All the Reviews

The 2nd in the Milverton Mysteries featuring Addison Harper, this is a series that's on the cosier, English Village styled end of the mystery scale. Although that setting is delivered with a dry, very wry tone, and a great sense of petty politics in a pretty village. 

It's definitely the tone of this that sets it a little outside the standard traditional cosy fare. In this, the second of what is now a series of 3 novels, Milverton is the village at the centre of the action. In the running for the Terrific Town Award, so a dramatic, opening ceremony death is, as the blurb ... Read review

Evoking a particularly poignant sense of the time period in which it is set, SOUTHERN AURORA is yet another pitch perfect book from Mark Brandi exploring intergenerational damage, domestic violence, small town and rural life and young boy's experiences - good and bad.

Raw, visceral and unrepentantly confrontational, SOUTHERN AURORA explores the life of young Jimmy, a charismatic, complicated little boy, committed to holding the threads of his little family together. A borderline alcoholic mother (Jimmy instantly knew what his mother was feeling based on the weight of the ... Read review

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is the latest offering from Jacqueline Bublitz, after the absolutely fascinating BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME. This is a different beast entirely, although it's again set in the USA, featuring a strong, unusual central female character.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, bartender and amateur detective who lives in an apartment owned by a much loved uncle, with only her beloved dog for company. She's a tormented, complicated character, not at all helped by her obsession with the murder of her best friend, nineteen years earlier, by a suspected serial ... Read review

I (tried) listening to this much acclaimed Japanese book, which is very much focused on cooking and food, with a sideline inspired by the true story of a convicted con woman and serial killer. An unusual sort of a story, it's all a long slow build up, which hints at, but doesn't necessarily provide any indepth commentary on, the position and treatment of women in Japanese society.

Those later aspects, had they been concentrated on a lot more, might have provided some connection for this listener with the central journalist character, and the serial killer at the heart of ... Read review

In Claire Sutherland’s debut crime novel, a body is found on an isolated track on the Wimmera Plains, where Mount Arapiles towers over all.

Anybody who has ever spent any time in the Wimmera around Gariwerd (the Grampians) in Victoria will know how striking the contrast is between the vast flat plains and the sudden, towering mountain range. It’s an astounding sight, bringing to mind the ancient age of the landscape and, if you look at the climbing faces of Mount Arapiles, the danger that awaits the unwary.

This enormous old sea cliff rises ... Read review

The second novel from author Bronwyn Hall, THE CHASM is set in and around a fictional small town in Victoria's rugged mountains. Andy King has returned to Stonefield 10 years after her boyfriend, Will Hoffman, disappeared without a trace, something all the locals blamed her for. Despite the animosity, King promised an old friend in a nearby town that she would help out at his veterinary practice so he could take a break, which means she's busy with the day to day activities of a country vet, so she's nearby "technically" but not quite back at the scene of the disappearance. ... Read review

THE CALL is a debut crime novel from NZ author Gavin Strawhan and I checked that statement more than a few times whilst reading. It won the Allen & Unwin Fiction Prize in 2023, I did not need to check that. THE CALL is such a strong debut it's hard to know where to start, but let's echo the blurb "Gripping and suspenseful with a killer ending, THE CALL propels the reader into the world of a terrifying new kind of gang..."

Gripping - this is a story featuring Auckland cop DS Honey Chalmers, who, after surviving a very nearly deadly attack by members of a ruthless gang ... Read review

Nothing like Japanese crime fiction to remind you to expect the unexpected, although to be fair, I wasn't too sure what to expect when I plucked this book from the want to read lists. I also, freely confess, I have no memory of it going onto that list so something must have tweaked interest more than once. Published in 2013 it's obviously been lingering for quite some time, there are now 11 books in the series, but it looks like only the first two have been translated so far.

This first novel, THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES, introduces the reader to Koishi Kamogawa and her ... Read review

2nd in the Hawthorne & Horowitz story, THE SENTENCE IS DEATH continues the author's insertion of themselves into a fictional detective story, featuring the investigative skill of PI Daniel Hawthorne and Horowitz's sometimes less successful conclusion drawing.

If you're new to this series, and the concept, then it would be well worth going back to the opening salvo, THE WORD IS MURDER. That should help with the background, even if a tendency for "What the" / "Why the" moments continue. Best not to reason why and just press on is my motto, because even with this whole ... Read review