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The Last Time We Spoke, Fiona Sussman31/10/2017 - 4:15pmNew Zealand author Fiona Sussman has created something absolutely remarkable in her blended crime and contemporary fiction novel THE LAST TIME WE SPOKE. Winner of the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Award(link is external) for Best Crime Novel this is a novel that contrasts the brutality and thoughtlessness of a crime, against the heartbreaking loss resulting, and the way that a woman recovers, and rebuilds her life in the aftermath. It's ... Read Review |
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Dead Lemons, Finn Bell30/10/2017 - 2:07pmWhen reviewing Best Crime entrant PANCAKE MONEY, the second book from Finn Bell in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards(link is external), I wasn't aware that DEAD LEMONS had won Best First Novel. Not even slightly surprised to be honest. These are both very good books. As ... Read Review |
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The Last Dog on the Island, Steve Kelleher29/10/2017 - 4:37pmReally fascinating background into detection dog training and functions, with some very personal observations about the system in general. Let down somewhat by an offputting combination of smugness and approbation in the narrative style making it a less accessible read than you'd expect from such an interesting tale. Especially given the lovely Elise who sounds like she must have been an amazing dog.Read Review |
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Sleeping Beauties, Stephen King and Owen King28/10/2017 - 3:20pmWomen - those who bear the ‘thought burden’, those who do the nurturing, those who are responsible for the “reining in” of erratic behaviour. Stunningly simple, the thematical concept behind SLEEPING BEAUTIES is not to visualize the horror and drama as the world is slowly broken down, but more to realize how simple and obvious making this happen might be. As you would expect with the epic novels of this size, SLEEPING BEAUTIES has a cast of thousands and the reader will need to keep on top of all that, in particular as the siege of the women’s prison continues. Lots of ... Read Review |
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Friend Request, Laura Marshall27/10/2017 - 1:56pmFRIEND REQUEST is not a social media crime novel as expected; the platform is used instead here to spark off a chain of events. Thematically the story does not labour over the highlight reel that is social media but it is importantly touched upon, tying it neatly back into the past before Facebook etc when many of the same societal pressures existed for young people, albeit in a less technologically advanced age. Different generations facing the same age old concerns. Children being horrific to other children. The feeling of being completely alone as a teenager even though you ... Read Review |
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A Dangerous Language, Sulari Gentill26/10/2017 - 5:16pmIf anybody could point me in the direction of a good condition Chrysler Airflow I'd be very grateful. I know there was one in the 1953 Redex Trial and there were a few in Australia at the time, so surely, somewhere, in somebody's shed... frankly I'm lusting... But I digress, and that's the problem with Sulari Gentill's Rowland Sinclair series, of which A DANGEROUS LANGUAGE is book number 8. It's easy to identify with the perfectly packaged little details, as you find yourself immersed in a time and place that's beautifully described, standing out from the pages, making the things that ... Read Review |
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The Twentieth Man, Tony Jones24/10/2017 - 3:47pmBack in the 1970's there was discussion, debate and disagreement about the likelihood of Croatian extremists operating in Australia, and whether or not there was any involvement by the Communist Yugoslavian Government. Tony Jones, ABC Journalist and Q&A host apparently raised this topic of conversation again recently, leading to the claims he makes in his debut historical thriller THE TWENTIETH MAN. I should admit, first of all, to having very sketchy remembrance of the furore at the time, so the book with a combination of historical fact and fiction, real life people ... Read Review |
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The Natural Way of Things, Charlotte Wood16/10/2017 - 1:11pmRead for f2f bookclub discussion, which unfortunately we then missed due to illness. One of those books that would just about be guaranteed to split a readership dramatically, there was much that was intriguing and much that irritated the life out of me about this book. The ending seemed very odd, with a strangely passive outcome and a heap of open threads which normally wouldn't be an issue, but for some reason they grated here - possibly because everything seemed to be heading for some sort of resolution that ultimately didn't arrive. Having said that it felt ... Read Review |
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Holy Death, Peter Mulraney13/10/2017 - 1:30pmGrabbed a copy of this after seeing it on the list of Ned Kelly entrants for 2017 - without paying a lot of attention to the category it was entered in. (I've been cherry-picking from the list when I see a copy of the book available anywhere). I have to confess I went back and checked as I thought it was a debut novel, and was having a bit of trouble reconciling some elements. HOLY DEATH is the 3rd in the, I believe, self-published Inspector West series. I have to confess I absolutely struggled with this one. Formal in dialogue style, I couldn't get the timeframe straight ... Read Review |
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The Swan Island Connection, Dorothy Johnston11/10/2017 - 2:51pmThe second in Dorothy Johnston's Sea-Change series, THE SWAN ISLAND CONNECTION sees local senior constable Chris Blackie and his deputy Anthea Merritt developing their working relationship into something with more understanding, trust and respect for each other. Which is partly why they end up so blind-sided when a young boy is found dead at the beach, his body seemingly facing the military base on Swan Island. He was known to spend time in the company of the man that Merritt's been cautiously developing a personal relationship with, and between that, and the shadowy military base and ... Read Review |
