This Thursday temptations post is upcoming releases, or books that are out now.
Shot
A murder is witnessed by thousands, but who pulled the trigger?
Dahlia and Duncan Crews are rich, famous, glamorous - they share their lifestyle and picture-perfect family with hundreds of thousands of online subscribers. The Crews have it all - until they don't. Shot dead in the middle of a livestream, the couple's teenage daughter, Karma, is the sole survivor. And the prime suspect.
Years later, disgraced true-crime vlogger Jennifer Benedetta is hired to film a cold-case documentary on the unsolved Crews family murders. It's the chance she needs to salvage her reputation, but there's a catch: prove Karma Crews innocent. But something - or someone - is lurking just off camera, and the closer Jennifer gets to the truth, the further she is from safety. Who is watching? And how far will they go to remain unseen?
Something He Did
In the gridlocked heart of Melbourne, a split-second of road rage changes everything. For one driver, the crash is a bizarre stroke of luck that sets their life on an upward trajectory they never thought possible. For the other, it is the first domino to fall in a terrifying downward spiral.
Detective Sergeant Claudia Russo doesn't care about the insurance claims—she’s focussed on the search for a missing eighteen-year-old girl. But the girl’s father, a man defined by entitlement and influence, is playing a dangerous game. He’s more afraid of his own double life being exposed than he is of his daughter never coming home. Claudia has secrets too: she’s grieving a tragic loss of her own and losing control of an on-the-job romance that threatens to unravel everything she has worked so hard for.
As all their fates become more entwined, the lesson must be learned: Be kind. Or suffer the consequences.
Penitent
A holy confession. A string of ritual killings. An impossible choice.
When Father Tom Morgan hears the confession of a murderer, he is faced with an impossible dilemma: whether to violate the sacred seal of confession and betray his vows, remain silent while the killing continues and risk innocent lives ... or take justice into his own hands at the cost of his faith and conscience.
Meanwhile, Detective Atalia Reid is hunting a killer who ritually stages the bodies of his victims. As she finds more clues that seem to implicate Tom's parish, her suspicion of the troubled priest intensifies, leading her to believe he is concealing a dangerous secret.
Driven by mistrust and a mounting sense of dread, Tom and Atalia are drawn into a deadly contest between faith and justice. With each new murder, Tom's silence becomes harder to justify.
Penitent is a morally charged thriller about guilt, conscience and the impossible choice between a sacred duty and saving a life.
The Lineup
A killer on the loose. A surfer out of his depth ...
Bo Curren was once a champion surfer. Now, at twenty-eight, he’s all washed up – unable even to set foot near the ocean.
Instead, he spends his days alone in his apartment, drowning his sorrows in whiskey and watching surfers on his laptop via the 24-hour surf webcam.
Then one day he sees something he shouldn’t. A camera trained on a deserted Byron Bay beach picks up a murder right there on the sand.
The police dismiss his report, and no bodies are found. Yet Bo knows what he saw.
And he has a clue: the murderer’s distinctive surfboard. If he can track that down, he’ll catch the killer.
But is he ready to dive back into a world where the rules are unspoken, outsiders aren’t welcome, and where secrets can be as dangerous as the waves?
The Bathing Box Murders
Melbourne 1928. A raging storm sweeps the beach at Brighton, toppling one of the bathing boxes and revealing the graves of J. Arnold Witherspoon, a successful businessman, and his wife, Hope. Crime reporter Reggie da Costa, devotee of fashionable suits and stylish automobiles, uncovers an intriguing mystery: How can the Witherspoons be controlling their financial affairs and property holdings from abroad if they are lying dead under the sand? Complicating matters, a respected shipping company owner, while attempting to rob a bank, turns the gun on himself. Is there a connection between these bizarre deaths? Can Reggie uncover the truth?
The Bathing Box Murders is the sixth in the Reggie da Costa Mysteries.
The Bathing Box Murders, Laraine Stephens
Fans of historical crime fiction have hopefully caught onto the Reggie Da Costa series by Melbourne based author Laraine Stephens by now. Particularly readers who like a bit of dash, humour, romance and intrigue, served up with a great sense of time and place, and impeccable male fashion. Reggie Da Costa, crime reporter, happily recently married, faithful son, fast car lover and intrepid investigator is the sort of person that's easy to spend time with, as is his brother-in-law and colleague Dusty, and his beloved wife, and helpmate in many things investigative Ruby.
In this outing, it's Melbourne in 1928, and a raging storm has toppled a bathing box on Brighton beach, revealing the graves of two people - eventually identified as successful businessman, the reclusive J. Arnold Witherspoon and his wife Hope. The bodies had been there for quite a while before the storm, which begs the question that Reggie would really like to answer - how was Witherspoon controlling his extensive financial and property affairs, supposedly from overseas, whilst he had been lying dead under a bathing box the whole time. Which puts Reggie directly into contact with an ethically questionable solicitor, and another very odd death - the suicide whilst robbing a bank, of a respected shipping company owner.
Reggie, with Dusty's assistance at work, and Ruby's at home and in social circles, has to unpick a very messy web of intrigue that goes from big business to organised crime, and deep into the world of Melbourne's darkest secrets.
These stories do include quite a bit of the personal interactions between Reggie and his extended family, their new house, with his mother now living in the granny flat there, and the little things that come from starting out married life. All that balances well against a plot that gallops along at a good pace, with a central cast of characters and sense of place that are confidently executed. This is one of those series that can be stepped into at just about any point, but starting at the beginning will give the reader a much stronger idea of the backstory to Reggie, Ruby and Dusty, and, in particular how a young man, the son of a ne'er-do-well father, and a devoted, but very much inclined to pick the wrong man every single time mother, became a dashing investigative reporter, and loving husband. Along the way, there have been investigations that have woven their way through all echelons of Melbourne society from the time, and into some difficult spots for Reggie and his brother and sister companions.
An excellent entry in the Reggie Da Costa series, The Bathing Box Murders has an intriguing plot, delivered with a great sense of historical place, time, and men's fashion. Beware though, you may find yourself looking more closely at the beautiful bathing boxes that still line many of Port Phillip Bay's beaches.
In Plain Sight
Identical twin sisters with a secret they’re working hard to protect.
A sex-crimes detective returning to her home town and a past she’d hoped would remain buried.
And a case that doesn’t want to be solved.
The photos found on a USB are clear proof of a crime, and Detective Lara Wilton hopes she can wrap it up and get back to her life in the city. But the girls in the photos, now on the cusp of eighteen, are spinning an elaborate web of secrets, lies and manipulation. And the case will go nowhere without their cooperation.
Add comment