The Dry, Jane Harper
There is a very good reason for all the buzz around about The Dry, another great debut thriller from an Australian writer. Review at Newtown Review of BooksRead review
The Rules of Backyard Cricket, Jock Serong
When Jock Serong's debut novel QUOTA was released it was the first crime fiction book I could recall using over-permit limit Abalone catches as a central theme. The incorporation of crime and cricket therefore shouldn't have come as that much of a surprise in his second novel, THE RULES OF BACKYARD CRICKET. If both of these books are anything to go by, this is an author with a keen eye for an unusual but extremely workable scenario.
The depiction of cricket, from the Keefe brother's backyard contests, through to their District, State and ultimately Australian ... Read review
Dead Men Don't Order Flake, Sue Williams
Cass Tuplin has returned in second book DEAD MEN DON'T ORDER FLAKE. Proprietor of the recently rebuilt Rusty Bore Takeway, she's a fish, chip and dim sim dispenser extraordinaire with a sideline in private enquiries. Which means she's one of those slightly nosy women who can find out stuff, despite objections from her eldest son, and local Senior Constable, Dean. Her propensity to dig until dirt moves out of the way is part of the reason why a local father, Gary Kellett, asks her to look further into the death of his only daughter. Natalie was a journalist in the "big town up the road ... Read review
Man in the Corner, Nathan Besser
A lot of things happen to normal, everyday father, husband and businessman David in a big hurry. His wife confesses to a secret past which he can almost handle and then he collapses with a rare brain disorder requiring urgent surgery, forcing him into a period of recuperation. This leads to some rash business decisions and a chance meeting with a total stranger. From that meeting, David is led into a weird world of identity-theft and criminal behaviour, the likes of which you'd expect any sane, rational, normal person would run away from. But so much about MAN IN THE CORNER is off- ... Read review
Mima, Shirley Eldridge
MIMA is a profoundly personal recounting of the death of a friend. A case that went neglected for many years until the author, Shirley Eldridge, 40 years later, turned amongst other sources, to a private investigator for help in trying to reveal who killed Mima McKim-Hill.
MIMA is the sort of true crime book that is going to work for those readers who feel a particular connection with Shirley Eldridge, who appreciate the brutal honesty of her voice and viewpoint in telling this story. Others might find that the palpable personal connection is less successful, overriding ... Read review
Bloody Relations, John Kerr
There are quite a lot of collections of true crime stories floating around, and more than one that uses the theme of murder in the family as it's connecting fibre. BLOODY RELATIONS, however, touches on a number of family murders that are less well known - as well as some of the better known cases in Australia.
Starting off with the startling case of the death of Maureen - wife of Dr Rory Thompson in Hobart in 1983, the book then heads to a more well known case in the death of Jennifer Tanner at Bonnie Doon in 1984. Next up the death of Chris Hatfield in 1985, asleep on his ... Read review
The Spare Room, Helen Garner
Read this book for our f2f bookclub meeting, and I've got to say it was a real surprise. Extremely interesting and confronting message, delivered in a very readable fashion, although you do have to think that Helen might have been a little hard on herself.Read review
This Is How, M.J. Hyland
We read this book and came together for our monthly book discussion with me wondering very much where this session was going to go.
For a start I absolutely loved THIS IS HOW, and seeing as I seem to spend an awful lot of our bookclub meetings in the Grumpy Corner I was wondering how many of the others would have loved / hated it.
In short, about 50/50. With a few people rethinking their approach once those of us who had loved this book explained the why and where that the story really worked.
Aside from how much the story, the characterisation and the ... Read review
Death in Hellfire, Deryn Lake
I've never been one much for historicals, so I was mildly surprised by how much I enjoyed DEATH IN HELLFIRE. Asked by the blind beak himself, Sir John Fielding, John Rawlings launches himself into the investigation of the notorious Hellfire Club. Worried by the sketchy artifice he has developed to disguise himself, concerned about the rumours of debauchery but more worried about the sinister aspects of the same club, he travels to the home of Sir Francis Dashwood and inveigles himself into the family circle.
His disguise, and position within the household is complicated ... Read review
The Big Score, Peter Corris
There are probably more, but immediate reactions on getting a book of short stories, is that there are precious few Crime Fiction short story collections by Australian authors around (I'm probably about to be proven totally wrong!). But there's something very engaging about a good collection - engaging enough to make you find yourself volunteering to run the errands, wait outside for whatever or whoever - because it will give you a precious few minutes or so to read another of this collection.
Cliff finds himself named as a killer in the dying breathe of a victim; tracks a ... Read review
Slash and Burn, Colin Cotterill
The Dr Siri series has probably got to the stage where new readers will have that odd feeling - you know the one - when you walk into a theme party with no idea what the theme is. Or who most of the people at the bar are....
