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Invisible Women, Kylie Fox & Ruth Wykes07/01/2019 - 1:19pmStacked up in every corner of this house are piles of books that I should have read by now, with INVISIBLE WOMEN being one of them. As the sub-heading puts it: "Powerful and Disturbing Stories of Murdered Sex Workers". The tardiness was regretted even more once I finished the book. A lot of the power behind these stories is down to the sheer numbers. The index lists 65 women's names - murdered or gone missing since 1970 (the book was published in 2016). To put that into perspective, 46 years, 65 women listed. God knows how many more died during that period, how many more ... Read Review |
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The Bush, Don Watson05/01/2019 - 5:01pmWay too big a conceptual book for a month's lead in reading to a bookclub gathering, this is one that many of us agreed needed to be on the shelves, for dipping in and out of. I loved so much about this book, but need to think, reread, consider and probably rethink much of it. Definitely one for the to be bought stakes now though.Read Review |
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Waiting for Elijah, Kate Wild04/01/2019 - 2:35pmA police investigation can seem like an interminably slow process and on no one does the passage of that time weigh more heavily than on those mourning the loss of a loved one. It’s a process not guaranteed a satisfactory result after years of waiting, and in the meantime, lives must be picked up with again and continued on with as best they can be. Elijah Holcombe was a young married man in his mid-twenties who was blessed with both a loving family and friends who adored him. His life and future from the outside may have looked bright however Elijah was troubled by ... Read Review |
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An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good, Helene Tursten31/12/2018 - 5:28pm“Barely a week later, the doorbell rang, loud and long. In Maud’s world it felt as if her visitor had only just left.” When Swedish crime writer Helene Turston was asked to write a short story for a Christmas anthology she created the character of Maud, an 88 year lady who has no qualms about committing a murder. Since writing An Elderly Lady Seeks Peace At Christmas Helene Turston has written another four short stories featuring Maud. All five Maud stories, which have been translated by Marlaine Delargy, are now available in a single volume entitled An Elderly Lady Is Up ... Read Review |
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The Quaker, Liam McIlvanney26/12/2018 - 11:35amIn 1977 William McIlvanney released Laidlaw, a novel which is widely regarded as being the first Tartan Noir novel. Following his death in 2015 the award for the best Scottish crime book was renamed the McIlvanney Prize in his honour. This year the prize was awarded to William McIlvanney’s son Liam for his novel The Quaker which is loosely based upon the three Bible John murders in Glasgow in the late 60’s. Fans of Ian Rankin will recognise Bible John from the 8th Rebus novel Black and Blue. After a Prologue and the first of three disturbing chapters telling the murders ... Read Review |
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Country of the Blind, Christopher Brookmyre24/12/2018 - 2:48pm“But Parlabane, tears welling in his eyes as knelt trembling on the carpet, knew exactly what they meant. They meant black was white, white was black, something was very, very wrong- and only he could prove it.” When I started my summer favourites series of reviews I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I picked up a Chris Brookmyre novel, the question always going to be, which one? After the release of his debut novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, Brookmyre wrote three equally excellent novels, Country of the Blind, One Fine Day in ... Read Review |
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The Girl Without Skin, Mads Peder Nordbo22/12/2018 - 8:10pmOpening with a breathtaking first-person account of the car accident that killed Matthew Cave's wife and unborn daughter, THE GIRL WITHOUT SKIN isn't as straight-forward an undertaking for fans of Nordic Noir as it might seem. Early on in the novel you're going to find yourself ticking off the required elements list. Awful personal tragedy; man lost in grief and lacking direction; isolation in a cold and inhospitable location; tension between different groups of people; local indigenous stories and customs; bone-chilling cold and weather creating a closed room setting; an ... Read Review |
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Mort, Terry Pratchett22/12/2018 - 4:27pmBack to full versions, narrated by Nigel Planer, this was 7 hours and 27 minutes of listening joy :)Read Review |
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Sourcery, Terry Pratchett22/12/2018 - 1:56pmAnother full version, narrated by Nigel Planer, this was 7 hours and 63 minutes of listening to how books and stuff aren't the point, it's all about real wizarding.Read Review |
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Wetland, Colin King22/12/2018 - 1:26pmBased around an event that followers of the Underbelly wars in Melbourne will likely recognise, this tale is the second outing for Detective Sergeant Rory James, based in part in the Bendigo region. The first book in the series A VINTAGE DEATH was set firmly in winemaking region of Heathcote, with the action interwoven into the history of the place. WETLAND takes a slightly different tack in that James is still involved in the Bendigo region, and there are aspects of the action that take place in the area, but the feel is more Melbourne-centric this time. ... Read Review |
