Melbourne

A Hand In the Bush

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1877008966

Blurb from the book:

In the heady days of the seventies, and at the tender age of nineteen, Decca Brand experimented with what was on offer - sex, drugs and intrigue. Far too much intrigue, it turns out, and of a sort that spells murder. Fast forward nearly thirty years and Decca is confronted by dangerous figures from her past. Not only that, the stunning psychologist and divorcee has a blind date lined up with a married man. And then things start to get complicated.

A Hand In the Bush is about skeletons in the closet, and simply being in the closet. It is also the mravellous new comic thriller, brimful with wit and menace, from the irrepressible Jane Clifton.

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Submitted by helen on Thu, 06/09/2007 - 10:38pm.

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A Thing of Blood

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1920769587

Blurb from the book

As Word War II drags on, failed Shakespearian actor and would-be private detective William Power Returns to Melbourne in disgrace after his disastrous brush with theatre and murder in Maryborough. Bloodied, broken but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling under war rationing and resentful of cocky American soldiers, and lands squarely in the bosom of his childhood home in Carlton - a home now dominated by his sister-in-law, the odious Darlene.

But even Will's contempt is tempered when, in the early hours of the morning Darlene is kidnapped, and Will finds his mother's kitchen splattered with blood and scattered with broken crockery.

Needing to escape the maternal home and the growing police investigation, Power rents a room in the spacious, Parkville home of wealthy, charismatic, and obsessively neat Paul Clutterbuck and is introduced to an underworld of bohemians, black marketeers and neanderthal henchmen. Will Power is fascinated - but before he can begin to enjoy his new home, a savage murder is discovered.

Just when modesty and good sense threaten to intervene, Will realises that only he can solve the murder, the mystery of his kidnapped sister-in-law, and save the nation from impending catastrophe.

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Review of A Thing of Blood http://www.abc.net.au/widebay/stories/s1664712.htm

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Submitted by Karen on Mon, 20/08/2007 - 11:17am.

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Away with the Fairies

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:53 +1000

ISBN 9781865084893

Blurb from the book:

Exciting, gorgeous, adventurous and brave. That's Phryne Fisher, returning in her tenth crime mystery novel.

Phryne Fisher-dangerous, passionate, kind, clever, and seductive. She drinks cocktails, dances the tango, is the companion of wharfies, and is expert at conducting an elegant dalliance.

It's the 1920s in Melbourne and Phryne is asked to investigate the puzzling death of a famous author and illustrator of fairy stories. To do so, Phryne takes a job within the women's magazine that employed the victim and finds herself enmeshed in her colleagues' deceptions.

But while Phryne is learning the ins and outs of magazine publishing first hand, her personal life is thrown into chaos. Impatient for her lover Lin Chung's imminent return from a silk-buying expedition to China, she instead receives an unusual summons from Lin Chung's family followed by a series of mysterious assaults and warnings.

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Submitted by helen on Mon, 17/09/2007 - 5:18pm.

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Bad Debts

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:53 +1000

ISBN 1877008729

Blurb from the book

There wasn't anything the cops could do for you if people wanted to kill you. Not unless there was something you could do for the cops, and then you ended up living in a caravan park in Deniliquin on the witness protection program.

Meet Jack Irish, criminal lawyer, debt collector, football lover, turf watcher, trainee cabinetmaker, and the best Australian crime character we've seen in years.

When Jack receives a puzzling message from a jailed ex-client, he's too deep in misery over Fitzroy's latest loss to take much notice. Next thing Jack knows, the ex-client's dead and he's been drawn into a life-threatening investigation involving high-level corruption, dark sexual secrets, shonky property deals, and murder. With hitmen after him, shady ex-policemen at every turn, and the body count rising, Jack needs to find out what's going on - and fast.

An utterly compelling and topical crime novel, Bad Debts has everything - humour, action, suspense, and an unforgettable cast of characters.

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Submitted by Karen on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 3:55pm.

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Big Ask, The

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:21:13 +1000

ISBN 1877008524

Blurb from the book

Four a.m. and the smart money's home in bed. More importantly for Murray Whelan, his son Red isn't. He's gone missing, on the run somewhere in Sydney. So what's Murray doing in a greasy spoon at the fruit and veg markets, nursing his facial bruising and talking to Donny Maitland about a grass-roots takeover of the truckies' union?

