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Frantic, Katherine Howell06/08/2007 - 1:55pmSophie Phillips is a paramedic and her husband Chris is a cop. When Sophie and her paramedic partner are called to a premature labour case, the results of the early labour are tragic, and despite Sophie and Mick being very sure they have done the right thing, the baby's father - Boyd Sawyer is grief stricken and irrational - and he goes out of his way to threaten Sophie and Mick. Meanwhile Sophie and Chris's previously happy marriage has been fading recently. Chris was badly assaulted during a recent arrest and ever since then he's been increasingly moody and distant. Whilst all ... Read Review |
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Connections Crime Rackets and Networks of Influence Down-Under, Bob Bottom05/08/2007 - 1:22pmCONNECTIONS as a copyright notice in it of 1985 so that makes it over 20 years old, so what made reading this particularly startling is the way that whilst some things have changed, many many others haven't. This book takes you back through some of the standard methods of operation of Organised Crime figures in Australia, along with an outline of the big "crime" families that were around in those days. Sure sending drugs into invalid addresses via Australia Post, so that your accomplice on the inside can grab the envelopes might not be so easy these days, as is wholesale ... Read Review |
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Vodka Doesn't Freeze, Leah Giarratano03/08/2007 - 4:53pmNobody could possibly call reading VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE a pleasure - it's an absolutely heartbreaking and very discomforting book. The author is a trauma psychologist who works with victims, and victims are very much the focus of VODKA DOESN'T FREEZE. A young girl, victim of sexual abuse kills herself. Her psychologist Mercy treats patients who have suffered trauma, but Mercy seems to be very close to breaking in her own right. A middle-aged man is beaten to death in his hiding spot in the scrub, overlooking a children's pool. This is not a victim for whom anybody ... Read Review |
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The Dead Pool, Sue Walker31/07/2007 - 3:05pmKirstin Rutherford returns to Edinburgh after two years. Five months ago her beloved father-in-law Jamie drowned in The Cauldron - a deep pool in the Water of Leith, only nobody had told Kirstin. Divorced from Ross, she finds that Ross has not told her about Jamie's death or his funeral for some strange reason. Even more distressing than not being told, it seems that everyone thinks that Jamie's death was either a tragic accident or suicide, but Kirstin refuses to believe that the man she knew could possibly have committed suicide. Ross is not so sure, positive his father had ... Read Review |
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The Last Testament, Sam Bourne28/07/2007 - 4:08pmThe blurb for THE LAST TESTAMENT reads along the lines of "The Biggest Challenger to Dan Brown's Crown" and "A brilliant new high-concept religious conspiracy theory thriller", which might put some readers off, or at the very least set you up with some pre-conceived conceptions about the book. Ignore all of that and you'll be getting a fast paced, believable thriller which sets itself within a current day conflict in a very realistic manner. In the dying days of the regime in Iraq, the Baghdad Museum of Antiquities is looted. A young boy takes an ancient clay tablet, ... Read Review |
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Cold Granite, Stuart MacBride20/07/2007 - 1:47pmCOLD GRANITE is one of those debut books that come along and slowly cause a stir of comment and discussion in crime fiction forums. So much commentary just makes you want to get that book that everyone is talking about, but at the same time you often wonder if there's a chance that it's all noise and not much substance. COLD GRANITE is all substance. On his first day back from extended medical leave, DS Logan just wants to get through his first day and hand responsibility back to his new DI. Despite needing to ease himself back into the job Logan finds himself ... Read Review |
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The Devil's Jump, Peter Doyle20/07/2007 - 1:31pmAnother book from the local books pile that I've been catching up on lately - The Devil's Jump is from the same author that wrote GET RICH QUICK (which won the Ned Kelly for Best First Crime Novel in 1997) and AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS (which won the Ned Kelly for Best Crime Novel in 1999). THE DEVIL'S JUMP is set in Sydney at the end of the Second World War - in fact the blurb on the book says "The war in the Pacific is over... The war on the streets has just begun". It's the story of Billy Glasheen - local lad and (in the author's words) apprentice lurk merchant. Billy's not ... Read Review |
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Dying Light, Stuart MacBride20/07/2007 - 1:23pmDYING LIGHT is the follow-up book to the much talked about and acclaimed COLD GRANITE and it maintains the high standard that the first book in the series reached. It is summer in Aberdeen, the sun is shining and it is not raining anywhere near as much as it does in winter. With his love life sort of looking up and his working life running pretty well par for the course, the major downsides to the entire season seem to be that somebody is killing prostitutes and DS Logan McRae has been moved to DI Steel's "Screw-Up" squad. One botched raid, one severely injured uniformed ... Read Review |
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Broken Skin, Stuart MacBride20/07/2007 - 1:15pmThere's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that tackles some very tricky subject matter head-on, with enough of the gory details to illustrate rather than titivate and just the right level of gallows humour. BROKEN SKIN is the third book featuring DS Logan McRae and it's as good as the first two. It's February and it's raining again. McRae is on DI Steel's team and they are most definitely not at home to her favourite term for a complete disaster, particularly as DI Insch is well on the outer. There's also an awful lot going on. There's a vicious, nasty ... Read Review |
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Sucked In, Shane Maloney19/07/2007 - 3:31pmI happily went out earlier this week and bought a copy of Sucked In and it took me roughly one day to finish it - and that was an unfair delay - I could have sat down and read it in one sitting. Needless to say the 6th book in the Murray Whelan series (for which we've all been waiting an absolute age), lives up to the expectations of the long wait! Murray is older, slightly wiser and just that little bit more cunning. A member of the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament, he and a number of other "pollies" are "doing the rounds" in Country Victoria, when Murray's long ... Read Review |
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Death by Demonstration, Patricia Carlon (review by Helen Lloyd)20/06/2007 - 1:17pmThis book is quite different from Patricia Carlon's usual psychological mysteries, and it is far from her best work. Originally published in 1970, this book shows its age, not just in style but in the plot. The plot had potential, but is let down by boring characters and what I believe was the author's political agenda. What action there is gets bogged down by the long tedious speeches that most of the characters would launch into at every opportunity. Although this was only a short book by today's standards (190 p.), it seemed much longer, and I found myself skimming ... Read Review |