The Darkest Sin, D.V. Bishop
Set in Florence in 1537, The Darkest Sin is the second novel featuring Cesare Aldo, an officer of the feared Otto di Guardia e Balia. Full review at: Newtown Review of BooksRead review
Pet, Catherine Chidgey
Unable to put down Catherine Chidgey's PET, I struggled to sleep last night as I thought long and hard about the "conventions" of society. If you're of a similar age to this reviewer, you'll have probably lived through the experience of the manic house clean, the wearing of "the good clothes" and the general heightened buzz that went with contact with social elites - the doctors, banks managers, religious leaders and teachers that we were told to look up to. So many of those supposed "leaders" turning out to have been people that systematically used their power and influence to ... Read review
The Wife and the Widow, Christian White
THE WIFE AND THE WIDOW is a standalone thriller from Australian novelist and screenwriter Christian White. It was released in 2019 and just goes to prove what a massive mess my reading life has become. This unbelievably clever, stylish book has been sitting on my to be read mountain WAAAYYY too long.
Set on a strange little island that only comes alive in summer, the timeframe for this work is the dead of winter. Dead referring to the weather - it's cold, wet and miserable in the main, and to the level of activity as the population dwindles to a small number of locals, ... Read review
The Satsuma Complex, Bob Mortimer
Recently we lucked upon one of those fabulous episodes of Would I Lie To You? in which David Mitchell has to guess if Bob Mortimer is telling the truth or not. Regular viewers of the show will realise that this is the stuff of minor legend now, with Mitchell doubting his own sanity in these moments, because no matter how outrageous, he simply can't tell whether the yarns that Mortimer is able to spin are the truth or a lie. And to be fair, most viewers would have a similar experience (perhaps without the existential shouty angst that Mitchell now displays). Needless to say, the tales ... Read review
Mirror, Mirror, Who's the Killer?, Kura Jane Carpenter
Very very niche, set in a fairytale world (Wyld Enchantment Woods) MIRROR, MIRROR WHO'S THE KILLER? is a non-romantic, paranormal, cozy mystery for adults with talking cats and quirky characters. Needless to say - you're going to have to be the sort of reader that likes this sort of thing for it even to get close to working for you.
Basically the story revolves around a suspended Fairy Godmother, living in a frozen kingdom where magic is strictly forbidden. There's a henchman (isn't there always) with a stolen magic mirror in his pocket (okay so that's maybe not so common ... Read review
Antiques and Assault, Rodney Strong
The fourth entry in the Silvermoon Retirement Village series, ANTIQUES AND ASSAULT is part of what's overall a cozy, fun series, with 98 year old Alice Atkinson at the centre of a maelstrom of murder, vice and goings on that would do more than rock a retirement home - but Alice, and the retirement village she secretly owns, are made of much sterner stuff. Just.
As always with this series, it's all about Alice, although this outing is also about her granddaughter Amanda. When Amanda was 12 she was targetted by somebody at school for reasons that she can't work out. Right ... Read review
A Virtuous Lie, Christina O'Reilly
The third novel featuring DSS Archie Baldrick and DC Ben Travers, A VIRTUOUS LIE follows on from INTO THE VOID and RETRIBUTION. This is a series that might be best read in order, which shouldn't be a trial for anyone new to it - the first two are tightly plotted, engaging and only 160 and 180ish pages long.
One of the main reasons for reading the series from the start is that Baldrick and Travers do have some major things going on in their personal lives, and whilst this outing does go back through their histories, and experiences, RETRIBUTION is possibly the entry that ... Read review
Everything to Hide, K.V. Martins
It's going to come as no surprise to any readers of EVERYTHING TO HIDE, that author K.V. Martins is a fan of historical crime fiction, in particular, the work of Dame Agatha Christie. It should also come as no surprise that she has a background in history and archaeology.
This is a novel set in 1933 Sydney, Australia, with a strong hat tip to some of the well known interests and themes of Christie, set within the world of Egyptology, wealthy families, tyrannical fathers, weekend house parties, and a locked room scenario. In this case Detective Senior Sergeant Harold ... Read review
Winter Time, Laurence Fearnley
Familial love, tension, friendship and interconnections are all part of Laurence Fearnley's novel WINTER TIME, set in New Zealand's MacKenzie Basin, a location which absolutely stars in this story. A place in which breath frosts, mists are all encompassing, peaks are starkly white, snow slopes glow silver-blue, and the lakes are black and dark.
It's the place that central character Roland returns to after the unexpected death of his brother, back to the landscape, the people, and the family home. Roland is alone in that cold house, with his thoughts and doubts for the ... Read review
Blood in the Water, Gillian Galbraith
Okay, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what DO they put in the water supply in Scotland. Or maybe it's because of the notoriously dire weather - people are indoors and a percentage of them turn to writing. Don't know. But whatever it is, I hope they keep it up as there are some terrific books coming out of there.
