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Just Finished Reading

UPDATE ADDED: Mon, 28/09/2026 - 11:23am by Karen Chisholm

Finished off:

Choppy Water by Jack Heath

Started on:

Something He Did by SK Lynch

Cold River by Margaret Hickey

Near Death in Venice by Jonathan Biggins

The Cross by Ronni Salt

We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman (audio)

Last Days of the Lotus by A.C. Edwards

 

 

 

 

 

 

Choppy Water

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 07/08/2026 - 11:42am by Karen Chisholm

A woman's body is found in a laundry cart aboard the Silver Lady cruise ship. Management says it was a freak accident and her death is quickly covered up, so as not to spoil the voyage for the passengers.

Cesar Cain doesn't want to get involved. He boarded the Silver Lady to disappear. If the cops find him, he's in a cell. If the Hell's Hounds catch him, he's in a grave.

But it's March 2020, and the borders are slamming shut. Cesar soon discovers that the woman wasn't the first victim - and with the ship suddenly quarantined and unable to dock anywhere, she won't be the last ...

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
Jack Heath
Publication Date: 
Tue, 03/11/2026
35 days remaining to event.
ISBN: 
9781761471247
Publisher: 
Allen & Unwin
Book Type: 
eBook
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Status: 
To Be Read
Book Source: 
NetGalley
Stored : 
NetGalley
Read by Date: 
Wednesday, 30 September, 2026
1 day remaining to event.
Date Received: 
Monday, 10 August, 2026
Region: 
Australia

Something He Did

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 29/04/2026 - 1:16pm by Karen Chisholm

In the gridlocked heart of Melbourne, a split-second of road rage changes everything. For one driver, the crash is a bizarre stroke of luck that sets their life on an upward trajectory they never thought possible. For the other, it is the first domino to fall in a terrifying downward spiral.

Detective Sergeant Claudia Russo doesn't care about the insurance claims—she’s focussed on the search for a missing eighteen-year-old girl. But the girl’s father, a man defined by entitlement and influence, is playing a dangerous game. He’s more afraid of his own double life being exposed than he is of his daughter never coming home. Claudia has secrets too: she’s grieving a tragic loss of her own and losing control of an on-the-job romance that threatens to unravel everything she has worked so hard for.

As all their fates become more entwined, the lesson must be learned: Be kind. Or suffer the consequences.

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
SK Lynch
Publication Date: 
Tue, 29/09/2026
Less than 1 day remaining to event.
ISBN: 
9781761154850
Publisher: 
Ultimo Press
No of Pages: 
352
Book Type: 
Paperback
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Melbourne
Victoria
Australia
Status: 
Am Reading
Date Received: 
Tuesday, 18 August, 2026
Review By Date: 
Tuesday, 29 September, 2026
Less than 1 day remaining to event.
Region: 
Australia

Cold River

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 28/07/2026 - 11:36am by Karen Chisholm

Deep in the mountains, secrets grow deadly . . .

Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria’s high country. But there’s something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up Mount Viking, that’s not sitting right with her.

Louis was an aspiring journalist, researching the illegal tobacco trade – also known as chop chop – that was once so prevalent in the area. And the last person he interviewed before his hike has just met a gruesome end . . .

But with no other leads, and with the search winding down, Sally is forced to accept the young man died in a tragic accident.

Until she learns of another missing person case that bears striking similarities. Astrid Marlowe, a young lawyer, vanished in the same mountains two years before.

Were Louis and Astrid simply unlucky hikers lost in the treacherous terrain? Or did they both stumble into something – or someone – they shouldn’t?

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
Margaret Hickey
Publication Date: 
Tue, 28/07/2026
ISBN: 
9781761351136
Publisher: 
Penguin Books
Book Type: 
eBook
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Australia
Victoria
High Country
Regional
Status: 
To Be Read
Next Up
Book Source: 
Purchased
Stored : 
Kobo
Date Received: 
Tuesday, 28 July, 2026
Region: 
Australia

Near Death in Venice

BOOK ADDED: Mon, 07/09/2026 - 1:39pm by Karen Chisholm

‘I’m a seventy-three-year-old woman, Tristan; I am practically invisible. I’m exactly the sort of person you need to pull off this caper. Oh my God, I can’t believe I just used the word “caper” in a sentence referring to myself!’

Tristan Barclay, art historian, minor TV celebrity and Belvedere Tours leader, is reluctantly embarking on his final tour of European art and culture. But this will be no ordinary excursion to see the old masters – Tristan is secretly planning a ‘grand gesture’ of his own, one that will shock the world.

The only problem is, he can’t complete his mission alone, especially once a budding romance distracts him from his noble quest. Luckily, his tour group are eager to help – and find themselves caught up in a high-stakes heist where danger lurks around every ornate column …

Near Death in Venice is thrilling, hilarious and wildly entertaining.

