All the Reviews

Two novels, and one collection of short stories in now and I think we can all agree Bryan Brown has a "style". Short, clipped sentences, dry as dust observations, dark and cunning humour and a sense of fringe communities that are quite content with their little eccentric weirdo selves. Although, to be fair, THE HIDDEN, also comes with a pretty hefty ick factor. If you're not a fan of ridiculously horny people behaving like ridiculously horny people with tedious consistency, then this may not be the novel for you. And if you're horrified by cockfighting and the low life scum that ... Read review

It's not uncommon for crime fiction from any location to address societal issues up front, and DUST by journalist / author Michael Brissenden is doing exactly that - tackling drought, and the deprivation in rural communities that goes alongside that, as well as the rise of the Sovereign Citizen / Cooker communities, who are increasingly taking root in these areas.

DUST has, as it's central character, young Aaron Love. The son of a missing, but not much missed father, he's one of those fringe-dwelling kids that has looked after himself from a very young age, living / ... Read review

Ernest Cunningham is dying, in his own words, on the ice-cold floor of a steel box about the size of a fridge with, he's calculated, around fifteen hours of air left inside it. You'd think, under those circumstances, the dwindling ink in his pen would be put to good purpose, getting to the point, maybe sharing some messages for loved ones, some wisdom from his previous record of solving murders, anything but the story of a bank heist, well 10 bank heists to be precise. And a lot of information on exactly how he ended up in this predicament. But, being Ernest Cunningham, he also plays ... Read review

Mikael is a young man, half Finnish, half New Zealander, who never really knew his father, or the story of his mysterious death. In search of answers - about himself as well, he teams up with Pekka Wall, an acerbic editor and translator of famous science fiction novels, as eccentric as his oldest friend, Mikael Långberg, the brilliant theatre director who had died many years ago in questionable circumstances, during the final days of a notorious Cabaret production. Officially ruled a suicide, unofficially anybody who knew Mikael Senior did not easily accept that verdict.

... Read review

Alan Turing develops a machine he calls Nautilus that can send messages back in time. He uses it to fix a disastrous D-Day that threatens to lengthen the war and see Hitler triumph. Seeing the power and potential, he decides that it can only be entrusted to family. For Alan this means his friend and one time fiancee, Joan Clarke and their son from a fling on VE day.

There is a lot of potential in the idea, sadly unrealised in the text, instead opting for a superficial treatment that is, at least, entertaining if you ignore the obvious flaws.

The unrealistic ... Read review

THE DEEPER THE DEAD is the third book in the New Zealand based police procedural series feature DI Nyree Bradshaw at the centre of a personal and professional storm. This is definitely one of those sets of books that would be worth reading in order, Bradshaw has a backstory which will allow readers to see the full picture behind the storm that is going on in her personal life, although you can definitely see the impact.

In the last book in the series Bradshaw found herself sort of guilted / sort of keen to accept custody of her very young granddaughter, whose mother had ... Read review

A group of short stories, this a both gripping, and incredibly clever crime fiction, set within a scenario that will be familiar to some Australian readers. 

The central premise of this collection is the reverberations of a serial killer's crime in the lives of ordinary people. The connections are both unexpected and more obvious, but the impacts less predictable, and sometimes disconcertingly random. Each story provides a glimpse into the way that one person's actions create an outward ripple effect, how complicated connections can be, and more importantly, how chance ... Read review

The fourth book in the Cormac Reilly series from Irish / Australian author Dervla McTiernan, has a series of strange deaths in bogs near Galway as the central focus, with a sideline in Reilly trying to find an Irishman missing in Paris, and some potential career changes for him and his closest team member as secondary threads.

New readers to this series might find that THE UNQUIET GRAVE will work fine for them, the backstory to all the main characters is filled in nicely, but if it's possible to have read the series in order, then you're going to have a much better grip ... Read review

Why I have really enjoyed the audio versions of the first two books of this series (The Kamogawa Food Detectives is the first, this is the second) could, on the face of it, look like an even bigger mystery then the central premise of these books, which is a man and daughter who bring to life the food memories of their customers with a few clues and maybe some geographical locations as a starting point. What's less of a mystery is just how thoroughly enjoyable they are, if not slightly ... Read review