Working a deal for Angelo Agnelli, Minister for Transport and sparring partner of the United Haulage Workers, that's what. Business as usual for Murray. Until the blokeⁱ who inflicted the bruises turns up to do some more inflicting. And then turns up dead.

Murray needs to stay out of trouble long enough to find Red. But that, it seems, might be a pretty big ask.

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Submitted by Karen on Wed, 12/09/2007 - 12:29pm.

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Big Shots

Karen — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:20:07 +1000

Blurb from the Book

In 2003 Adam Shand, until then a finance journalist, naively set out to unravel Melbourne's bloody gangland wars. A few months' research, a guaranteed cover story. But his foray into the underworld took him deeper than that. He became embroiled in a complex world where feuds raged between rival families, and where a new generation was clashing with the criminal Establishment. Before long, he found himself counted as a friend by those who sometimes ended friendships with a hail of bullets.

Big Shots takes the reader into the heart of the city's multi-billion dollar 'disorganised crime' scene, as Shand meets the key figures and suspects, including Carl and Roberta Williams, Mick Gatto, and many others. He discovers the human drama behind the brutal slayings that were splashed across the front pages, and in the process comes to question his objectivity. And even whether he is being used to further the players' murderous ends.

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Submitted by Karen on Tue, 02/10/2007 - 2:19pm.

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BIG SHOTS, Adam Shand

Karen — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 17:53:51 +1000

Black Tide

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:54 +1000

ISBN 1920885137

Blurb from the book

Jack Irish - gambler, lawyer, finder of missing people - is recovering from a foray into the criminal underworld when he agrees to look for the missing son of Des Connors, the last living link to Jack's father. It's an offer he soon regrets.

As Jack begins his search, he discovers that prodigal sons sometimes go missing for a reason. Gary Connors was a man with something to hide, and his trail leads Jack to millionaire and political kingmaker Steven Levesque, a man harboring a deep and deadly secret.

Black Tide, the second book in Peter Temple's celebrated Jack Irish series, takes us back into a brilliantly evoked world of pubs, racetracks, and sports - not to mention intrigue, corruption, and violence.

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Submitted by Karen on Sun, 09/09/2007 - 3:58pm.

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Bleeding Hearts

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:54 +1000

ISBN 1932859160

Blurb from the book

Poison pens can draw blood. And that's exactly why TV presenter Rebecca Jones hires private eye Kit O'Malley to investigate the threats against her. But the trouble with being tenacious, tough, and too smart for her own good is that everybody else wants her on their team.

As if trying to keep Rebecca alive and on the air wasn't enough, Kit is beset by a clutch of other people's catastrophes that require her very particular skills to resolve. And since Kit is the gumshoe who can't say no, before she knows it, she is up to her eyes in the worst that Australia's criminal minds can throw her way. Money laundering, sordid sexual shenanigans, abduction, political sleaze, and murder among Melbourne's movers and shakers threaten to swamp Kit as she picks her way throug

h the morass of double-dealing, treachery, and outright greed. As if that's not enough, the beautiful and sexy Alex Casenove sweeps back into her life, reminding Kit that love is almost as deadly as hate and that murder never happens at a convenient time. The sequel to the highly acclaimed debut Blood Guilt, Bleeding Hearts is a tightly plotted romp through the dark underbelly of Australia's most cultured city, vibrantly demonstrating that even the heartless bleed.

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Submitted by Karen on Fri, 17/08/2007 - 4:26pm.

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Blindside

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:54 +1000

ISBN 1741142067

Blurb from the book:

This raunchy page-turner features Shaun McCreadie, a young police detective who finds himself on the wrong side of the law and implicated in a brutal home invasion. When McCreadie is released from jail 11 years later he is determined to discover the nature of the crime that put him away. Armed with $2.8 million in ill-gotten gains and his police street smarts, McCreadie grapples with murderous former accomplices, corrupt old cop buddies, and the seductive wife of a prominent lawyer in his quest to find answers. His investigations reveal the nefarious activities of bent cops, drug dealing, framing, and murder. Elements of crime, justice, and illicit affairs combine to form an intricately plotted, tightly structured, intelligent, and sexy work of fiction.

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Submitted by helen on Wed, 05/09/2007 - 6:21pm.

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