AustCrimeFiction - All Blogs

Another fortnight's worth of activity, where the highlights were getting to read The Chancellor, Liars and Woman Missing, getting hold of Best Served Cold, Prize Catch and When it Rains and Opal as well as the new to me Boney Creek and The Grapevine. Got a lot of very good reading to come up in other words.

Reviews Posted

Death of a Countess, Jenny Harrison #yeahnoir

Highlights are the intentionally very slow savouring of Gunnawah (advance order it / you'll not be sorry), and reviewing Kill Yours, Kill Mine and Southern Aurora.

Reviews Posted

Shadow City, Natalie Conyer #auscrime

Leave The Girls Behind, Jacqueline Bublitz #yeahnoir

Took a week off work so this is the last fortnight's worth of activity. Highlights were reviewing The Call & The Crag, whilst Gunnawah arriving was beyond exciting (fellow ex-twitterers - the author is the inimitable Ronni Salt).

Reviews Posted

The Kamogawa Food Detectives, Hisashi Kashiwai

The Body at Back Beach, K.J. Sweeney #yeahnoir

Shortlists for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards have been announced:

#amreading: The Chancellor, Kati Marton / Find Us, Benjamin Stevenson

#amlistening: We Solve Murders, Richard Osman

#amreading: Reservation for Murder, June Wright / Gunnawah, Ronni Salt / Don't Eat Me, Colin Cotterill / The Chancellor, Kati Marton

#amlistening: 

#amreading: The Woman Who Knew Too Little, Olivia Wearne #auscrime

#amlistening: A Line to Kill, Anthony Horowitz

#amreading:  Southern Aurora, Mark Brandi #f2fbookclub / Did I Ever Tell You This? Sam Neill #memoir

#amlistening: The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo #audio

#amreading:  The Body at Back Beach, K.J. Sweeney  #yeahnoir

#amlistening: The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo #audio

#amreading:  The Body at The Back Beach, K.J. Sweeney  #yeahnoir

#amlistening: Butter, Asako Yuzuki 

#amreading:  Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies, Catherine Mack

#amlistening: Dish, Rhys Nicholson

#amreading:  The Crag, Claire Sutherland

#amlistening: The Little Sparrow, Seishi Yokomizo (it's a long book!)

#amreading:  Death in a Lonely Place, Stig Abell

#amlistening: The Little Sparrow, Seishi Yokomizo

#amreading:  In the Blink of An Eye, Jo Callaghan (#ukcrime)

#amlistening: The Hunted, Gabriel Bergmoser (#auscrime)

#amreading:  The Chasm, Bronwyn Hall (#auscrime)

#amlistening: The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz (#ukcrime)

A full media kit for the short story, The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night is now available at the author's site:  https://www.gpak.org/

2024 Best Novel longlist

The longlist for the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel is out. It's an interesting mix of familiar and fresh names: 

•     DICE by Claire Baylis (Allen & Unwin)

•     THE CARETAKER by Gabriel Bergmoser (HarperCollins)

•     RITUAL OF FIRE by DV Bishop (Macmillan)

•     BIRNAM WOOD by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press)

The highlights this week were many - reviewing Hitwoman's Guide and Double Jeopardy, and reading The Call (which is a really good debut) are top of the list.

Reviews Posted

The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt, Mark Mupotsa-Russell (#auscrime)

Double Jeopardy, Stef Harris (#yeahnoir)

So the highlights of this week were adding No One Will Know by Rose Carlyle to the next up list, and finishing The Crag by Claire Sutherland which will be reviewed at Newtown Review of Books. I'm going to also have to get hold of The Beijing Conspiracy in something other than audio - liked the story but the narrator did not work for me. On the upside I'm enjoying Every Time I Go On Vacation, Somebody Dies much more than I thought I would.

Highlights - getting my hands on 17 Years Later, and starting The Crag (which so far has nailed it's Victorian Rural setting AND gotten a good story off the ground).

Reviews Posted

Disaster Inc, Caimh McDonnell (#audio)

Expectant, Vanda Symon (#yeahnoir)

Added to the Piles

The Greater Good, Tim Ayliffe (#auscrime)

Yellowface, Rebecca F. Kuang

Highlight this week was posting about Dice by Claire Baylis even if the book is very challenging, and I was really happy to start Death in a Lonely Place which is a new to me series. 

Reviews Posted

Bunny, S.E. Tolsen (#yeahnoir)

I Will Miss You Tomorrow, Heine Bakkeid (#scandinoir)

Highlights of this week included writing up all 4 reviews of 4 terrific books, and all those added to the piles are much anticipated. The read list was stellar, all in all a pretty damn good week.

Reviews Posted

The Caretaker, Gabriel Bergmoser (#auscrime / #yeahnoir)

She's A Killer, Kirsten McDougall (#yeahnoir)

Highlights from last week were definitely getting to remember El Flamingo which was a really fun read, and getting my hands on the second Caius Beauchamp novel, which I basically read in two sittings, after powering through She's a Killer, before finding myself glued to The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt. I suspect not a lot of other things are going to happen this week.

