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Through a Camels Eye, Dorothy Johnston27/06/2017 - 2:47pmNot your average challenge this: "why not base a large part of your next crime fiction novel around the story of a disappearing camel". Then set it in a Victorian seaside town, with some tenuous connections to a murder victim discovered along the Murray. Luckily Dorothy Johnston seems to be made of stern stuff and great skill as she has taken this most unlikely scenario and created a page turner in THROUGH A CAMEL'S EYE that, frankly, was a standout read. Introducing two new characters - local man, long-time cop Constable Chris Blackie; and blow-in from Melbourne, rookie ... Read Review |
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The Agency, Ian Austin27/06/2017 - 2:35pmThe opening salvo in what's to be an ongoing series, THE AGENCY introduces the character of Dan Calder. Calder has joined the police force in the UK - following in his father's footsteps. His father had a successful public life and career, although the truth of their home life was very different. Ultimately, Calder finds himself on a collision course with authority, leaving the force and his home country behind, hoping to put his past behind him once and for all. After setting himself up in his new home in New Zealand, he finds himself living next door to a very welcoming ... Read Review |
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An Isolated Incident, Emily Maguire27/06/2017 - 2:09pmWouldn't be too quick to classify this one as a psychological thriller as there is very little simmering tension in watching the lead character disintegrate a little day by day. The whole tone of the book is rather desultory, which fits in well with the remote country town setting where things take a while to happen. The death of Bella is a killing without purpose and the struggle that Chris feels in carrying on with normal life is both relatable and genuine. AN ISOLATED INCIDENT has an excellent sense of place and is very easy to project yourself into the setting of the small town ... Read Review |
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A Moment's Silence, Christopher Abbey26/06/2017 - 5:27pmThere's a particularly interesting idea at the heart of A MOMENT'S SILENCE. A holidaying New Zealander makes a chance sighting out of a bus window, subsequently connecting the dots between the car he saw, and a subsequent bomb explosion. Originally reporting his suspicions in the Cotswolds village he's staying in, it's rapidly escalated to Scotland Yard when the bomber is subsequently identified but not caught. Which puts Martyn and the information he can attest to in the firing line of a very determined serial killer. The set up of this is very cleverly imagined - the ... Read Review |
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Mysterious Mysteries of the Aro Valley, Danyl McLauchlan21/06/2017 - 2:01pmThe second book from NZ based author Danyl McLauchlan MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES OF THE ARO VALLEY follows on UNSPEAKABLE SECRETS OF THE ARO VALLEY. If this reader's experience was anything to go, it may be better to have read the first book, as there was quite a bit that remained somewhat unfathomable in this second instalment. Having said that, MYSTERIOUS MYSTERIES might be relying heavily on an in joke. Whilst the comedic farce aspect is a huge part of this novel, it also leans more towards supernatural than straight suspense or even fantasy, which means you've got a pretty ... Read Review |
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Marlborough Man, Alan Carter07/06/2017 - 2:15pmAlan Carter is the author of the Ned Kelly Award winning Cato Kwong series (PRIME CUT won the Best First Award in 2011), but MARLBOROUGH MAN features a new character - UK born, New Zealand based cop Nick Chester and his family. Chester's had an "interesting" working life - starting out as an undercover cop in the UK, ending up a country cop in Havelock in rural New Zealand as part of a witness relocation scheme when his undercover work goes decidedly pear-shaped. Even with what would seem to be the impossible task of tracking him, his wife and their young son Paulie down ... Read Review |
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A Reluctant Warrior, Kelly Brooke Nicholls06/06/2017 - 3:30pmThere's something especially sobering about crime fiction that is obviously set in such a real, contemporary and frightening scenario. A RELUCTANT WARRIOR takes the reader right into the middle of Columbia's drug wars. It takes the reader into the world of a young woman who is trying to avoid rape, murder, torture and degradation, while she also tries to keep those left in her small family alive - after the paramilitaries and the drug cartel's have already unleashed havoc upon them. As the blurb says, the story and the characters in A RELUCTANT WARRIOR are fictitious, but ... Read Review |
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Something for Nothing, Andy Muir30/05/2017 - 4:23pmAs Australian as a dingy, and dead set likely to get himself into bother, Lachie Munro is a good bloke. Sure he's an abalone poacher, but only to pay off a lapse of concentration gambling debt. And sure he and his best mate Dave don't report the giant heroin haul they find when they are out poaching off the coast of Newcastle. Of course they seem to have just enough street smarts to finagle a possible connection for flogging the heroin off as an unexpected windfall. Dave's got kids he wants to set up after all, and Lachie? Lachie wants out of this current version of his life, which ... Read Review |
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The Barista's Guide to Espionage, Dave Sinclair30/05/2017 - 4:23pmThink Bond girl who can make a mean espresso, is armed to teeth, trained to the bare minimum, and is mightily pissed off with her ex and you've got Eva Destruction. A woman with a propensity to fall for the bad boy, who thinks, for a brief time, that meeting billionaire charmer Harry Lancing might mean her streak of dead-end relationships has finally come to an end. Until he turns out to be a control-freak, super-villain with a plan to take over the world, and all sorts of ways and means of achieving it. When the good guys arrive on the scene - mostly in the person of ... Read Review |
