All the Reviews

As one participant in yesterday's discussion put it - the story of a crumbling family, in a crumbling society, The Promise tells the tale, in particular, of three siblings, Anton, Astrid and Amor, their parents and extended family, against the backdrop of the ending of apartheid in South Africa.

From a white farming family, the three sibling's story is told in a series of deaths and the ramifications of each of those on them, and a long-standing promise to the black maid and lifelong companion of them all - Salome. Starting with the death of their mother, and her deathbed ... Read review

A dementia diagnosis reveals clues to a decades-old mystery in this new novel from the author of The Secrets of Strangers – Charity Norman’s third to be shortlisted for NZ’s Ngaio Marsh Awards.

Full Review at:  Newtown Review of BooksRead review

I admit it, when the human race is really starting to annoy me, I often look for books that point out just how poorly too many people behave. No idea why, but I guess it helps to know I'm not the only one rolling my eyes and sighing a lot. This is part a funny recollection of some of the worst cases of idiotic, entitled, shitty behaviour you'd ever come across - tying up valuable community resources for no good reason other than being a horrible person, and part a relating of the day to day in a very difficult and stressful job.

Of course there are some cases in this that ... Read review

For the moment, I'm going to have to DNF this - I can't seem to follow it all, possibly because I've not read The Dark Fields, nor seen the movie Limitless which they are saying is both the sequel and prequel to this one. Most definitely the fault of this reader who has had a few goes at this one now and just can't get into it.Read review

Fast paced, heart-wrenching, darkly comic, Dominic Hoey’s new crime novel is dark and unrelenting. Full Review at Newtown Review of BooksRead review

It must take real writing skill to create a novel around 3.5 of the most unpleasant, conflicted, dysfunctional and frequently flat out awful people you'd ever read about, and make it as compelling and downright fascinating as KEEP HER SWEET. 

The premise is quite the undertaking. Parents Penny and Andeep Moloney-Singh (two of the most self-centred and delusional people you'd ever not want to meet), downsize to an inner city building in Ballarat with Penny wanting them to find themselves again, and turn their lives around (not sure Andeep was ever fully onboard with that ... Read review

In 2018, Katherine Ashworth is struggling. The death of her daughter has precipitated a major falling apart, which she's self-medicating with sleeping pills and vodka. A move to the small town of her husband's childhood - Lowbridge - is the beginning of the fight for Katherine to regain a purpose to her life, and stop the self-destruction. That search for meaning, precipitated particularly by husband Jamie's threat to force her into rehab if she doesn't take immediate steps to straighten herself out, leads to a chance meeting at the local Historical Society, and her interest in the ... Read review

Harrowing and insightful, DOUBLE LIVES by Kate McCaffrey is a very topical exploration of issues around gender, identity, acceptance and truth. There is, for some readers, some confrontational and topical subject matter being addressed here, revolving as it does around the murder of transgender woman Casey Williams, her self-confessed killer (and love interest) Jonah Scott, and a radio station opting to use their story as the opening foray into an ongoing true crime serial. 

After a Perth Radio station decides to air some sort of serial programme that would win back their ... Read review

Fans of crime fiction, raised on a diet of lone wolf PI's, limping the dark and rainy backstreets in pursuit of justice for the downtrodden, or retribution for wrongs that nobody else cares about, might find the tales in PROBLEM SOLVED a bit of a surprise. Most of the cases that PI Andrew Chambers and his team take on are insurance fraud, embezzlement, workplace harassment and corporate espionage. On the more unsavoury side there were cases involving very tacky unfaithful spouses, and a child prostitution ring that was just awful, but despite the international travel, and the ... Read review