All the Reviews

The Lost Swimmer, Ann Turner

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

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Dead Guilty (aka An Act of Reparation), Susan Godenzi

Originally published under the title AN ACT OF REPARATION, DEAD GUILTY uses the complex subject of domestic abuse as a vehicle to explore the ongoing abuse and exploitation of women in very vulnerable situations.

Starting out with the murder of an abusive husband Sean Laidlaw, journalist Lexie Reed stumbles upon the subsequent disappearance of his wife and daughter's from a local crisis shelter. Whilst the police are initially focused on the murder, which was caused a particularly brutal head-injury inflicted by a wood splitter, they are forced by Reed's discoveries to ... Read review

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Before It Breaks, Dave Warner

Sometimes the world is very kind to a dedicated fan of Australian Crime fiction, particularly when two new books from authors that we've not heard from for a very long time arrive. Peter Doyle and Dave Warner each played their part, many years ago, in engaging an interest in our own stories and voices.

The release of BEFORE IT BREAKS caused excitement and slight trepidation. Slight trepidation because Warner's earlier Andrew "Lizard" Zirk series (Murder in the Groove, Murder in the Frame and Murder Off-Season) has always been a nostalgic ... Read review

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Pieces of a Lie, Rowena Holloway

This debut novel is set in small town South Australia, using many of the up and downsides of living in small communities as devices throughout the novel. Protagonist Mina Everton has lived in this town all her life, she knows everybody, and everyone knows her, and her family. Which made life very difficult when her father, a man with a criminal past, abandoned Mina and her desperately ill mother. It's bad enough that the man she adored did a runner like that, but because he swindled a lot of money from a lot of locals, many residents have treated them with some suspicion since. ... Read review

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Rowena Holloway

The Murder of Allison Baden-Clay, David Murray

Many with a passing interest in the news might remember aspects about the case of the murder of Allison Baden-Clay. Unfortunately she is yet another woman, killed by their domestic partner, for reasons which are impossible to justify. David Murray has done an outstanding job in THE MURDER OF ALLISON BADEN-CLAY in relating the stories of both sides of this case without resorting to either sensationalism or conclusion.

Whilst plenty of time is spent looking at the personality, behaviour and family background of Gerard Baden-Clay, equally Murray takes the time to introduce ... Read review

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The Abrupt Physics of Dying, Paul E. Hardisty

Set in Yemen, THE ABRUPT PHYSICS OF DYING is an eco-thriller from an author who writes about the issues explored with authority and a vivid sense of place.

Claymore Straker is a South-African born engineer, working on environmental approval reports for a major oil company in Yemen, a country teetering on the brink of civil war. Held up, with his local Muslim driver, at gunpoint by a local armed militia group, Straker is forced to investigate the potential of environmental contamination in a village close to oil fields. Children are dying, mothers are miscarrying, and the ... Read review

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Paul E. Hardisty

The Mystery Of The Venus Island Fetish, Dido Butterworth

Stay with me here, this is going to get complicated. THE MYSTERY OF THE VENUS ISLAND FETISH is a satirical, comic crime novel set within the realms of Sydney Museum. Written, supposedly by museum curator of worms, Dido Butterworth, the first complication is that the story comes straight from the voice of Assistant Curator Archibald Meek (more on that coming). Introduced by well known environmentalist and Australian identify Professor Tim Flannery, the next complication is that he actually wrote the thing, Dido Butterworth being a fictional character as well.

To make ... Read review

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Dido Butterworth

Nest, Inga Simpson

Wonderfully evocative and beautifully delivered, NEST was utterly mesmerising.

I'm very grateful that the inclusion of NEST in the 2015 Ned Kelly Submissions meant that this wonderful book by Inga Simpson came to my attention. I'm not sure that I'd call this a crime novel, but it's beautiful, engaging and extremely readable.

Reflective and languidly paced, NEST sees Jen Vogel return to the bush town of her childhood. Her mother has recently died, her long-term relationship ended and Jen has returned to her "nest", to the place where she feels ... Read review

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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

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