All the Reviews

I Wanna Be Yours, John Cooper Clarke

The soundtrack of your life often reflects the time when you were a teenager, when everything sears into the memory, embeds itself deep in the psyche and remains with you. Come my old age, my nursing home will have a very different soundtrack to the Hits of the Blitz that the grandparents favoured. For me it will be The Clash, The Slits, The Sex Pistols, The Ramones, Blondie, Siouxsie and the Banshees and of course, The Saints. Interspersed with the most unlikely offerings that came with the disco era. What can I say, the 70's and 80's were a weird, weird, gloriously outrageous, ... Read review

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John Cooper Clarke

Masala and Murder, Patrick Lyons

The first novel in what one hopes will be a very long series, MASALA AND MURDER introduces Melbourne-based, Anglo-Indian ex-cop / private detective Samson Ryder to the world.

The author, Patrick Lyons, is Anglo-Indian himself, and his view of life obviously informs the way that Ryder engages with the world. A large part of this story is personal, as Ryder tries to learn to live with the tragic death of his sister, the circumstances of which lead to strained relationships with his parents, his girlfriend and a disconnection with the families religious faith.

... Read review

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Ghost Child, Caroline Overington

Short commentary as this was read for our face to face bookclub meeting yesterday. Lovers of this book will be pleased to know I was very much in the minority because I really did not like this book. Partially that's because of some stereotypical coincidences between the characters in this and the last book by the same author read - damaged / fragile women and more balanced / carefree despite trials blokes. Partially it's because there was so much telling it felt like there'd be an exam to pass at the end. Mostly it was because read the prologue, you've pretty much read the whole book ... Read review

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Caroline Overington

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson

Everyone is going to be talking about EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE, because it's fiendishly clever, dryly funny (well as funny as a crime novel with a very high body count is going to get), complicated without being overly so, different, and well, relatable, in a weird sort of way.

Right from the very start our narrator, Ern Cunningham, has a lot on. Professionally he self publishes "How To Write" crime books, with his advice based on Ronald Knox's '10 Commandments of Detective Fiction' from 1929 (well worth googling although they are all (with one edit) ... Read review

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Benjamin Stevenson

A Perfect Spy, John le Carré

Immersive, almost meditative listening, I started John le Carre's A PERFECT SPY in Audio version recently, and was amazed by it. Partly a spy thriller, but really it's a character study in two parts. Magnus Pym, a young boy growing up with a con-artist for a father, who has become a successful officer in British Intelligence, marrying a fellow member of the service, having his own child, disappearing, holed up in a second life, in a bed and breakfast, with a new identity and an alleged book to write. The other the story of a con-man father, Rick, a man of huge appetites, mostly for ... Read review

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Boy Fallen, Chris Gill

Set in small-town New Zealand, Boy Fallen is beautifully written and elegantly plotted crime fiction.

Auckland Detective Brooke Palmer returns to her home town of Taonga to support her best friend Lana when the body of Lana’s teenage son is found at the base of the local falls. Full review at Newtown Review of Books Read review

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The Carter of 'La Providence', Georges Simenon

The second in the Maigret series (although there's some suggestion it could be the fourth although I've done zero fact checking one way or the other), this one really re-affirmed my decision to go right back to the start, and work my way through the audio versions of this series (the anti-semitism and casual racism in the first one nearly derailed the quest). Of course the timing of this series has to be taken into account so this time, so the vaguely censorial nature of the commentary of the victim, and the "set" she socialised in was sort of to be expected, although the slight sense ... Read review

Author:

Georges Simenon

When We Fall, Aoife Clifford

Given the juxtaposition of this review, and my recent one for THE STONING, I probably should mention that Aoife Clifford was the author I was discussing rural noir versus rural crime with. To my eye, Clifford is one of the great writers of rural crime in Australia at the moment, and she's right when she says the difference between her books and the more noirish styled ones like THE STONING is her self-professed affection, and sense of hope for the small towns that she sets her action in.

WHEN WE FALL is the story of Alex Tillerson and her mother and the small coastal town ... Read review

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The Stoning, Peter Papathanasiou

In a conversation with a well known author of Australian Rural/Regional crime fiction on twitter recently, we talked about the differences between "rural noir" and "rural crime". She clarified the difference between rural crime fiction and rural noir fiction for me perfectly - a projection from the author about the place that they are writing. In noir you get the sense that the author feels this place is without hope, lost and struggling to find a future. In rural crime there's more of a sense of affection or hope for a setting, both of which often extends to the handling and ... Read review

Author:

Peter Papathanasiou

Auē, Becky Manawatu

Auē: 1. (verb) (-tia) to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl.

Nō tō mātau mōhiotanga kua mate, kāore i ārikarika te auē o ō mātau waha (HP 1991:19). / When we knew that she had died we howled our eyes out.

https://maoridictionary.co.nz/word/524

Understanding the meaning of the verb auē doesn't quite cover the visceral, gut-wrenching capacity of it in the way that the novel AUĒ depicts it. The characters in this novel experience it in all sorts of ways ... Read review

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Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2020

Ngaio Marsh Shortlist 2020

Ngaio Marsh Winner 2020

Consolation, Garry Disher

Australia’s leading writer of rural crime fiction, Garry Disher, has been quietly crafting an excellent series set in the dry wheatbelt of South Australia. Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead review

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Doc: The life and times of Aussie rock legend Doc Neeson, Anne Souter & Jon Bradshaw

I was one of those girls, right up the back of the venue, watching The Angels. The band mostly keeping to the shadows, statues in the dark, playing hard driving, LOUD, guitar based rock and roll. In the spotlights, at the front, more often than not, hanging from the scaffolding, dressed in all sorts of costumery / theatrical and impossibly gorgeous, was Doc Neeson. Teasing (antagonising) the audience, throwing himself around with (what turned out to be) no regard for his personal health at all. In those days, ridiculously tall, utterly mesmerising with his wild hair, wild / driven ... Read review

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The Hill We Climb, Amanda Gorman

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

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Death Sentence, B.M. Allsopp

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

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Canticle Creek, Adrian Hyland

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

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Brimstone, Russel Hutchings

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

Author:

Russel Hutchings

The Great Divide, L.J.M. Owen

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

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The Way It is Now, Garry Disher

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

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Sprigs, Brannavan Gnanalingam

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

Author:

Brannavan Gnanalingam

Larrimah, Caroline Graham & Kylie Stevenson

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

Author:

Caroline Graham

Kylie Stevenson

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