All the Reviews

Wrath, Anne Davies

Reading the blurb of WRATH the final statement seemed like a pretty brave one - "A novel about a mistake we could all make and redemption". Especially when you know that the inspiration of the book is the real-life story of a 24-year-old Tennessee man who was executed for murdering his mother and stepfather when he was 13.

Even allowing for a position that implacably rejects the concept of capital punishment, that's, you can't help but feel, a bit more than a mistake on many levels.

But given that the book is set in Western Australia it was safe to ... Read review

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The Case of the Cock Robin Killer, C.S. Boag

Number 5 in the Rainbow series, and THE CASE OF THE COCK ROBIN KILLER might be blue about lots of things, but it won't make you blue to read it. In fact you'll probably find yourself snorting with laughter, or at least rolling your eyes as the puns fly left, right and centre.

The reader of any of my earlier reviews of this wonderfully silly, oddball series will know that I'm a bit of a fan. They are the sorts of books that you pick up late on a Sunday afternoon when you just want to be amused, and not think about the ills of the world. Obviously they are meant to be ... Read review

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After the Crash, Michel Bussi

AFTER THE CRASH opens with private eye Credule Grand-Duc preparing to take his own life after spending nearly eighteen years failing to discover the truth behind the miracle of the baby who survived a plane crash. Preparing his papers for handover, and setting the scene for his dramatic final act, he contemplates once more the front page from the local newspaper the day that the crash happened. And suddenly realises he finally knows the answer.

Occurring at a time well before the advent of DNA testing, any chance of establishing the parentage of the baby at the ... Read review

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The Unbroken Line, Alex Hammond

This unpredictable legal thriller is no courtroom drama and brims with action.

The first novel in this series, Blood Witness (shortlisted for the 2014 Ned Kelly Best First Crime), set Will Harris up as a strong and believable central character. A lawyer with a social conscience and questionable taste in business partners, his love life is constantly under threat from the ... Read review

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The Grand Cru Heist, Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen

It's hard not to become increasingly enamoured of this wonderful series of books (of which there are now 8 translated), based in the gloriously described wine regions of France, featuring the curmudgeonly, slightly arrogant, ever vigilant Benjamin Cooker, his assistant Virgile and wife Elisabeth. In THE GRAND CRU HEIST, sadly Elisabeth who is missing in action for much of the novel.

This story starts out with our renowned wine critic being bashed and robbed one night in Paris. Bad enough that the young, violent villains pinched his beloved Mercedes, but it ... Read review

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Jean-Pierre Alaux

Black Widow, Carol Baxter

The second book from this author I've now read, I'm growing to increasingly like the manner in which she tells her true stories. Woven into a narrative that reads like a tall tale but true, BLACK WIDOW isn't a dry retelling of facts. Having said that, there appears to be sufficient research and veracity in the facts of the case to make it all the more shocking.

Louisa Collins was executed in Sydney, the first female "serial killer" in colonial Australian history. There is so much in this story that seems wrong. For a start there seems to be major question marks ... Read review

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The Herb Gardener, Maris Morton

Another romantic suspense novel, THE HERB GARDENER combines a rural setting, a new love, and a dead young worker.

City girl Joanna moves, with young daughter Mia, to a farm to be with her new boyfriend Chris on his farm. Learning to deal with the remote location is complicated considerably by the suspicious death very near to the station. Alongside the investigation elements of this book, there's little gems of life on farm as well, including the complications of changing crop / farmy style in a time of changing climate and markets.

Whilst obviously it's ... Read review

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The Hunter, Tony Park

Way back when AustCrimeFiction first lurched into life, it felt like keeping up with the local crime and thriller book output would be achievable. That's been one of the wider and deeper and more delusional pipe dreams of many. Which needless to say makes THE HUNTER the first Tony Park novel I've picked up. Bit of a mistake that.

As sweeping, action packed thrillers go, THE HUNTER ticks a lot of boxes. Set in Africa you'd be forgiven for expecting a story arc that matches aspects of the landscape, big, broad, sweeping with more than a bit of danger lurking under the ... Read review

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Storm Clouds, Bronwyn Parry

Romantic Suspense and I do not get on so my viewpoint is probably somewhat skewed. I also cheerfully admit to a particularly strong allergy to anything at all that gets all "she's nothing without a man" or "women donning high heels to run through the bush to escape the bad guy". Which I'm happy to report is not the case in STORM CLOUDS. Erin Taylor's actually quite a likeable woman - even with the unrequited longing thing over Simon / love interest / suspect / estranged husband.

What I'm struck by with this book is, if you are a fan of this sort of combination Romance / ... Read review

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State of Emergency, Steve P. Vincent

The first book in the Jack Emery series (THE FOUNDATION) looked at the potential for corruption, using a major media organisation to further somebody's political ambitions by coercion. This time around, STATE OF EMERGENCY looks at another interesting scenario: the use of a major government arm to further a personal and political agenda. It's a sobering, realistic scenario that plays out as an inexperienced ... Read review

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Steve P. Vincent

Fireplay, Steve P. Vincent

Housekeeping first - FIREPLAY (Jack Emery) 0.5 is the novella based prequel to THE FOUNDATION, but released after the first full-length novel came out. The action in FIREPLAY clears up some of the backstory in THE FOUNDATION, but it doesn't matter a jot what order you read them in.

