All the Reviews

The Adversary, Michael Walters

THE ADVERSARY is the second book in the Nergui / Doripalam police procedural series set in Ulan Baatar, Mongolia. The first was THE SHADOW WALKER.

Fans of police procedurals who haven't caught up with this series should give it a go. Whilst it is set in Mongolia, and there are unusual names and unusual settings which give it a slightly exotic feel, the basis of the book is a sound procedural with the same sorts of issues that plague police departments the world over. The connection between the Underworld of Gangsters, Drugs and influence and police department ... Read review

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Michael Walters

Blood Sunset, Jarad Henry

BLOOD SUNSET is the second book from Jarad Henry, HEAD SHOT having already introduced us to Detective Rubens McCauley, his work partner Cassie, his ex-wife Ella and Prince the cat. Don't for one moment get the wrong idea though - the presence of the majestic Prince in these books doesn't indicate anything on the fluffy or lighter side. BLOOD SUNSET takes us further into the darkness of street life and into the truly nasty side of prostitution, paedophilia, influence and corruption.

McCauley is back at work after being shot. The physical damage is visible, the ... Read review

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Shatter, Michael Robotham

SHATTER is the much anticipated 4th book in an ongoing series by this author. All of these books are strong psychological thrillers, with good plots peopled with some believable characters. Each book switches the central protagonist around an expanding character group - sometimes with the others playing bit parts. In SHATTER Clinical Psychologist and Parkinson's sufferer Joe O'Loughlin returns to take the focus, with DI Ruiz taking a supporting (and supportive) role.

As the book gets started Joe is working part-time as a lecturer - the Parkinson's is starting to affect ... Read review

Author:

Michael Robotham

Under Orders, Dick Francis (review by sunniefromoz)

Dick Francis has been a hugely successful author over a period of thirty years and has a devoted following. It has been many years since I read any of his novels which I used to enjoy. However, I found myself struggling with UNDER ORDERS. I’m not sure if my tastes have changed or if Mr Francis is not at the top of his game in this novel. There seemed to be a great deal of over-explaining which slowed the pace down. There was a lot of detail about the racing industry and online betting; more than I felt I needed to know. Nor was it really necessary to know the detailed back-story ... Read review

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Still Waters, Camilla Noli

Normally I'd try to avoid doing this but I feel that I have to declare up front - I did not like this book. Didn't enjoy it for one second - nothing in it was interesting, appealing or even remotely engaging. So having said that, why?

One of the things that appeals to me least of anything in any books I read is blatant manipulation of a reader's emotional reactions - fortunately for me there's nothing in STILL WATERS that engendered any emotional reaction (other than boredom), so the manipulation could be seen for what it was. We start with a mother, lovingly engaging ... Read review

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The Price of Darkness, Graham Hurley

THE PRICE OF DARKNESS is the 8th in the DI Joe Faraday series - a series that deserves to be considerably better known. Slower paced than some, equally balanced between the personal life of DI Faraday and the investigations he is involved in, these books are more in the "to be savoured" arena than a "wild ride".

THE PRICE OF DARKNESS starts out with the funeral of local "identity" Bazza Mackenzie's brother - Winter is now on the inside of the Mackenzie firm - after a drink driving incident has him thrown out of the force. Back in Portsmouth, Faraday and his team ... Read review

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The Reunion, Simone van der Vlugt

Written in the first person, THE REUNION is Sabine's story. Suffering from depression she has been away from full-time work for quite a while, returning slowly to an office environment where the power base has shifted considerably since she's been gone. Sabine is a very fragile girl, with a difficult past.

As a very young schoolgirl Sabine and Isabel had been very best friends. Isabel is an epileptic and Sabine is one of the few people that aren't scared by these fits - who knows what to do when a fit starts. When the girls move into high school and boys, and ... Read review

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Simone van der Vlugt

Nice Try, Shane Maloney

Australian author Shane Maloney wields the pen like no other writer imaginable, stripping each social veneer away in such a terribly effective fashion that we cringe as we recognize the creatures dwelling beneath. The Murray Whelan novels, of which NICE TRY is number three, are bitingly funny in the best and worst of ways. They pick, poke and eviscerate, yet manage to champion how we handled the past that has somehow thus carried us to our present. Maloney sets his novels in the past, but only just, so that our memories are at least a little foggy about the finite details of the ... Read review

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Still Waters, Camilla Noli

STILL WATERS is one of those books that will stir endless debate on a number of topics ranging from the oppression of women to the motherhood "myth", sexual inequality to co-parenting and the list goes on. Most of what is depicted within the book will strike a chord with mothers, and what may be most shocking of all is that we more than likely WON'T be shocked. The reactions of the unnamed mother of the book to her situation ARE extreme and executed with that blankness of survival instinct and sheer exhaustion that is present to some extent in all new mothers, or at the very least ... Read review

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The Big Score, Peter Corris

There are probably more, but immediate reactions on getting a book of short stories, is that there are precious few Crime Fiction short story collections by Australian authors around (I'm probably about to be proven totally wrong!). But there's something very engaging about a good collection - engaging enough to make you find yourself volunteering to run the errands, wait outside for whatever or whoever - because it will give you a precious few minutes or so to read another of this collection.

