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Commenting on books written by people you know is always a little bit tricky, but one of the things that I always admire about these sorts of books from Petraitis is the way that she can tell somebody's story clearly, compassionately, often with a great sense of humour, but never imposing herself on the telling.  This is a book which is very much about the people whose stories are being told.  And there are some interesting little snippets not covered in other True Crime books - the perilous retrieval of a woman's body from a sunken submarine; the capture of a brutal child rapist; the search for man lost in the Victorian high country; the story of the death of a man in small town South Australia; and most interestingly the tracking of a pair of suburban cops during a night on the beat.

Recommended as a simple, well told tale of stories from the other side of the standard true crime offering.

I've been happily reading the Anna Travis series by Lynda La Plante since the first book and enjoying them.  Despite a few odds and ends that can be mildly annoying.  Ongoing romantic angst, a tricky senior officer (in this case the early on love interest as well), and some seriously big books without always having quite enough story to fill out all of the pages.  

BLIND FURY, unfortunately, nearly defeated me before the end.  Which is a pity.  Because the investigative elements of this book are actually not too bad.  It does take a while for things to get moving mind you - but it's an interesting sort of a case, with the bodies of two young unidentified girls and an identified older prostitute seemingly having little in common.  Aside from the circumstances of the dumping of their corpses, and the way in which they were raped and killed.  Identifying the victims requires a lot of good old fashioned police investigative work - a lot of which is done by the team that Anna is working with - with flashes of insight from Anna herself.  At the same time, for reasons best known to DCS Langton, Anna and a colleague also find themselves visiting a maximum security jail to discuss the case with a previously convicted multiple murderer who claims he has a unique insight into the mindset of this new killer.  

Langton and Anna have a romantic history (they lived together at one point) and both have moved on.  A while ago.  It is mentioned, not quite as frequently as in earlier books, and it's sort of spiced up a little with some vaguely longing behaviour from Langton which seems to cause Anna to realise, frequently, that she's moved on.  Moved on to the point where she forms a relationship with one of the guards on the unit where killer Cameron Welsh is held.  And at this point the personal elements of the story start declaring themselves in bold face letters, with a little neon decoration for good measure.

BLIND FURY heads off into unbelievable territory fairly quickly - with the unfathomable concentration on an unconnected, unqualified, convicted killer as some sort of "expert" witness in the case.  Which didn't stack up well on it's own, let alone when you also have to accept some of the leaps of brilliance or "intuition" elements of the normal Anna investigation style.  Normally this sort of thing is a little easier to swallow as previous books have belted along at a good pace, but this one dragged.  As the focus is increasingly on Anna and her personal life, the concentration on the actual investigation wanes - and that got really annoying, as the process of identifying the two unknown girls, connecting them to the dead prostitute and then the painstaking work required to try to identify suspects was reasonably compelling.  Or at least it felt so stacked up beside the inevitability of the trainwreck that is Anna's personal life.  

Overall there just wasn't enough of the good elements to hide or compensate for the increasingly sinking feeling of inevitability that hit as soon as a new man walked into Anna's life and the book dragged on to its foreseeable and really disappointing conclusion.

As I was reading this book I couldn't help but create a checklist of the things that make up seriously good crime fiction for me, and apply it as I went.

A sense of place that puts you right on the spot, without turning into a travelogue.  Something that gives you a sense of the smell, the look, the way that people move around and interact with their location.  THE OLD SCHOOL is set in Bankstown, a suburb of Sydney almost tailor-made for the action that is taking place - multitudes of cultures living up close and personal, dodgy dealings in all walks of life, overcrowded streets, haves and have nots, development and profound poverty, traffic and dust.  Aboriginal activists are still fighting for land rights and against deaths in custody.  The Prime Minister's famous Redfern Speech gets a mention.  There is such a strong sense of the place, and the timeframe in this book, that I'd swear you can smell the kebabs she describes.

