All the Reviews

25th of March, 1999 and a helicopter heads for Silverwater Prison in Sydney.  It hovers, briefly lowering almost to the ground in the exercise yard, just long enough for one prisoner to break from the crowd and run to the door.  He gets in, the helicopter turns, and flies away.  Shots are fired, guards aren't too sure what to do, the helicopter pilot is working under duress, the woman holding the gun on him nervous and tense.  John Reginald Killick had just been broken out of Silverwater Prison by his female accomplice and latest girlfriend Lucy Dudko, but they were on the run for a ... Read review

“Write what you know” aspiring writers are often told. Katherine Howell has done that to good effect. She worked as a paramedic for many years and her detailed knowledge of both the job and the physical and emotional toll it takes are vividly portrayed. COLD JUSTICE is Katherine’s third book (the previous two are Frantic and The Darkest Hour) and her writing seems to get better and better . COLD JUSTICE not only has the fast pace of a thriller, it also has multiple threads which are gradually pulled together. Katherine is also a dab hand at knowing exactly when to change threads in ... Read review

DARK MIRROR is a first rate police procedural. The author plays fair with the reader. The clues are all there, it's up to you to sort out which are red herrings and which are genuine. He also strikes a nice balanace between the private lives of the characters and their work.

A good police procedural is one of my favourite types of books. If it's done properly it keeps you reading compulsively to find out if your theory is correct. I did manage to figure it out in the end, but not before I ran trough a number of suspects and changed my mind several times.

If ... Read review

There are some authors who just seem to be able to consistently turn out good books, ones that engage your attention, sometimes create some discomfort in the reader, but invariably make you think.  Elizabeth Corley is one of those authors for me, I remember her books long after I've finished reading them.  INNOCENT BLOOD continues the standard.

DCI Fenwick's case - the Choir Boy investigations into a paedophile ring, was triggered by information from the USA, indicating that there is a paedophile ring operating in his area.  This ring looks like it has been in existence ... Read review

It couldn't ever be said that the loss of his Private Investigator's licence has slowed Cliff Hardy down.  In TORN APART, the death of his look-alike cousin in Cliff's house, an arrest for importing illegal drugs, a trip to Ireland, a gathering of Irish Traveller descendants, a brush with the spooks and a new woman don't even slow him down.  But they do coincide to give him a moment or two's thought.

Meeting Patrick - a second cousin he never knew about, a second cousin who is the absolute spitting image of him certainly does give Cliff something to think about.  Not the ... Read review

You'd be hard put to think of another mystery series, with a female protagonist that is set in the Australian outback so on this alone, perhaps author Brownyn Parry has chosen her setting and thus her market very well. We have somewhat of an old fashioned girl leading the action in this novel, and it
serves the character well to have that pioneering spirit in a single woman keeping law and order in the back of beyond.

A huge and not to be undersold appeal of Parry's novels is the picture they paint of small town Australia. Dungirri could be any one of hundreds ... Read review

FORBIDDEN FRUIT is the 5th book in the Corinna Chapman series by Australian author Kerry Greenwood (probably best known for her Phryne Fisher series).  These books are set in modern day, inner Melbourne, are also on the cosier end of the scale.  There are enough elements that coincide in both series to make fans of one feel somewhat comfortable in the other.  Having never read any of the earlier books in this series, though, I can't comment on whether FORBIDDEN FRUIT is particularly representative, so I comment on it in isolation.

Corrina is a woman who has turned to ... Read review

TIME MACHINES REPAIRED WHILE-U-WAIT arrived recently, intended probably for my science fiction reading partner, but something in the blurb made me want to snaffle it first, and I'm very very glad I did.

This is one of those books that come along every now and again to tip the whole concept of "genre" on its head.  It's a crime story, in a Science Fiction style world.  Set in 2027 Western Australia, 'Spider" Webb is an ex-cop, recently separated, working now as a Time Machine mechanic.  In 2027 suburban Malaga, a lot of people have time machines, but the future isn't ... Read review

Sometimes you pick up a book, start reading, and instantly start wondering what on earth is going on.  Yet for some reason, you cannot put the darn thing down.  That's exactly what happened for me with STONEDOGS.  Mind you, if I'd have read the blurb that states that Craig Marriner is New Zealand's answer to Irvine Welsh and Quentin Tarantino, I probably could have recognised a hint about what I was in for.

STONEDOGS isn't a recent book - it won the Montana New Zealand Book Award Deutz Medal in 2002, but it is a book that was recently bought to my attention by a ... Read review