Reviews Posted

Death of a Foreign Gentleman, Steven Carroll (#auscrime)

Another week where some reviews were written, and some excellent books read. The highlights were definitely getting hold of the second in the Caius Beauchamp series - The In Crowd and even though it's the wrong way to describe it - The Settlement by Jock Serong is seering, beautiful, distressing and confronting, 

Reviews Posted

The Queen of Poisons, Robert Thorogood (#ukcrime / library)

A bit of catching up happened last week and nobody is more surprised than me. Broken Bay and Dark Arena were definitely standout reads, and the one I'm reading at the moment - The Other Half by Charlotte Vassell so shouldn't be working for me and I cannot put the darn thing down.

Reviews Posted

Broken Bay, Margaret Hickey (#auscrime)

With Winter Comes Darkness, Robbie Neal (#auscrime)

Highlights of this week were definitely The Dead of Winter, Lies and Deception and remembering the other two recently reviewed - Chasing the Dragon and The Ritual of Fire.

Reviews Posted

Lies and Deception, Laraine Stephens (#auscrime)

Chasing the Dragon, Mark Wightman (#yeahnoir)

Reading done, couple of books reviewed (which were both good), and many added to the piles.

Reviews Posted

Death Holds the Key, Alexander Thorpe (#auscrime)

The Fall Between, Darcy Tindale (#auscrime)

Added to the Piles

The Dead of Winter, Stuart MacBride (#audio)

It's been "yet another week" in these parts - we're now dealing with a very ill goat. You might think we're not very good at this animal thing, but alas they, like us, are aging (most of them arrived at the farm at around the same time as us), and it's a brutally cold, dry spell at the moment so supplementary feeding, managing bedding needs, and what's become such a complicated medication and supplement schedule that we now have a project plan to keep track of it all has been required. Anyway, long way of saying, some reviews are still outstanding.

Stuff happened, not enough but things have a habit of getting in the way of things.

Reviews Posted

Limberlost, Robbie Arnott (library / f2f bookclub)

The Woman on the Island, Ann Cleeves (Vera Stanhope #9.5) (#library)

Going Zero, Andrew McCarten (#yeahnoir)

Slowly, ever so slowly, getting my act together again. It's been cold here and we've finally had a little bit of rain so things feel slightly less on edge. Which is probably helping. Reviews were done, books were added to the piles and books were read.

Reviews Posted

Hope, Rosie Batty (library)

Murder by Candlelight, Faith Martin (library)

It's been another week with another death in the beloved animal family and stuff just doesn't seem to happen with the enthusiasm that it once did. Got some reading done but very little productive screen time as in posting reviews. Will dust off the piles of notes and get going again asap.

Reviews Posted

None

Added to the Piles

Hope, Rosie Batty (library)

The One and Only Dolly Jamieson (library / audio)

The Devil Stone, Caro Ramsay (library / audio)

Mrs Sidhu's Dead and Scone, Suk Pannu (library / audio)

Ever get to the point where you start to wonder if the "staying alive until I get this pile of unread books read" plan wasn't such a great idea. I'm there now, so compensating by at least trying to get the waiting for review list under some control. 

Reviews Posted

The Quarry, Kim Hunt (#yeahnoir)

The Last Devil to Die, Richard Osman

Eurovision took up a lot of time and energy so I've been not posting much, although lots has been happening. Not just a lot of time devoted to sheer silly fun. Which we really needed as this drought (sorry / rainfall deficiency as they call it when it's in the regions out here ...) really takes hold. 

Reviews Posted

One of Us is Missing, B.M. Carroll (#auscrime)

So that catching up thing ... didn't happen. Stand by, you never know what will happen this week.

Reviews Posted

Added to the Piles

Return to Blood, Michael Bennett (#yeahnoir)

Read

The Water's Dead, Catherine Lea (#yeahnoir)

Crossing the Line, Nick McKenzie (#f2fbookclub)

Started out thinking, right catching up to be done. Needless to say, not the most successful of good intentions. In my defence it's still dangerously dry in these parts which is slowing everything but the essentials to a crawl.

Reviews Posted

Sanctuary, Garry Disher (#auscrime)

It Takes a Town ... to solve a Murder, Aoife Clifford (#auscrime)

Still slow but steady.

Reviews Posted

Sanctuary, Garry Disher (#auscrime)

Added to the Piles

His Favourite Graves, Paul Cleave (#yeahnoir)

Read

Currently Reading

Dead Man's Sins, Caimh McDonnell (audio) (Which I'm also listening to)

The arrivals slowed down this week, as did just about everything else. 

Reviews Posted

None but there are a few that are on the way (hopefully).