A solid plot, a believable set of circumstances in which people find themselves pushed to the limit, achieving great things, dealing with other people, solving problems.  The events of the book - the discovery of two skeletons in the concrete foundations of a building being demolished and the death of an old homeless Aboriginal man are interwoven with the professional and personal life of Nhu 'Ned" Kelly.  Ned is a young, mixed race woman, working her way towards promotion / change within the NSW police, at a time that ICAC (the Independent Commission Against Corruption) investigations are carefully dismantling the careers of many around her.  It's a nice touch to weave the reality of the ICAC investigations, and mentions of some of its more notorious participants into the daily working life of Ned - adding not just a sense of realism, but giving readers a timeframe without having to stress dates.  Perhaps there are a few elements in the plot that rely a little too much on co-incidence but frankly the way that THE OLD SCHOOL lays that out - well coincidences do happen.

Good characters, including some growth, a bit of backstory, a realistic feeling of people who aren't perfect, who make mistakes, who do good, and bad things.  What glues the elements of this book together are the characters that Newton has built.  Ned, her mentor and boss TC, her sister Linh and aunt MM, along with various other police and members of the Aboriginal community.  Whilst it's undoubtedly Ned's story, all the other players get their moments, and provide a great supporting role.  Newton also draws a very sensitive portrayal of being the child of a Vietnam vet in Australia, whilst slowly revealing the truth behind the death of Ned's parents, many years ago.

Social observation - exploring real things from real life that aren't right.  THE OLD SCHOOL does touch on a lot of issues - police and official corruption, organised crime, Aboriginal activism and land rights, fallout from the Vietnam war.  It uses all of these elements as aspects of the plot - there's never any sense of lecturing or pushing a barrow.  Rather each element is revealed as part of the ongoing investigation, the lives of the characters, as aspects of the revelations leading to a solution.

Finally realism.  Not to the point of user manual accurate - but a real feeling that there are elements of the story, the setting, the events that are being presented that have a believability about them (not that I actually care if they are or aren't 100% realistic or accurate - I just want to feel like the author knows what they are talking about).  THE OLD SCHOOL does this in spades.  

According to the blurb on THE OLD SCHOOL, Newton worked in the NSW police force for thirteen years, and this is her first novel.  If this is a debut - bring on a whole lot more of the series please.

Karin Fossum is an author who uses observation acutely, whilst being more than willing to play with both expectations and the outer reaches of readers' comfort zones.  Each of her books uses a different type of scenario to explore human behaviour and quirks.  In BAD INTENTIONS she is looking at the nature of manipulation, conscience, and absolute and total egocentricity.  She's also very very good at creepy - be it the characters or the setting, and in BAD INTENTIONS there's some of each.

BAD INTENTIONS is the ninth novel overall, seventh available in English, from Norwegian writer Fossum's series based around Inspector Konrad Sejer.  These books are all psychological thrillers, within a police procedural setting.  But really, the point of all of all of them is to look into a variety of different mindsets - that of the person committing the crime, and often also those observing or affected.

BAD INTENTIONS is about three men - Alex, Reilly and Jon.  Friends from childhood, Jon suffers from anxiety attacks and has such severe psychological problems that he's been hospitalised.  Alex and Reilly have taken him to their favourite place, a remote cabin in the forest beside a lake, as a treat - to try to cheer him up.  Restless the 3 friends row out onto Dead Water Lake, where Jon panics and jumps into the water.  One friend wants to save him, the other stops him.  A shared story is concocted, suicide is blamed, and they wait until the following morning before calling the police.  Konrad Sejer is assigned the case and he and his team quickly start to see inconsistencies, not only in the stories that the boys are telling, but also in Jon himself.  Suicide seems so unlikely for someone improving, developing relationships, sorting his life out.

This is a very clever plot that effortlessly demonstrates the snowballing affect of attempted cover ups.  In this case, the cover-up of Jon's death is just yet another link in a chain of lies and bad choices (intentions if you like) that goes way back.  But as with any of Fossum's books - it's not just about the cover-up, BAD INTENTIONS is also about friendship, damaged people and breathtaking ruthlessness.

Best of all, BAD INTENTIONS is extremely believable.  Okay so that's probably not a "best" thing, but this book describes events that are totally feasible - there isn't a single moment's reading where you are left thinking "no, surely not".  Cleverly written, insightful and informative, this is a book that is suspenseful and entertaining whilst also being extremely thought-provoking.  Exactly what you'd expect from this fantastic series.

BENEATH THE BLEEDING is the fifth book in the Tony Hill / Carol Jordan series from Scottish writer Val McDermid.  Which fans of this writer will already know.  Fans will also know that anybody as daft as me, who would leave this book on the review pile for as long as I have, is really missing out on a very good thing.

