All the Reviews

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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