Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Flagged as a prequel to McTiernan's acclaimed THE RUIN, THE SISTERS is an audible only novella, set 10 years before the first Cormack Reilly book THE RUIN, which was followed by THE SCHOLAR. McTiernan's two series books have met with considerable acclaim in all parts, and THE SISTERS is...Read more
For the uninitiated, Matthew Reilly does not write crime. He does not write thrillers. Matthew Reilly writes ACTION. Think Indiana Jones with a healthy dose of Die Hard and you'll start to get the idea. Character development just slows down the plot too much. As always, Reilly is...Read more
Matthew Reilly was born in 1974. He is of a generation who grew up on a diet of action blockbuster movies. Reading THE SIX SACRED STONES is like reading a screenplay for one of these movies. The characters careen from one life threatening situation to another at a breakneck speed. There...Read more
SKIN AND BONE has all the elements of a good crime novel. Well-developed characters: a suitably absorbing plot with intertwining threads and enough clues to allow the reader to solve the mystery.
Kathryn Fox’s first two novels (Malicious Intent and Without Consent) featured Dr...Read more
A paranormal crime thriller with a blokey sensibility, Skin Deep is set in a Brisbane still dealing with the after-effects of many years of Joh rule. Harry Hendrick is a man of his time and circumstance. A journalist by training,...Read more
SKINJOB started out as a self-published novel before being picked up by Random House / Bantam Press. A techno-thriller this is a cross-genre story putting many of the standard aspects of classic crime fiction into a Science Fiction / futuristic setting.
The central theme of the...Read more
Mounted Trooper Augustus Hawkins was introduced to readers in Fioretti's first novel, BONE LANDS. Returned from active service in the Boer War, he's scarred physically and mentally, tortured by what happened in combat, damaged again by the love he found in the first novel having been...Read more
I don't want to start any arguments here, but my mind-reading chook is an Australorp, currently known as "Underfoot", although a renaming ceremony is now on the cards. I've always been convinced she was a mind reader, although I'm pretty sure there's been no laboratory accidents in her...Read more
SMALL MERCIES by Richard Anderson is one of those books that should be mandatory reading for all Australians. I certainly hope somebody in education circles SERIOUSLY contemplates putting it into English syllabuses as I don't think most city based Australian's have a clue about the mind...Read more
SMOKE & MIRRORS is the second Canberra based novel to feature Australian Federal Policeman Brad Chen. Ex-football star, Chinese extraction, first name Bradman - Chen is not exactly a normal policeman. For a start he's almost constantly injured. He pops pain pills like the rest of us...Read more
There is little sympathy to be found anywhere for a man who beats his wife. Caleb Moore finds this out soon enough into his stay in prison, convicted for the assault that has finally severed his shaky marriage to Melissa. The prison staff are fine with turning a blind eye to a little lay...Read more
The return of Maggie Byrnes, heroine of Murder in the Telephone Exchange, finds her married, with a young son, and living in an outer Melbourne suburb. But violent death dogs her footsteps even in apparently tranquil Middleburn. It’s perhaps not that much of a surprise when widely disliked...Read more
You have to admire any author who doesn't just create a profoundly unlikeable protagonist but then grants them full permission to be as ordinary a human being as they can possibly be. In SOLD, Blair Denholm's creation, Gary Braswell is the sort of bloke that you'd be forgiven for belting...Read more
Three years ago Tom’s best friend Jonty was arrested for killing his aunt Lillian. Tom's father was the lawyer who got Jonty released as there was no evidence and the police case fell apart. Jonty doesn’t remember what happened....Read more
As Australian as a dingy, and dead set likely to get himself into bother, Lachie Munro is a good bloke. Sure he's an abalone poacher, but only to pay off a lapse of concentration gambling debt. And sure he and his best mate Dave don't report the giant heroin haul they find when they are out...Read more
Australian readers will probably remember C.J. Carver as Caroline Carver - writer of a series of Australian set books <cough> years ago. Recently, she's returned to notice writing under the name C.J. Carver - with a series of thrillers built around Dan Forrester, recently bereaved...Read more
The bodies of two young girls are found, shot and discarded in an old abandoned warehouse in the Cockpit Lane district in Brixton, London. Nearby the activity of the police investigation sparks the interest of a young schoolboy who is obsessed with a school myth about "Brown Bread" and an...Read more
Inventive and brutal, there are good reasons why Iain Ryan’s third novel is being talked about. Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead more
One of the best things about a good thriller is when they present a scenario that could just possibly happen. The reader of SPLINTER has no trouble at all believing in the possibility of the kidnapping of the child of Hollywood celebrities; they can join in the initial rush of sympathy for...Read more
Number 3 in the George Smiley series, probably the best known of the lot, just before listening to the audio of this we watched the Richard Burton / Claire Bloom movie version again after discovering it on one of the streaming service subscriptions in one of those late night, can't be...Read more
ST KILDA BLUES is the third Charlie Berlin novel from dual Ned Kelly Award winning author Geoffrey McGeachin. Starting out just after WWII, this series is as much a character study of Charlie Berlin and the after affects of war, as it is a police procedural. It's the great strength of these...Read more
The HK Monaro wormed it's way into my heart in 1968. Bathurst, Bruce McPhee, Hardie-Ferodo, pole position and the race lap record at that time. A life-long love of those cars was started on the lino of the kitchen in South-West Victoria, shouting at a dodgy TV telecast, enthralled. Sure, my...Read more
Having not read any of the Vin Cooper series this started out as an exercise in seeing if I could catch up in a hurry. So, for newcomers to the series as well, a few points. Cooper's an interesting character in an over-the-top military style thriller. Definitely a bit of an all-action hero...Read more
The first book in the Jack Emery series (THE FOUNDATION) looked at the potential for corruption, using a major media...Read more
Remember the good old days of thriller fiction, with bad guys that were easy to pick and the good guys plentiful on the ground. Even the lone wolf types seem to inhabit a lot of corners, on a lot of dark streets, in a lot of mean places. Nowadays thriller fiction is reflecting the current...Read more
The claustrophobia of Room meets the camaraderie of Yellowjackets with a touch of Picnic at Hanging Rock in this dark, immersive, psychological thriller...Read more
Journalist Katherine Firkin has written her debut crime novel, inspired, according to the blurb, by the many criminal trials she has covered. You can't help but spare a thought for the sorts of things trial attendees have to sit through when finishing STICKS AND STONES.
It's...Read more
If this book can't raise a few snorts and belly-laughs from you, dear reader, there is something seriously wrong. With you. Truly. The adventures of Murray Whelan, proud member of the Australian Labor party, office worker, single parent and all around smart-arse all began here with STIFF....Read more
STILL WATERS is one of those books that will stir endless debate on a number of topics ranging from the oppression of women to the motherhood "myth", sexual inequality to co-parenting and the list goes on. Most of what is depicted within the book will strike a chord with mothers, and what...Read more