For fans of the series, there's absolutely nothing unexpected about SLASH AND BURN. It's perfectly understandable that Dr Siri, along with his wife, his nurse and his morgue attendant would all end up somewhere up country looking for a MIA American helicopter pilot. It's no surprise whatsoever that the Laotian team with them includes some of his oldest ... Read review
The Book Thief, Marcus Zusak
Read for f2f bookclub meeting - just couldn't get into it. Everytime there was a glimmer of a story showing up it disappeared. I think, all in all, if I want Death's point of view I'll stick with Terry Pratchett.Read review
The Case of the Bullets at the Ballet, C.S. Boag
THE CASE OF THE BULLETS AT THE BALLET is book number 4 in the Mr Rainbow series, which I reread recently. Because you do. Think of these as good, fun, spare moment fillers and you've got it in one.
My review of the full series was originally posted at Newtown Review of Books, duplicated here now as well.Read review
Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd
If you had asked me what I was expecting before I picked up this auto-biography, I doubt I could have told you. Maybe a bit about what it was like, really like, to be within the inner circle of the Beatles. A feeling for the how it was in the beautiful, swinging, mad, crazy 60s "it" crowds. Perhaps some sex, drugs and rock and roll, maybe even a little gossip. Written by the muse of two of the most famous musicians around I was hoping to see what it was about this woman that influenced / engendered that reaction in men who - well let's be frank - could probably have had any woman they ... Read review
A Killing Frost, R.D. Wingfield
Confession up front - I don't read these books for their plots, their scenarios or even in an attempt to find the flaws in the procedural elements. I read them because I love Frost, Mullet, George Toolan, Ernie Trigg and the ever changing assortment of DS's that come and go in Frost's world. I love Denton, (wouldn't want to live there - the constant crime waves would do your head in after a while), but really, the point of the Frost books for me, at least, is more about time with old friends than it is necessarily about strong police procedurals.
I guess I should also admit ... Read review
Ghost Money, Andrew Nette
Start out reading GHOST MONEY and you're quickly immersed in a tight, tough, noir story set mostly in Cambodia. But don't be surprised if at some point, you also find yourself right smack bang in the middle of a history lesson and a subtle exploration of racial politics.
Knowing a little of Nette's interest in pulp fiction, I confess that the taut, noir stylings of GHOST MONEY didn't come as any surprise whatsoever, so for this reader, what was most rewarding about the book was the unexpected complexity of the central character, Max Quinlan. As well as one hell of a plot ... Read review
Dark City Blue, Luke Preston
Sometimes you just have to start off a book review with a bunch of warnings - so let's get the public service announcements out of the road now. Don't read DARK CITY BLUE if:
a) you're going to need sleep in the immediate future;
b) you're about to cough up the annual Christmas Policeman's Fund donation;
c) your tolerance for violence is more on the Midsummer end of the scale; or
d) you've got an allergy to adrenaline.
Ignore the warnings if you're looking for something that is action-packed, violent, sparse, and tense with a serious ... Read review
The Case of the Missing Servant, Tarquin Hall
Two initial observations - book covers, especially for some reason, I've noticed, when the books are Sub-Continent or Asian based, can't be trusted; and we need a new genre - something along the lines of Food Crime Porn. The latter for the sort of books that describe food that would make you care less about the surrounding crime wave - something THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT specialises in. The earlier comment because something odd seems to be going on - Shamini Flint's books aren't strictly cosy but the covers are, whereas the covers for the paperbacks of this series don't exactly ... Read review
Manly Murders - A Mother Without A Child, Gunilla Haglundh
A local author whose work I admire very much has a bit of a mantra I've heard her recite on many occasions. Show, don't tell. Show don't tell. On one level you know, immediately, what she means, but it's not often I've seen a book that demonstrates the opposite of that mantra quite as strongly as A MOTHER WITHOUT A CHILD.
Set in Manly, Haglundh has a great eye for the place. Perhaps that comes about as an incomer to the society. She sees and writes about the places in this book with an eye for detail that's illuminating.
There's also an interesting plot as the ... Read review
Arresting Incarceration, Don Weatherburn
A very detailed, academic analysis of the issue of Indigenous incarceration, ARRESTING INCARCERATION: PATHWAYS OUT OF INDIGENOUS IMPRISONMENT is sobering, difficult, and confronting reading. And it's hard not to feel like a bit of a fraud in discussing it - not being of the community or of any academic expertise.
So looking at the book as an interested and sympathetic observer, the level of statistics quoted, the breadth of the issue, and the length of time in which it has continued to be a major area of concern is embarrassing. A simple comparison figure to give you an ... Read review