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Planet Jackson, Brad Norington11/10/2017 - 12:02pmWhen Kathy Jackson was revealed as the whistle-blower on million-dollar fraud in the Health Services Union it's hard to believe she couldn't have foreseen her own fate. Even after reading PLANET JACKSON it's still impossible to believe that somebody with their own snout so deeply in the trough of union funds could not have seen that her own behaviour would be revealed. Allowing for the slightly anti-union whiff about this book, it's an appalling story, detailed and frankly gobsmacking. Much, quite rightly, has been made about the millions of dollars ripped out of a union ... Read Review |
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A Dark So Deadly, Stuart MacBride10/10/2017 - 10:46pmIf the universe wants to be particularly nice to us, it will make sure that A DARK SO DEADLY is the start of a new series from Stuart MacBride. There are echoes here of his long running Logan McRae series, but it's delivered with a slightly straighter bat (you'd have to be dead set in front to pick it though), and lots and lots of potential for places for the Misfit Mob to go and crims for them to annoy. A haphazard grouping of cops who have been in trouble in the force, one who is most definitely not going gently into any sort of night - good or otherwise, and a female ... Read Review |
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A Dark So Deadly, Stuart MacBride08/10/2017 - 10:45pmThe beauty of a standalone is the tantalizing possibility of it being a series starter. A DARK SO DEADLY introduces an irresistible new cast of characters (that this reviewer absolutely wants to see again) with the ‘Misfit Mob’. This ragtag collection of police officers is pure reading gold and it is a testament to the authors skill that he is able to create (again) a fresh set of police officers who are all complex, rich with backstory, and let’s not forget, hilarious. You can’t help but feel for Callum who has the whole world either badgering him for something or actively ... Read Review |
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And Fire Came Down, Emma Viskic24/09/2017 - 8:53pmAustralian author Emma Viskic depicts a community well used to living with constant tension, disappointment and outright hostility. It’s a unforgiving world for sure, and we are reading of people who are not living their best lives by a long shot. The summer heat and the threat of bushfire are tangible creatures in AND FIRE CAME DOWN, adding another possibility of potential hurt for the residents who are already tense with the anticipation of more destruction and violence to come. Lead character Caleb is adrift and somewhat frustrating; you want to take him out of harm’ ... Read Review |
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Mayhem, Matthew Thompson22/09/2017 - 4:16pmThere's absolutely no doubt that author Matthew Thompson intended MAYHEM to be a fast paced, gonzo styled expose of Australian outlaw Christopher Binse. If you like that style, then the problems telling where the myth of Binse's own making ends, and the recounting starts might not be so concerning. For this reader there seemed to be some self-awareness issues, with Binse and the author, coming across as number 1 subscribers to the myth they were attempting to build. I will admit that I was over the idea of Binse's hard man reputation when the blame for everything bad that ... Read Review |
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The Perfect Couple, Lexi Landsman22/09/2017 - 3:13pmA drama told from four family member's viewpoints, Lexi Landsman's THE PERFECT COUPLE is an interesting title choice for a book that's about anything but the perfect couple. As the blurb explains, Sarah and Marco Moretti have travelled the world together as part of their joint work as archaeologists. In Florence this time, they are searching for the famous San Gennaro necklace, once thought lost at sea, it's been an obsession of Marco's for many years. Sarah's discovery of the necklace at the site of their dig, late at night, on her own, triggers a series of events that sees the ... Read Review |
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Let the Dead Speak, Jane Casey21/09/2017 - 3:59pmLET THE DEAD SPEAK is the 7th novel in the Maeve Kerrigan series. A sobering thought for me given how much I liked this character in book number 1 and yet still I've now managed to miss books 2 through 6. Which means I can definitely say even if you've never read any of this series, LET THE DEAD SPEAK will work well. A police procedural in style, LET THE DEAD SPEAK relies heavily on character interaction between Kerrigan and the team that she works with. There are a few tensions dotted throughout which are mostly self-explanatory, in particular there's obviously some ... Read Review |
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Bay of Martyrs, Tony Black & Matt Neal21/09/2017 - 1:24pmWhenever you're confronted by a jointly authored novel it's very hard to dampen the temptation to constantly look for hints on who contributed what components. Which was the case for around the first 20 pages of BAY OF MARTYRS and then I totally forgot to look. Set in the South East of Victoria around the town of Warrnambool in particular, this is a great novel featuring a cynical local newspaper reporter, a new in town photographer, a dodgy local developer and an even dodgier politician. Nothing particularly surprising in the later I hear you say, and it's a very sad ... Read Review |
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She Be Damned, M.J. Tjia19/09/2017 - 3:30pmSHE BE DAMNED is the opening salvo in an new series set in London in the 1860's featuring courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey. If this opening is anything to go by then this will be a fun, engaging and very lively group of novels. Given this is the debut, there is a scene and character set up going on, but never to the detriment of the plot and pace of the story overall. Chancey is a wonderful character - strong, resilient, a survivor despite the odds stacked against her - revealed as the novel progresses. There's a really good, unforced sense of place ... Read Review |
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The Good Cop, Justine Ford17/09/2017 - 1:20pmI will admit to being mightily intrigued by this biography mostly because of the reputation of the subject. Ron Iddles is well known in Victoria as a dedicated cop, a champion of the victims of murder, and a dedicated and dogged investigator who never said never on any case. This is a man who has lead a worthwhile public / working life. There are aspects in THE GOOD COP that explain what sacrifices he and his family have made in the pursuit of that career much of which serves as a very hefty reminder of the old chestnut, behind many great men... The book takes readers ... Read Review |