mary Fortune is an absolute little treasure of a book and I feel so grateful to Lucy Sussex for her pursuit of Mary's story and her writing, and for getting this wonderful little book published.
Mary Fortune had over five hundred crime stories...Read more