Now there are plenty of serial or multiple killer books floating around out there, and many readers are well over the whole idea, but you do have to give a moment's thought to revising that attitude when the writer is as talented and assured as McDermid.  BENEATH THE BLEEDING grabs the reader from the opening scenes - when a star footballer is admitted to hospital, dying slowly with nobody able to identify the cause.  And therein lies the whole pattern of this book - nothing is obvious, nothing is initially as it seems, nobody is quite what they are stacked up to be.  Nothing makes sense.  Not the series of poisonings, using very obscure toxins.  Not the bomb exploding in a football stadium being obviously a terrorist attack.  Not the friendship / ongoing dance between Tony and Carol.  Not the relationship between Tony and his mother.

There are some serious complications in Carol's investigation of these poisonings.  Firstly Tony's laid up in hospital - his leg badly broken by a psychiatric patient off his medication and out of control.  Tony's insight in investigations has progressed to the point where you might call it "profiling" but it's much more than that.  It's all about thinking his way into the killer's head - giving Carol and her team insights into why / how or what the killer might be doing / feeling / seeing / trying to achieve.  It's harder to do that when you're laid up in a leg brace in a hospital bed, and you cannot see the reactions of people, can't direct the questioning.  Add to that Tony's frustrated by his infirmity and confused by his mother's presence at his bedside.  The terrorist bombing adds its own complications bringing the specialist squad to town - not only do they take over the bombing investigation, they do their darned best to bully boy, huff, puff and generally stuff it up into the bargain.  And they don't accept input from Carol's team - who are a crack squad in their own right, and they know their own patch very very well. 

I hadn't read a Tony Hill / Carol Jordan book for a while - I think what little of the TV series I watched put me off a little.  The Tony Hill of the books is a complicated, tricky individual - very much a "physician heal thyself" sort of a character.  Jordan's equally complicated, prickly, determined.  It's very easy to see how a friendship has developed between these two characters, and how the ever-present potential romance is almost threatening - rather than something comforting that they should be working towards.  Ultimately, what comes out of BENEATH THE BLEEDING is a good, nicely twisty plot, a lot of tension and some seriously paced action.  There's a good ensemble cast, although the concentration on the two main characters does mean that they disappear a little into the background.  There's a good balancing of the personal and the professional, as well as the frustration and elation of difficult investigations and the pressures that Tony and Carol both feel - from others and from themselves. 

INSIDE DOPE by Paul Thomas won the inaugural Ned Kelly Award and I blinked and then struggled to get my hands on a copy.  I managed to track down GUERILLA SEASON years ago, and then not so long ago at the end of a long quest I found a copy of INSIDE DOPE.  But still the search went on.  The first book in the IHAKA series - OLD SCHOOL TIE continued to evade me.  So you can imagine the joy when THE IHAKA TRILOGY arrived.  I was so pleased that it jumped a considerable number of books to the top of the reviewing pile.

I just love these books.  I love the settings, I love the humour, the quality of the plots and all of the characters.  I love the way that Tito Ihaka is a central character, but not necessarily THE central character.  These are very much ensemble cast books with Tito and others never taking the entire focus.  I also love the way that these books are not necessarily straight-forward police procedurals, although they do involve police investigations (and ex-police investigations) and journalistic investigations and a whole bunch of things happening all at once.  Making Ihaka not the entire focus of these books is quite an achievement as he's a larger than life sort of bloke.  Maori, toe treading, unconventional, he's balanced beautifully against his very proper, very buttoned up, very Irish, dour boss Ulsterman Finbar McGrail.  These two are a wonderful unlikely pairing - very very different, yet understanding of each other and able to work together in the most unlikely of partnerships.

Each of the three books in the trilogy stand up really well on their own, but presented in this book together, they also show just how much Paul Thomas must have enjoyed writing these stories.  OLD SCHOOL TIE is all about the suspected suicide of a man who had it all.  It's not until freelance journalist Reggie Sparks' investigation connects this man to the 24-year old suicide of a teenage girl at a private school ball, that things really start to move.  This opening book sets up a style, a series of characters and a great sense of New Zealand place.  Oh and a feud between the Sydney Mafia and a Maori gang.  The second book, INSIDE DOPE, involves a race for the lost treasure of the Mr Asia drug syndicate between a rogue American narcotics agent, the CIA, Ihaka, an ex-cop and assorted family and hangers on.  The final book GUERILLA SEASON has Ihaka looking into a series of very high profile murders, all in the name of an unknown terrorist group.  

