All the Reviews

Carl Williams, Adam Shand

Having read an earlier book by this author on Carl Williams, I did wonder what extra insights might be offered in this latest offering, entitled simply CARL WILLIAMS. But, for this reader, there was something very interesting about the premise of this book. I've never been able to work out how or why Williams came to such a position of prominence and influence in Melbourne criminal circles. There's something that sort of makes sense about the Morans and other members of long-term criminal families or gangs, continuing, so to speak, the family trade. Williams, on the other hand, seemed ... Read review

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The Trumpeting Angel, Marshall Browne

Read for our f2f bookclub meeting last month, this book triggered a fantastic, full-table, sleeves rolled up discussion. Which is always a very very good thing.

Whilst overall personally I thought this was a pretty good book, and a particularly interesting one to be reading in the week when our Prime Minister decided to take on the Leader of the Opposition in a long-overdue calling out of his behaviour, there were themes in the book that really really resonated.

There were also aspects that were less successful, as pointed out by members of the bookclub, why ... Read review

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Marshall Browne

Stage Fright, Marianne Delacourt

The HK Monaro wormed it's way into my heart in 1968. Bathurst, Bruce McPhee, Hardie-Ferodo, pole position and the race lap record at that time. A life-long love of those cars was started on the lino of the kitchen in South-West Victoria, shouting at a dodgy TV telecast, enthralled. Sure, my teenage years saw a shift in preference to the HG model, and I would always opt for the dark purple HG with the sidewinder stripes and, of course, the GTS 350, with the stiffened suspension and the power front disc brakes. Alas I suspect that passion is about the only thing that Tara Sharp and I ... Read review

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Marianne Delacourt

Chasing the Sun, Robin Baker

When I was a little girl my grandmother always used to say to me ... you'll understand the generation gap when you get to my age. Frankly I thought she was barking, so if she was alive now I would be apologising furiously for the scepticism. And it's not just that modern music has no lyrics and all sounds the same these days ;), it's increasingly becoming the occasional book that makes me realise that I may not necessarily "get" what's going on with the younger generations.

Of course that feeling's not helped by the premise of CHASING THE SUN. "A twisted tale about Feng ... Read review

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The Preacher, Camilla Läckberg

Second book in the Erica Falck and Patrik Hedström series, THE PREACHER continues the personal story of these two characters, whilst taking the reader into another past / present scenario. I think I'm going to have to start a count of this sort of storyline as it seems to be cropping up all over the place. In this case the present connects with the past when the body of a young tourist is located in the place where the bones of two missing tourists, missing for 20 years, are then discovered. A second young female goes missing and the race is on.

Apart from the locations, ... Read review

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Camilla Läckberg

The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch, Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

Not so long ago a past Prime Minister of ours declared that History teaching in schools should be more about learning dates and less about interpretation and analysis. Or something like that. I wasn't listening after the first bit about dates - I was curled up in a foetal position, fingers in ears, chanting "Make it Stop" "Make it Stop".

Much like most of my, thankfully short, school years.

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD, might be fictional wrapped up with some science commentary, but to be frank - there were some explanations of scientific theory in this book - ... Read review

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Terry Pratchett

The Hanging Shed, Gordon Ferris

THE HANGING SHED is a thriller. It's a searing portrayal of post-war Scotland, a haunting story of the personal after-effects of war, dislocation, friendship, loyalties, and mistakes. It's powerful, atmospheric, uplifting, sad, violent, and compassionate.

The central character, Douglas Brodie, is a former policeman, who on returning from fighting for King and Country in the Second World War, secures a job in London as a reporter. News from his native Glasgow that childhood friend Hugh Donovan is about to be hanged for the murder of a child has him returning home, ... Read review

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The Case of the Man who Died Laughing, Tarquin Hall

Even allowing for the lighter nature of this series, the idea of death by Hindu goddess in the middle of a laughter class is a bit of a stretch for anyone's imagination. But the thing I really like about the Vish Puri series of books is the gentle humour that eases the underlying message. The message of THE CASE OF THE MAN WHO DIED LAUGHING appearing to be the tension between modern and age-old Indian society, and hypocrisy in all its guises.

Knowing that the author married an Indian woman, and has lived in India for a period of time explains why a man with such an ... Read review

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Red Wolf, Liza Marklund

The fifth book in the Annika Bengtzon series, I've absolutely no idea whether or not the entire series has been translated in order or not. I've sort of lost the plot with this series, probably because the first book - THE BOMBER - didn't appeal a lot. The last I read, PRIME TIME, was better, but a lot of the problem is that Annika, as the main focus, is a character I find it very hard to either warm to, or increasingly raise much interest in.

The plot of RED WOLF, that idea of the past having a direct impact on the present, is something I'm noticing a lot these days. The ... Read review

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The Good Thief's Guide To Paris, Chris Ewan

Second in the Good Thief Series (after Amsterdam), THE GOOD THIEF'S GUIDE TO PARIS sees the return of Charlie Howard, author and professional thief along with his agent Victoria and fence Pierre. Although in this book Victoria gets to be more than just a voice at the end of the phone.

