All the Reviews

Gabriel Bergmoser's one of those author's that is building a back catalogue of creepy, tense thrillers full of interesting psychological analysis and, frankly, disturbing scenarios. Which is exactly what you're given in THE CARETAKER.

Charlotte is on the run from a controlling husband and his underworld associates, adopting a new identity and taking on the role of off-season caretaker at a small, deserted alpine resort, way off any beaten track. She's lying low, doing the small maintenance and cleaning jobs required, revelling in the isolation, dealing with the limited ... Read review

Regardless of why struggling actor Lou Galloway upped sticks from Los Angeles landing in Mexico, going from attending yet another audition in which he didn't get the job to sitting around in bars with cheap mezcal and no demands, the last thing he expected was to end up at the wedding of the daughter of the infamous crime boss Diego Flores. The grand mansion, the fancy food, elaborate outfits, the drinks, the gorgeous wife Maria-Carla Flores, the pretence that he's El Flamingo. The real ruthless assassin, someone Galloway somehow got talking to in one of those bars, had an idea for an ... Read review

BLOOD & INK is a crime novel about a student that could be writing a crime novel. Or could be planning a range of murders. When his Literature professor Jack Griffen discovers five sheets of paper that the student, Hiero, has written, Jack's not sure which option it is. Until the first event that matches one of the scenarios he's been left.

Why would Hiero choose Jack you well may ask? Well Jack's an interesting character, mild-mannered, but coming back from a recent nervous breakdown. His wife divorced him, and she and their adult daughter moved to the USA, leaving ... Read review

THE QUEEN OF POISONS is book number 3 in The Marlow Murder Club, which is also now a TV series. Not at all surprising, it definitely has a "perfect for TV feeling" to the stories, it's quite good fun, and written by Robert Thorogood, the man behind the Death in Paradise series. 

The "crime fighting trio" in this series is made up of Judith, a retiree who keeps herself busy setting crosswords for a newspaper, and nude swimming in the Thames that meanders past her ramshackle old mansion. Then there's Suzie, the salt-of-the-earth type dog walker. She has a long standing ... Read review

SHADOW BROKER is a standalone novel from NZ based author Tina Clough. It's a thriller in style, set in the future, where individual freedoms have been severely curtailed and state surveillance is omnipresent. When coded messages are found on a burner phone, they reveal a shadowy mastermind, who refers to himself as "The Broker", government corruption, and ruthless politics.

Based around a group of three friends, who in an unlikely twist of circumstances, discover the messages on a burner phone, which sends them off on a dangerous game of cat and mouse, setting them ... Read review

Mark Ariti is back in the third novel in this series, and for the first time, the setting moves from the bush to the seaside. On a short "break" away in the small fishing town of Broken Bay, on South Australia's Limestone Coast, he seems to be approaching it as less holiday, more purgatory. Ariti is not good at aimless, and is acutely aware he's really hiding from his personal life. His partner Rose is about to head overseas to a new job, and Ariti is stuck. Does he go with her to new horizons and adventures, or does he stay in Australia, near his two sons, remaining as a cop in the ... Read review

Third in the Cesare Aldo series from D.V. Bishop, RITUAL OF FIRE is set in a time of change for Aldo, his colleagues and his personal life. He's been sent to the Tuscan countryside, hunting thieves and fugitives whilst Florence battles a heatwave, drought and what turns out to be a series of violent murders of rich merchants. Luckily there is a connection between these merchants and the town that Aldo is exiled in, with one of the deaths occuring locally, giving him more than enough reason to insert himself back into Florence and the ongoing investigation. Which is just as well ... Read review

The 4th novel in the Reggie da Costa series, LIES AND DECEPTION is a nicely twisty tale of the just desserts served up to a serial conman and his accomplices by a determined crime reporter and his ... accomplices.

If you're new to this lovely series, set in the early 1920's in Melbourne, Reggie da Costa is the lead crime reporter for The Argus newspaper. He's a very debonair chap, possessed of a very stylish wardrobe, a particularly standout motor vehicle, a recently acquired and, as far as he can see, unexpected and utterly beguiling love interest, and a keen, almost ... Read review

There's a really nice interpretation of classic golden age mystery styling at the heart of this lovely little novel set in the early white settlement period of rural, remote Western Australia.

Cleverly balanced between the personal story of Ana, the adopted daughter of the owners of Halfwell Station, and the search for a murder victim whose body she came across in the bush, late at night when reportedly star gazing, there's a lot of intrigue going on here. It's not just the nameless friar who appears at the Station at the time that Ana reports (to the friar initially and ... Read review