Purchased this special edition to give myself time and space to read and consider the words that were spoken most eloquently, in such a moving manner, at the inauguration of President Biden. So pleased I did.Read review
The fourth novel in the Fiji Islands Mysteries series, DEATH SENTENCE is slower, more measured, and reflective than the earlier entries, which makes sense, given the subject matter.
For those new to the series, it's based around the investigative team of DI Joe Horseman, a famous rugby player, returned to his homeland and working in the local CID alongside Susie Singh, a dedicated and passionate investigator in her own right. Perhaps because of the different ethnicities of these two characters - Horseman of long-standing Fijian background, and Singh, who is Fijian Indian ... Read review
It's been way. too. long. since the last Emily Tempest novel from Adrian Hyland was published. Been way too long since anything from Adrian Hyland was published, so I will admit to some serious stack reshuffling when CANTICLE CREEK arrived. Not a shred of disappointment about the decision to sit down and read the first novel featuring NT Police Officer Jesse Redpath. (I say first novel with some determination - this is a series in the making if there ever was one).
Jesse Redpath is a cop in the small NT community around Kulara, and she was more than prepared to stick her ... Read review
The first in the Mantra-6 series (Nitrate has been released now), the author of BRIMSTONE, Russel Hutchings, is a former SAS Warrant Officer with over 20 years' service in the Regiment. That experience shows very clearly in the authority of the action sequences, and the way that operational details are laid out, and the feelings and experiences of operational staff described. In this case central character John Devereaux, is a SAS Warrant Officer, on secondment to ASIS (Australian Secret Intelligence Service).
Everything operational in this novel says vivid experience, ... Read review
In THE GREAT DIVIDE, L.J.M. Owen has set what seems to be the first of an intended new series in the atmospheric location of a small Tasmanian town with plenty of past secrets just waiting to come back to haunt new and old residents alike.
Atmosphere is the word when it comes to describing THE GREAT DIVIDE. From deep fog, to mysterious old buildings, and damp and sinister feeling vineyards, there is much in this novel that's going to hook a reader's interest. Add the new cop in town, mainlander Detective Jake Hunter, an old family with plenty of inter-generational tension, ... Read review
THE WAY IT IS NOW is another new character from Garry Disher, mining some familiar territory for him, in that we've got a cop who is struggling with his past, present and future. Even for a youngish man, Charlie Deravin has been a cop for years, and there's a lot of backstory to his life. Missing mother for 20 or so years, believed murdered; tricky relationship with his father, and his new wife, the woman who was there at the breakdown of Charlie's parents marriage. A brother who blames their father, but stays close to Charlie. Who now has his own failed marriage, a university aged ... Read review
SPRIGS by Brannavan Gnanalingam is a searing expose of white, male privilege and the brazen underpinning of enablement and support that seemingly encourages, and if required, covers-up the actions of young men. Trigger Warning: It's about a gang rape, young men and an even younger victim. It's about racism, difference, toxic masculinity and cover up culture. It's a timely novel, it won the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel in 2021 and it is exactly the sort of book that is required right now.
Written by a male author, it's about the damage that boys, young men - in ... Read review
When Paddy Moriarty and his dog Kellie disappeared into thin air, an investigation was launched, a search undertaken, but this is sinkhole territory, and it's Larrimah and it seems nothing is ever straight-forward in these parts.
Oddly enough, you'd think in a town of 11 people somebody would have seen / known something of where Paddy and Kellie went, but in this case not only is what happened to Paddy a total mystery, it turns out most everything to do with Paddy is a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, buried in layers of minding your own business.
There's ... Read review
Nat now lives a picture perfect life - an artist, an instagram influencer, she has a husband, a baby and staff. She's also back living in the same place she grew up, friends with some of the girls at school who bullied and tormented her when they were younger, seemingly living the perfect life. Until members of her friend group start to die, Chrissy Summers returns to town, and blame for the deaths increasingly starts to focus on her.
Now I will admit that Nat and all of her friends were mightily annoying to this reader. But then I don't get Instagram influencing, I don't ... Read review
NZ-based Charity Norman’s sixth novel is her second to be shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead review
The winner of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Younger Readers, KATIPO JOE is an almost pitch perfect vehicle for older kids (12+) to get some insights into the reality of war, and how identity can come with consequences, and loyalty is hard.
