All the Reviews

Mignon Warner was born in Adelaide, South Australia and in 1982 when Death In Time was published, she was living in London.

Death in Time is set within the confines of a Welsh resort hotel, during a Magician's Conference. Cynthia Playford dies, falling from a cable car travelling up to the local mountain peak early in the morning. It's not so much who would want to kill Cynthia, but who wouldn't as the sister of one of the magicians is not the most popular person.

Nice little book in a cosy / closed hotel style with engaging characters.Read review

What  do murders, lawyers, politicians and property developers have in common? To find out you'll have to read Christ Nyst's CROOK AS ROOKWOOD. 

First an explanation of the title. In Australia, when things aren't good they are “crook”. “How are ya, mate?” “Crook, mate.” When things are really, really bad they are “'crook as Rookwood”.  Rookwood is located in Sydney.  At 700 acres, it is one of the largest burial grounds in the world and one of Australia's oldest cemeteries (courtesy of   ... Read review

As implausible as it sounds Omar Yussef is a man in the middle of an awful situation that you want to meet.  Spend some time with.  Drink some sa'ada coffee.  Talk to about his Bethlehem.  Omar brings a unique perspective to murder, to power games and to fanaticism whilst simultaneously providing a human and humane view of life in his Bethlehem.  That Bethlehem is a world of conflict within and from without his own society; and the tension that changed viewpoints between generations brings.  Where once he intermixed happily with all people in the town, now there's a very different ... Read review

There is an awful lot to like about Maigret in AND THE IDLE BURGLAR.  Despite dreadful facial injuries, Maigret knows the identity of this man instantly from a single tattoo on his body.  The victim, Cuendet, is well known to him.  He's a career burglar - a Swiss man, who started out very young as a run of the mill burglar; graduating after a period in the Foreign Legion to an extremely professional, cautious and studied burglar.  He has a particular method - he carefully cases out a target, using the newspapers and social magazines to pick a victim; frequently moving into a room or ... Read review

Rather than the normal method of being called out, Commisarrio Guido Brunetti learns of the death of prominent international lawyer Carlo Trevisan from the headlines in the newspaper the next day on the way to work.

What starts off as a baffling investigation of a seemingly blameless victim, turns into something altogether different as a suicide and another shooting see the death of a well-known Accountant, and then Trevisan's own brother-in-law. What is not immediately clear is why these three become victims.

Brunetti is desperate to find some clues about ... Read review

DEAD SET is the first novel for barman, labourer, industrial advocate, policy advisor and now author Kel Robertson and it's a very promising debut.

Brad (Bradman, but don't mention that in front of his colleagues) Chen is an ex-football star, Australian Federal Police Detective, hit and run victim. He's on crutches with a badly broken leg and nursing an Amaretto and pain-killer addiction. He's back on duty and involved in the big, high profile murder of of the Honourable Tracey Dale, Minister for Immigration which is causing a lot of political ructions in Canberra. ... Read review

This is hardly a new book, being originally self-published in 1886, but it is a really important book in the history of crime fiction. Firstly, it was the best selling crime novel of the nineteenth century - outstripping both Arthur Conan Doyle and Wilkie Collins. It actually pre-dates Doyle's A Study in Scarlet by one year, and it was an overnight sensation when originally published, selling around 750,000 copies during Hume's lifetime, nearly half of those copies within the first six months of re-publication in London in 1887. By the end of 1886 a total of 20,000 copies had been ... Read review

Manic Streets of Perth is an anthology made up of 3 distinct novellas - Manic Streets of Perth, Looking for Sarah Jane Smith and To Dare A Future.

Each novella is a separate story in its own right, so I've commented on all 3 individually.

Manic Streets of Perth features intrepid, and idiot reporter Paul Lewis, but more importantly, Kim Jones, animal activist, some-time petrol station attendant, daughter, fighter and survivor. When a snake wielding bandit robs her father's petrol station, when Kim is working the till, her life starts to spiral just a little ... Read review

Meaghan Wallace is invited to one of the "must be at" social events in Sydney - a party at the very very rich Cavanagh household. When her escort (and boss) finally passes out, she stumbles across Damien, the very spoilt son of the family, arguing with other men in the same room as a bed, and a very young, dead Asian girl. Meaghan uses her phone camera to videotape the event, amazed at the famous faces she's encountering at this party, but is caught by Damien's friend Simon who smashes the phone and quietly removes Meaghan from the party. When Meaghan is found dead in her own ... Read review