All the Reviews

The second in the Harry Belltree trilogy, events in ASH ISLAND follow closely on from CRUCIFIXION CREEK. Short-listed for the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards CRUCIFIXION CREEK set up a different character for Maitland to work with in Australian, Indigenous Detective Harry Belltree. There is still, however, that use of a defining geographical location as is always the case in any of Maitland's novels - in this case much of the action centres around Newcastle's Ash Island. 

Considerably more action orientated, Belltree is also very different from Maitland's other police characters ( ... Read review

True Crime writing seems, to this outside observer, to be a minefield of complications. Personal connections to a real crime event, either of the victim, the perpetrator, or community can create a situation that authors must carefully negotiate. Because of this it does seem that true crime structure either takes a particularly fact based / no conclusions drawn approach, or steps into a very personal viewpoint. Martin McKenzie-Murray grew up in the same neighbourhood as Rebecca Ryle, his brother knew the man found guilty of her murder, and even though the author didn't personally know ... Read review

In 2013 Aoife Clifford was awarded an Australian Society of Author's mentorship to help bring this debut novel - ALL THESE PERFECT STRANGERS - to fruition. To be fair to those who have read it and are finding the idea that this is a debut novel hard to believe, she has form. Shortlisted for the UK Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger, Clifford won the Ned Kelly / S.D. Harvey Short Story Award and a Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto. What she has now produced is an assured, clever and profoundly disconcerting psychological thriller.

In the manner of all good slow burner ... Read review

Fast paced, heaps of action, a lot of lurking baddies, a flawed hero and comparisons with the work of Tom Clancy and Matthew Reilly are going to be coming in droves.

NO FREE MAN is the debut thriller from ex-RAAF member Graham Potts, taking it's protagonist, Stepan Volkov straight to the heart of ... well everything it seems. Starting out in a small Australian town, Volkov wasn't expecting to be identified by the most unlikely of people to walk into that pub, right at that time. Connections to Australia are maintained as local agents Hartigan and Singh set off in pursuit ... Read review

Taking a central theme of "is there really such a thing as an innocent person?" and asking a combination of well known and emerging Crime Fiction Writers from Australia to address the question, has culminated in the creation of CRIME SCENES - a short story collection which works on a number of levels.

Short story collections like this provide a reader with glimpses into an author's style and voice, sometimes presenting something very different from known series books or previous works. In the case of previously known authors, this can confirm a liking for their work, or ... Read review

The fourth book in the Nell Forrest series, DASTARDLY DEEDS sees heroine Nell on a much needed holiday cruise around the Mediterranean. Except it seems that everyone has decided to go with her - her mother and her partner, her ex-husband and his new partner, her sister, a couple of daughters, and the police detective that used to be her lover. Instead of the chef and a thief though the cast also includes more locals, a class reunion, a murderer and a possible suicide.

For new readers to the series, humour plays a very big part in these books. It's a questioning, self- ... Read review

Of course, now it makes perfect sense that a society arriving on fleets of ships, initially supported by ships full of cargo, and later by exporting via those same docking points would end up with a congregation of illicit interests and activity within those very docks. The idea that the troubles of modern day waterfronts being linked back to earliest white arrival after reading WATERFRONT by Duncan McNab now not only makes perfect sense but has a historical grounding that had simply never occurred to this reader before.

Billed as true crime, this is also obviously also ... Read review

The fourth book in the series sees probation officer Cate Austin out of the familiar ground of career, single parenthood and England in a new life in Luxembourg. She's moved there, with her young daughter Amelia, to live with boyfriend and local police detective Olivier Massard. The adjustment to life in a new location, with a new language swirling around her is hard enough, but the disconnection from her career and what feels like a walk away from her own family problems, means that Austin is slightly lost and very out of sorts.

Because Austin is obviously feeling so ... Read review

The first in a new series of books set in India, THE KOLKATA CONUNDRUM is lyrical and amusing writing, steeped in a sense of place and culture that will leave readers craving more.

Young Orko Deb is the much doted on son of a mechanic father, not at all interested in stepping into his father's footsteps. Instead he finds himself seconded to work for an uncle who operates his own fledgling security company. Most of their employees, like his uncle, are ex-services and considered to be most reliable and diligent security guards. The violent murder of the resident of an ... Read review