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)
Murder by Natural Causes, Helen Erichsen (#audio)
Blood & Ink, Brett Adams (#auscrime)
Added to the Piles
The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt, Mark Mupotsa-Russell (#auscrime)
The Crag, Claire Sutherland (#auscrime)
Outback, Michael Davies (#auscrime / #audio)
The In Crowd, Charlotte Vassell (#ukcrime / library)
Read
The Other Half, Charlotte Vassell (library / UKCrime)
The Safe House, Cameron Ward (#auscrime)
The Settlement, Jock Serong (f2fbookclub)
Currently Reading
The Bat, Jo Nesbo (still dipping in and out of this one)
After Story, Larissa Behrendt
She's A Killer, Kirsten McDougall (#yeahnoir)
Next Up
The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt, Mark Mupotsa-Russell (#auscrime)
The Marlow Murder Club is on the hunt for a killer... Geoffrey Lushington, Mayor of Marlow, dies suddenly during a town council meeting. When traces of aconite―also known as the queen of poisons―are found in his coffee cup, the police realize he was murdered. But who did it? And why?
The police bring Judith, Suzie, and Becks in to investigate the murder as civilian advisors right from the start, so they have free rein to interview suspects and follow the evidence to their heart's content… which is perfect because Judith has no time for rules and standard procedure. But this case has the Marlow Murder Club stumped. Who would want to kill the affable mayor of Marlow? How did they even get the poison into his coffee? And is anyone else in danger? The Marlow Murder Club is about to face their most difficult case yet...
I met my husband on the same day I committed my very last murder. There's a joke in there somewhere, about ending two men's lives.
Olivia Hodges used to do horrible things - back when she worked for a Spanish crime syndicate - but she fled that life and moved home to Australia, building a family in the hippie, hipster community of the Dandenong Ranges.
When a small-time criminal gang brings tragedy to her family, superstitious Olivia believes it's the universe demanding payment for her crimes. She wants revenge, but has to get it without adding to her karmic debt. So she creates situations where these bad men get themselves killed through their anger, ego and greed - all while trying to mislead the cops long enough to finish what she started.
A double life with a single purpose, getting away with murder. Cilla is a 22-year-old contract killer, specialising in the dry a murder interpreted as death by natural causes. Her main client, Vladimir Haugr, is the owner of TGR's bridge club in London. In return for a flat, a retainer and expenses, Cilla does five jobs a year. She occasionally works freelance. Neither strong, nor beautiful, Cilla isn't your typical female protagonist. In fact, she is so unremarkable as to render her almost invisible, an advantage in her line of work. She has survived because she is clever, stubborn and lucky. But Cilla knows that, statistically, her luck is about to run out. She must find a way to reinvent herself. Soon.
Will the mountain give up its secrets? While walking on an isolated track in the windswept Wimmera, rock-climber Skye discovers the body of a young woman. The body has injuries that suggest a rock-climbing accident, but it's been found more than 5km from the nearest cliffs at Mount Arapiles.
Literature professor Jack Griffen has recently suffered a nervous breakdown. His wife has divorced him and she and their adult daughter have moved to the USA. Into the void steps exchange student Hieronymus Beck, claiming to be the professor’s greatest fan.
But everything changes when Jack finds Hiero’s list. Five sheets of paper. Five ways to commit a murder.
His student has told him he’s writing a crime novel, but is that all he is doing? Caught up in his protégé’s dangerous game, the mild-mannered professor finds himself asking how far will he go to save a life. As far as murder?
A brand new novel that continues the legacy of ‘Master of the Genre’ Desmond Bagley by the co-author of Domino Island.
Insurance investigator Bill Kemp had never wanted to trek deep into Australia’s remote interior. But when his clients Sophie and Adam Church inherit an abandoned opal mine, triggering some explosive long-lost secrets, they—and Kemp—find themselves facing an unknown enemy even more deadly than the vast, forbidding wilderness of the Outback…
The Desmond Bagley centenary novel honours the legacy of the bestselling thriller writer with a new adventure featuring Bill Kemp, described by Jeffrey Deaver as ‘part James Bond, part Philip Marlowe, and all hero’. Writer Michael Davies, who completed the first Kemp novel Domino Island for publication nearly 40 years after the author’s death, now weaves an original tale of danger and death under the blistering Australian sun.
SEVEN STRANGERS SEEKING REFUGE.
BUT DANGER IS EVERYWHERE THEY TURN...
When Jess accepts an offer to caretake a luxury property in the Australian outback, the isolated, all-inclusive solo trip is just what she needs.
But Jess isn't as alone as she thinks.
As bushfires rage in the distance, strangers start showing up to seek refuge. And as the fires start closing in, tensions in the group begin to rise.
Then, the phones stop working. All exits are cut off. There's no way out.
Quickly, Jess's guests begin to panic. And when the first person goes missing, she realises that someone in the house isn't who they say they are.
The danger is already inside . . .
The world’s climate is in crisis and New Zealand is being divided and reshaped by the arrival of privileged immigrant wealthugees.
Thirty-something Alice has a near-genius IQ and lives at home with her mother with whom she communicates by Morse code. Alice’s imaginary friend, Simp, has shown up, with a running commentary on her failings. ‘I mean, can you even calculate the square root of 762 anymore?’ The last time Simp was here was when Alice was seven, on the night a fire burned down the family home. Now Simp seems to be plotting something.
When Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo, she thinks she’s found a way out of her dull existence. But then she meets Pablo’s teenage daughter, Erika – an actual genius full of terrifying ambition.