All the Reviews

Only Daughter, Anna Snoekstra

Debut author Anna Snoekstra has taken on one of the more difficult challenges in writing fiction - creating an engaging, morally ambiguous central character, who sometimes borders on unlikeable. ONE DAUGHTER shows that an intriguing scenario helps, as does pace and the provision for some readers to have some sympathy for, in this case, the imposter's situation in particular.

Right from the start imposter Bec has reasons for doing what she did. Eleven years after the real Rebecca Winter disappeared, an imposter "returns" to the family claiming to be the ... Read review

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Tattletale, Sarah J Naughton

If you happen to find yourself feeling slightly confused and muddled in the early chapters of TATTLETALE - hang in there. It takes a while for everyone and everything in this novel to fall into place, but once they do - hang on for the rest of the ride.

Using an unusual structure, and some really complicated character back-stories, TATTLETALE starts out with Mags receiving an unexpected phone call. Her estranged brother Abe is in hospital back in their native UK, and no-one seems to know what was behind his fall from the 4th floor of the converted church that he, Jody his ... Read review

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Sarah J Naughton

More Bitter than Death, Camilla Grebe and Åsa Träff

The second novel in the Siri Bergman series, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, suffered a little from this reader having missed the first book - SOME KIND OF PEACE. It left such a sense of missing out for this reader, that SOME KIND OF PEACE was slotted into the teetering pile of books to be read.

A big part of the reason for that reaction is that Siri Bergman is a tricky character to come to grips with part-way through her story. Not to say that she's not particularly intriguing, strong and fascinating, there just always felt like something about her was cloudy / didn't quite add ... Read review

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Kingdom of the Strong, Tony Cavanaugh

Author Tony Cavanaugh has had a long and illustrious career in film and tv and thus brings that excellent crafting of place and character to his crime novels. All of his creations are wholly convincing and though sketched with typical Australian economy, they are entirely recognizable in their landscape.

KINGDOM OF THE STRONG is strongly anchored to the Melbourne setting and the reader is very much travelling along the streets with investigator Darian Richards. The same themes do thread through the novels in this series; loss, redemption, loyalty and betrayal and ... Read review

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Crimson Lake, Candice Fox

If two Ned Kelly Awards and one short-listing hasn't given you a big enough hint already, CRIMSON LAKE should absolutely confirm that Candice Fox is an Australian writer of immense ability.

Always on the darker side, Fox's books incorporate clever plots with strong characters. She has a particular ability to create unusual, unexpected partnerships, teaming up the unlikely, creating tension and unexpected affection and acceptance. It's that idea of acceptance of the fringe dweller's, of the flawed and the people who are rebuilding their lives where all her characters stand ... Read review

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Signal Loss, Garry Disher

Garry Disher has two successful major crime series out – very different from each other, both of the highest possible standard. Full Review At Newtown Review of Books Read review

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Master Liar Traitor Friend, Christoffer Carlsson

MASTER, LIAR, TRAITOR, FRIEND is the third in the Swedish Leo Junker series, a set of books which hopefully all fans of Scandinavian crime fiction are aware of.

Up there with the very best of Scandinavian crime fiction, partly it's the interweaving of the past and present into the backgrounds of the crimes and the main characters, partly it's beautifully descriptive writing that never becomes overdone, that help make this series work so well. Ultimately it's the realness of the situations and the characters that take the reader directly into the story, seeing and feeling ... Read review

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Christoffer Carlsson

Dead in the Water, Tania Chandler

Do a quick search on any of the book reading community websites and you're going to find a large number of novels called "Dead in The Water", adding to the feeling that there's something nicely tongue in cheek about the title of Tania Chandler's second novel also being the title of a crime novel within the story. That sort of echo is loosely reflected in elements of the internal novel and the troubled life of central character Brigitte and her husband in the ... main novel for want of a better description.

Brigitte and her policeman husband Aidan were introduced to ... Read review

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Blood Wedding, Pierre Lamaitre

There is much of the before in this novel, and there is also much of the after. Sophie can’t run from herself but as she struggles to make sense of her new present, it becomes a delirious ride where the reader needs to establish what events are the direct result of Sophie’s own actions or those of another. Sophie’s struggles to make sense of all that is happening to her are quite moving and the righteous anger does build up when you realize the depth of her predicament and the depth of resourcefulness she is going to need in order to survive.

Translated from French to ... Read review

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Pierre Lemaitre

Now You See Me, Jean Bedford

There must be such a delicate balancing act involved when you're writing crime fiction about some of the worst possible crimes. In NOW YOU SEE ME Bedford has tackled the question of child abuse and child murder, and she's opted, bravely to do that in a most unusual manner.

The book centres around journalist Noel Baker - no stranger, as the blurb says, to the worst of human behaviour. Something twigs her investigative senses though about one particular case, and it sends her down a very dark path indeed. A young girl was killed and police were more than happy to place the ... Read review

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Dreaming Inside: Voices from Junee Correctional Centre Volume 4

It's taken a long while to write this review, simply because this has been a collection of writing that I've wanted to go back to frequently in order to get my head around much of it.

