All the Reviews

Claustrophobic, atmospheric, dark and insular, THE LONEY is part psychological thriller, part literary character study, and one of those books that is hard to categorise.

The central narrator of the book is a young boy who is forced, yearly, to endure an odd religious pilgrimage to a windswept, damp, dismal and isolated location in England with his deeply religious Catholic parents, friends and family priest. Part of the reason for his family's quest is to seek a cure from God for their intellectually handicapped eldest son, and the choice of this location with its bleak ... Read review

Having never read anything by Catriona McPherson before, this made it into the To Be Read Mountain based on the blurb - which appealed. Looking at her back catalogue this is an author who is not afraid to try different things and COME TO HARM is a perfect example of that difference.

Set in a small Scottish town, Japanese student Keiko Nishisato is a student in residence, sponsored by the local Traders association, provided with an apartment to live in, more food and supplies that you can poke a stick at, and enough to keep a student of Psychology scribbling notes on a ... Read review

Any readers looking for something different - LEONA: THE DIE IS CAST could be just the ticket. There's so much here in the writing, and the styling that is very brave of this author.

Leona Lindberg is both a highly regarded investigator and an outsider. She has a personality disorder which makes her a tricky person to work with, and an even harder protagonist for a reader to establish a connection with. Her internal dialogue clearly shows she's aware of her limitations, that her interactions with others are flawed, and able to moderate that to some extent. Every now and ... Read review

There's a lot of crime fiction out there that is all about the investigator and the protagonist, but A TIME TO RUN tips that right on it's ear, setting up a scenario in which an investigator (cop) is the next victim of a mad, dangerous man who makes a sport out of hunting down the women he's abducted.

So, not a book for those readers that find that concept of the randomly selected victim and the barking mad, vicious killer too much. Particularly as this killer is appalling and very clever about it. It's not until a cop goes missing that a very dedicated policewoman sees ... Read review

The author of DOUBLE MADNESS, Caroline de Costa is a professor at the School of Medicine at James Cook University in Cairns, and the book is set amongst the medical profession, in Cairns. Writing obviously about a couple of worlds that she knows well, this debut novel combines a strong sense of the place, and the climate, with a well-delivered intricate plot.

The body of Odile Janvier is found deep in the rainforest outside Cairns by sheer chance when local doctor Tim Ingram and his wife take a very unlikely shortcut, a little known back track which is a dodgy proposition ... Read review

KINGDOM OF THE STRONG is the fourth Darian Richards novel from screenwriter, producer and novelist Tony Cavanaugh. Readers of the past novels will be aware of the background of Richards. A high ranking cop in Victoria for many years, he has a darker side, with a history of ensuring justice for victims even if it means he steps into the role of avenging angel. Readers of the earlier books will also be aware of a tendency towards the barking mad, evil, utterly over the top, random serial killer. Which, frankly, made this reader struggle with them, no matter how compelling a character ... Read review

Music and popular culture provide the backdrop to this long-awaited new Billy Glasheen novel.

It’s no surprise that Peter Doyle, authority on popular culture, slide guitarist, university professor and social historian, has written a series of novels that chronicle a time in Australian history when American pop-culture first became really influential.

Starting out in 1996 with Get Rich Quick (set in 1952), then the 1998 release Amaze Your Friends (set in 1957), through to 2001 and The Devil’s Jump (set in 1945) and ... Read review

The second novel in the DI Helen Grace series POP GOES THE WEASEL returns to Grace's life in the aftermath of her sister's death, and that of a much loved colleague in the first book EENY MEENY. Because the events in that first novel were so fundamental to everything that Grace is and how she behaves, this is definitely a series that would work best if you can start at the beginning, something that this reader would have highly recommended anyway.

Arlidge has taken a brave approach with the development of Helen Grace as a character. She's prickly, standoffish, often ... Read review

Writers who take the decision to build their novels around characters who are less than sympathetic, veering towards frustrating, appear to be making one of the braver literary decisions you can come across. Needless to say Rebecca Wilding is a difficult prospect in THE LOST SWIMMER.

The central narrator, with the story told in the first person, Rebecca has the sort of mind that's difficult to spend time in. Incredibly passive and dangerously whingy she seems to almost relish the things that go wrong in her life. For somebody who is a Professor, and Head of Department she ... Read review