Latest Book Reviews

Tom Bale, it seems, is a pseudonym for David Harrison who wrote SINS OF THE FATHER in 2006, which goes some way to explaining the deftness of touch in this crime fiction thriller.  It may also go some way to explaining how the author has managed to install an almost cinematic feel to the action.

In an opening series of scenes that, frankly, were so chilling that they disturbed this reader, everything starts out very quietly one very cold January morning in the sleepy English village of Chilton.  Julia Trent's in town to continue clearing out the house of her recently deceased parents - a dreadful accident with a malfunctioning boiler, they both died in their sleep.  A glance to the left that cold morning, and Julia is involved.  Closely pursued by a deranged young man, who has already shot everyone in his path on that quiet January morning, she's running away from a man who is taunting her, enjoying her terror.  Saved once when Phillip Walker, already wounded, sacrifices himself, she thinks she might be saved again when a lone figure in a motorcycle helmet and leathers approaches the man on the village green.  She quickly finds out she was very very wrong.

Julia - not a spoiler - she's one of the central characters in the novel after all, survives, albeit after being badly injured.  But her story of the second man is dismissed as the panic, the fright, delusion on her part.  Nobody else in Chilton, (because there were other people who survived in hiding, traumatised themselves), reported seeing the second man.  The only person who believes her is Craig, Phillip Walker's son.  Craig has had his own problems in recent life with a marriage that is strained to breaking point already by his wife's infidelity, so the pointless, tragic death of his father, in an act of selfless bravery saving Julia, is a turning point for him.  Both Julia and Craig have to find this second man, because they know he was there, and because they know he wants Julia, in particular, to stay silent.

This is a book that says quite a bit about manipulation, control and influence.  The terror that Julia experiences is beautifully executed by this author, the flight, the pursuit and the ultimate confusion over the appearance of the second man.  "The killer" as he's referred to makes that fleeting appearance in the first part of the book, but his presence is felt throughout, his identity hidden as he slowly reveals himself, talking to his own controller, watching Julia and Craig, alternatively menacing and yet, there's something else about him as well.  There's also the developer George Matheson - a man who has been trying to redevelop the little village, a proposal that Craig's father Phillip was vehemently opposed to.  George is, in his own right, a fascinating character.  At the same time that the massacre occurs, and he and his nephew Toby are talking about how to redevelop Chilton, George's wife Vanessa is dying from cancer.  George seems to be genuinely distressed by the events that took place in Chilton, and yet there is the possibility that he is somehow involved.

There are some elements to SKIN AND BONES that don't work quite as well though.  The anonymous "killer" scenes in which he reveals his thinking, his manipulating, and his own puppet-master are predictable although well written, and I would suspect that readers will be able to make a reasonable stab at the anonymous killer's identity.  Stay with it though, as all is not as it seems, and there are some surprises to come.  It does feel very wrong to be using a word like enjoyed about a book that starts out with a shooting massacre.  I did enjoy it though, this is a really good crime fiction book with well executed thriller aspects, and a couple of central characters in Julia and Craig who you really are going to want the best for.

THE DEVIL'S TEARS is the debut thriller from ex Army Officer Steven Horne, as well as the first fictional book I've read set in Timor-Leste.  There's an excellent Author's Note at the end of the book that gives a potted history of the struggle in East Timor for those not so familiar with the story.

Knowing that the events described in this book are fictional, but undoubtedly based in the truth of what happened in that small country, so close to our own, ignored by the world for so long, is profoundly distressing.  In a quite remarkable balancing act, Steven Horne has avoided a number of potential pitfalls and created a really good thriller, peopled with wonderful characters, maintaining a good pace, with a very engaging story at the centre.  There are undoubtedly bad people in this book, in this story, but they aren't overdone.  Instead he concentrates on the appalling acts, the brave acts, the sheer tenacity and spirit that makes people triumph over dreadful circumstances.  

In another very clever touch, the length of the struggle of the people of East Timor is artfully demonstrated as a doctor is killed in a small village in the hills of East Timor, at the same time that his young daughter Abbey is playing with her two best friends in Australia.  That daughter grows up, and with those childhood friends, become involved in the struggle in their own way - as journalist, photographer and publisher.  The introduction of the doctor, coincides the introduction of Cesar and Helena da Silva and their three daughters, and it is their struggle to flee the country that we become intimately involved with.  Cesar and one of their twin daughters make it out eventually, Helena and the other two girls are trapped.  Helena and the girls treatment in East Timor is particularly gruelling to follow.  Cesar and his daughter make it to Australia, but their guilt, and worry and not knowing what happened to the others destroys their lives in other ways.  

