All the Reviews

THE SECRET SPEECH is the second book from Tom Rob Smith, following on the stories of many of the characters from CHILD 44.  In particular, Leo and Raisa are trying to raise the two young girls they adopted after Leo's part in the brutal killing of their parents, but all is not going well with this instant family.  Pressure from within, the eldest girl in particular, is deeply resentful of both her adopted parents and is prepared to show it in quite threatening and frightening ways, whilst they are unaware of the level of vengeance about to be visited on them by somebody else from Leo' ... Read review

You can't possibly say that you've ever been looking forward to reading a book about a case like this, but I have had this book here since it was first published, and I've picked it up and read a little now and then since then.  Frankly, the subject matter made me queasy.

But in the same way that the author wanted to know what on earth made Knight go so far over the top, ultimately, I was wondering the same thing.  So I eventually stopped sooking and sat down and read this book.

It's no wonder that Katherine Knight is never to be released, and whilst the ... Read review

I bought this book at last years Crime & Justice festival, and at the time Susanna Lobez was kind enough to sign it with me including the inscription "Stay curious!".

And that is the best way I can recommend this book - staying curious, reading this sort of historical true crime fiction, reminds you that nothing is ever really new.  And nothing is ever "the worst it has ever been" or "never before in the history...." or whatever else the media feeds you (obviously I'm thinking of the "Underbelly Wars" here).

Commencing at the beginning of the arrival of ... Read review

It's always interesting to see a favoured author head off in another direction, and THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL is a big directional switch for Geoffrey McGeachin.  Moving away from the madcap all-Australian James Bond of the Alby Murdoch books, we are introduced to a new character, a new timeframe and a very different approach.

Set in post World War II Victoria THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL introduces Charlie Berlin.  A pilot during the war, back to the police on his return, Charlie is deeply traumatised.  Sent to Albury-Wodonga to investigate a series of robberies that have ... Read review

If somebody could explain to me what I did with my common-sense I'd be very grateful.  I have this list of favourite authors, and a tendency to hoard their books.  Makes no sense whatsoever when I think about it, but IN THE DARK got caught in the daftness and lurked on the shelves here for much much longer than it should have.

A standalone novel, IN THE DARK is a thriller with an unexpected scenario and an interesting twist.  As the blurb outlines, there's a car crash in the night.  A driver is forced off the road, into a bus stop.  A man (in this case a policeman) is ... Read review

THRILL CITY has arrived. The fourth Simone Kirsch book from Australian writer Leigh Redhead has been much anticipated by fans of this fantastic, Melbourne-based, stripper turned Private Investigator series.

Mind you, it's not just Simone that I was pleased to see back, but Chloe, Sean, Alex, Curtis, all the other strippers, the bars and the way that the streetscape comes alive. When bestselling crime author Nick Austin pays Simone to let him follow her on a few jobs - to get the feel of how a female PI works - that leads to a writers festival, a crime panel, a couple of ... 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