All the Reviews

High Beam, sj Brown

A debut novel, HIGH BEAM is set in Hobart, Tasmania featuring DI John Mahoney. Mahoney has recently returned to his hometown and is an unhappy man in his personal and professional lives. The death of high profile victim Brad Finch doesn't make him any happier what with time pressures from above, intense media interest and a lot of shady goings on in the world of the Tassie Devils Football Club and the business interests of its board and supporters.

Non-fans of football might find it hard to understand why it is that a football club can be the centre of such power and ... Read review

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Shot Through the Heart, Patricia Kristensen

The second of the Jennifer Shot series I've read, SHOT THROUGH THE HEART is Australian crime fiction of the humorous, slightly dippy female protagonist kind. The sort of girl (and that's appropriate in this case) that lives a quirky alternative lifestyle (this time in an old multi-storied mansion type house in Tasmania - with a view and, I think, a turret or something). She shares that house with a bunch of eccentric types, and they all live one of those slightly breathless, wise-cracking, funny chats, ribbing each other constantly, all good friends together scenarios that's full to ... Read review

Homecountry, TW Lawless

The first of the Peter Clancy books from T.W. Lawless, HOMECOUNTRY takes Clancy to exactly that - home to the town where he grew up, in outback Queensland to bury his mother. With his credo of never looking back this is the first time he's returned to Clarke's Flat since he left, so for the first time he's forced to confront many of the reasons why he left in the first place. And it's not a comfortable outlook.

There's much that's happened in his home town to him, to his family and to friends and people who are still in town. There's questions around his own father's ... Read review

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A Time of Secrets, Deborah Burrows

Nobody could be more startled than me when declaring that A TIME OF SECRETS was a most enjoyable book to read. Startled because ostensibly it looks, feels, smells like a romance. With an historical bent, and some mystery within.

Certainly in reading this book the romance is foremost in the narrative, equalled by the difficulties of living within war-footing Melbourne, followed eventually by the mystery of the traitor within the ranks of the Australian Intelligence Bureau. What makes that balance work is probably the historical background though. Romance in that day makes ... Read review

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Deborah Burrows

The Fourth Reich, Helen Goltz

THE FOURTH REICH is the third in the Mitchell Parker series. FBI Agents, with a decided "Australian" feeling about their banter, Parker's team have a fair bit of history which might mean that starting out with the third book is not absolutely ideal. Not that it's not a very readable book in it's own right, and for this reader, the intrigue of the backstory just meant that the earlier books made it onto the must read list immediately.

In thriller style, THE FOURTH REICH starts out at breakneck pace, and that doesn't give up at any point. Combine that with an intriguing ... Read review

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Murder in the Telephone Exchange, So Bad a Death and Duck Season Death, June Wright

June Wright is one of the early writers who forged a way for the current vibrant Australian crime fiction scene.

Unfortunately the crime novels of June Wright have been largely forgotten and unavailable for many years. That situation is now being rectified, with three of the novels, featuring a range of spirited, forthright female central characters, now available in paperback (and ebook) format.

In 1948 Wright’s first novel, Murder in the Telephone Exchange, was published. Originally drafted in 1943, this story of a young telephone ... Read review

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A Compulsion to Kill, Robert Cox

A COMPULSION TO KILL is one of those true crime books that reads like a ripping great yarn. It's an engaging method of delivering history, telling the stories of (in this instance) a range of Tasmania's earliest serial killers, setting them in a vivid example of the landscape in which their actions played out, creating a chillingly realistic version of early white Australia.

As outlined in the blurb it covers a series of cases beginning in 1806 with the first documented serial killers Brown and Lemon, finishing with the unresolved Parkmount case in 1862. The cruelty and ... Read review

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Cooper Bartholomew is Dead, Rebecca James

Nominated as a young adult novel, COOPER BARTHOLOMEW IS DEAD is one that's readable for that age group and those of us for whom "young" is but a vague memory.

Whilst there is a death at the centre of this book, in many ways it is less of a crime mystery than one about the mysterious, and quite scary things that confront many of us when we are young. To be fair though, the reasons for Cooper Bartholomew's death aren't glaringly obvious from the start, although some informed speculation is available to the reader at various points throughout the narrative.

... Read review

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In The Dying Days, Ken Cameron

A bit of a surprise package, IN THE DYING DAYS is an engaging tale of an ex-cop, private investigator plying his trade on the means streets of ... Canberra.

Starting off with a bit of business about a son looking for his father's story, the action quickly shifts to Canberra in 1975. Barry Flynn is a rather down-market PI, who, courtesy of a solicitor connection, finds himself following a very wealthy, well-connected philandering husband. Weirdly though, this wife isn't looking for evidence of unfaithfulness, rather she just seems to want to know what he's up to - kept an ... Read review

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No Time to Lose, Matt Baak

NO TIME TO LOSE is Matt Baak's debut novel, set in the high-tech, high octane world of bank robberies in the current day. Which are considerably less about fronting the bank waving a gun around, and more the very high-tech way in which time locks, centralised security, and automatic systems have to be circumvented.

