All the Reviews

The Swan Island Connection, Dorothy Johnston

The 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

A Dark So Deadly, Stuart MacBride

If 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

And Fire Came Down, Emma Viskic

Australian 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

The Perfect Couple, Lexi Landsman

A 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

Bay of Martyrs, Tony Black & Matt Neal

Whenever 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

The Good Cop, Justine Ford

I 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

Pachyderm, Hugh McGinlay

PACHYDERM is the second outing for milliner Catherine Kint and her best friend (strictly platonic) Boris. The novel follows on from JINX although not so closely as to make the earlier one mandatory reading, but they are both definitely highly recommended.

Set in inner hipster Melbourne, littered with coffee shops, bars and pubs, Kint is one of those accidental detectives who has a minor super-power in turning just about anything into a crime scene. Attending a glittering social function at the Melbourne Zoo goes from an opportunity of mixing a bit of business with pleasure ... Read Review

The Upstairs Room, Kate Murray-Browne

With just a hint of the woo-woo for the modern age, THE UPSTAIRS ROOM is a polished and unsettling novel that skates between being a ghost story of a kind, and a very accomplished modern relationship drama.  The book has terrific flow.  We’re well aware of the ever present malevolent shadow of doom hanging over all occupants of the house, and we also soon realize that all of them are in face suffering from the same malady; only it takes different forms for each of them. The sensation of hopelessness weighing down their actions inexorably creeps them towards disaster and it is a ... Read Review

Closing Down, Sally Abbott

Compassionately and carefully constructed to be something quite precious, CLOSING DOWN is a novel that does not attempt to create an fantastical and unbelievable landscape of future Australia. Instead, it takes concerns already present in our current debate and presents their possible eventualities, some of these being the erosion of our national identity, the issue of climate change, and the strangulation of enterprise by unnecessarily pedantic overview and the repeated lashings of bureaucratic red tape.  Presenting a possible composite result of where our cultural fears may lead us ... Read Review