All the Reviews

FLASH JIM is the story of James Hardy Vaux, writer of Australia's first dictionary and first true-crime memoir. It's kind of appealing to know the first dictionary came about as a result of the inability of colonial police and magistrates to understand the slang used by the criminal classes. I will admit to being somewhat startled still to discover the words and phrases that are particularly unique to Australian English (normally as a result of the utterly blank look on the face of the hearer from another land).

But the story of James Hardy Vaux is the main point of FLASH ... Read review

The Second World War is now a long time in the past, we must have lost just about everybody with personal experience of that time, and the lengths people had to go to in order to survive, so historical fiction that casts a light on the real, every day experience feels particularly timely.

THE PARIS COLLABORATOR is the story of Auguste Duchene, a former schoolteacher, living in German-occupied Paris, finding missing people as a way to survive. Approached by the French Resistance to locate a missing priest, and a cache of stolen weapons, his initial refusal is thwarted when ... Read review

DEATH BEYOND THE LIMIT is the third novel in the Fiji Island Mysteries series featuring superstar ex-Rugby player, now Police Inspector, Joe Horseman. This is one of those series that will work really well if you're reading it in order, but luckily won't matter too much if you don't.

Having really enjoyed the first two novels in this series, one of the aspects I was particularly intrigued about was the balancing act between what's increasingly becoming the two central police investigators - Horseman, with his Fijian background, culture and sensibility and his sidekick DS ... Read review

Jack Furey is 100 years old, in a nursing home, and not a happy man. In the introduction to FUREY'S WAR it quickly becomes apparent that Jack is his own man, not somebody to be trifled with, and definitely not somebody to underestimate, even after a devastating stroke. Inside his head, Jack's as clear as a bell, really annoyed at everything to do with the nursing home (and who could blame him), and desperate to reunite with his much loved, late wife Gracie.

The story quickly heads back to 1942, and the town of Wangamba in Australia, where Jack was the local copper, a ... Read review

First released in Australia in November 2020, DEATH IN DAYLESFORD is the 21st Phryne Fisher book, set in Victoria's Spa Country - between Daylesford and Hepburn Springs, in an area that's all too real, with some fictional places built into this story, as is the tendency with this very engaging series.

The first of Phryne Fisher novel was published in 1989, so this is one of the really long-standing, fictional crime series in Australia, relying heavily on a tone and style set way back then, and a central character that is memorable, frequently funny, and always very ... Read review

"Suddenly, condemned arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig found himself with a noose around his neck and dropping through a trapdoor into...a government job?"

GOING POSTAL is the 33rd Discworld Novel, and the first to feature Moist von Lipwig, conman, swindler, thief, very nearly dead man, Post Master General. As the blurb puts it "By all rights, Moist should be meeting his maker rather than being offered a position as postmaster by Lord Vetinari, supreme ruler of Ankh-Morpork. Getting the moribund Postal Service up and running again, however, may prove an impossible task, what ... Read review

From the Blurb: Tiffany Aching, the boldest heroine ever to swing a frying pan against the forces of evil, is beginning her apprenticeship in magic. She expects to work hard, learn spells, and become a witch. She doesn't expect to find herself doing chores, caring for the careless, and trying to outthink an ill-tempered nanny goat. There must be more to witchcraft than this!

Right now, right at this particular time in my life, and the state of the world, it's hard not to wish for more heroine's swinging frying pans, but that aside, the Tiffany Aching series, is really an ... Read review

Discworld number 31 and again I'm reminded just how wide ranging the references are in Terry Pratchett's series. In this case the novel takes its name from the 16th century tract The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women by Protestant John Knox, arguing against the female Catholic sovereigns at the time. Pratchett's novel is the story of an ongoing war that is draining a kingdom of people to fight it, the madness of leaders and efforts put into the propaganda war, as opposed to the actual fighting war (both of which, to be fair, are utterly ... Read review

About 3/4's of the way into BARRENJOEY ROAD, in the week starting 15th March 2021, I did wonder if it was possible to physically explode from rage whilst simultaneously feeling so desperately desperately sad that so many young women have been raped, and sometimes murdered in this country, and it constantly looks like nobody in authority gives a shit. (And honestly, if you're going to get all po-faced over a bit of language in a review of an account of an appalling travesty of justice in this country (in a long list of appalling travesties of justice against women, people with ... Read review