All the Reviews

Stella is the only child of Adam, a pastor, and Ulrika, a lawyer.  Stella is now of legal age and looks forward to soon taking an Asian holiday with her best friend since childhood, Amina.  The two teenagers have been through much together and of course, know a lot more about each other’s true selves than their parents do. It’s that degree of separation that Stella prides herself in maintaining, seeing as her parents are both so clueless that they buy her a scooter for her birthday when Stella had clearly stated that she wanted spending money for her trip.  There are many things that ... Read review

A combined review of DARK SERVICE, and ONE LAST HIT, the 4th and 5th books in the Detective Amanda Lacey series from NZ based author Linda Coles, set in the United Kingdom where Lacey and her investigative partner Jack Rutherford are confronted by a very odd scenario the first outing DARK SERVICE; and Lacey and another investigative partner, Duncan Riley, deal with a threat that comes much closer to home in the second ONE LAST HIT.

DARK SERVICE first then. This was my first encounter with Detective Amanda Lacey and DCI Jack Rutherford (who has his own series starting out ... Read review

A year ago, Leo Stanhope was a crossroads.  Leo has plenty of excellent reasons to keep a low profile and is keen to move on from the vivid memories of violence and horror that almost cost him his life.  He may not be flush with funds but Leo is comforted by the fact that his life now has a structure of sorts. He has friends, he has work, he has a home.

An odd encounter in his landlord’s pharmacy followed by a murder leads to the police coming to visit Leo.  At a club frequented by radicals and foreigners, a woman has been murdered and Leo’s address was in her purse.  ... Read review

The 5th in the Carlswick series, THE CARLSWICK MYTHOLOGY is a young adult (at the upper end of the age range), slightly female orientated series, based around main characters Stephanie Cooper and her rock drummer boyfriend James Knox. Whilst it's not absolutely necessary to have read any of the earlier books (THE CARLSWICK AFFAIR, THE CARLSWICK TREASURE, THE CARLSWICK CONSPIRACY and THE CARLSWICK DECEPTION), it did help that I'd read the 4th book, and therefore had a bit of an inkling of these two and how their version of a rock star lifestyle works.

In this outing James ... Read review

Consider for a moment what you would do. You've dropped your child off at the bus stop on their way to school, and you're heading towards a normal day. You've had some health challenges yourself recently, but you're getting your life back together. You're going back to work. Your life is taking a turn for the better. Until you answer the phone and a panicked voice tells you, they have kidnapped your child, and then they explain the nightmare scenario that you need to get onto straight away if you ever want to see your child again. It's a choreographed scenario, it's stylised, it feels ... Read review

The second in the Harry Kvist series, DOWN FOR THE COUNT follows CLINCH, with the third book, SLUGGER, now available in Australia as well. Think deepest darkest dirtiest noir, of the hardest possible bitten variety, and this series fits the definition perfectly. Add longing for love, and a touching sense of loyalty as well. Harry Kvist is an unlikely hard man, although his initial description would seem to fit the bill. He's a boxer, a brawler, a heavy and a hard man. In DOWN FOR THE COUNT he's leaving behind his latest prison sentence to return to his small flat, above the funeral ... Read review

Flagged as an erotic thriller THE DELECTABLE LADY D'ESTELLE made me think. Unfortunately mostly about how erotica is a tricky undertaking and how, combining it with thriller aspects, you flirt with some very fine lines. I suspect it takes a lot of writing skill to avoid a step over from one to the other, and I'm also acutely aware that there could be some gender bias here that's hard to avoid. Because however I tried to work this one out, the plot, the motivations and the fundamentals of who did what why and when, never became believable. The dialogue didn't convince and it just ... Read review

As per the blurb, this is a series that started out with THE HOLIDAY MURDERS, then came THE PORT FAIRY MURDERS and now THE AUTUMN MURDERS. At this point it's very much a series that needs to be read in order, as the back story here is really going to be important to a reader understanding the implications of George Starling's plans for revenge.

Starling is a very different sort of villain for Robert Gott to be tackling. He's almost all consuming, particularly in THE AUTUMN MURDERS, and whilst there are the good guys, Detective Joe Sable and Constable Helen Lord in ... Read review

FRONT PAGE NEWS is the debut novel from former Australian journalist Katie Rowney. From the lighter, intended as humour side of crime fiction, cadet journalist Stacey McCallaghan has her first job in the small country town of Toomey working on the local newspaper. Struggling with the grind of making front page news out of the daily goings on in a small town, it's almost like the first dead body is heaven sent for McCallaghan's journalistic ambitions.

The hassle, as always with humour, is that it's only going to work for some readers. Needless to say this reader won't be ... Read review