There is a plot within THE DEVIL'S TEARS that interweaves the lives and stories of Abbey and her friends, Cesar, Helena and the girls and the ongoing freedom fight of the East Timorese.  Whilst Abbey and David put themselves dangerously on the line in East Timor to report and record the truth, the daily struggle for survival of Helena and family is just as tense, just as frightening.  The threat for both comes from particular groups of invading soldiers, and this, as well as the connections between both groups, give the story a tight, personal, very very personal feeling to the tension.

It's not particularly easy to read THE DEVIL'S TEARS, and that undoubtedly comes from the knowledge that events very very like these happened not so far from our own borders.  But ultimately, this is a fictional book, a thriller.  Does it work in that context?  Absolutely.  This is a great thriller, telling a good solid story, creating tension, making the reader ride the roller coaster with a good set of believable, sympathetic, brave and characters.   

I do like the occasional political biography, particularly when the subject matter is somebody that is admirable or interesting - regardless of your political persuasion.  As far as I'm concerned, regardless of your political persuasion, Julia Gillard's rise to Deputy Prime Minister in Australia - the first woman to take that position (why it has to have taken that long ... well that's another subject), is worthy of at the very least understanding.

A good biography has to tell something about the subject - and give the reader some insight into their life, their achievements, as well as provide some indication of the elements that make that person up, make them do whatever it is that they do, achieve whatever it is that they achieve.

THE MAKING OF JULIA GILLARD is a book that sheds light on Julia Gillard the person - whether or not that is because her personal persona is somewhat lower profile than other politicians, or whether I just haven't been paying attention.  There is insight into her background, the thinking that formed her attitudes and perceptions, the way that she has chosen and continues to choose to lead both her life and her politics.

I really enjoyed this book.  Learnt something about the person, learnt something about the process.  Learnt a lot about the political system.

It's nearly impossible for a reader to understand what it must be like to write a series of books, based around the same characters.  All we can do is be extremely grateful that writers like Katherine Howell can do it, book after book, maintaining the same high standard, giving us new stories, and new situations for the characters to appear in, keeping the series fresh and interesting all the time.

Following on from FRANTIC and THE DARKEST HOUR, the third book COLD JUSTICE again simply does not miss a beat.  Part of the reason that these books are so good is the shifting viewpoint.  Not only does the author use her paramedic / ambulance officer background to great effect, writing characters from within that world, she combines them with a good, solid, interesting police cast, concentrating on a central character - Detective Ella Marconi.  This switching perspective gives the stories some real depth, although, in COLD JUSTICE, the formula is twisted slightly again.  Georgie Daniels is a paramedic with current day work problems, and a teenage connection back to the murder of a classmate.  Nineteen years ago she discovered the body of Tim Pieters hidden amongst bushes.  His family was devastated and Georgie's own friendship with Freya destroyed overnight.  All these years later, having problems with an out of control boss, she's transferred to a new ambulance station and finds herself working with (and being assessed by) her old school friend Freya.  At the same time the investigation into the death of Tim Pieters is reopened and Ella Marconi has nowhere else to start but with the person who discovered his body, his friends at school and his family members.

There's some really good balancing of all of the elements in this story - Marconi has a work life, and a personal life, and they coincide and collide realistically.  Whilst everything in her life isn't perfect, it's also not so imperfect that it's unbelievable (although I'd kill any boyfriend who taught my mother how to send text messages like that!).  Georgie and Freya have their own lives as well - Georgie and her husband, away from their beloved country home and animals, Freya with kids and a husband she loves no matter what sort of a twit he can make of herself.  Both women have a demanding work life, and a not straight-forward private life and the complications of their teenage friendship, the murder of Tim and how they went their separate ways creates a prickliness between them which really works.  On the victim's side the damage that was done to Tim's family as a result of his murder is carefully displayed - the pain and struggle of his mother Tamara in particular is graphic.  

The final balancing act, however, is to give a good cast of characters a great plot to work within.  Resolving a cold case from so long ago isn't an easy task for Marconi, but persistence, focus, good sixth sense, and a willingness to put reluctance aside and work with the less than ideal partner that is assigned to her, and eventually the truth is revealed.  

COLD JUSTICE is a terrific book.  It would work as a standalone, or it works as part of the continuing story of Ella Marconi.  It works as a character study, or as a plot driven police procedural.  Basically it just works.  Really really really well.

Fremantle Press have just released the third DSS Stevie Hooper book by WA based writer Felicity Young, TAKE OUT, following on from HARUM SCARUM and AN EASEFUL DEATH.

