All the Reviews

The Gallerist, Michael Levitt

Author of THE GALLERIST, Michael Levitt, is a surgeon and health bureaucrat with a considerable list of scientific articles, medical books targeted at the general public and chapters in medical textbooks to his name. He's also an art collector, and has written numerous articles about art and artwork for a range of publications. This is his first work of fiction.

The fictional Mark Lewis is an art lover and former surgeon, now running a small art gallery after the death of his much loved wife Sharon left him lost and grieving deeply. His investigative interest is tweaked ... Read review

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Bulldozed, Niki Savva

Found the first book in this "trilogy" very enlightening (The Road to Ruin), couldn't come at the second book (Plots and Prayers) for love nor money. Possibly because of the timing, but mostly because I will declare up front I have zero time for Morrison and his ilk. So I picked this up a little on the "well this isn't going to go well" side of expectation. Couldn't have been more incorrect. I found this fascinating, very informative and worth the time taken to read it.Read review

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No Friend But the Mountains, Behrouz Boochani

"What did you think?" asks Goodreads?

I think anybody who would condone a system like this is beyond understanding.

I think this man ending up in New Zealand was lucky for them, and him.
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Behrouz Boochani

Wild Card, Simon Rowell

Will confess to being more than a bit pleased when WILD CARD, the second DS Zoe Mayer (and her service dog Harry) novel arrived. The initial outing - THE LONG GAME - had all the hallmarks of a long, and good series in the making, and the follow-up does nothing to dispel that belief.

Starting out in a very atmospheric location (if you ignore the dead body lying in burnt-out grassland beside the banks of the Murray River), Mayer, Harry and Charlie Shaw have arrived from Melbourne in response to the shooting death of Freddie Jones, a bikie from the other side of the river in ... Read review

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Dead Girl Walking, Christopher Brookmyre

The 6th Jack Parlabane novel, listened to as part of my audio wander back through the series, this outing is post Jack stuffing everything up. He's lost his career, his marriage and, for once in his life, his mojo. Pulled into the investigation of a missing pop-star by the sister of his oldest (now dead) friend, he sort of finds a bit of the old Jack along the way.

This is possibly my least favourite of the Parlabane books for incredibly unfair reasons. Jack's in trouble, and he's lost a hell of a lot of the devil may care, sod you all attitude as a result, and that kind ... Read review

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Christopher Brookmyre

The Russian Wife, Barry Maitland

My review of the last novel in the Brock & Kolla series, The Russian Wife by Barry Maitland was posted this morning at The Newtown Review of Books:

https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/barry-maitland-the-russian-wife-revi...

"The fourteenth instalment of Barry Maitland’s groundbreaking Brock and Kolla crime series is also the last."Read review

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Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Duck, Christopher Brookmyre

This audio book was part of my revisit of the entire Parlabane series so I was cheating a bit, having already done "all the emotions" over the opening line of the blurb.

I do get the idea of telegraphing the end of Jack and the whole Parlabane series was going to grab some attention. And I understand fully that being elected Rector of Kelvin University was a bit of a parting surprise. I can even get behind the idea that Parlabane going out in a blaze of psychic attention seeking was just the ticket for getting your average fan steamed up and in a take no prisoners mood. ... Read review

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Christopher Brookmyre

Hell of a Thing, Michael Botur

The thing with Michael Botur's short story collection HELL OF A THING is that there is going to be something in here for all readers who like a bit of dark, unrelenting, beat you round the head and shoulders styled fiction.

There's sixteen stories in this collection, described in the blurb:

In Hell of a Thing, a cowardly father seeks a more exciting son; two lovers on a posh date dine on self-delusion; and an author turns his back on his past—until the past demands violent closure. We meet artistic terrorists, renegade daughters, an Uber
... Read review

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1979, Val McDermid

The first in the Allie Burns series, 1979 was released in 2021 with the second, 1989 out in October 2022. It was the arrival of the second book that made me realise I hadn't read the the first - and then I realised I'm behind with the Karen Pirie novels (now a TV series into the bargain), and well, there are times when I worry that I'm not going to catch up with everything I want to read ever again.

But 1979, needless to say, is set in 1979, with journalist Allie Burns based in Glasgow and looking for the next big story that will make the boy's club at the paper she works ... Read review

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Before You Knew My Name, Jacqueline Bublitz

In 2022 Jacqueline Bublitz's novel BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME won both the Best Novel and Best First Novel categories of the Ngaio Marsh awards. It was the first time this had occurred since the award was established in 2010, and there are some really good reasons for that.

There's also some reasons for the delay in posting this review, mostly because when something is this good, writing words about such excellent words is more than a bit daunting. It's taken a long while to decide whether or not I could say anything that was vaguely coherent, other than plead with as many ... Read review

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Jacqueline Bublitz

Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2022

Ngaio Marsh Shortlist 2022

Ngaio Marsh Winner 2022

El Dorado, Dorothy Porter

I'll be perfectly honest - I circled El Dorado in the Readings tent at the Melbourne Writers festival for days. It's a contemporary Australian crime fiction thriller. It was long-listed for the 2007 Ned's and I'd promised myself to read the entire list of nominees this year. So why was I circling?

