All the Reviews

I just love the Brad Chen series.  I must do.  RIP OFF actually took me into the world of high finance skull-duggery and I really didn't notice until I was well into the action.  Quite an achievement.

Part of what really works with RIP OFF is the character of Brad himself.  Maybe it's a girl thing but the idea of a bloke who does any housework at all, let alone the bathroom floor with a plastic scourer...  but Brad's no big girls blouse.  An ex-professional footballer, Brad's an Australian Federal Policemen with quite an interesting career.  Part thinker, part energiser ... Read review

Four children telling a lie to stay out of trouble and a man shot in the head in London 40 years later.  Obviously there's some sort of connection as they are both elements of WATCH OUT FOR ME by Sylvia Johnson.  What's always intriguing with these sorts of unlikely components, is how and where the author is going to take the reader.

WATCH OUT FOR ME is an intriguing and complex debut psychological thriller.  Told in a series of short chapters attributed mostly to those children, their story bounces between them then and as the adults they have become.  One brother, two ... Read review

One of the best things about true crime books like RAZOR by Larry Writer is the way that they can inform your understanding of current day events.  When you hear the news of Gangland wars gone crazy (you realise that's happening again), blood in the streets (again), crime gone mad (again), notorious gangsters plying the media (again), the end of the world as we know it (again)...

The story of RAZOR is the story of gangland crime leaders Kate Leigh and Matilda (Tilly) Devine, and the sly grog shops and brothels run by each of them respectively in 1920's and 30's Sydney.  ... Read review

You hear these rumours, and they can panic a person.  "Christopher Brookmyre has gone straight with his latest book."  I was twitchy.  How could he (either to his readers or to himself)?  Surely the man cannot possibly have lost his acute sense of the bizarre, his sly, dry and clever sense of humour.  Could he?  Of course not.  Daft idea.  WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED might be a police procedural, crime fiction based book, but it's classic Chris(topher) Brookmyre from the start to the end.  How could it not be!  Glasgow Policing 101 - as explained to one of the main characters ... Read review

I remember reading the first book in what is now one of my favourite series quite a few years ago, I really really hoped that the author felt better about life once they'd finished.  I think the same sort of reaction to THE BROTHERHOOD bodes well for what I hope is going to be an ongoing series.

Mind you, you can't help but wonder if Yvette Erskine's going to be able to get back into Tasmania for research purposes if a few of the upper echelon characters in THE BROTHERHOOD are recognisable real people!  

THE BROTHERHOOD is a debut book which promises quite a ... Read review

THE SIREN'S STING is the second Stevie Duveen novel from Miranda Darling, following on from THE TROIKA DOLLS.

These books are thrillers, featuring Stevie who works as a risk assessor in the personal / company protection game. Starting off much where the first book ended, Stevie has been assigned to mind a temperamental opera star travelling on a luxury cruise near Somalia when pirates strike. Helping drive off this attack, there's something a little odd about how easily the pirates withdraw. But there's not a lot of time to consider that until later, as Stevie undertakes ... Read review

Okay so I'm a bit of a fan - which after two books is quite an achievement.  It's probably a little bit to do with the basic premise of genealogy being used to solve crimes (family tree research being an investigation in its own right after all), but mostly it's because Dan Waddell really can tell a bit of a tale.

There is a serial killer theme to BLOOD ATONEMENT, although initially it's only Detective Grant Foster who sees the parallels between the death of Katie Drake, and the disappearance of her 14 year old daughter, and a case 3 years earlier.  But do not let that ... Read review

I think I'll just keep saying this until I run out of breath completely - but really, the world needs more quality collections of Crime Short Stories.  CRIMESPOTTING, a fabulous little volume put together as a fund raiser for The ONECITY Trust, is subtitled "An Edinburgh Crime Collection".  It features stories by lesser and well known authors including (in alphabetical order) Lin Anderson, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Atwood, Christopher Brookmyre, John Burnside, Isla Dewar, A.L. Kennedy, Denise Mina, Ian Rankin and James Robertson.  (There are some stories here which go on to be included ... Read review

THE GHOST OF WATERLOO is the second Nicodemus Dunne book, set in 1800's Sydney in the earliest days of the Colony.  Reading the first in the series - DEATH AND THE RUNNING PATTERER will give you the complete background to Dunne - how he came to Sydney, how he came to be earning his way as a Running Patterer.  It also explains why his background as a London policeman would lead Governor Darling to call for his assistance when a major robbery and spate of murders proves not just difficult to solve, but potentially embarrassing for the Colony leaders.  Having said that, it would be ... Read review