All the Reviews

Dark, funny, dark, clever, funny, dark and absolutely brilliant, 13 SHOTS OF NOIR is a short story collection blurbed as in the "vein of Roald Dahl". I need to go back and read Dahl. Unless Brazill's got more of these collections.

Short, sharp and lyrical, these are dark dark dark little morsels, gloriously British in feel, funny where required, poignant where appropriate. Cleverly balanced between sharply observant and a bit of sly commentary on the "human condition", there's really not a bad one in the bunch here. It made me laugh, and made me think all at the same time ... Read review

Phryne Fisher returns in her 20th mystery, and one gets the distinct impression that the singer in Ms Greenwood has had issues with choir conductors in the past. But that's not the only thing that really stood out in MURDER AND MENDELSSOHN.

Fans will, as always, find Miss Fisher in full flight, gorgeously costumed and decisive. A woman of means who uses those means to resolve the wrongs of the world. All of the expected elements are here - the cars, the household of supporting characters, the slightly bemused police in her wake. There's also a love interest, in the person ... Read review

I love fiction that's set in remote communities, that's obviously written with great affection and experience of those communities - albeit with an outsider's viewpoint. It's obvious that this author has a close connection with, and affection for TI and it's people and the way that the community functions.

Starting out as an interesting police procedural, with a tropical pace and feel to it, Thea's first case is the murder of a white woman, married to a local man. This lands her immediately in the intricacies of the local community. Complicated familial influences and ... Read review

SIGN OF THE CROSS is the second Spike Sanguinetti novel, in a series that really does need to be read in order. Not that it's any trial to have to do so, as this is shaping up to be a standout.

It's not just the brutality of the murder, there's a fundamental sombreness about these books which works. The first book, THE SHADOW OF THE ROCK, was also set partly outside Gibraltar in Morocco, yet somehow that idea of a Shadow being cast carries through both stories. Sanguinetti is troubled in this book. By the brutal death of a loved aunt and uncle, the increasing frailty of ... Read review

The Rowland Sinclair series is up to book number five with the release of GENTLEMEN FORMERLY DRESSED, yet somehow it feels like there should be more of them. That could simply be wishful thinking.

There is much to be admired about these books. The plots are clever and believable. Whilst the subject matter can be sobering, it's delivered with a light touch, drawing out the amusing where appropriate. There is a very strong sense of place, and the time period in which the action occurs. In the case of GENTLEMEN FORMERLY DRESSED and the previous book PAVING THE NEW ROAD that ... Read review

Listening to the radio recently I heard Jane Clifton talking about the thought process behind FLUSH. The end of a long term drought in Melbourne, watching a river running fast, and thinking "What If...". What if a body flushed into the river? What if the cover up of a murder can be derailed by an extreme weather event? What if that body, and that weather event, could provide a pointer to a location, and from there a killer?

The exploration of "What If" can be as interesting for the reader as the why and who. In real life as in fiction, it seems a lot of the undoing of the ... Read review

Having originally read this when it came out in paperback form in 2002, it was no chore to re-read ... oh good grief ... 11 YEARS LATER. Now I've got an excuse for not remembering the entire story!

It's always interesting to see how something stands up over the years since publication, allowing of course, for changes in technology, fashions, attitudes and social norms. In HALF PAST DEAD, there's not a lot of need for too much allowance though as there's a timelessness to the central themes. Marriages that are suddenly fraying at the seams, cut-throat business shenanigans ... Read review

Don't ask me what's going on. NEFARIOUS DOINGS, the first book in the Nell Forrest series released in digital format by Momentum Books, is the sort of accidental female PI thing that I seem to have been reading lately. The only reason I can come up with is that the ones I have stuck with have been very good.

Perhaps it's because Nell might be a bit put upon (honestly why can't anybody else in that household throw together regular meals...) but she's not daft. She might be a bit ditzy but she's not stupid, and even though she's more of a stumbler upon the truth than the ... Read review

I don't want to start any arguments here, but my mind-reading chook is an Australorp, currently known as "Underfoot", although a renaming ceremony is now on the cards. I've always been convinced she was a mind reader, although I'm pretty sure there's been no laboratory accidents in her vicinity. But she's the one, out of the very big flock of chooks in these parts, that always seems to be where I'm heading before I've even decided to go there. Of course it might be that she's such a guts that she secretly tracks movements in the hope of treats to get out from "Underfoot", but I much ... Read review