Karen Chisholm
Particularly intriguing one from recent day's reading.
From the Blurb:
Cassy blew a collective kiss at them. 'See you in September,' she said. A throwaway line. Just words, uttered casually by a young woman in a hurry. And then she'd gone.
It was supposed to be a short trip - a break in New Zealand before her best friend's wedding. But when Cassy waved goodbye to her parents, they never dreamed that it would be years before they'd see her again.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's New Zealand piles.
From the Blurb:
"In the silence she could hear the oncoming hum, like a large flock approaching. She didn’t want to hear his story; she’d had enough of them."
Tess is on the run when she’s picked up from the side of the road by lonely middle-aged father Lewis Rose. With reluctance, she’s drawn into his family troubles and comes to know a life she never had.
Set in Masterton at the turn of the millennium, Tess is a gothic love story about the ties that bind and tear a family apart.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's pile of New Zealand fiction, the second in the Raymond Electromatic trilogy.
From the Blurb:
A blend of science fiction and stylish mystery noir featuring a robot detective: the stand alone sequel to Made to Kill
Karen Chisholm
One from a weekend's reading catch up on the New Zealand / Ngaio Marsh piles.
From the Blurb:
A SUICIDE. A MURDER. A CONSPIRACY.
DIGGING UP THE PAST CAN BE DEADLY . . .
A thirteen-year-old boy commits suicide.
A sixty-five-year old man dies of a heart attack.
Dan Forrester, ex-MI5 agent, is connected to them both.
And when he discovers that his godson and his father have been murdered, he teams up with his old friend, DC Lucy Davies, to find answers.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the New Zealand piles.
From the Blurb:
How do you protect your family when you can't remember who's hunting them? A gripping international thriller, perfect for fans of Lee Child and Mason Cross
A family in England is massacred, the father left holding the shotgun.
PC Lucy Davies is convinced he's innocent
A sleeper agent in Moscow requests an urgent meeting with Dan Forrester, referencing their shared past.
His amnesia means he has no idea who he can trust.
Karen Chisholm
Easter reading pile number whatever I'm up to now.
From the Blurb:
“I was aware of the weight of Spoole’s head, clutched against my stomach. I hadn’t thought of a head being something that was heavy to carry. Another new thing learned.”
Karen Chisholm
Starting off with this one over the Easter long weekend.
From the Blurb:
Army veteran Hunter Grant thought he had left war behind in Afghanistan – a conflict that left him with physical and psychological scars. But finding an unconscious girl in the Northland bush and gradually untangling her story involves him in a war of a different kind in his own country.
Karen Chisholm
From the current reading pile.
From the Blurb:
SUPERPOWERS SHOULD NOT BE WASTED ON THE YOUNG
Euphemia Sage watched helplessly as Jane, covered in blood, clutched her precious jewelry and was bundled into the Mercedes. Just a few days earlier she’d discovered that Alison, her mousy receptionist at Sage Consulting, had been working as a loan shark on the side. And now Alison, her husband and those thick-necked men in the cheap suits wanted the money back.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend pile
From the Blurb:
If art can capture a soul, what happens when one of those souls escapes?
When art appraiser Anita Cassatt is sent to catalogue the extensive collection of reclusive artist Leo Kubin, it isn’t only the chilly atmosphere of the secluded house making her shiver.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's pile (don't you love cool, slightly damp weekends!)
From the Blurb:
“We are The Division. This is what we do.”
A politician’s daughter goes missing in Turkey, as Russia bombs neighbouring Syria and chaos explodes throughout the Middle East. Rob Moore of Division 5 is sent from London to find her, but he’s a man with his own problems.
Karen Chisholm
From this damp (YEAHHHH) weekend's reading
From the Blurb:
Theft. Murder. Love Tested.
A priceless Shakespearean First Folio is stolen from an English manor house.
A man is dead.
Oxford student Stephanie Cooper is drawn into the dangerous criminal world of art theft when she meets attractive young detective Luke Spencer.
As her rock-star boyfriend tours Japan with his band, Stephanie and Luke's quest becomes personal as they follow an increasingly perilous trail that leads from Oxford to London, Paris and Venice.