Having started with THE FOUNDATION, FIREPLAY was much appreciated. Nicely balanced between filling in some of the back story of protagonist Jack Emery, and telling a tale in it's own right, again we've got a tale that could come direct from real-life.

Embedded in Afghanistan ... Read review

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Steve P. Vincent

The Foundation, Steve P. Vincent

There's something deliciously intriguing about the machinations in the plot of THE FOUNDATION. Not for one moment would you like to let the major media barons and the undue and partisan influence they wield off the hook, but the idea that they might also be subject to the same sort of games could make a reader feel there's a bit of comeuppance after all.

Steve P Vincent's debut thriller hits the ground running hard. His protagonist, journalist Jack Emery is worldly wise and as jaded and pissed off as you'd expect somebody with his background to be. Not so pissed off that ... Read review

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Steve P. Vincent

What She Left, T.R. Richmond

WHAT SHE LEFT has created a record in these parts as one of the most picked up and put down, unable to continue books that this reader has struggled with for quite some time. Part of the reason for pressing on is that it was a review book, but the more pressing reason became why was it so difficult to read.

An interesting idea, WHAT SHE LEFT uses the idea that the digital trail left by somebody these days could be investigated, explored as part of an Anthropologist's field of study. Building that idea into a mystery / crime format therefore tends to scream that there is a ... Read review

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Something is Rotten, Adam Sarafis

A collaborative effort, SOMETHING IS ROTTEN is the first book from New Zealand based pairing of Swedish-born novelist Linda Olsson and award-winning playwright Thomas Sainsbury writing as Adam Safaris.

A quick look at the blurb for this book might have you shaking your head a bit. Having an ex-terrorism expert working as a mechanic, despite the personal tragedy that made him change course that way is unexpected territory. You might also wonder why it is that sex worker Jade Amaro turns to him when the gruesome death of her friend is labelled suicide. But both elements do ... Read review

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Drowned Vanilla, Livia Day

Slightly girly, crazy comic crime fiction is not my normal cup of tea, and add a plethora of recipes and this reader should, by rights, be groaning and moaning and whinging. But not with The Culinary Crime / Café La Femme series of which DROWNED VANILLA is the second book. (As opposed to THE BLACKMAIL BLEND 1.5 which is a collection of short stories).

Pitched at a very particular market this isn't indepth, psychological analysis of crime and consequences. If anything more time and effort is devoted to the search for the perfect Ice-Cream recipe than is expended on the ... Read review

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The Exit, Helen FitzGerald

It's hard to know if there's a new "thing" in crime fiction, or it's just something that this reader has suddenly noticed - but there seems to have been a number of books recently that have used dementia as a core theme. Which might make for uncomfortable reading for those of us of a "certain age" with an increasing tendency to forget too many things.

THE EXIT is Helen Fitzgerald's eleventh book, and it's pitched very much as psychological suspense. The story is told mainly from the point of view of two women. 82 year old Rose, a resident of Dear Green, a small private ... Read review

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Helen FitzGerald

Can You Keep a Secret?, Caroline Overington

Commencing a blurb with a question implies that somewhere along the line the book will provide an answer. In the case of CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET? "Why do some people decide to get married when everyone around them would seem to agree that marriage, at least for the two people in question is a terrifically bad idea?" didn't ever seem to be asked, let alone answered.

It is, however, the story of a car crash of a marriage, but not whether or not two people are suited. It is even the story of how one partner does or doesn't cope at the rapid mental disintegration of the other. ... Read review

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Caroline Overington

Only the Brave, Mel Sherratt

The third in the DS Allie Shenton series, readers might be best served to have at least read one of the earlier books (this reviewer has read FOLLOW THE LEADER only and that helped make sense of a lot of the sub-plot elements).

Whilst the main plot of ONLY THE BRAVE is the bashing, then stabbing murder of a notorious local identity, his connections to the underworld family that forms a big part of Shenton's background might need a bit of filling from the earlier books to make sense. There are complications aplenty in this death - and not just the missing ... Read review

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Already Dead, Jaye Ford

When Miranda Jack is car-jacked on a motorway in Sydney it's just one more thing to go wrong in a life littered with bad times. As the story progresses and you find out how many hurdles Jack has jumped in her life you'd be forgiven for wondering why she keeps getting up in the morning. When something in her background and training as a journalist makes her seek to empathise with her abductor, that idea of keep them talking and engaged and they may develop some connection with you, it means she finds out quite a bit about Brendan Walsh. Including that they have met before, but not who ... Read review

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Blurline, TW Lawless

The third in the Peter Clancy series, BLURLINE takes Clancy to swinging London and the edges of the "red-top" newspaper world. Granted he headed there with high hopes of getting a job in slightly more salubrious circumstances, but needs must and when the money starts running low, a reputation built on the back of The Truth newspaper in Melbourne isn't going to help when it comes to "serious newspapers".

When Clancy lands himself a job on one of the even lesser of the lesser scandal rags, he ends up posing as a biographer ghostwriter, supposedly helping well known, and ... Read review

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