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
Things that go bump in the night add to the suspense in this cautionary tale of young adult friendships.
Marketed as Young Adult, Sweet Damage is the second novel from Rebecca James delving into the nature of friendship and relationships in a way that works for older audiences as well. One of the things that got me reading when I was young was a shared interest in books with my grandmother. We talked a lot about books, often while reading the same one, and all through Sweet Damage I found myself wishing she was still alive. This is ... Read review
Some of the very best crime fiction explores issues that are relevant to the society in which it is set. Michael Stanley's Kubu series, set in Botswana seems to have really hit its straps in that department in the last couple of books, with DEADLY HARVEST reaching a particular high. The fourth book in the Detective Kubu series, here the author(s) are exploring the disappearance of a number of young girls. The suspicion is that these girls are the victims of a powerful, unknown witchdoctor, looking for victims to incorporate in his muti, or traditional African healing, potions. ... Read review
It is just possible that a book about a middle aged, female, technical writer working for a software company might, just, perhaps be set in a world that feels more than a little bit comfortable (sans daughter of course). I will admit that when NO SAFE PLACE arrived I was more than a little bit excited!
Despite her close working relationship with your classic sort of ubergeek, working for an average software company as a technical writer is not the sort of job that you think would put you in a gunman's sights. So when her elderly neighbour, Mabel, who has simply stepped ... Read review
A classic of foreboding and suspense set in the Victorian High Country. Full review at The Newtown Review of Books: http://newtownreviewofbooks.com/2013/05/07/crime-scene-honey-brown-dark-horse-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/Read review
Two novellas, connected by PI Jack Munro, COORPAROO BLUES and THE IRISH FANDANGO are an interesting historical hard-boiled combination of PI, mean streets, fallen women, drinking and the whole nine yards.
The first story, COORPAROO BLUES, introduces Jack, war veteran, ex-cop, nose for trouble, attractor of a simply staggering number of women, PI that you turn to when things are going to get nasty.
The second story, set a few months later, sees the US troop angle switched for political refugees and Communists around every corner, and a suicide that isn't. ... Read review
It is possible that the reader of a lot of mystery fiction could come to BAY OF FIRES with a predisposition to like it very much. It's an unusual twist on what is, frequently, a rather formulaic style. More importantly, it's a lot more about the people involved in a community than the tragic death.
The story revolves around Sarah Avery, who was second on the scene when the bikini-clad body is found on the beach. She and her family are long-term holiday residents at the Bay of Fires, so they were there the year before when a young girl went missing. As were a lot of the ... Read review
Award winning police reporter Paul Anderson obviously spent a lot of time around the Victorian Armed Robbery Squad during some pivotal investigations in this state as there's much of the plot in THE ROBBERS which rings loud, persistent and very musical bells.
There is therefore a parallel when journalist Ian Malone is assigned as a police reporter, his first involvement with the "the Robbers" as he wants to write a feature about the feared, and not always admired Squad. Malone is along for the ride as "the Robbers" slowly fall from favour with the more controlled, ... Read review
Romantic caper, with just a smidgen of edge, ROUGH DIAMOND is the first book in a new Melbourne based series built around a typically untypical pair - Erica Jewell and Jack Jones.
Erica Jewell - recently separated from a husband who left her bank balance and her life in tatters. Working in PR for a major corporation her life is now pretty much devoted to avoiding the ex, paying off his debts, keeping a roof over her head, and deflecting her best friend's attempts at getting her out and about again.
Jack Jones - man of mystery and danger, gorgeous, and ... Read review
If there's one thing I'm a huge fan of it's dialogue that's realistic. Crisp, authentic and realistic. That and plots and the behaviour of characters that are consistent.
MURDER ON DISPLAY is obviously based sort of loosely (very loosely in some parts) around true events in the not-too-distant past in Adelaide. A number of different elements from a number of different true life cases appear to have sort of been melded together to create the story of an Adelaide cop, DS Dan Brennan.
Therein lies a lot of the problem with MURDER ON DISPLAY as I'm not 100% sure ... Read review
On page 2 of this book I kind of got the feeling that we'd be destined to get on very well....
"He's got more prior convictions than brain cells which means he won't get bail, so he's wallowing in the Metropolitan Remand Centre at Ravenhall, trying to find a lawyer who'll argue that society is to blame."
The sort of dry sense of humour that works for this reader at least.
Subtitled a detective's story in ten cases, this is the tale of the life and times of John Dorn. Private Inquiry Agent because that's what his ... Read review
Some things remain in this nation's psyche for a very long time. The Bodyline series was something my grandfather was still hot under the collar about when I was a girl (gives you a feeling for how the New Zealanders feel when you mention underarm bowling...). THE RICHMOND CONSPIRACY sits within it's timeframe beautifully, giving the reader a real feel for the way that Melbourne and it's inhabitants worked in 1933. The references to Bodyline (and the way that news about the state of the match being played out in a whole different part of the country had to be sought out), the way that ... Read review
This is a novella that I picked up from Amazon based on some comments I'd seen about the author's writing style, which turned out to be right. This is a great little novella that introduces a murder, an investigator and his sidekick, fleshes out his background and gives me some personality, sets up some potential suspects and solves the murder. All in novella format. Well written with extremely believable dialogue and a very nice sense of pace. Short, but not foreshortened, with a nice little twist at the end that, despite the post-events reveal style used, made a lot of sense and ... Read review