Karen Chisholm
From the current reading pile.
From the Blurb:
The third novel in this Australian murder mystery series takes the reader behind the friendly laid-back facade of Darwin, Australia’s northern capital, into a world where a crocodile roams the waterways in search of revenge and evil ripples in the hearts of humans.
Karen Chisholm
From the current pile.
From the Blurb:
When Mickey got out of the fiasco that was Lehman Brothers, he thought he had left high-risk finance behind. Now he passes his days driving a London black taxi and filling in with the occasional domestic private investigation.
Karen Chisholm
One from the weekend's pile.
From the Blurb:
Peter Fraser was our greatest prime minister on the international stage. He proved it as World War Two was ending and he played a major part in shaping the United Nations. In the process he made enemies. He is back in New Zealand, where a plot is under way to kill him. If it is successful, New Zealand’s influence on the international stage ends and the country descends into chaos, a divided country ripe for international manipulation.
Karen Chisholm
And finally, from the past weekend.
From the Blurb:
Chapman Bouttell, an Australian homicide detective, is drawn violently back into a conspiracy he thought he’d escaped while serving in the Vietnam War when members of his former army unit were found murdered.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's reading pile.
From the Blurb:
A stranger just put Kelsey’s boyfriend in a coma. The worst part? She asked him to do it.
Karen Chisholm
A quick departure from the #yeahnoir pile.
From the Blurb:
“The Claremont”, an outdated, run-down apartment building, is thrown into turmoil when its latest and most celebrated resident, Crispin Fairchild, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is found murdered.
Karen Chisholm
From the NZ piles about the place - an historical novel set in Dunedin.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
I'm not going to pretend that today's been a day like any other. When the news of the death of the master of Australian Crime Fiction Peter Temple reached us yesterday, courtesy of a fellow august Australian writer it was a blow. It wasn't totally unexpected sure, there'd been rumours, but it was still one of those moments where a glass of whiskey and a short contemplation was required.
Karen Chisholm
Second from the reading pile from yesterday.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
An enforced day off yesterday with the power out for maintenance meant some reading catching up.
From the Blurb:
Police sergeant Harry Brent, working in Queenstown, New Zealand is accidentally shot by a hunter. While still on light duties he is posted to the Christchurch office to work on cold cases.
What does the difference between the shadows mean? Who is the body in the trench at Tekapo Military Camp? Harry’s eye for detail and his need to know set him on the path to answering these questions.
Karen Chisholm
A novella squeezed in amongst other things. Okay other things I should have been doing but still...
From the Blurb:
Sixteen-year old Heidi has always dreamed of being a society photographer for the rich and famous. Instead, her first film project plunges her into a world of subterfuge as she joins a courageous group of teenage protesters committed to saving orangutans in the wild.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the staggeringly varied #yeahnoir pile
From the Blurb:
It's Broadway in Reefton, the new, booming 1870s gold town.
Suspiciously, Gordon Trembath, a naive young police constable has been left in charge over Christmas and New Year. He is immediately faced with investigating a murder carried out by sly-groggers in the valley.
In the meantime, the town has been invaded by "a collection of scamps, card sharps, liars and chats who have come to town for the pickings available in the holiday season."
Karen Chisholm
From the was reading pile, this is fascinating.
From The Blurb:
Minnie Dean: the first – and only – woman to be hanged in New Zealand. Baby farmer and child murderer, or hardworking wife and mother, supporting her family by caring for unwanted children in a society that shunned her?
Karen Zelas explores the trials of Minnie Dean using a myriad of voices, including Dean’s own, from her childhood in Scotland to the gallows in Invercargill, 1895.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the past overdue for mention pile.
From the Blurb:
Martin Fallaway is dying. With no family to whom he can leave his surplus fortune, he holds a contest on his tropical island, where ten families compete to be the last team left in order to claim the prize of thirty million dollars.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the previously reading pile.
From the Blurb:
When Dean Bradley is brutally murdered for his new shoes, undertaker Ken Tamati does a lovely job on the corpse — but next morning, the body has vanished from the funeral parlour.