Cliff finds himself named as a killer in the dying breathe of a victim; tracks ... Read review

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The Passenger, Chris Petit

THE PASSENGER starts out pretty dramatically with a frantic father who thinks his son might have been on the plane - blown up over a small town, all passengers on board dead. When Collard learns that his son Nick may not have been on board after all, confusion gives way to confrontation as Collard starts to learn what Nick has gotten himself involved in. That soon moves to suspicion that there's more to the story of Nick, the blown up plane, the drug dealers, the spies, the security services and all.

Right from the start THE PASSENGER throws the reader into a slight ... Read review

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Double Shot, Anna Blundy

Faith is a newspaper woman - a war zone junkie; authority hating; vodka addicted; bad tempered; foul mouthed; loud; opinionated; single; with young baby; conflicted; tetchy; complicated newspaper woman with a history. Part of that history is personal - she's got this distant boyfriend Eden. Distant in their relationship - mostly because she keeps him that way, despite him being the father of her beloved baby Ben. Distant because he's headed off to Tuscany to write "those" sorts of columns - in Faith's words I mean, if that isn't money for old rope I don't know what is. 'As the ... Read review

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Beneath the Blonde, Stella Duffy

Firstly, BENEATH THE BLONDE isn't the first in the Saz Martin series so you're just going to have to accept some back story to the main character and a reason for her past injuries. As well as there being a backstory to her relationship with Molly (her live in girlfriend), ex-girlfriend Cassie and a bunch of other things that are pulled into this book.

A lot of that understanding is going to be required because BENEATH THE BLONDE is as much about Saz and her reactions - to Siobhan, to Molly, to the band, the people around the band and the travelling. The story of who ... Read review

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Rome Burning, Sophia McDougall

ROME BURNING is the second in the ROMANITAS trilogy, based in a Roman Empire that still exists today. This version of the Empire is a mix of the ancient traditions and stylings, alongside technology which bears some, limited, resemblance to current day. The Earth is divided into different and very large nation states and the tension between these states continues to grow, following on, albeit 2 years later, from ROMANITAS - the first book in the trilogy.

This trilogy is a big and rather complicated undertaking for the reader to dive into (I think you'd definitely have ... Read review

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Sophia McDougall

Die With Me, Elena Forbes

There's a bit of a clue to the context for Gemma's death on the front cover of DIE WITH ME - "You could find your new best friend on the net ... or discover your worst nightmare". Oh dear, another the Internet is all bad story? Well no.

Gemma's death is written off as a suicide when she is first discovered. She seems to have jumped from high up in the church, dying on the floor of the dark church on a dark evening. But postmortem tests show a small amount of alcohol and GHB in her system, and there's the astute observation of Dr Fiona Blake who notices a small lock of ... Read review

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Open File, Peter Corris

I wondered where Peter Corris would take Cliff after the loss of his PI licence (which, it seems, he's unlikely to ever get back), but I didn't really expect it to be the 1970's. Once you're back in that old case with a few well chosen "commentaries" Corris places you firmly in the 1970's very adeptly - from the opening observations of the Ananda Marga compensation case; the shock and concern that early AIDS cases raised; the death of Bob Trimboli and even the simple lack of mobile telephones, there's a clear sense of the time.

OPEN FILE takes you right back through that ... Read review

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Underbelly: The Gangland War, John Silvester and Andrew Rule

UNDERBELLY - THE GANGLAND WAR is probably a compilation book of a lot of the sections previously covered in the earlier Underbelly books by journalists Silvester and Rule. The book, interestingly, is freely available and openly publicised in Victoria - the state where the TV show Underbelly is banned from airing on TV here. I've no idea what that says about the way that the Supreme Court ban worked, but the book is going to be some way of a consolation to those who are keen to see the TV show.

The book takes you back through the majority of the murders and lunacy that ... Read review

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Where the Truth Lies, Rupert Holmes (review by sunniefromoz)

If the name Rupert Holmes rings a bell somewhere, perhaps it’s because he was the writer and singer of that cringingly 70’s song Escape, known by most people as The Pina Colada Song. Yes, folks this is the same man. In WHERE THE TRUTH LIES, Holmes proves he has significantly more substance as a novelist than he did as a song writer. He has a deft touch with unexpected plot twists which leave the reader guessing until the very end.

The story is told from the perspective of O’Connor. Somewhat disconcertingly we never find out her first name. O’Connor is very much a ... Read review

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Child 44, Tom Rob Smith

CHILD 44 is the debut novel for Tom Rob Smith, set in the dying days of Stalin's Soviet dream society, inspired by a real-life serial killer.

Starting in 1933, with villages of people starving to death in a desperate winter, the opening chapter of CHILD 44 deeply underscores the desperation of life in that environment. Moving 20 years later in 1953 Moscow, a very young child is found dead on the railway tracks. His death is barely investigated. The Security Services have other things on their minds. Mostly vicious persecution of ordinary people. Slowly, Security ... Read review

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The Dead Place, Stephen Booth

I like this series. I like Diane Fry. Why do I have to say that? Well Diane Fry is one of those characters that divides opinions on most of the discussion lists I belong to - you either like her or you don't (much like Elle Pascoe in the Reginald Hill Dalziel and Pascoe novels). Personally I hope that Diane Fry doesn't lose the mouth and the attitude, given what has been revealed about her in earlier books - she's perfectly entitled to be as grumpy as she damn well pleases. And that's probably the only reason that you'd want to read Stephen Booth's series in order - there is an ... Read review

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