Cleverly each of these books weaves a little truth into the fiction (Mr Asia / the terrorist group with connections to the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior), whilst also incorporating a hefty dose of humour, some sad moments, some clever plots and some magnificently lunatic goings on.  You can probably tell from this review - I loved the two books I'd previously read, I loved reading them again, I loved the first book and I loved having all 3 in the one trilogy.  And it was most definitely not a trial to read three Ihaka books in a row - it's a bit of a trial knowing that's it for the time being.  Hopefully just the time being.

(Paul Thomas is the author of seven works of fiction.  In addition to the Ihaka novels there are two Sydney-based crime novels (Final Cut and The Empty Bed), as well as collection of short stories (Sex Crimes) and a non-crime novel (Work in Progress).)

Okay, so before we go too much further SO COLD THE RIVER came with a media release that flagged it as, amongst other things an "explosive thriller" and "supernatural horror".  Not exactly a recipe for my perfect book.  Having said that, there have been plenty of reading examples in my recent past that make me aware that my "recipe" is a very fluid thing.

Eric Shaw is down and out.  A disgraced movie maker, separated from his wife, he's in Chicago making "life portraits" for people on video - think weddings, parties, and funerals.  During one of these funerals, Shaw is approached by Alyssa who wants him to make a documentary of the life of her father-in-law Campbell Bradford.  The family knows very little about the billionaire head of the family, except that his hometown is West Baden in Indiana.  Alyssa also hands over a very old bottle of Pluto Water which Campbell has held onto for many years, tying him to not just that small town, but a large part of its own history.  This small, mysterious, smelly, murky water bottle is the key to Shaw going to West Baden and somewhere a whole lot stranger.

The language used in SO COLD THE RIVER was quite beautiful in places, the basic bones of story intriguing.  An elderly, private man and what happened to him, and this small town over all those years.  The author is also doing something that I really like with dialogue: it's crisp, pointed, realistic.  There's also the sense of pace and suspense that you want from a first class thriller.  They come with an extremely hefty dose of the supernatural, the paranormal.  It is absolutely intrinsic to the way that the story unfolds and is told.  Undoubtedly Michael Koryta is a very good writer, as I stayed with this book even as I found this increasingly alternative reality more and more unconvincing.

Unfortunately, the supernatural elements were simply laid on so thick that suspension of my disbelief would have required engineering greater than the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge.  I'm also not sure I understand the inclusion of horror in the definitions, as there didn't seem to be many of the standard elements I expect with that genre - so if you're normally nervous of that, there's not a lot that should concern you about that.  

Undoubtedly this is a book for readers with a higher tolerance for the supernatural elements being a core component of the story.  Perhaps that's the difference between SO COLD IS THE RIVER and other books that I've read and enjoyed recently.  The supernatural in SO COLD IS THE RIVER is an intrinsic part of the way that this story unfolds - there's no getting around it, there's no balancing of a fantasy and reality.  To be fair there's no attempt, no pretence, an overt declaration that this fantastical series of events is the point of the book.  Because of that it's most likely a book for people who really like fantasy, the fantastical.. the supernatural.  It's likely to also be a book for dedicated fans of Michael Koryta's writing.  For the rest of us, well I've not had the pleasure of reading any of Kortya's "straight" crime fiction but I'm going to have to rectify that.

Quick comments, rather than a full review, but for those that aren't aware - this is a book about the notorious South Australian "Snowtown" killings.  There's only ever been a couple of other books that have taken me longer to read - KILLING FOR PLEASURE has been picked up, read a bit and put down since 2006.

Not because of the writing, or the analysis or even the nature of the crimes - this book covers one of those completely inexplicable, sad, pointless, horrible crimes that really did happen - as unlikely as that could possibly be.  It also attempts to look for some answers, albeit seemingly on the basis of the author's own research - there appears to be little by way of official explanations or consideration. Ultimately this was a very difficult book to read because this is real life and this is about the nature of a place and society that allowed twelve people (they know about) to disappear over seven years. 

