All the Reviews

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

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

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

Based on the true story of the trial of two men in 1871, THE PETTICOAT MEN places real-life characters into a fictional scenario to create an extremely entertaining, and very readable story.

It is true that the young Ernest Boulton and Frederick Park were put on trial for "conspiring and inciting persons to commit an unnatural offence", they were both well-known cross-dressers and suspected homosexuals, although acquitted due to the prosecutions failure to prove either the sexual activity or that wearing women's clothing was actually a crime. The trial was a sensation due ... Read review

The blurb on the back of AMNESIA reads exactly like that of a really good thriller. A threat that unleashes something frightening in the world, and the battle to find the perpetrator.

Which seemed, by the end of the book, to be written for another AMNESIA, somewhere in a parallel universe. One where the book we were reading actually addressed the major plot elements, rather than immediately meandering off into something or other about an ex-journalist / ghost writer who had a bit of a hump up with the world who ... something.

It's certainly possible to see ... Read review

LONG WAY HOME was released in 2014 and quickly garnered a lot of very positive comments. At which point it was placed on my reading list and then never quite nudged it's way to the top. Nothing to do with it at all, rather a propensity to be useless at prioritising books and the sudden explosion in splendid reading opportunities.

But the second book in the series, TELL NO TALES was provided as a review opportunity and it seemed a pity not to sneak in the first as a lead in. Oh what a good decision that turned out to be. Aside from the pressure to read the second one ... Read review

A Thriller, LOOK CLOSER, is set in London against the backdrop of British Politics, but the scenario could be played out in any similar democracy.

When Will Fletcher's journalist girlfriend Amy is badly wounded in an assassination attempt on the likely next PM, nobody even imagines that the candidate wasn't the target. Especially Fletcher who suddenly finds himself in the position of target himself, with no real understanding of why or how his life took this turn. Or what, exactly Amy was doing at the time that she was shot.

In the tradition of all great ... Read review

The final book in the James Mycroft and Rachel Watts series starts and draws much to a close on the family farm Five Mile. Deep in the Mallee / Wimmera area of Victoria, first up, Rachel uses a short visit back to try to repair the mental damage that events in the middle book (EVERY WORD) inflicted. Then again the area is the setting for a very different purpose as the series concludes. It's also a chance for her brother Mike to bring his best mate Harris Derwent back to the city with them. 

Designated as Young Adult fiction, the "Every" series has always handled the ... Read review

The 40th book in the Cliff Hardy series, GUN CONTROL takes on a very current issue in the style that we've all come to expect from Peter Corris. It's worth taking a moment to consider that 40 book history. When Cliff Hardy first made an appearance on the Australian landscape (THE DYING TRADE, 1982), Crime Fiction had been working prolifically in the pulp fiction days (Carter Brown etc) for a very long time. Hardy, as a hard-boiled, quietly spoken, high action, take no crap from anybody type PI might have felt like a rather American "type". But Hardy was then, and has always been very ... Read review