In Zero at the Bone, the second book in this series, Frank Swann has moved more sideways than on. Working as a PI, he finds himself dragged into the suicide of geologist Max Henderson, whose wife Jennifer enlists Swann’s services to find out the reasons for his death – there is no doubt about the manner of it. Full Review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/09/17/crime-scene-david- ... Read review
Tabitha Darling is the daughter of a recently demised, much missed police superintendent and his wife, a recently moved to Queensland, much missed cook for the local police station. She's trying to run her own dessert destination café in the centre of Hobart, but no matter how hard she tries to adjust the menu to suit the sort of clientele she'd like to be attracting, the place is overrun with police nostalgic for canteen style pies.
She's also only slightly reluctant to leap into the role of accidental detective when a rather bizarre death is discovered in the flat ... Read review
It’s not really surprising that Stuart Littlemore, well-known legal counsel, would attempt Australia’s answer to Rumpole of the Bailey in a series based on cases where the Defence (in the guise of Harry Curry) rides to victory on the back of some cunning goings-on in the trial courts of NSW. Full Review: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/09/17/crime-scene-david-whish-wilson-zero-at ... Read review
The fourth and final book in the GANGLAND franchise, GANGLAND NORTH SOUTH & WEST concentrates on the geographic areas of South and West Australia and the Northern Territory. Using the same style and format of earlier books this is a series of snippets of crimes loosely grouped into subject's on a timeline. The reader is, for example, introduced to some very early commuters who moved from Eastern Australia to the West, and back again. Criminals with connections to Squizzy Taylor, events between the First and Second World War, early Bikers (many of whom were actually pushbikers ... Read review
DRIVE BY is fiction although readers may find themselves having to work hard to remember that. From the opening voice of Jabber (John) Habib to the build up of mayhem on the streets of Sydney, obviously comparisons are being drawn between Melbourne's Underbelly Underworld wars and the increasingly violent, and therefore reported on, drug wars in Sydney.
The story of John Habib, his brothers, their involvement in the Sydney drugs trade, and the murder trial of the youngest brother, is interwoven with the story of young cop Bec Ralston. Somewhat inexplicably she's pulled ... Read review
The great thing about collections like IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU is that it will appeal to readers and writers alike. Published by Allen & Unwin, edited by Michael Robotham, with a terrific Introduction by him into the bargain, this collection of writing from some of Australia's best crime writers reveals their writing secrets. It also asks them for their Five Must-Reads. So why not Five Why-This-Collection-Is-A-Must-Reads in return.
1. For budding, or dreaming writers, this collection has more than enough hints, tips, warnings and suggestions to make any ... Read review
Even if you didn't know that author Ian Simpson regards John Mortimer as one of his inspirations, there's something slightly similar in their writing styles, although there's no Rumpole character in MURDER IN COURT THREE.
Set in the precincts of courts, and the legal fraternity, the victim here is a Barrister, and the investigation is straight police procedural, albeit with a hefty portion of fraud case in court antics on the side. It's actually a nice balance, as is the idea that the police team is made up of DI Flick Fortune, pregnant and about to have her baby at any ... Read review
Normally when I get to the stage of actually finishing up a review and publishing it, I've had a good long think, a work through the notes I take as I read, and have formed an opinion that I'm confident I can support. I therefore cannot, for the life of me work out, why THE HANGING still has me unsure.
A confrontational plot, THE HANGING starts out with a death scene that's particularly uncomfortable. The possible reason for the death of five men, left hanging in a school gym, comes much later, with the likely motive a long time before a possible perpetrator. Of course, ... Read review
A DARKNESS DESCENDING is the fourth book from Christobel Kent featuring ex-cop, now private detective Sandro Cellini. As this is the first from the series I've tried, I'm guessing that you may have to start from the beginning to get a handle on the who and hows of these characters.
Of course it doesn't help that there's a bit of an expectation nowadays that Italian Crime Fiction is going to include fabulous food, a grumpy central detective, an immersion-like sense of place or some combination thereof, but for some reason I struggled with this book.
In the ... Read review
I shouldn't read this sort of book. It's nearly impossible to make any observations that are measured and considered because there's so much sets my teeth on edge about the entire scenario I can't tell if it's a good version thereof or not.... Alas this was an extremely rare DNF.Read review
Should have suspected something when a friend lent me this book. There was something about the gleam in their eye that sort of suggested that this could be talked about long into the night. And boy has it been already.
