All the Reviews

Up front, I've always struggled with fiction that uses fact as the entire basis for a made-up story. I'm twitchy about the possibility (albeit possibly unintentionally) of reinventing history. PRISONER OF NIGHT AND FOG is therefore built on a particularly challenging premise - that the central character in this book, Gretchen Müller, is a protégé of Adolf Hilter.

Needless to say it came as no surprise to find that Müller's loyalty to her "Uncle", the party and all is undermined when she meets a fearless and "handsome" (couldn't he at least have been average looking...) ... Read review

Steamy is right – and not just the weather. THE MORUTAU AFFAIR was not what I was expecting.

Ostensibly about the death of a plantation owner, it's a story made up of current action and flashbacks to the time that he and his wife, met, married and from there, the lead-up to his death. Obviously, given the time and the place, there's a lot of racial interactions which are uncomfortable reading nowadays, but there's nothing about any of it that feels out of place, or gratuitous.

There is, however some very complicated sexual shenanigan's going on. We're not ... Read review

I probably should have known better, but I admit the final line of the blurb caught my eye "And it explains the one lie that binds them all – sex." I was wondering what it was that made these sorts of liaison's "public property".

And I still don't know. So much salacious gossip, some of it repeated directly from the tabloid newspapers (if the story I test googled is any indication), with no analysis, no explanation and ... well nothing much really except a sneaking suspicion of a bit of "nudge nudge wink wink". Which makes it very hard to even recommend this as I suspect ... Read review

It was somewhat bitter-sweet to know that on reading this book, Joe Faraday is dead, and another series over. Which I confess is a lot of the reason for the delay.

The Faraday and Winter series has always been a slow burner in this household, quick to obtain, slow to savour, the characters at the heart of the books – Faraday, Paul Winter and Bazza Mackenzie real and vibrantly drawn. Because of that realness the fate of Faraday seems, unfortunately, so right, here is a man who always seemed slightly lost. His life validated by his job, his son and his relationships, he ... Read review

Many frequent readers of crime fiction (and I count myself in both these numbers) are over the mad serial killer sub-genre. This could make the opening monologue of BROKEN MONSTERS something that makes you put down the book and step away. Whilst the subject matter remains confrontational, often times surreal and vaguely supernatural, there are other aspects worth considering.

We all know the story of the rise and decline of Detroit – from economic power-house to basket-case in a very short period of time. The resulting population decline left decaying buildings and a ... Read review

Using a title like CLAUSTROPHOBIA obviously sets certain expectations for readers, which luckily, in this outing are uncomfortably well imagined. There's something incredibly claustrophobic about everything to do with this book. The enclosed, world that the two main characters Pen and her husband Derrick occupy. From their home life, working together at the same school, even when Pen finally breaks away to another job, albeit for reasons that Derrick doesn't know. It's not just circumstances though. Of course, with Pen as the main narrator of the book there is an inward focus, but ... Read review

THE BOMB MAKERS by pseudonymous author Marcus Case is a terrorist thriller set in London, with the threat coming from a combination of ETA and the Real IRA. Which is a different combination for this reader.

A big, bold plot, THE BOMB MAKERS combines a bit of good old fashioned British policing with current counter-terrorism methods to track down an unusual and complicated bomb maker, and the bomb planter. DCI Emma Rydan and her junior, DS Kent are paired up when he's seconded to an investigation that's gone pear-shaped. In an interesting take on a very current day ... Read review

There was a point in the Melbourne Underworld Wars that things just got too complicated for anybody but the most assiduous follower to keep up with. The connections between the crooks, the cops, and all the permutations thereof were enough to make you hope somebody was keeping some sort of map. Fortunately it seems that Liam Houlihan was, and he's used it to weave some threads through the entire mess that are both surprising and decidedly sobering.

Using a clever metaphor for the reader to engage with, you are pulled instantly into a story that would be quite a thriller ... Read review

THE CHILDREN'S POND is a debut crime novel for NZ author Tina Shaw, a well-known writer in her native New Zealand, it's written with the authority of an experienced author. Especially as it puts a city girl, moved to the country to be closer to her son in jail; somebody with a dodgy dating history, but a strong work ethic; and debutante fly fisher into the central character in a surprisingly taut analysis / thriller. It's not often that somebody can combine fly fishing and a dark, interweaving of evil, and secrets and make a river a character into the bargain.

A novel ... Read review