That day, a mysterious figure — witnesses give wildly conflicting descriptions — begins rescuing victims of assault all over Auckland and healing their horrific injuries with a dazzling light. They call him the Rainbow Man.
Karen Chisholm
And we're caught up for the moment - currently reading this one.
From the Blurb:
On Sundays peace was restored. He would lie down, dream and remember. He would enjoy. And later on the bell would ring. He would get up and walk downstairs. He would open the front door. And his life would come to an end . . .
Garda Inspector Michael McLoughlin is trying to enjoy his retirement – doing a bit of PI work on the side, meeting up with former colleagues, fixing up a grand old house in a genteel Dublin suburb near the sea.
Karen Chisholm
The follower of this blog will realise that I'm not prone to personal posts, but I need to apologise.
I'm very very behind with reviews, mentions, comments and generally things that those kind enough to send me review books would expect.
Karen Chisholm
From the piles of reading, sod all blogging I've been doing recently.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
From the wonderfulness that is the pile of New Zealand Crime fiction.
From the Blurb:
‘Cynthia can understand how Anahera feels just by looking at her body.’
Karen Chisholm
It's that time of the year where posting becomes erratic and reading consumes every spare moment. Sometimes life is hard ;)
From the Blurb:
“There was Polly’s tokotoko on the ground. Carved and polished, with its eel head, the snout inlaid with pāua. Alexia picked it up and cracked it across the cop’s shoulders. She raised it again and hit and hit. She would stop this.”
Karen Chisholm
Started this over the weekend - new crime fiction after a long break from Stella Duffy.
From the Blurb:
Life is good for Laurie and Martha. They have three great kids, a much-loved home in the countryside, and after years of struggle, Laura's career as an architect is taking off at last. Everything's perfect.
Except, it isn't.
Someone is about to walk into their happy family and tear it apart.
Karen Chisholm
Diving into my New Zealand piles at the moment, this one became this weekend's reading for no particular reason.
From the Blurb:
He’s lost his wife, his job, and his mana. So what now? A PI? He really couldn’t get used to it. Traipsing around after unfaithful wives and little old ladies’ lost dogs? Was this the future for Carlos Wallace? And what of the beautiful matakite? Wasn’t it a sin to fall in love with your cousin?
Karen Chisholm
Read this one last week. Obviously behind with the mentions!
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This over the weekend for a number of reasons. Firstly "ice". It was so mind-numbingly, life-threateningly hot here over the weekend I needed distraction. Then although set in Iceland, Nicol is a New Zealander and I'm back reading a lot of NZ fiction at the moment. Finally at 98 or so pages long it was a perfect filler between forays into the stinking horrible heat to try to keep livestock pointing in the right direction.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
From my weekend's reading, this thriller, first in a series based around US SEAL and a threat to the US mainland.
From the Blurb:
The fate of America lies in the hands of one team of US SEALs. The US mainland is under threat as never before. Osama bin Laden is dead, and the world can relax. Or can they? Remaining leaders of Al-Qaeda want revenge, and they want it against the USA. When good fortune smiles on them and the opportunity presents itself to use stolen weapons of mass destruction, it's Game On!
Karen Chisholm
It has been hot enough to cook outside - and I don't mean on a BBQ. It's deathly hot in these parts at the moment, so I am getting limited reading down, and not a lot of posting at all whilst we battle with the trials and tribulations of stinking heat and no water. I will catch up. It has to cool down again one day surely! Meanwhile something from the because I want to read it pile.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
I've been dipping into this collection now for a while, working my way through an amazing range of short stories, all set in Australia, written by local authors harking back to the style of Arthur Conan Doyle. As is always the way there's something for everyone in these.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Another from the over Christmas / New Year pile - this time a republished historical novel with heaps of interesting background to it.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Promised myself this would be my Boxing Day Test reading this year - which turned out to be the perfect choice, what with that awful wicket.
From the Blurb:
Say it's not so, but detective squads still put their faith in the whiteboard and texta, brainstorming difficult cases. Like this:
Karen Chisholm
I started this the other night and was enthralled from the start. For our first 2018 f2f bookclub gathering.
