All the Reviews

Honey, Imani Thompson

The blurb for HONEY starts out with a no punches pulled approach.

The first time, Yrsa doesn't intend to kill.

Which is going to mean that the style of this novel might come as a bit of a surprise to some readers. If you're one of those, like me, that was more than mildly put off by the chick lit tone of the opening sections, and felt just a little bit like something needs to happen soon... then hang in there. This goes from feeling all a bit silly to deadly (and I mean deadly) serious in the blink of an eye. A blink that ... Read Review

The Night Belongs to Her, Justin Warren

Followers of this series have probably read the second book THE LEWIS PASS, which when I reviewed it way back, I did mention:

The only downside is one of those endings that sort of reeks of "and in the next book", which may drive some readers bats, and might mean others are standing by in anticipation. All in all though, a series well worth keeping an eye on (from the very start if you can).

THE NIGHT BELONGS TO HER is that next book, and a lot of stuff is finally resolved, ... Read Review

What You Don't Know, Sandi Wallace

A stand-alone novel from Australian author, Sandi Wallace, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW is set on a secluded island where Tess works at home, writing children's mystery books, and her travelling husband returns to on weekends from the job he loves, to a wife that he adores. It seems, to all the world, like the perfect life, enough neighbours to create a sense of community, enough distance to create a buffer, a sense of sanctuary, even a goofy chocolate labrador dog. A feeling shattered by sightings of a prowler, triggering unresolved trauma for Tess - her best friend's death was never ... Read Review

Three Reasons for Revenge, Dervla McTiernan

Alexis Turner walks into a police station to report her assault by a psychologist - the same man that DS Judith Lee has taken a report about in the past. By the end of that same day Turner appears to have vanished, and Lee is dealing with the guilt that she feels over the poor advice she gave the first accuser 10 years ago. It's a job a bit outside Lee's normal remit, but nothing in Lee's life is exactly normal right now. She's also dealing with the fallout of her arrest of a fellow police officer, a nepo baby of the worst kind, a corrupt thug and a bully protected by his higher up ... Read Review

Redbelly Crossing, Candice Fox

Inter-generational trauma is explored with explosive impact in Candice Fox's latest novel REDBELLY CROSSING.

When a young woman is found stabbed to death in an upstairs bedroom of a busy pub in the small country town of Redbelly Crossing, it brings together two brothers Russell and Evan Powder. Both cops, Evan is more local to the scene, lower ranked, with a professional past in which he's made a grave error.

Russell is the older brother, parachuted in from the city, he's there because he's also screwed up more recently and has been sent to the back of beyond ... Read Review

Old Games, Fiona Hardy

The morally flexible PI team of Alice and Teddy are back in a perfectly bonkers scenario in Fiona Hardy’s new novel Old Games.

Alice and Teddy, introduced to readers in the excellent Unbury the Dead, are best mates and private investigators who work for ‘Choker’, a man with an eclectic team of people who help him keep things on his version of the straight and ... Read Review

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder, Kerryn Mayne

Despite the title and the cover, and maybe the tagline "Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life", this book, it turned out is not a cozy mystery, a quirky outing nor is it a thriller or a rom-com. What it is is rather harder to pinpoint though as this debut was is an exploration of a neuro-divergent life that is complicated, emotional and sometimes heartbreaking. 

Which is why my choice of media for this - an audio book - was not the best option for this reader, because I just wanted to go back too often to check what it was I should have heard, but obviously missed ... Read Review

Girl of the Mountains, Trish McCormack

When they said write what you know, Trish McCormack got the memo. Growing up at the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, and having worked in various national parks in NZ, her settings are always gloriously depicted. In this case Mt Cook is the central location, with two timelines wind through the story of Kath, her family, and her disappearance.

The two timelines are 1946 - when a volatile Stella is hired as mountain guide, vowing never to return to the more expected domestic life of a woman. She roams the Southern Alps, alongside her mentor Philip and a troubled returned ... Read Review

One True Word, Snæbjörn Arngrímsson

The author is well known in his native Iceland for translations, books for children, and as a publisher, but ONE TRUE WORD is his first thriller, and it's guaranteed to divide readers.

The premise is, on the one hand, straight forward, in that after an increasing period of snarking at each other, Júlía and her husband Gíó head off on a small boat to an uninhabited, small island in the middle of a freezing fjord as part of a research trip that Júlía claims is absolutely vital for her current work assignment. She then abandons him there in the depths of the Icelandic winter ... Read Review