A 12 year old New Zealand boy living in Berlin in 1938, Joe's parents are diplomats, and they all watch as the Nazi's rise in power, and the mistreatment of local Jews escalates. Discovering his parents are actually spies causes a big enough shock in Joe's world, but when is father is arrested by the Gestapo, Joe and his mother manage ... Read review
THE KILL BILL is the second book in the Referendum Series by ex-politician Richard Evans, and boy can you pick that this author knows all about the back-room machinations that go on in the political world.
In this case we're talking about those around changes to the constitution of Australia to allow federal government control over things like Euthanasia Rights which are increasingly being debated, and passed into law at a State level. Sounds technical, but the basis for all of this flows into the narrative easily, and really readers just need to know that there's a ... Read review
When author Jonathan Macpherson sent me an ebook copy of OUTBACK CREED for review, it slipped a little down the queue as some pressing judging responsibilities got in the road. Having subsequently realised it was somewhere between a novella and novel in size, it snuck back in, as a palate cleanser / head clearing read was required.
Action packed, with a interesting idea at the core, OUTBACK CREED is well worth reading if you're a fan of action packed thrillers. The basic idea is that three lawyers, after a meeting in a small outback town, head out to a remote spot in the ... Read review
The fourth book in the Georgie Harvey and John Franklin series, this series is set, in the main, around Daylesford and the goldfields area, with BLACK CLOUD mostly in Korweinguboora, one of my all time favourite place names (and locales). When I was a kid my grandfather loved heading out to there to collect spa water from a roadside spring. His garage was always filled with bottles coated with dark red mineralisation, and the daily glass of lemon cordial and spa water cold from the fridge must have done something - he lived until he was 99 after all. It's a great part of the world, ... Read review
In the middle of reading this novel an Antiques Roadshow episode popped up that included an old tally stick, bought in by an elderly gentleman who had kept it in a drawer for many years. Very useful and timely to be reminded that they were used as an aid to memory, often for financial or legal transactions, to keep track of debts. In the case of the novel THE TALLY STICK, one is found, at the same time as the remains of the eldest Chamberlain child, discovered in a remote part of New Zealand's West Coast. The entire Chamberlain family had arrived in New Zealand from Britain, and ... Read review
The second novel in the RJ Rox series, THE FESTIVAL KILLER is a crime novel, with a rejected manuscript at its heart. The connection between the past unsolved case of an ambassador's secret love child going missing at the Berlin Book Festival, and subsequent disappearances from similar book festivals isn't immediately obvious, but Agent Rox, and the clandestine organisation she works for known as Kingfisher, eventually find a link between them, and a well-known crime writer's most recent novel.
Being second in the series, there's a bit to the backstory of Rox that readers ... Read review
THE SNOW THIEF is set in Tibet, with a Chinese Detective as it's central character, fighting her bosses for permission to look into the mysterious deaths of multiple little boys. It's a story of murder, a serial killer, stalking the entire country, obviously killing to a pattern, but it's also the story of the tensions between Tibet and China and the way that every step could be your last if you offend the wrong people.
Told with what feels like great authority, Carver has created central characters in this novel that draw you into the story, and the place deeply and ... Read review
Another from the more unexpected side of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh list, SOLDIERS is partially a story about the realities of war, from a soldier's perspective, partially a mystery about what happened to Corporal Daniel Cousins, but mostly a visceral, devastating personal story of one man, a love affair, his compassion and his pursuit of justice for his compatriot, at a time when injustice, threat and death abound.
Beautifully written, a war story built around an unsolved mystery, SOLDIERS has moments of moral ambiguity and trauma, doubt, and unimaginable loss. It's also got ... Read review
Magical realism in a disturbing political thriller, told in a confessional first person voice, SHAKTI is not the sort of novel that you'd normally expect to show up in the list for a crime fiction award, but if the Ngaio Marsh Award has shown me anything over recent years it's to expect the unexpected, and go with it.
A story of women, their courage, their struggles and secrets, set against a backdrop of right-wing, nationalist politics, this is about three Indian women who find themselves dealing with a great gift, and the consequences of that. What if the greatest gift ... Read review
It increasingly feels like the things you can be guaranteed of when starting a new book by J.P. Pomare are it's going to be a fast paced, high tension thriller; it's likely as not going to frighten the daylights out of you; and it's going to be littered with twists, turns, red herrings, misguidance, clues and hints. Despite that, they have all been very different novels indeed.
TELL ME LIES is his third, focusing in on Margot Scott, a registered psychologist with what seems to be everything - a successful practice, wonderful family life, solid and loving marriage, ... Read review