Classically slow burning, obscure and cleverly done, two brothers and their wives meet for dinner one night. One brother, famous, wealthy and with the behaviour and personality that goes with that. The other brother quieter, almost repressed. Initially it seems like these brothers could be at dinner simply to annoy each other, to pick fault, to laud it over ... Read review
When I said yes to a review copy of NIGERIANS IN SPACE, I will admit that it was partly the title. The opening line of the blurb didn't hurt either. Starting to read it, from about chapter 2 I was totally bamboozled, and firmly hooked. (Although I was mildly disappointed that the piece of the moon stolen was pilfered from a laboratory ... for a while I hoped....)
With a story that quickly moves from the early 90's to the present, this is a very smooth, slightly mad debut novel which bodes particularly well for future outings.
It could be that part of the ... Read review
It's discomforting to read these sorts of books. They are the stories of women who have murdered and whilst some of these women were undoubtedly guilty, the tales of the desperate, the poor, abused and betrayed make it hard not to look rather critically at society "norms" and behaviours. Perhaps that's what's important about these sorts of books.Read review
Saw this book referred to somewhere as CSI meets Medium in print. Which will mean something to exactly the sort of readers that HINDSIGHT is pitched directly at.
Needless to say that's not me. Whilst my paranormal allergy has been mitigated slightly over the years by some extremely good books, it alas hasn't stopped the scratching when the story is 100% built around the paranormal aspects being such a central investigative tool. Granted in HINDSIGHT the local cops also start off not that impressed with the idea that Cass Lehman can see violent pasts as she moves into the ... Read review
I think I read somewhere that DUSTY DEXTER PI - HER FIRST CASE started life as a newspaper serial, which if that is the case, makes it the second of this sort of book I've read coming out of Queensland this year. Although this isn't a series of short stories, it's the story of an entire investigation.
The blurb is going to give you a tiny little bit of a hint about the style of this book. It's light-hearted, chick-mystery, accidental, mildly clumsy, enthusiastic rather than necessarily highly skilled, female PI. With surgically enhanced boobs (you'll have to read the book ... Read review
Winner of the 2009 Victorian Premier's Literary Award, SUFFICIENT GRACE is a difficult book to categorise.
Told from the viewpoint of young Ruth, it's a story about life and survival in a brutal climate, in a brutal, bleak, religious community.
Presented particularly to this reader as a crime novel, I've struggled to get this categorisation to work effectively. Partly I suppose you could call this a psychological thriller, partly there is a small crime element to it, but ultimately it seemed more saga than anything else.
It's beautifully written ... Read review
Set mostly in Kalgoorlie and the surrounding WA goldfields, HEIST is a debut novel which is well worth checking out. Especially if you like a rapidly moving plot, a hefty dose of wounded but not beaten central hero, and some seriously madcap action.
Starting off with the audacious, and perfectly planned heist of a large amount of gold directly from the mine vault, Gareth Ford is the engineering manager who is not completely squeaky clean. The mine is running on skeleton staff because it's a big horse racing day in town, when Ford finds himself seconded as a key man to ... Read review
The second in a series set in London and a debut legal thriller show some of the exciting variety of Australian crime fiction on offer. Review at: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/07/04/crime-scene-annie-hauxwell-a-bitter-taste-alex-hammond-blood-witness-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read review
The legal thriller is a fairly common sub-genre overseas, but Alex Hammond’s Blood Witness is the first of this sort of book from a local writer for quite a while. Full review at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/07/04/crime-scene-annie-hauxwell-a-bitter-taste-alex-hammond-blood-witness-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read review
The back of THE DEVIL'S SANCTUARY says that it has the atmosphere of Shutter Island and the intensity of Jussi Adler-Olsen so I was expecting something... well big.
And for quite a while this was a fascinating scenario. Estranged identical twins, Daniel and Max, were parted by their parents separation when they were very young. Daniel had a fairly normal, if not slightly doted on upbringing by his mother and her parents, Max not quite as lucky staying with his distant father and raised mostly by a nanny. Nothing particularly unusual in that, although Max has been ... Read review