I've been meaning to do this forever and somehow just never get around to... but there's so much really good Australian Crime Fiction and True Crime floating around at the moment, I think a monthly recap of what's been read / what's been reviewed won't hurt (might actually remind me what I've not posted yet!).
The month started out on a very big high with WEB OF DECEIT by KATHERINE HOWELL - which is just a wow of a book. Read, reviewed and now (im)patiently waiting for another one.
Next up I got to read the latest, and first in a new series, by Robert Gott - THE HOLIDAY MURDERS. Now I've always been a bit of a fan of the Will Power series, but this one is also a fabulous book. Realistic, pointed without being gratutious, this bodes well for a wonderful new series. I hope Gott gets the acclaim he richly deserves.
Next up was one of Clan Destine Press's books - THE PRICE OF FAME by RC DANIELLS. I don't do paranormal very comfortably. It has to be very low key to not make me roll my eyes and tut a lot. For most of this book it was well played, although I wasn't convinced by the ramp up at the end (and yep, I do work with Lindy at CDP - but had no part of the business / editorial decisions on that book).
The ROUGH DIAMOND by KATHRYN LEDSON and this was probably the surprise of the month. Light, funny, madcap, romantic, silly, and yet ... grumpy me found it quite funny. Although I do wish we could lose the constant Stephanie Plum references. It's got to be putting off some readers and it doesn't really apply to every single lighter / romantic style book.
From there to a little true crime with TAMAM SHUD by KERRY GREENWOOD (which I still have to write up a review for). Part memoir, part hypothesis, I just can't see how this isn't going to be a book that readers are going to love or absolutely loathe - but more on that when I get the why I think that into something more than random mutterings.
From there the month ended with THE ICON MURDERS by NOEL MEALEY which is the second Syd Fielding book, and another one that I need to write up when I've got my thoughts off the roughly scribbled post it notes littered throughout the book and sorted into some coherence on the screen.
That's just the local books from February - there were a few from other locations as well which you can catch up on at the recent posts listing here.