Australian readers could probably be forgiven for slightly different expectations when sitting down to read a book labelled "The New Peter 'Mad Max' Maxwell mystery".  This isn't our Mad Max - this is a particularly English style of Mad Max more than a hemisphere away from our own version.

Peter Maxwell is a History teacher, head of sixth form, and a slightly older man with a considerably younger partner, DS Jacquie Carpenter.  And a baby son Nolan, a love of bicycles, a decidedly cavalier attitude to keeping ones nose out of matters that don't concern you, and an almost stubborn inability to leave well enough alone.

Whilst this book isn't exactly a fit for the small English village style mystery, there's definitely a hefty dose of the English eccentric about Mad Max.  And there is a lot of humour in these books - and there is absolutely nothing subtle about most of that.  To the point where it does get a tad annoying, as there's something very predictable about Max's behaviour; Jacquie's reactions; Jacquie's bosses exasperation; everyone's relationship with young Nolan; the kids from school that Max runs into; Max's colleagues at school; Jacquie and Max's "unmarried state" and all those other little elements the reader is constantly beaten over the head with.

Now I will admit there were times reading this book that I could have lived with a whole lot less of the forced eccentricity of Mad Max, but it's not like the author makes any apology for that aspect of the books (I've read others before this one), and somehow, despite a niggling sense of irritation, Max is sort of endearing, and the quality of the plots, which aren't necessarily flat or single-threaded make these books very readable. 

Undoubtedly another candidate for readers who are looking for something on the lighter side, the humour will appeal to many many readers, as will Max's relationships with his students and his young son.  If you've not read any of this 'Mad Max' series and you like this very English style of book - then I can recommend them.  As with most of these relationship based series, it wouldn't hurt to try to read the books in order, but it's also not going to matter that much if you dip in wherever you can get your hands on a copy.

BLOOD IN THE COTSWOLD is an entry in the (somewhat unimaginatively named, it has to be said) Cotswold Series from British author Rebecca Tope.

Central character Thea Osborne and her dog Hepzie house-sit.  They do this quite a bit, and in this book they are in the quiet little village of Temple Guiting.  Thea's partner DS Phil Hollis is joining them for a quiet, and hopefully romantic, celebration of their first-year anniversary.  Of course nothing goes to plan, and Hollis puts his back out, meaning he's on the spot when an upturned old tree reveals a skeleton.

The discovery of the skeleton leads to a range of different possible identities and some local sleuthing, somewhat outside proper protocol by both Hollis and Thea, albeit with Hollis rather restricted in his movements because of his back.

There's some nice asides throughout this book taking you through some of the history of this village, and there's that light touch - not quite cozy (in the recipe and cat's vein), that you can expect from this type of very British, small town, "Midsomer" style of books.

And that's really the main point of this book - that small village; idyllic looking, murder and mayhem lurking beneath the surface countryside; slightly eccentric characters; with a combination of official and non-official investigators of which there are a lot of excellent examples in British crime fiction.  

BLOOD IN THE COTSWOLDS fits right in with that whole sub-genre (whatever it's called).  Non-confrontational stories, in this example with an up-to-date mature age relationship, it's not a stretch to imagine that this book (and the series) is just the thing for readers looking for a little romance, a little humour and a touch of murder and mayhem without the overt gore and angst of other forms of crime fiction.  Even if you're not a dedicated fan of this style (and goodness knows I normally prefer to dance on the dark side), BLOOD IN THE COTSWOLD was a good, solid and interesting plot, with a believable couple at the centre of the investigation, dedicated but not overly romantic and unrealistic.  All in all good fun, light entertainment and a very nice way to spend a cold winter's Sunday.  

NEST OF VIPERS is the second book in the Empress of Rome series.  Author Luke Devenish has a resume that seems to hint at an ability to build a fantasy world.  A novelist, screenwriter, playwright and Lecturer, Devenish was a Script Producer with Neighbours and a writer on Home and Away.  Ancient Rome in Devenish's hands is a complicated, gory, deadly, lustful, obsessive place full of elaborate and complicated characters (maybe that's where the Neighbours and Home and Away comparisons have to stop...although I'd expect that comment's going to get me more hate mail).

NEST OF VIPERS comes with a media release opening line of "Sex, Murder and Intrigue in Ancient Rome", and that's about the right order if you look at it as a list of ingredients.