Voices from Junee Correctional Centre is a project that commenced in 2012, publishing works by the centre's Indigenous inmates. The work is heart-felt, raw, and confronting. Purposely not edited or altered, this is straight from the hip stuff, allowing the inmates to say what they want. The subject matter varies from life in prison, reasons for being there in the first place, families (and ... Read review

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Barbara Nicholson

The Sound of Summer, Jim Maxwell

Everyone's entitled a holiday and for me, a summer spent with Jim Maxwell and the rest of the ABC cricket commentary team is one of my favourites. I was very relieved to hear Jim's wonderful voice back on the radio this year, albeit somewhat limited due to his ongoing health problems, but there was this book to fill in some of the gaps as well. And you can read this with Jim's intonation in your head if you're of a mind, and probably some think, mildly batty enough.

Foreword written by the wonderful Kerry O'Keefe (When Jim began broadcasting on the ABC Radio all those ... Read review

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Old Scores, David Whish-Wilson

It would seem that there is a rich vein of corruption, vice and criminality to be mined in 1970's and 80's Perth, if the ongoing involvements of Frank Swann, disgraced cop, now private eye from the pen of local author David Whish-Wilson, are anything to go by.

OLD SCORES is the third book in this excellent series, after LINE OF SIGHT released in 2010 and ZERO AT THE BONE in 2013. You won't need to have read them all to get a handle on this latest offering, but this really is one of those series that it would be an enormous pity to miss out on.

Surrounded by ... Read review

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David Whish-Wilson

Win, Lose or Draw, Peter Corris

Many years ago there was a specialist bookshop tucked away in Auburn Road, Hawthorn run by a crime fiction expert and massive enabler (I think his name was Malcolm Campbell). He was one of those real-life people that made me thankful I'd made the trek from the bush to the big city, and Peter Corris was another. Sure I probably would have eventually found his books, but arriving in the city, finding that shop, and eventually being introduced to Cliff Hardy, kind of reinforced at that time it had been a good move all round.

From the opening book in the Cliff Hardy series, ... Read review

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Darkest Place, Jaye Ford

Darkest Place is Australian thriller writer Jaye Ford’s fifth book of stand-alones involving women under threat who are definitely not victims. Review at Newtown Review of Books Read review

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The Black Tongue, Marko Hautala

Somewhere between horror, folk lore and social commentary, set deep in the quiet back waters of northern Finland, THE BLACK TONGUE is a book that will stay with you for a lot of reasons.

Not being much of a fan of horror stories, it's hard to explain why this book appealed in the first place. Perhaps it is that concept of Scandinavian folk lore, to this reader's mind a kind of ramped up Grimms' Fairy Tales. Perhaps it was simply the idea that there is always an unexplained lurking evil - the boogie man or the bunyip - that's designed to keep kids in line and give them a ... Read review

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Bangkok Belle, Ron McMillan

Author Ron McMillan is a Scottish born and bred lad, who has spent many years in Asia as a photo journalist, and that "eye" shows in BANGKOK BELLE and the earlier book BANGKOK COWBOY. It's not going to be absolutely essential for you to read both books in order, but as is always the way with strong character based novels, it does work really well if you've been fortunate to get them in order.

There is something visual about both the settings and the characters employed in these novels, as well as a deep understanding of the nuances of Thai Culture. When it comes to a PI ... Read review

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A Donation of Murder, Felicity Young

A DONATION OF MURDER is book number five in this excellent historical series from WA based author Felicity Young. Built around the central characters of Forensic surgeon Dody McCleland and her love interest Chief Inspector Matthew Pike, there are some important historical aspects to these two, their working lives and their relationship. For a start that relationship would be frowned upon because of their work together so it's secret, but it's also most unusual that McCleland is a qualified doctor at that point in history. That's why she is working in Forensics, and doing some private ... Read review

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Scared to Death, Rachel Amphlett

SCARED TO DEATH is the first in a new series from author Rachel Amphlett. It's a switch from the earlier espionage styled Dan Taylor novels, to a police procedural featuring Detective Kay Hunter.

From the opening scenes with parents Yvonne and Tony racing to provide the ransom money and recover their daughter Melanie, through to the police investigation that follows, there's plenty of intrigue and pace built into SCARED TO DEATH. It is a novel structured in form of police procedural precisely, building a great team around a really strong, central character, looking at the ... Read review

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Rachel Amphlett

Sheila, Robert Wainwright

There's a slightly obvious reason for being attracted to this novel, way outside my normal reading preferences. The story of a young Australian woman who arrives in England just before the outbreak of the First World War, ends up in Egypt working with injured soldiers during that war, marries a Lord, returns to England and promptly inserts herself into the upper echelons of English Aristocracy, right up to the Royal Family themselves, becoming good friends with the young Princes, and ultimately having an affair with the future George VI.

It's a piece of social history, ... Read review

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Robert Wainwright

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