BLOOD IN THE WATER is the first Alice Rice mystery - the second WHERE THE SHADOW FALLS is now also available. In this debút, there's an interesting character being formed. She's a little sketchy in some places in this book, but in compensation there is a ... Read review
Violet Kelly and the Jade Owl, Fiona Britton
It's hard not to wonder what the line "Phyrne Fisher meets Underbelly in an arch, out-of-the-box debut historical crime caper" actually means. Turns out it's a bit the timeframe and environment, the character of Violet Kelly, and the situation she finds herself in.
Set in 1930's Sydney, Violet Kelly and her identical twin sister Iris were raised by nuns in an orphanage before breaking free in their own way, leading to a very different set of circumstances. Violet, who is the main character in this novel, actively chooses the life offered at Maison des Fleurs, in a way ... Read review
Traced, Catherine Jinks
Jane McDonald has been working as a contract tracer in Sydney's western suburbs, during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Contact tracers get used to working with a huge range of people and they expect to patiently work through all sorts of issues, making sure that everyone keeps themselves, and the community safe during this very unusual time. But it's hard not to get involved, and Jane is really concerned when a close contact of somebody with the virus is hysterical and terrified of what her fiance's reaction will be when it's revealed she's been in contact with her own cousin, who has now ... Read review
Roseghetto, Kirsty Jagger
Kirsty Jagger’s debut novel is a confronting story about growing up in the worst of circumstances, and how violence and poverty can happen to anyone. Full Review at Newtown Review of Books.Read review
Mad, Bad and Dead, Sherryl Clark
If you're new to the Judi Westerholme series, it's one of those featuring a slightly older, marginally wiser, female character who's in too deep and doing the two steps forward, one step dance that quite a few of us might recognise. It's a great series, with a believable, slightly manic central character that's keeping her head above water by sheer willpower and, some would say, the slightly delusional idea that she alone will just have to sort it out.
Which, to be fair, she's good at. In many ways. The series started out with TRUST ME, I'M DEAD, then DEAD AND GONE, and ... Read review
Say Hello, Carly Findlay
I saw a Clementine Ford quote along the lines of "it's okay to be angry... All these years, people have been calling you 'angry' as if it's a shameful thing, when what they really mean is 'your refusal to be contained frightens me'. It is okay for you to be angry."
Carly Findlay's taken her absolute right to be very angry about a heap of stupid things, and turned it into an opportunity to point out some truths. The micro-aggressions, the blatant ableism, the intrusion, the mindless behaviour, the staring, the sniggering, the frankly slappable offences that she's faced for ... Read review
The Wrong Woman, J.P. Pomare
THE WRONG WOMAN is the first foray from J.P. Pomare overtly set in the US, and it was, for this reader, utterly seamless in its evocation of an American feeling small town. Helped a lot by the central character ex-cop, now Private Investigator Reid being from this particular community, and all too aware of the politics therein, the society and personal pressures and how they can lead to all sorts of problems for all sorts of people.
The novel relies on a lot of complications on a lot of levels. Starting out with Reid himself, an ex-cop, now private investigator, back in ... Read review
Four Dogs Missing, Rhys Gard
You wouldn't think reading crime fiction would leave you with a taste for wine, but here we are.
Set in the idyllic surrounds of the Mudgee (New South Wales) wine region, Oliver Wingfield has set himself up as a winemaker with a fine reputation for his wines, even if everyone talks about his reclusive nature and unorthodox techniques. He's a man with a complicated past, which is dragged kicking and screaming into the light after his estranged twin brother Theo suddenly arrives after a fifteen year period of no contact whatsoever, and is promptly murdered. Physically ... Read review
The Yellow Dog, Georges Simenon
The world is a pretty awful place at the moment and there's no way I will stomach listening to a book that casually talks about animal cruelty. So this was a DNF with extreme nope.Read review
A Rake of His Own, A.J. Lancaster
From the Blurb: Marius Valstar doesn’t know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk.
The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the misfortune to have a history with.
But when Prince Rakken turns up naked and bleeding in Marius’s college the same day a body appears in his greenhouse, scruples must take second place to solving a murder that could unravel the delicate balance between humans and fae.
Marius’ ... Read review
The Wonder of Little Things, Vince Copley
A humble, gentle man who left this country a legacy that too many don't know about, and quite a few don't deserve, Vince Copley was born in 1936, and spent the first years of his life in the Aboriginal mission system in South Australia.
After his father died when Vince was 4, and his mother was forced to work away a lot, he ended up as a resident of St Francis Boy's Home, run by a good man and his wife, luckily for him, giving him a chance for some education, and importantly for him, a sporting passion for both AFL and cricket. Both of which he played for many years, before ... Read review