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Know Me Now, C.J. Carver14/12/2018 - 2:49pmThird in the Dan Forrester series, we're into classic thriller mode now with this series. Heaps of action, a fast moving, multi threaded plot, this one creates a partnership quickly between Forrester and ongoing series character Lucy Davies that works well. Again we have a couple of main threads, a supposed suicide and a seemingly natural death that turn out to be murder, with a very personal connection to Forrester. In a nutshell KNOW ME NOW is a better outing than the second, but not quite to the heights of the first novel in the series. To be fair, a lot of the ... Read Review |
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Spare Me The Truth, C.J. Carver14/12/2018 - 2:17pmAustralian readers will probably remember C.J. Carver as Caroline Carver - writer of a series of Australian set books <cough> years ago. Recently, she's returned to notice writing under the name C.J. Carver - with a series of thrillers built around Dan Forrester, recently bereaved father, spy, sufferer of amnesia. There are now three novels out in the series - all of which have been recent entries in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. The opening novel, SPARE ME THE TRUTH, introduces Forrester, and the background to the death of his young son; Grace Reavey, accosted at her ... Read Review |
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Tell Me A Lie, C.J. Carver14/12/2018 - 12:22pmDan Forrester and Lucy Davies return in the second novel in this series: TELL ME A LIE. It's hard to say that these novels must or must not be read in sequence, or if there's enough leeway for readers to start anywhere. There is a bit of back story in this second outing that should help fill in the gaps for new readers, but those returning to the series may notice the obviously similar structure deployed in both novels. Again we have seemingly disparate story-lines converging, pulling the two main characters into a collaborative relationship, although in TELL ME A LIE that happens ... Read Review |
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The Secrets She Keeps, Michael Robotham11/12/2018 - 3:46pmThe thing with a Michael Robotham thriller is that even when he's working in territory that's been extensively explored, there's always something extra about his interpretations. So it is with THE SECRET SHE KEEPS, where again there's complexity and nuance in the portrayal of both "good" and "bad". The narrative in THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS switches between two main female characters. Both are eight weeks pregnant, both have secrets they are keeping to themselves, yet they are very different people. Agatha is struggling on her own, poor and clearly underprivileged she's ... Read Review |
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The Last Witness, Denzil Meyrick11/12/2018 - 1:45pmThere's something about the accents of some narrators that just make things so easy to listen to and David Monteath is doing a terrific job with the DCI Jim Daley series. There's enough wry, dry humour here, alongside some reasonably gritty plot lines to keep the reader engaged, although the series does have a hefty dose of the personal as well if you're a fan of that sort of thing. Daley has a complicated sort of a lovelife with a wife he doesn't exactly trust, a new position in a small Scottish town (introduced in book 1 in the series: Whisky From Small Glasses) and a ... Read Review |
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The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett10/12/2018 - 5:09pm2nd in the Discworld series - listened to during the year, this time narrated by Nigel Planer - another perfect 6 hours and 54 minutes of listening pleasure :)Read Review |
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The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett10/12/2018 - 4:37pmAnybody paying attention might have noticed I've been revisiting a lot of favourite series in audible format recently. Lots of time in the car = lots of listening time and local radio is now so dire it's been the perfect kick in the pants to go back and re-listen to many favourite series. A lot of the enjoyment depends on the narrator and Nigel Planer and Stephen Briggs doing the full-form novels, and Tony Robinson doing some of the abridged versions are firm favourites. If you've never listened to the Discworld series (or even read them) then in audible format they are perfect ... Read Review |
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Equal Rites, Terry Pratchett10/12/2018 - 1:34pmThe third book in the Discworld series, this time it was an abridged version (2 hours, 54 minutes) narrated by Tony Robinson - which made the listening great, but it would have been nice if it had have been the entire book as Robinson does such a great job.Read Review |
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The Lost Man, Jane Harper07/12/2018 - 5:43pmI'm going to start this review in an odd way, by declaring that I didn't like Jane Harper's second book FORCE OF NATURE as much as I had been expecting to. Initially I thought this was because it read like an idea that Aaron Falk had been hammered into it later on, weakening the plot, motivations and sense of place to the point where they seemed to sort of float along to an inevitable ending. Having now finished Harper's third (non-Falk book) THE LOST MAN, the reasons are clearer. Harper is at her best when she's writing about people at the absolute and utter edge and THE ... Read Review |
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My Name is Revenge, Ashley Kalagian Blunt07/12/2018 - 1:49pmA real act of terrorism in Sydney in the 1980s inspired Ashley Kalagian Blunt to write My Name is Revenge (a finalist in the 2018 Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award*). This work is in two parts – a novella, and an essay reflecting on the motivations and background of the fiction. The scene is set in the opening paragraphs of the novella On 17 December 1980, at 9:47 am, two men shot the Turkish consul-general to Sydney and his bodyguard near the consul’s home in Vaucluse. The assassins aimed, ... Read Review |