Starting off with a prologue that is obviously telegraphing something awful in the future of Mai, a young Asian girl, the action moves to Perth.  Stevie is working in the Sex Crimes unit, but it's in her capacity as friend that she steps into the strangely deserted Pavel house that morning.  The house is luxurious, big, beautiful, yet it's contents are sparse, scruffy, untidy.  The remains of an unfinished meal are on the table, and in one of the back rooms, a young child has been deserted - alive, but strangely it seems he has been fed and looked after until only recently.  For days after his parents have both just vanished.

The only reason the baby is discovered in time is because Stevie knows Skye - a young visiting nurse, who has been alerted to something wrong at the Pavel house by one of their neighbours.  Unfortunately that elderly neighbour has had a severe stroke affecting her speech patterns, which makes them garbled and nonsensical.  A simple disappearance isn't really a case for a DSS in the Sex Crimes squad, and the local police are keen to move her out of the way when they show up, but Stevie's not one that's easily distracted and there are things at this crime scene that don't quite add up.  Mind you, Stevie would do well to leave it alone, especially as she and partner Monty are up to their elbows in house renovations, and he's about to undergo major heart surgery.

When the investigation into the father's background quickly reveals a very sinister connection to human trafficking and sexual enslavement Stevie's concern is vindicated and despite worrying about Monty, their house, her daughter, Skye, and her own safety, finds herself ultimately on the trail of a shadowy Madam and her son.

The subject matter of TAKE OUT is sleazy and unpleasant, but it is handled carefully.  The sexual exploitation of young people (in this case female) is difficult to comprehend and TAKE OUT makes it that more difficult by letting the reader get to really know one of the (now) women - Mai.  Along with Mai's story, and the disappearance of the Pavel husband and wife, there are a number of other lesser, but connected threads, and there is a sprinkling of personal stories - triumphs and sadness as well.  

TAKE OUT has a busy plot, but the focus remains on a number of aspects of enforced prostitution, making the novel possibly quite challenging for some readers.  There is a very strong concentration on the victims of the sexual exploitation - working on making them human, real people that can be sympathised with.  Combine that with Stevie, her work colleagues, her personal life and the increasing complications in both and it does mean that the villains of the piece are little more than bit players for quite a bit of the book.  The perpetrators, whilst eventually identified, remain shadowy, almost strangely incidental and there's little if no explanation of the inexplicable attempted - which may intrigue some readers and frustrate others.  TAKE OUT does, however, balance the personal angst and professional responsibilities of Stevie a lot better than in the earlier novels, and the complexity of the plot is handled well, believably and with sensitivity.  TAKE OUT really does take on a difficult subject with sensitivity and insight, making the victims a point of focus, delivering a realistic (and therefore not all neatly wrapped up and sealed off) resolution.  For added measure, there's a bit of a kick in the tail at the end of the book as well. For this reader at least, that alone went miles towards demonstrating why some things remain utterly inexplicable.

After five, multi-award nominated crime fiction novels, Hungary based, American born novelist Olen Steinhauer has turned his hand to contemporary espionage in THE TOURIST.  

The action in this book centres around Milo Weaver - CIA Agent, Tourist, father and husband.  Starting out in 2001, Milo, nursing a serious pill-popping addiction and a strong desire to suicide in the line of duty, is in the middle of a botched attempt to stop a hitman.  Flash forward 7 years and Milo's got a wife, a child, and a personal interest in tracking down the hitman behind that nearly fatal, and life changing encounter.  Out of active duty and in a desk job since then, Milo wasn't expecting the "Tiger" to hand himself over voluntarily.  A deathbed conversation with the Tiger turns Milo's perceptions upside down, and set him on a path unexpected.

There are a number of elements in THE TOURIST that stand out.  Milo, as a highly flawed, complicated central character in what is after all, an espionage novel, seems very realistic.  A man with faults and flaws, he is poignantly aware of his own limitations - particularly when it comes to the ease with which he lives his professional life, compared to the way that he handles the personal.  Obviously the situations in which he finds himself are not those which the average person is going to have to deal with, so a certain suspension of disbelief is going to be required on the part of the reader.  There are some downsides to this characterisation however, the most notable one being the difficulty of focusing a great sense of moral and personal outrage, when the enemy is a little closer to home than would normally be the case.  THE TOURIST gets into interesting territory in this area, a direction I found quite fascinating, but then I prefer the enemy to be less than straightforward.  There's also a good sense of pace, with a nice sprinkling of rushing around, without it being too over the top.  Mostly, however, there is a very elegant balancing of the tension, and the threat with some nice touches of reality, delivered with some very tongue in cheek humour.  (What would be more hairy for your average burnt-out, long term spy - an encounter with a shadowy enemy or Disneyworld.  Still can't decide!)