Devenish has built an incredibly detailed, rich version of Ancient Rome, an astounding place, populated by an equally astounding number of quite unpleasant characters.  The three main characters in this book - locked in a lethal rivalry are not above using anybody or anything to advance their own causes.  But it is not just Agrippina, Apicata and Livilla who are manoeuvring, there are equally elaborate machinations going on amongst the slave populations of Rome and within the male leadership group.

Not having read the first book of this series definitely seemed to leave me at somewhat of a loss as I struggled to work out who was who, what sides everyone was on and where the relationships and power-bases fitted together.

Aside from that slight confusion it has to be said - there are elements of the sex and violence in this book that aren't for the faint hearted.  This is a no holds barred use of sex, violence, manipulation, cruelty and intrigue that people more used to a slightly less confrontational version of Ancient Rome might find a little unpalatable.  Having said that, there's quite a feeling of reality, albeit a very unpalatable reality, about the society in which NEST OF VIPERS takes place.

I will confess to not being much of a fan of Ancient Rome epics, and there were some aspects of NEST OF VIPERS that gave me a few problems - it seemed that the sex and sexual violence was dwelt upon, almost revelled in a little too much, and to be frank, I got hopelessly lost in the names of people for a while until I finally managed to get it all straight in my own aging brain.  The Empress of Rome series would definitely, however, be a set of books for any reader who loves this period of time, and is comfortable with some overt sexual violence, manipulation and confrontation in their historical worlds.

SILK CHASER is the third novel set within the Australian Racing Industry by ex-strapper, trainer and punter Peter Klein. These books, unsurprisingly, have a fantastic sense of place and reality within that setting, covering the difficulties and vagaries of the Sport of Kings from exactly those viewpoints - strapper, trainers and punters as well as bookmakers, stewards, security and other people who work in and around the tracks and horses, through to the occasional racetrack visitors - the full range of hangers-on.

In SILK CHASER there are all these sorts of characters, and a serial killer.  Targeting young, female strappers somebody is killing them brutally.  The affect of this gets particularly close to Klein's central character - John Punter - when a strapper from his father and brother's stables is one of the victims.  Punter is not the only person worried about this killer though, but then he's also worried about the relationship he's developing with new girlfriend Maxine.

The settings of these books, and the characters who populate those settings are just terrific.  Granted my experience of the racing industry is pretty limited, and from a long-time ago, but everyone just rings so very true.  And that's consistent for all the characters - from the socialite girlfriend to Punter's pickpocket mate.  The settings are spot on as well - Punter moves around from track to track, and off track to home, his Pizza restaurant, and through a set of social events all over Melbourne with great aplomb, and with a wonderful laid back, laconic sense of Australian humour and wry observation.

Unfortunately, what doesn't work so well in SILK CHASER is the serial killer element.  Now I will admit to a profound boredom about the whole being in the head of the serial killer thing - let's face it, it has been done to death.  Having said that, it can still work provided the reader does feel like they are truly in the killer's head, or gets the feeling that the killer is one very scary individual.  Unfortunately in this book I never really felt like I was hearing an authentic voice, and because of that the killer wasn't a particularly foreboding presence, despite the high body count.  It isn't just a feeling of been there, done that, there was something not quite convincing about the serial killer viewpoints, the language, the tone that simply didn't work for me.

Which is a pity, as I do like the setting of these books, and I really like the character of John Punter.  Perhaps this is a book for readers who don't seem to have had to spend quite as much time in the heads of serial killers as a more frequent (okay, well fanatical) reader of crime fiction.  It may be that the voice will work if you're less (sadly) finely attuned to the mad, bad and most clinical of serial killer voices.

DARK MATTER is one of those books that I picked up with considerable happy anticipation, so was more than a little startled to find myself really struggling to get into the start of it.  Until a point at which I found I wasn't struggling and was completely absorbed.

And I suspect that's very much what the book is set out to do.  Set in Freiburg near the Black Forest, the book starts out with two men and their obsessions.  Their friendship begins at University, studying physics - Sebastian, retains his love of physics opting for academia, sharing his love of physics with his love for his wife Maike and young son Liam.  Oskar is less traditional, hanging onto many of the eccentricities of their university days - he goes onto research, pure physics.  Despite a falling out between the two, they continue to meet on the first Friday of every month and debate - argue - discuss late into the night.  Then Liam is kidnapped and Sebastian is told that he must kill a man to regain his son.  Understandably his life shatters, he feels set adrift from everybody and everything and he makes some choices which seem to the reader, the outsider, inexplicable.

