All the Reviews

THE GOOD DOG is the third novel featuring DS Zoe Mayer and her service dog Harry. The background to why Mayer has Harry, and some of the back story about why a new partner is working with her is in both of the previous books, and touched on enough here to give new readers some hints as to what's gone on. Seriously though, this is a series that really deserves following. Mayer is a strong character, Harry is fantastic, and the stories in both previous novels (THE LONG GAME and ... Read review

To say that author Lauren Roche has taken on a mammoth undertaking with MILA AND THE BONE MAN is possibly one of the bigger understatements this reviewer has uttered. There is so much happening in this coming of age story, which is more than just that - it's an exploration of consequences, a pathway from child to adulthood that has been profoundly impacted by trauma, it's about difference, acceptance, friendship, damage, and grief.

Every year the New Zealand Crime Fiction awards (Ngaio Marsh Awards) invariably present us with something that takes a different viewpoint ... Read review

Been very intrigued by this series for the longest time, and I'm so glad I finally remembered to add it to the audio queue. Probably been mentioned lots before, but this felt very much like a worthy successor to the espionage thriller crown that sat atop John Le Carre's head for many many years.

Originally published in 2010, Slow Horses is the nickname that the MI5 uses for "Slough House" a division of the service that's a dumping ground for members that have screwed up. Their sins are many, varied yet depressingly similar: secret files left on trains, blown surveillance ... Read review

Bob Mortimer is probably best known around these parts for his legendary appearances on WOULD I LIE TO YOU? The TV show that includes David Mitchell as a team captain, somebody who, it has to be said, Mortimer has bluffed well and truly. His storytelling style on that show is exactly the same as it is in this biography, and you can't help but think it wouldn't be a bad idea for Mitchell to have been able to have read it (realise the timing isn't conducive) - as a lot of the stories that turn out to be true on that show (as unbelievable as most of them are), are covered in this amiable ... Read review

The Akashic Noir series is a brilliant idea (I have SYDNEY NOIR on the piles at present). The whole thing is a series of Noir styled short story collections from all around the world, launched originally in 2004 with BROOKLYN NOIR.

This collection of stories from Brazil is a fascinating combination of darkest noir stylings, some humorous in delivery, many of which come from an unexpected viewpoint / starting position.

As is always the way, some of the stories here will work for some readers and others not. In particular, the humour is a tricky undertaking ... Read review

Launched into listening to this on audio without really doing any blurb reading or background checking of any type. Basically grabbed it because we'd recently watched THE MAGPIE MURDERS which we'd loved, and, well it was there. 

One of those reinvention style novels, where the author has cast himself in the role of a "Watson" like character, although to equate Daniel Hawthorne with Sherlock Holmes might be a bit of a push. Still, there's nothing wrong with the development of a brilliant, eccentric, disgraced police detective as a character, and Horowitz seems quite a dab ... Read review

This audio series was recommended to me by an algorithm which I'm never 100% convinced about, but I'd finished all that was available in The Thursday Murder club series and was in the mood for something on the lighter side. Besides I'm increasingly a sucker for anything with women of a certain age getting on with things, refusing to buckle under to "societal expectations".  For some reason.

This series revolves around 77 year old Judith Potts, she of the, it turns out, decidedly odd past. A woman who now works as a crossword setter, lives in a fading old mansion on the ... Read review

I was so looking forward to THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST, and yet, somehow, it's arrival in my ebook queue came as a hell of a surprise. So, needless to say, everything else got swept aside and I settled in for what I hoped would be some days of engaging espionage thriller reading.

Which I got, and then some more, and then a whole lot of different stuff, and then a bit more of what was expected. What I'm trying to say in such a hamfisted way is there were bits of THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST that grabbed and did not let go, and then there were bits that simply did not work, and then ... Read review

One of those series that I plucked from a long list on Audible when looking for something new and fun to listen to. Sometimes the universe is very good to you.

A MAN WITH ONE OF THOSE FACES was such good fun with madcap action and activities, really engaging characters, and a mystery plot that lent itself well to listening. The narrator of this was also perfect, with an engaging accent and an excellent deployment of varied voices to always give you an idea about who is who in a busy, but not overcrowded cast listing.

The series revolves around Paul Mulchrone ... Read review