Where THE TOURIST may be slightly less satisfying for some readers is in the area of plot, where things are very busy.  Lots of things happen, lots of characters (good and bad) come and go, and there's some question marks frequently on whether or not everything is / could / needs to be connected.  Other readers may appreciate exactly this aspect.  A spies life doesn't seem like one that would be tidy and neat, with one job wrapped up nicely and the paperwork done, before the next bad situation comes along.  I liked the approach, and I particularly liked the way that Milo often had no idea what was happening, as well as me!

The element that ticked the biggest box for me, and the one that made THE TOURIST an interesting book was the portrayal of the mindsets of officialdom.  Alongside the concept of the enemy within, perhaps more prevalent than an external threat, this gave considerable pause for thought.

Reading the autobiography of someone who has become notorious for whatever reason is always a little difficult; especially if there has been past misdeeds or alleged crimes. Just how much of the truth are you really getting? After all you're only getting their side of the story and there's nothing in the way of critical analysis of that story.

I doubt that Rogerson was telling "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." There is little or no mention about the events that made him so notorious although his accounts of cases he worked on are interesting enough. You get the picture of what would be called an old time traditional detective who isn't averse to bending the rules to achieve and outcome. Just how far those rules were bent is left to the individual to decide.

DARK MIRROR is a first rate police procedural. The author plays fair with the reader. The clues are all there, it's up to you to sort out which are red herrings and which are genuine. He also strikes a nice balanace between the private lives of the characters and their work.

A good police procedural is one of my favourite types of books. If it's done properly it keeps you reading compulsively to find out if your theory is correct. I did manage to figure it out in the end, but not before I ran trough a number of suspects and changed my mind several times.

If police procedurals are you thing then DARK MIRROR is one you should have on your bookshelf.

DARK MIRROR is the tenth book in the Brock and Kolla series.

25th of March, 1999 and a helicopter heads for Silverwater Prison in Sydney.  It hovers, briefly lowering almost to the ground in the exercise yard, just long enough for one prisoner to break from the crowd and run to the door.  He gets in, the helicopter turns, and flies away.  Shots are fired, guards aren't too sure what to do, the helicopter pilot is working under duress, the woman holding the gun on him nervous and tense.  John Reginald Killick had just been broken out of Silverwater Prison by his female accomplice and latest girlfriend Lucy Dudko, but they were on the run for a very short time, before he's returned to prison, and she's convicted to do her own stretch.

WANTED JOHN & LUCY is John Kerr's book on the escape, and on the lives of both John Killick and Lucy Dudko.  The stories of both these people are, in their own way, kind of sad.  Killick is a career criminal and gambler who, from a very young age, just found the path to quick money preferable to working for a living.  Despite the number of times he was caught, jailed, escaped, jailed again.  Lucy Dudko on the other hand, born in Russia, trapped in a marriage to a very nasty piece of work; found love and kindness in Killick and she was prepared to do whatever it took to stay with her man. 

Told in that wonderful, conversational tone that John Kerr has, this is a frequently moving story.  There's obviously something about John Killick - he might be a career criminal and pretty unrepentant about what he is, but he seems capable of sustaining and garnering great friendship and love - his ex-wife is a staunch supporter, ex-girlfriends seem to stay close (even if their families are underwhelmed).  From the book it looks like more than just charisma too, it seems that he's a genuine and very likable bloke.  Lucy is a sadder figure, an unhappy marriage to a very manipulative, controlling man, her decision to leave Alex Dudko and take up with Killick undoubtedly meant that both of there lives were made considerably more difficult.  Despite a short period at trying to go straight, maybe to get a normal life going with Lucy and her daughter, somehow Killick and Lucy didn't seem to getting a break.  Alex Dudko's pursuit of them was single-minded and quite ruthless and personal set backs aren't something that Killick's well equipped to deal with. 

It's easy to see the sensational side of this story.  The escape method was pretty spectacular, the players almost script-written to order.  The career criminal, an older man; the young, foreign, exotic, sad, fragile woman who turns to crime for the man she loves.  There's a lot more to it, and WANTED JOHN & LUCY reminds us that true crime stories are about real people.

“Write what you know” aspiring writers are often told. Katherine Howell has done that to good effect. She worked as a paramedic for many years and her detailed knowledge of both the job and the physical and emotional toll it takes are vividly portrayed. COLD JUSTICE is Katherine’s third book (the previous two are Frantic and The Darkest Hour) and her writing seems to get better and better . COLD JUSTICE not only has the fast pace of a thriller, it also has multiple threads which are gradually pulled together. Katherine is also a dab hand at knowing exactly when to change threads in the plot to leave the reader in suspense. I was lucky to receive a copy of the book in advance of its publication. COLD JUSTICE is due in book shops on 1st February 2010. I recommend you be in line on that date to get a copy. You won’t regret it.