It's through the early phase of the book that I really found myself struggling - firstly with the relationship between Sebastian and Oskar which, whilst interesting, didn't seem to be telling me anything in particular, and secondly with how Sebastian, a supposedly intelligent man, managed to let himself be manipulated to that point (despite father love and the desire to do anything to protect your child, without giving the plot away, there are factors which seem inexplicable).  

But enter the police Detective Schilf and things get really interesting - the book shifts focus from an almost mocking, frivolous tone into a profoundly emotional character study.  Not just a character study, this book quickly evolves into one in which the reader is forced to consider some hairy questions - what would you do if you had weeks or hours to live, one final case, and a guilty man in extenuating circumstances?

It's also at this point that the structure of the book begins to makes sense - and those chapter introductions stop being slightly quirky (Chapter one in seven parts.  Sebastian cuts curves.  Maike cooks.  Oskar comes to visit.   Physics is for lovers. / Chapter four in seven parts.  Rita Skura has a cat.  The human being is a hole in nothingness.  After a delay the detective chief superintendent enters the scene) and start to have a point - sometimes they ask a question / sometimes they state a thought to be explored / sometimes they just intrigue.  All in all it's at this point that DARK MATTER stops being a slightly darker version of TV's The Big Bang Theory and starts to become a character study of depth, layers and great emotional impact.

All in all I'd have to say, stick with the early part of DARK MATTER.  It's not crime fiction just for entertainment, and it's often confusing and slightly odd and there are parts of the book that will make you stop and think, and maybe back-track a bit.  But this is crime fiction for thought provocation and boy does it manage to do exactly that.

Originally published in the 1940's the Gervase Fen mysteries are one of those rights of passage for crime lovers.  Or at least they were in my house as I was growing up.  Vintage Books have done us all an enormous favour in turning their attention back to some of the classic books - and this set from Edmund Crispin is a real job to behold.  Now I have read a lot of these books before, but the chance to reread them, without having to rely on falling on fragile old copies in second-hand bookshops is a joy.

And these are still very good crime stories.  Slightly eccentric in that vaguely bats sort of what-ho English style, they are built around a good solid foundation of a problem and a solution, no matter how odd the methodology might seem these days.

They are ultimately extremely enjoyable books - and Gervase Fen is a wonderfully eccentric, but extremely alert British investigating sort of chap - and I cannot recommend them highly enough - either as a reread or as a new experience if you're new to these classic English crime books.

There are a lot of reasons why I move heaven and earth to get hold of a Philip McLaren book when I hear there's a new one in the offing.  Firstly, as you can probably pick from the synopsis above, there's a very dry, understated wit in McLaren's story-telling style.  He's also writing about his own people, in a way that's both affectionate and exasperated.  He's also frequently very very pointed about the difficulties Aboriginal people in Australia face on a daily basis.

What McLaren is doing in MURDER IN UTOPIA is really interesting.  He runs a parallel story of a young Aboriginal girl in Australia, against a disgraced New York doctor both of whom collide in Utopia.  McLaren hastens to add this is not a book about the real Utopia - rather it's a fictional setting for his book, stating "I found the irony irresistible: imagine naming a place Utopia, a place so impoverished, so desolate."

The narrative moves forward bringing Jack Nugent to outback Australia and a community in need of medical services, as well as a community struggling against so many issues - alcohol, violence, neglect, poor housing, tensions with authorities.  All of these are told from both points of view - from the American, doctor, outsider with alcohol problems of his own, and from people within the community.  A ritual killing becomes a catalyst for people to adjust their views and for the depth of the problems in the community to be dragged into the daylight.

The structure of this book really works well, and whilst it is obvious that there is a lot of opinions and observations of reality being voiced within the narrative, fair enough.  In fact it's a privilege to read a fictional story addressing real-life issues in an Aboriginal voice, and the occasional stridency or maybe sledge-hammer adjustment of plot to make a point seemed perfectly reasonable in the circumstances.

Not a book for readers looking just for "pure entertainment" MURDER IN UTOPIA is a book for readers that want to learn something about issues we should be more aware of, written by somebody who obviously knows.