All the Reviews

One of the things that I really like about reading review books is that I constantly find absolutes in my reading tastes aren't.  Ask me about serial killer books before reading RANDOM and I would have categorically stated been there, over it.  Add being inside the serial killer's head for the entire of the book and I'd have put my hand on my heart and said it's all too tedious.  Then I read RANDOM and found myself really hooked on the internal monologue of a serial killer.

Based in Glasgow, RANDOM, on one level is your typical serial killer book.  Unconnected victim's, ... Read review

When reading the true crime / memoir INFILTRATION by Colin McLaren, I heard him speak at the Melbourne Crime & Justice Festival.  At the time he mentioned he was working on a fictional book, and I've been looking forward to that since finishing INFILTRATION.  

Anybody who has read INFILTRATION (or even the blurb) is going to have some bells ringing as they read the synopsis for this novel mind you.  That was undoubtedly the oddest experience in reading ON THE RUN.  A novel, there are threads, themes and events in this book that do seem to have potential to slot into ... Read review

It doesn't seem to matter how adamant I am about the subject matter that I just don't like, there just always seems to be "that book" that comes along and shoots all my prejudices out of the water.  THE EDGE OF MADNESS is about cyber-war.  The threat of annihilation of the free world at the hand of a shadowy threat, hiding behind computer terminals, in darkened rooms, hidden deep in the new Big Bad Evil nation.  The nameless, faceless, threat - as the blurb of this book puts it "no guns, no missiles, no vapour trails stretching like accusing fingers across the skies".

THE ... Read review

Whilst WOMEN WHO KILL is Lindy Cameron's 5th True Crime book, it is the first for WA based writer Ruth Wykes.  This is a book in which individual chapters look at a range of Australian and New Zealand murderers.  All of them female.  None of these murder fall into the category of defence killings.  It's an odd feeling to come to this book, knowing that somehow, somewhere in the back of your head is the idea that it's almost "understandable" for a woman to kill in defence - against violence, in defence of her children, in defence of her family.  Cameron and Wykes look at 12 separate ... Read review

A few years ago I made a promise to myself to catch up on some of the back catalogue lurking around in darkened corners in this place.

Some months I get that right - other months I make a real hash of it and that's to my own detriment.

Although in an odd way, taking SOOO long to get to this collection of Disher short stories actually worked for me, as many of them are obviously the starting point of some of my favourite of the later novels.  That made for a fascinating insight into the way an idea starts, and can be expanded.

But as a collection ... Read review

The second Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper book LET THE DEAD LIE has now been released, following on the from highly praised A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE.

LET THE DEAD LIE takes Cooper into different physical circumstances, working in a very bleak city, doing menial labour and nightly surveillance work, there's a sense of loss and depression surrounding him.  This rapidly changes to desperation as he is implicated in further murders and has a limited time, and difficult circumstances in which to clear his own name.

Readers of the first of the Cooper books will ... Read review

Subtitled "The True Story of Postcard Bandit Brenden Abbott", AUSTRALIAN OUTLAW is the authorised biography of Abbott, once a notorious Australian criminal, although, as it turns out from this book, a bit of a mythological figure in some ways.

Abbott actually contributed to the writing of this book (without recompense) and a combination of his own words, and Pedley's observations really bring him, and that myth to life in a rather unique way. It's an odd experience to hear directly from the criminal in this way, especially as his story isn't a particularly flattering one ... Read review

Jefe Javier Falcón is undoubtedly one of those slightly rumpled, thoughtful, urbane, complicated and delightful detectives that fans of crime fiction will love to spend time with.  THE IGNORANCE OF BLOOD is the last book in this series, beginning with THE BLIND MAN OF SEVILLE, then THE SILENT AND THE DAMNED and THE HIDDEN ASSASSINS.

In THE IGNORANCE OF THE BLOOD Seville is a swelteringly hot, tense and shocked city, following a terrorist attack which Falcón has promised will not go unsolved.  Unfortunately, whilst the promise was heart-felt, the actual identification of ... Read review

Perhaps I should warn readers of this review that Louise Welsh is one of my all time favourite authors.  NAMING THE BONES was therefore greeted with some excited anticipation in these parts.  One of the things that I really like about Welsh's books is the dark, introspective nature of her characters and the settings, as well as irresistible Gothic quirkiness.  

NAMING THE BONES is the story of Dr Murray Watson; academic, guilty lover, conflicted brother, writer of a poet's biography.  Murray's love affair with Archie Lunan's writing had started with a slim paperback ... Read review