The plot of NO TIME TO LOSE is an interesting one - it does seem that bank robberies are a lot less common in this day and age, as their security and loss prevention methodologies have tightened, and employees are so much more protected. The back ways in are ... Read review

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Medea's Curse, Anne Buist

When they say "write what you know" Anne Buist seems to have taken that advice very much to heart, especially when it comes to the clinical and working experience of her central character - Dr Natalie King. Hard to say about the Ducati, history of mental health problems and clothes sense.

MEDEA'S CURSE starts out in extreme acceleration mode with the back story of a contretemps on the steps of the Court, followed by an encounter with Crown Prosecutor (and later sex interest) Liam O'Shea, and the disappearance of a child. The father of the missing child was also the father ... Read review

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The Koldun Code, Sophie Masson

The Koldun Code is Book 1 of the Trinity Trilogy, the second book being not far away if memory serves correct. Set in modern Russia, Sophie Masson has certainly involved a wonderful sense of place and culture in this book:

"They'd left a mild gray London spring morning and emerged into a Moscow afternoon so bright blue that it seemed painted on with a lavish brush. Everything had culture-shocked her, from the sublime to the ordinary: the candy-striped domes of St Basil's cathedral flaunted against the intense sky, Red Square vast as a rolling stone plain,
... Read review

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Bad Seed, Alan Carter

From the first book featuring Cato Kwong this has been a series to follow closely. A police procedural that's moved him from Coventry (aka the Stock Squad in remote WA) back to Perth and right into the middle of a shocking murder scene. Made worse by his old friendship with the dead family.

Not that it was a current friendship. Kwong and the Tan family had drifted apart many years ago, but the reason for that separation is part of the problem for this investigation:

"Another strong gust shook the walls. Cato couldn't disagree. He knew the boy
... Read review

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Graveyard of the Atlantic, Helen Goltz

GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC is the second in the Mitchell Parker thriller series, so reading them backwards (as I am) is clearing up some unknowns, and creating a few more. Needless to say MASTERMIND, the first in the series is going to have to be read at some stage as now, if nothing else, this reader wants to know how this group got together in the first place.

Given the proximity of reading the third (THE FOURTH REICH) and now GRAVEYARD OF THE ATLANTIC it's possible to really see the way the series has evolved. Whilst the crisp dialogue, and the team interactions are as ... Read review

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Tell No Tales, Eva Dolan

Two books in and the Zigic and Ferreira is a new much anticipated, favourite series.

If you've read the first book, then as soon as you start TELL NO TALES, you're straight back with characters that you really know, in a place that you're comfortable in, even though there is nothing comfortable about events, or the social climate. If you haven't read the first, then it won't matter a bit - there is still plenty here for new readers.

Tackling the question of immigration, immigrant workers, tensions with Nationalist groups, and the explosion in Hate Crimes that ... Read review

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Cold Deception, D.B. Tait

The author of COLD DECEPTION has had many years experience in the Criminal Justice system, and that knowledge shines through in this debut crime fiction offering.

Julia Taylor's release from prison, her struggles to re-establish life and normality, and the way that she balances that struggle with parole responsibilities, the problems with finding a job and the problems in inserting herself back into her family and her community have a strong sense of reality about them.

Julia's crime provides the author with a chance to explore a number of aspects - how will ... Read review

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Parasite, Dorothy Cormack

Taking a look at the blurb will give you an indication of whether or not PARASITE is going to work for you. Unfortunately that style "eventuating events" and "charismatic charm" doesn't work for this reader. Combining that with the most offputting dialogue style used for Sasha's brother, meant this book was a struggle to read. The plot, as well, is very much on the icky side, which is most definitely not a bad thing, provided the characters within it make some sense, and there's a feeling of exploration or explanation, rather than just exploitation.Read review

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Dorothy Cormack

Swimming in the Dark, Paddy Richardson

Every now and again you come across an author who writes fabulous books, and yet, sadly seems to stay too far below the radar. New Zealander Paddy Richardson is one of the best thriller writers around these days, one that undoubtedly deserves a much bigger readership than she seems to have garnered.

SWIMMING IN THE DARK is a classic from this author. Reminiscent of some of the best of the Scandinavian psychological thriller writers, this book is a perfect illustration of the power of this author's storytelling and the cleverness of the writing.

Starting out ... Read review

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Paddy Richardson

Ngaio Marsh Entrant 2023

Trilemma, Jennifer Mortimer

Set in Wellington New Zealand, Jennifer Mortimer's book TRILEMMA brings her main character - Linnet Mere to a new city in search of lost family connections and love.

Setting this character up with a completely new start gives Mortimer a chance to put her narrator at a loss on a number of levels - no job (at the outset), no connections, no home and no support means Lin is under pressure and out-of-step from the beginning. Although born in New Zealand, she moved away as a young child leaving a fractured family background. The complications of her family are going to ... Read review

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Jennifer Mortimer

Fallout, Paul Thomas

When a man like Ihaka hears there are questions about the death of his father of course it will be front of mind. Just as the unsolved murder of a young girl on election night 1987 preys on the mind of his boss Finbar McGrail. It goes without saying that Ihaka is going to start kicking over any rocks he can find in the search for the truth about his father's death, even though, as a favour to his boss, he's got to balance that with a re-investigation of the death of that young girl as well.

Taking Ihaka back to the past is an interesting move for author Paul ... Read review

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