Added to the Piles

Dead Man's Sins, Caimh McDonnell (audio) (Which I'm also listening to

Read

Mami Suzuki: Private Eye, Simon Rowe (#yeahnoir)

Another week in which more New Zealand (#yeahnoir) based crime fiction was included on the site. The final list of the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards entries is at at Ngaio Marsh Entrants. Then there were a few reviews and some books read.

Reviews Posted

The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill (#auscrime)

A week in which rather a lot of New Zealand (#yeahnoir) based crime fiction arrived in these parts. I'm putting together a list of the 2024 Ngaio Marsh Awards entries at Ngaio Marsh Entrants - there's more to be added.

On the upside no animals died this week. And a new 6.5 year old Aussie Terrier arrived so no publishable reviews, unless you want some observations of how much wee 3 ex-breeding / not house trained dog's can produce in a few days whilst territorial issues are resolved. (Lots...)

Reviews Posted

None 

Added to the Piles

Dragon's Eye, A.C. Edwards

Dragon's Claw, A.C. Edwards

Activity for the week ending 8th March in which the general all purpose clusterfuck that is our lives these days proceeded apace. One elderly alpaca died, we're looking down the barrel of a severe heatwave with fires still mouldering away nearby and there's no way I'm ever going to catch up ever again. Maybe.... on the upside, an inhouse library database is slowly starting to fall into place with the express purpose of trying to get my act together. Ha.

Activity for the week ending 1st March, 2024 a week in which we sat waiting to see if the bushfire situation would finally get us. Apologies if you're waiting for anything from me. 

Reviews Posted

To the River, Vikki Wakefield

I Am Behind You, John Ajvide Lindqvist

Activity for the week ending 23rd February, 2024 in which things started well and then went to hell in a firestorm. Parts of Western Victoria are still under threat and this week's not looking great for many areas. 

Reviews Posted

Rings on Water, Madeleine Eskedahl

Death Off Camera, B.M. Allsopp

Activity for the fortnight ending 16th February on AustCrime, a period in which it took quite a while to get into the mood again.

Reviews Posted

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

Added to the Piles

Gone, Glenna Thomson (AusCrime)

Lowitja: The Authorised Biography of Lowitja O'Donogue, Stuart Rintoul

Activity for the week ending 2nd February on AustCrime

Reviews Posted

The Slow Roll, Simon Lendrum

The Good Dog, Simon Rowell

The Concierge, Abby Corson

The Berlin Traitor, AW Hammond

Activity for the week ending 26th January 2024 on AustCrimeFiction:

Reviews Posted

Slow Horses, Mick Herron

Paradise, Patricia Wolf

Mila and the Bone Man, Lauren Roche

Added to the Piles

Angels in the Moonlight, Caimh McDonnell

Activity for the week ending 19th January 2024 on AustCrimeFiction:

Reviews Posted

And Away..., Bob Mortimer

In Her Blood, Nikki Crutchley

Added to the Piles

Femicide, Pascal Engman

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver (f2f Bookclub read)

Activity for the week ending 12th January 2024 on AustCrimeFiction:

Reviews Posted

The Marlow Murder Club / Death Comes to Marlow, Robert Thorogood

The Pain Tourist, Paul Cleave

São Paulo Noir, edited by Tony Bellotto

Activity for the week ending 5th January 2024 on AustCrimeFiction:

Reviews Posted

If That's What it Takes, Les Allen

Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, Benjamin Stevenson

Notorious, Olivia Hayfield

This year for Christmas I got much wanted plant milk maker and a dose of Covid....

We had planned on a bit of a break between Christmas 2023 and the New Year, which we got. Not quite as hoped though. Was going to spend what was probably going to be hot weather doing a final yearly review catch up and clearing the decks ready to be more organised in 2024 (HA!) but we got Covid over Christmas which on the upside meant quite a bit of reading got done. On the downside, sod all of anything else. Still coughing up a lung on a regular basis but let's start as we're hoping to go on.

Late, as expected, but November in the reading stacks was made up of

Currently Reading

I just had to start The Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes as soon as it lobbed. 10+ years waiting for it, and it is worth dropping everything. 

The other book I've been dipping into is Sao Paulo Noir - a collection of short stories that has been lurking around here for years. 

Because everything's always all over the place, I thought maybe if I started a note of what I'm reading, and what's next up in the piles I might (MIGHT) have a small chance of keeping track. Ha.

Just Finished

#auscrime: The Drowning by Bryan Brown - first full novel from this actor turned writer. Review asap.

History and humanity: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists plunge readers into page-turning tales about who we are

The winners were announced in November, all of which are books WELL worth reading.

BEST NON-FICTION

WINNER:  MISSING PERSONS by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)     

History and humanity: 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards finalists plunge readers into page-turning tales about who we are

From heart-wrenching tales of families torn apart by disappearance or deportation to examinations of historic crimes, swindles, and injustices to page-whirring novels about former cops and former convicts, the finalists for the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Awards offer a diverse array of storytelling excellence