Well El Dorado is a verse novel - poetry and I admit I'm never convinced about reading poetry. Sure I love listening to some bush poetry, and I love to listen to some I guess you'd call them performance poets - ask everyone about dragging me away from Lem Sissay's performances at ... Read review

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Ten Steps to Nanette, Hannah Gadsby

You can't "rate" something like this novel because it's deeply personal. The star rating (5 stars on Hardcover) I've given it is a reflection of the experience of listening - because it was worth every single second of time. Funny and utterly devastating in parts, there's echoes of the structure of Nanette the show in Ten Steps to Nanette.

Would highly, strongly and persistently recommend ANYONE who thinks that #metoo, or how we react / treat "difference" isn't an issue listen to this. (Or just simply everyone listen to this because it's such an important perspective). It's ... Read review

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The Hanged Man of Saint-Pholien, Georges Simenon

Book 4 in the Maigret series, which I'm wandering back through via the medium of audio books. Which as we all know is successful based hugely on the narrator. In this case Gareth Armstrong does a great job, with a voice that's laid back enough to make it pleasant listening, but not so much as to become soporific.

At this point in the series most of the fundamentals of Maigret are in place - tenacity, attention to detail, observational and keenly aware of his surroundings and the people around him. This novel however introduces the concept of guilt - and how Maigret deals ... Read review

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Georges Simenon

Better the Blood, Michael Bennett

BETTER THE BLOOD is one of those novels that I'd been hearing whispers about for quite a while, and should have made it to the top of the reading pile more quickly than my poor priority setting allowed. On the one hand I'm now regretting the delay, but on the upside, maybe I've cunningly given myself a slightly shorter wait until the next in the series is released. (No idea if a series is planned, but if there was ever a cast of characters, and a style and approach that deserved it, it's here.)

If, like me, you've always envied what seems like New Zealand's more ... Read review

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Michael Bennett

Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2023

Ngaio Marsh Shortlist 2023

Transgression, Roger Simpson

Having been a fan of the Halifax TV Series, starring Rebecca Gibney as Dr Jane Halifax, this book was greeted with considerable excitement. The author, Roger Simpson, is an award-winning screen writer, creating both the telemovie series of Halifax f.p. (which ran from 1994 to 2001) and its sequel, Halifax: Retribution in 2020. For those Australians watching, they might also have heard of some of his other TV work - Stingers, Something in the Air, Silver Sun and Satisfaction.

Needless to say, if anybody knows Dr Jane Halifax it's author Roger Simpson. The question that ... Read review

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Stone Town, Margaret Hickey

STONE TOWN by Margaret Hickey follows the story of the central character introduced in her (very good) debut novel CUTTERS END. Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti's moved from the South Australian outback back to his home town of Booralama. Since the death of his mother, he's living on his own in his childhood home, with all the memories that brings with it, dealing with the people he grew up with, and those that are new to the town. While he's busy with the day to day issues of small town policing, the big story is about a missing cop - Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsted has vanished - no ... Read review

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Margaret Hickey

Those Who Perish, Emma Viskic

I'm not good with the end of things that I've really loved but when it came to the Caleb Zelic series by Emma Viskic, it turns out there was only so long I could hold out.

The earlier books in the series, RESURRECTION BAY, AND FIRE CAME DOWN, and DARKNESS FOR LIGHT, introduced readers to the messy world that Caleb Zelic inhabits, although there are glimpses in THOSE WHO PERISH of a man determined, and very nearly managing, to get his act together.

For readers new to this series, (where have you been!) Zelic has a complicated backstory, growing up in a small ... Read review

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Quiet in Her Bones, Nalini Singh

A slow burn psychological thriller, QUIET IN HER BONES is beautifully executed with a pace that seems to stroll along, focusing mostly on a range of characters that stand out from the page.

Socialite Nina Rai vanished ten years ago, along with a quarter of a million dollars in cash. Her son Aarav heard a chilling scream the night she went, but it wasn't until years later that her remains are discovered in the dense forest that surrounds their elite, privileged, secretive, exclusive neighbourhood. Aarav's desire to find out what happened on that night is compelled by his ... Read review

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Ngaio Marsh Shortlist 2022

Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2022

Black River, Matthew Spencer

Not so long ago, you couldn't move for serial killer novels, and a lot of readers (including this one) were over them. Since then the "popularity" does seem to have waned, and there's a marked tendency to make that those that do show up - very good indeed. As it was with BLACK RIVER which turned out to be an absolute page-turner.

Based in Sydney, in geographic locations, and a central character's backstory that seems to have more than a few echoes with the author's, this is the story of the mysterious deaths of a number of young women, their bodies having been discovered ... Read review

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Matthew Spencer

Banjawarn, Josh Kemp

There seems to have been quite a few dystopian styled novels passing before my reading eye in recent months, and BANJAWARN is the latest.

Josh Kemp's debut novel is Gothic, gritty, depressing, uplifting, disturbing and rewarding - sometimes at different times, sometimes simultaneously so. All in all, a most unusual reading experience.

The central character, Garreth Hoyle, is a true crime writer addicted to hallucinogenic drugs, with a best-seller book behind him, based on his experiences on a sheep station - Banjawarn. The book estranged him from some of the ... Read review

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