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
Jonathan Biggins
Publication Date: 
Tue, 27/10/2026
28 days remaining to event.
ISBN: 
9781761822940
Publisher: 
Simon & Schuster
No of Pages: 
352
Book Type: 
eBook
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
Sub-Genres: 
Cosy
Humour
Series Name: 
Old Masters
No in Series: 
1
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Venice
Italy
Status: 
To Be Read
Book Source: 
NetGalley
Read by Date: 
Tuesday, 20 October, 2026
21 days remaining to event.
Date Received: 
Tuesday, 8 September, 2026
Review By Date: 
Tuesday, 27 October, 2026
28 days remaining to event.
Region: 
Australia

The Cross

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 12/08/2026 - 11:52am by Karen Chisholm

In the dying days of 1974, a mysterious yellow sports car speeds into the quiet Riverina town of Gunnawah. While the locals are initially intrigued by the stranger in their midst, nobody is prepared for what comes next.

At the town's only newspaper, the Gunnawah Gazette, cadet journalist Adelaide Hoffman starts looking into a proposed new resort development on the banks of the Murray. Her street-smart boss, Valdene Bullark, and Val's long-time friend, Wayne Trevaskis, have been around the block and they're pretty sure something shady is going down. Meanwhile, the town's only cop, raw recruit Jack Overlund, is about to learn the stranger has brought more than an oversized ego to the town.

Over the years, the echoing, heat-rimmed days of the Riverina have concealed a lot. A secretive priest. A pregnant teenager. The dark shadows of the Nugan Hand Bank. A faded TV star. A deadly shame. When big city money arrives and long-buried secrets threaten to surface, some will be forced to deal with their past and others will have to grapple with their future.

The richly comic and deeply dark companion novel to Gunnawah, The Cross is set in a time of football, meat pies, Gough Whitlam and shag-pile carpet. A quintessentially Australian crime story of ratbaggery, religion and revenge that deftly blends gripping crime with acerbically funny, moving and distinctly Australian characters.

Newtown Review of Books
PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
Ronni Salt
Publication Date: 
Tue, 24/11/2026
56 days remaining to event.
ISBN: 
9780733655012
Publisher: 
Hachette
No of Pages: 
336
Book Type: 
eBook
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
Sub-Genres: 
Rural Noir
Investigative Journalism
#AusCrime
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Australia
Channel Country
Fictional
Gunnawah
Status: 
To Be Read
Read by Date: 
Sunday, 1 November, 2026
33 days remaining to event.
Review By Date: 
Tuesday, 24 November, 2026
56 days remaining to event.
NetGalley Archive Date: 
Sun, 08/11/2026
40 days remaining to event.
Region: 
Australia

We Chase Shadows

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 27/05/2026 - 1:03pm by Karen Chisholm

At sunrise, high in the Italian hills, a body is found on the steps of a beautiful private villa. On the body is a threatening note, signed by a mystery man.

Back at We Solve Murders HQ, Amy, Rosie and Steve leap at the chance to take on their first proper case. So what if their new client seems to have his own reasons for avoiding the police? All they need to do is uncover who left the note, and then find them. Simple.

But once they start digging, the suspects keep piling up: there’s Sweden’s most-wanted criminal, a canny ex-wife and a fierce business rival – yet the murderer keeps evading them. And as the trio chase a villain through the shadows, danger travels closer to home . . .

Between Italy and Palm Springs, via Barcelona and Steve’s village pub, can the team catch an elusive killer who knows EXACTLY where to hide?

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
Richard Osman
Publication Date: 
Tue, 01/09/2026
ISBN: 
9781405996273
Publisher: 
Penguin Books
Book Type: 
Audio (Online)
Paperback
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
Sub-Genres: 
Private Investigator
Series Name: 
We Solve Murders
No in Series: 
2
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Italy
England
Palm Springs
Spain
Barcelona
Status: 
Am Listening
Book Source: 
Purchased
Publisher (Physical)
Stored : 
Audible
Bedside Table
Date Received: 
Wednesday, 5 August, 2026
Region: 
England

Last Days of the Lotus

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 11/09/2026 - 12:37pm by Karen Chisholm

Saigon, 1968, on the eve of Tet. The Vietnamese New Year draws near, and the city waits, restless and uneasy, the air thick with rumours of ceasefire and the taste of betrayal.

Smith has served his time in the secret world – an Australian case officer grown weary of the lies that pass for intelligence, and the loyalties that dissolve at first suspicion. When a colleague is murdered and leaves behind a single word in a blood-stained notebook, Smith finds himself drawn back into the game he thought he’d abandoned.

The trail leads him through bars, alleys, and burned-out villages, deeper into a war that has already devoured truth and loyalty, where every debt must be paid.

As the city slides towards chaos, Smith must decide what is worth saving and what must be left behind.

In the tradition of The Quiet American and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Last Days of the Lotus is a taut, atmospheric novel of espionage, moral fatigue, and slow-burning dread. It is, ultimately, a requiem for the idea of victory.

PUBLISHER INFORMATION
Author: 
A.C. Edwards
Publication Date: 
Thu, 20/08/2026
ISBN: 
9780645867398
Publisher: 
White Tiger Press
No of Pages: 
272
Book Type: 
eBook
Genre: 
Crime Fiction
AUSTCRIME INFORMATION
Book Setting: 
Saigon
Vietnam
Status: 
To Be Read
Book Source: 
Author (Digital)
Stored : 
Google Books
Review By Date: 
Saturday, 10 October, 2026
11 days remaining to event.
Region: 
Australia
#AustCrime
#yeahnoir
#CurrentlyReading
#NextUp

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