From the Blurb:
Heartbreaking, joyous, traumatic, intimate and revelatory, Reckoning is the book where Magda Szubanski, one of Australia’s most beloved performers, tells her story.
Karen Chisholm
Took a little break over Christmas / New Year. Did some reading (not enough). Did some work around the farm (too much). Melted in the heat (a lot). Drank some ridiculously lovely wine (never enough). Ate chocolate (mind your own business about how much). Read a Stuart MacBride novel that featured Roberta Steel which made me happy.
From the Blurb:
From the No. 1 bestselling author of the Logan McRae series, comes a standalone spinoff featuring DS Roberta Steel
Karen Chisholm
I'm behind with everything and bloody hate coming up with Top howevermany's so I'm not pretending to try anymore. Instead, a list of books that just nailed it this year. In no particular order, or quantity, although I have had a go at combining them into geographical locations so you know - result.
Australia
Fiction
Too Easy, J.M. Green (review to come at Newtown Review of Books, but this is the second book in the Stella Hardy series and it's required reading).
Karen Chisholm
Having now officially completely lost control of Mt TBR I'm randomly picking things based on some criteria or another. So I started this one over the weekend. Not sorry.
From the Blurb:
What happens when a drug dealer is forced to turn detective?
Meet Bill Murdoch, the world's most reluctant private investigator.
Karen Chisholm
A two sitting read from 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award winner. There's something about this author's work ...
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This has been sitting on the to be read pile for way too long.
From the Blurb:
Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.
The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.
Karen Chisholm
It's been busy in these parts but I have been getting a bit of reading done. Particularly pleased it was this one, straight from the very hard to put down camp.
From the Blurb:
When 25-year-old Bella Michaels is brutally murdered in the small town of Strathdee, the community is stunned and a media storm descends.
Karen Chisholm
I've jumped this up the queue because I needed a bit of a kickstart to get reading seriously again. It's working.
From the Blurb:
In 1999, a number of young women go missing in the Perth suburb of Claremont. One body is discovered. Others are never seen again. Snowy Lane (City of Light) is hired as a private investigator but neither he nor the cops can find the serial killer. Sixteen years later, another case brings Snowy to Broome, where he teams up with Dan Clement (Before It Breaks) and an incidental crime puts them back on the Claremont case.
Karen Chisholm
The usual suspects took a back seat as first-time crime writers Fiona Sussman, Finn Bell, and Michael Bennett swept the spoils at the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards in Christchurch on Saturday night.
The talented trio made history on several fronts at a special WORD Christchurch event hosted in Dame Ngaio’s hometown by Scorpio Books as part of nationwide NZ Bookshop Day celebrations.
Karen Chisholm
Another from New Zealand - this time set in a small town hiding lots of old secrets.
From the Blurb:
The body of missing tourist Bethany Haliwell is found in the small Coromandel town of Castle Bay, where nothing bad ever happens. News crews and journalists from all over the country descend on the small seaside town as old secrets are dragged up and gossip is taken as gospel.
Among them is Miller Hatcher, a journalist battling her own demons, who arrives intent on gaining a promotion by covering the grisly murder.
Karen Chisholm
One from the more recent piles because it intrigued, and now it's really compelling.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
I've not been getting much reading done for the last couple of weeks as I'm solo farming at the moment. Hopefully that will sort itself out in the next couple of days when my partner returns from an overseas work trip, and I'm taking to a relaxing chair for a few days :)
From the Blurb:
Everyone loves Summer Ryan. A model student and musical prodigy, she's a ray of light in the struggling small town of Grace, Alabama - especially compared to her troubled sister, Raine.
Karen Chisholm
There is no way in this world that a Rowland Sinclair book is going to lurk long on the reading piles around here - started this one last night. Want a Chrysler Airflow already.
From the Blurb:
Book 8 in the Rowland Sinclair Mystery Series.
Set against the glamorous backdrop of the 1930s in Australia and overseas, A Dangerous Language is the latest in the much loved, award winning Rowland Sinclair Mysteries.
Karen Chisholm
I'm blatantly cherry picking from the piles now.
From the Blurb:
Terrorism, politics and betrayals collide in this unputdownable, fast-paced thriller from a highly recognisable political insider.