All the Reviews

I've only ever met one spy (... that I know of), and he wasn't anything like Charles Bishop. Never took on a powerful arms-dealing organisation (as far as I know), never got stabbed, shot at, beaten up, taken prisoner, made friends with a Russian spy, or slept with the enemy either (as far as I know). Now I'm wondering all the things I should have asked, and never did. Reading, after all, is educational and if you take nothing away from the Charles Bishop series by Dave Sinclair, it could be a list of things to bring up in conversation the next time you meet a spy.

... Read review

I'm now firmly of the opinion that it takes real skill to stuff up the order of a series to the extent that I seem to manage to do it. One day I'll find a use for that skill, but nowadays it just means I spend my life staring at piles of books thinking, oh buggeration, there's another one I should have read before... Thus THE INVISIBLE MAN FROM SALEM.

Which is the first in the Leo Junker series, a series which I've read in the order THE FALLING DETECTIVE (#2); MASTER, LIAR, TRAITOR, FRIEND (#3) (so at least that was right), then THE INVISIBLE MAN FROM SALEM (#1) and now I' ... Read review

Rural noir being the big thing at the moment, it's sad that many seem to have forgotten that there have been superbly talented authors like Garry Disher telling beautifully crafted, intelligent, and informed stories of the urban fringe, and the rural regions for many years. PEACE is the second book now to feature Constable Paul Hirschhausen, following on from BITTER WASH ROAD. As is always the way with a carefully crafted series like this, you can read PEACE first if you missed the earlier novel, although I was grateful that I'd read and remembered well the earlier novel, because ... Read review

SHAMUS DUST: HARD WINTER, COLD WAR. COOL MURDER by Janet Roger is set in 1947, in London as it recovers from the destruction and devastation of war. There is bomb damage everywhere, people are struggling with deprivation and loss; and yet the murder of a pimp, shot dead at a local church, is causing shock waves. American Private Investigator, Newman, receives a call from a local Councillor on Christmas Morning, with a vague request to check out an incident at one of the many properties the client owns in the area, which soon becomes Newman's full-blown investigation of a murder, ... Read review

TUNNEL VISION is the follow up novel to PERFECT CRIMINALS which unleashed Danny Clay and his neighbour, friend, sidekick, he would / if she would romantic interest, Zan on the world. Danny's an ex-army sapper, now scriptwriter, veteran of many battles - in war and peace. Zan's the daughter of Vietnamese refugees in Australia - she comes with highly specialised food finding skills and a lack of extensive spoken Vietnamese. She is, however, very good in the role of faithful sidekick capable of launching a bit of a kicking (even if it's frequently mostly verbal). Needless to say this ... Read review

It becomes necessary for Hester Why to take advantage of a well-timed employment opportunity when it presents itself to her.  Arriving at remote Morvoren House to take the position of nurse and ladies maid, Hester is somewhat horrified to learn that her new charge is a partially paralysed elderly woman who is almost entirely mute.  It may be a lovely house but the location is not, and the staff seem frankly odd to Hester, who once served in another fine house before being forced to flee in shame.  Hester was once Esther, and the re-invention of Hester’s past means that she can never ... Read review

DEATH BY TRADITION is the second book in the Fiji Islands Mystery series, following on closely from DEATH ON PARADISE ISLAND. It's probably best if you can read both of these novels in order, as background to the central character's lives, the society in which they operate, and their interactions is pretty well central to everything here.

In this second novel, DI Joe Horseman, policeman, local rugby star, has been back in his homeland for a while, after a knee injury put pay to his overseas ambitions. He's impatiently awaiting the arrival of his American girlfriend, and ... Read review

THE STAKES is the latest noir thriller from NZ writer Ben Sanders, and it's a standout. Set once again in the US, this time NYPD detective Miles Keller is onto what he thinks is a pretty good idea; ripping off rich New York criminals, with a view to early, anonymous retirement. I mean really, what could go wrong? Other than the NYPD investigation into his suspected shooting of a hitman and the reappearance in his life of fellow scammer Nina Stone? Or is it the tricky complication of the go-to-thug, Bobby Dean, brother of the aforementioned dead hitman, dispatched by Stone's estranged ... Read review

INSPECTOR ANDERS AND THE PRAGUE DOSSIER is a very bittersweet book, published after author Marshall Browne's death (the book was being edited at the time that Browne died). The fourth Inspector Anders novel, it brings to an end an unsung gem of a series of Australian Crime Fiction books.

Set in Europe, the central character - Anders is an investigator with Europol. In the first book, THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS, Anders is based in Italy, a hero of the Rome Police Force, who lost his leg in a terrorist attack, struggling with the after-effects of the bombing. The ... Read review