You're going to get the idea of the plot of this book from the blurb, although what you aren't going to get is an idea of the elaborate twisting and turning, leaping and posturing that goes on to get to the nub of the problem. Although all of that carry on is fairly normal in Charlie's world ... Read review

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The Impossible Dead, Ian Rankin

If you, like me, have been more than a bit concerned about regular reading habits with the retirement of Rebus, I'm happy to report that at least I'm no longer fearful. Well about the loss of a fictional companion anyway. Now I can spend long periods of time worrying about Ian Rankin's health and hoping that all is going well with his writing. Because I'd really like to think there's more than a few Malcolm Fox books in the future, as this new series shapes up to be something well worth following.

It's probably not surprising that there are some aspects between the two ... Read review

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Passport to Crime, Janet Hutchings (editor)

This is exactly what I like about short story collections. This is particularly what I like as it's made up of a series of stories from authors all over the world.

Whilst there is no particular theme, the collection really gives you a feel for interpretations of crime fiction in a lot of different countries and cultures.

As always, ones that worked beautifully, ones that weren't for me, others from authors I already knew about, many from new to me authors who promptly made it onto the "book watch" list.Read review

The First Shift - Crime Factory

Right, here it is. I want more short story collections.

There aren't enough thriller / crime fiction short story collections being published.

I don't care if I'm not a "normal reader" or if they aren't very popular or whatever other weasel words you want to chuck around. I LIKE short story collections.

Part of the reason I like them is because they give a reader a chance to find new authors with storytelling styles that appeal, or even to revisit favourite authors.

They work regardless of whether there is a theme, or they are simply ... Read review

River of Shadows, Valerio Varesi

My pencilled list of things to expect from Italian Crime Fiction isn't particularly long or even all that surprising. A certain, shall we say obsession, with food; an eccentric, slightly grumpy, protagonist who spends a lot of time in his own head and seems to be quite happy there; and the occasional unexpected interpersonal relationship. That's a tick in boxes for RIVER OF SHADOWS then. Set on the banks of the River Po in Parma during a long cold, wet winter where the best everyone can hope for is that the river freezes to limit the reaches of the flooding, a barge captain goes ... Read review

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Evil in Return, Elena Forbes

Thank goodness for notes! I finished this book at the start of the year, and just noticed that I'd not posted the review I wrote at the time. Which is interesting, as re-reading my notes again, I can remember just about everything about this plot. Which makes it, to my mind, a very good book.

Elena Forbes tackles something interesting in EVIL IN RETURN. Joe Logan is found carefully posed in a cemetery crypt. Shot through the head and castrated, there's something that seems deeply personal, ritualistic about the way he was killed. When Paul Khan dies in an identical manner ... Read review

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The Geneva Trap, Stella Rimington

It's always intriguing, who or what will be the next threats that espionage writers can employ in their thrillers. I'm not sure what it says about the world that we live in but there does seem to be no shortage of possible scenarios and nefarious goings-on to occupy the intelligence world. THE GENEVA TRAP is the 7th book in the Liz Carlyle series, and the main plot elements, as you'd expect from a writer with Rimington's background, have a ring of truth and absolutely credibility about them.

Liz is a very strong character. Strong enough to survive this particular reader's ... Read review

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Stella Rimington

Rush of Blood, Mark Billingham

Part of what makes RUSH OF BLOOD work is the normality of the setup. Three couples, on an overseas holiday form one of those short-term friendships that we've probably all done. The one thing that seems to draw them together post holiday is the unthinkable. The disappearance of a young, obviously intellectually handicapped girl, from the same resort as them. The other part that works - the way the reader knows one of these six is a most likely a killer, but which one?

There are a number of devices that Billingham uses to obfuscate, explain, reveal and draw out the clues ... Read review

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Mark Billingham

The Vanishing Point, Val McDermid

It's probably no coincidence that in a genre that, in my mind anyway, is purpose built for looking at the things that don't work in society, I seem to fallen over a few books recently that are exploring the outcomes of Reality stardom. Which is useful as this is about as close as I want to come to any form of reality anything on TV. Val McDermid's latest novel, THE VANISHING POINT, looks at the impacts of reality stardom on a few levels, the perceptions that people have of a certain type of reality star (we're talking the dumb blonde stereotype), but also the sort of impact that the ... Read review

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Treachery in Bordeaux, Jean-Pierre Alaux and Noël Balen

Living on the edge of the Pyrenees (the ones in Victoria, Australia), surrounded as we are by wineries and winemakers, it's was a rather interesting experience to find myself reading TREACHERY IN BORDEAUX which is steeped in wine-making tradition, methodology, and a dash of intrigue.

TREACHERY IN BORDEAUX is the first in a series of books that are likely to be compared to the Number 1 Ladies Detective agency, if for no other reason than its incredibly strong sense of place and culture. Plus, whilst the book is crime fiction, there's not a murder in sight. This is a very ... Read review

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Jean-Pierre Alaux

Shatter the Bones, Stuart MacBride

Here's the thing. You hoard a book because it's a favourite series, and there's no sign of the next one yet. But then there are noises about the next one, but that's not out for ages, but you can't wait any longer so you read the one you've had tucked away. Then you've not got that little thing of joy hidden away in the bookcases anymore. So now you're stuck in that horrible no man's land, because the next book's not out for ages, and you've given into temptation. It's a nightmare.

Mind you, that's about the only complaint I can come up with about SHATTER THE BONES. But ... Read review

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Stuart MacBride

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