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How I Became the Mr Big of People Smuggling, Martin Chambers30/05/2017 - 3:02pmThere must be a group of readers out there that are a sucker for a fabulous book title (or it could be a group of one) but HOW I BECAME THE MR BIG OF PEOPLE SMUGGLING is one of those eye-catching titles that luckily coincides with a terrific story. We've all done it, or dreamed of it. An adventure, a break from the day to day, and for Nick Smart it seemed like working as a jackaroo on a remote station was the perfect solution. Away from everything, a chance to save some money, maybe even some quiet time to get his head together. "I drove out of Victoria via ... Read Review |
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The Watcher, Ross Armstrong21/05/2017 - 1:14pmYou do want to Lily to succeed, as her clumsy and inept forays into investigating the murder of her neighbour are almost charming. She is a lone woman against the world and her husband is of little or no help. You do feel her frustration when the efforts of others to shut her down send her into further distress and disarray. Lily is one person who truly needs to get to the truth. The red herrings are largely due to the floundering of Lily herself and the structure of the murder mystery is not that complicated; you will need to wade in and wait quite a while for the major plot twist ... Read Review |
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Full Bore, William McInnes20/05/2017 - 3:05pmThe author, in both writing and speaking mode, is a master at going off on a tangent and then circling back to his original rumination. McInnes can be a bit Douglas Adams ala THE HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY in this regard. You get the impression that nothing is wasted in this author’s day; all his small observations of the lives of others are retained and plopped into a basket of thoughts after which any may be usefully extracted as required. Having heard him speak several times at writers’ festivals, I can happily say that he can reproduce this whip smart narration on the spot ... Read Review |
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Dead Again, Sandi Wallace08/05/2017 - 3:40pmDEAD AGAIN is the second novel in the Georgie Harvey and John Franklin series. Harvey is a Melbourne based journalist and Franklin a Daylesford based cop, and whilst it's not absolutely necessary that you've read the first book - TELL ME WHY, it would help a lot to understand why there is a connection between these two characters, and ultimately the two main locations in this book. Set around a fictionalised fire storm called in this book Red Victoria, a potential article about a small town in recovery becomes a private quest for Harvey to track down a man believed killed in the fire ... Read Review |
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Punishment, Anne Holt21/04/2017 - 12:40pmThe first of the Johanne Vik & Adam Stubø books, PUNISHMENT, is now available in paperback locally. An excellent crime fiction series by Norwegian author Anne Holt, this has been a series that could be (well had to be) read out of order. Now there's something compelling about being able to go back to the start, and work your way through. Originally read by this reviewer back in 2007, when it was newly translated, PUNISHMENT is the novel that introduces an unusual investigative (ultimately personal) coupling of academic and former FBI profiler Johanne Vik and Detective ... Read Review |
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The Girl Before, JP Delaney16/04/2017 - 1:17pmThe setting of THE GIRL BEFORE is all important and gives structure to a story that is essentially carried out with in four walls of one very spectacular and unusual house. There are shades of ‘Hal’ in this book too which are delicious, as in that an omnipresent technological mind is controlling the conditions thus manipulating the lives of the occupants of the house. Or is it really? Poor self esteem, the classic pull of the bad boy and just seriously bad taste all come together to push the sanity of both past Emma, and present Jane. Is it an insult for an untidy ... Read Review |
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The Breakdown, B.A. Paris15/04/2017 - 3:12pmThere is only a small cast in THE BREAKDOWN so our suspicious eyes are trained on characters that don’t have anywhere to hide; they are all close to Cass’s life and are becoming increasingly aware that her life is in disarray. Cass becomes more hemmed in by her memory glitches and is desperate to regain control of a life that is being puppet mastered by someone who must be close to her. THE BREAKDOWN is a very suspenseful read, tempered with periods of time where you alternately feel desperately sorry for Cass in her struggles, or frustrated with her as she seems to be going around ... Read Review |
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The Unfortunate Victim, Greg Pyers13/04/2017 - 2:45pmBased on a true story, set in the Victorian Goldfields in the 1860's, THE UNFORTUNATE VICTIM is part fiction, part reminder that life in those days, particularly for women, was not easy, pleasant or fair. When the body of young newly-wed Maggie Stuart is found in the home she shares with her much older husband it's all to easy to forget that young is around 17 years old, older husband means arranged / quickly married off for reasons that become apparent, and with family is often the least safe place you can be. The dreadful circumstances in which Maggie has grown up, ... Read Review |
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Justice Denied, Bill Hosking & John Suter Linton03/04/2017 - 3:12pmBill Hosking is well known in legal circles, probably less outside of them, but his many years of experience, and sheer number of cases that he appeared in - mostly as defence counsel, is a telling testimony about this man's standing, and understanding, of the law. JUSTICE DENIED is a look back through Hosking's career as a criminal barrister - defending rogues and crooks through to the seemingly indefensible. Using a very low-key, formal style of story-telling, he outlines many of the tools of the trade of a criminal barrister, and the efforts undertaken to ensure that ... Read Review |
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Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty30/03/2017 - 4:39pmAfter a few attempts, managed to finish BIG LITTLE LIES over the weekend. There's a reason this has been a bit of a chore explained below. Funny and quite cleverly constructed, BIG LITTLE LIES is about every day lives. If you're a mother, an ex-wife, a daughter, a second wife or possibly if you've ever been in a schoolyard or involved in the grass roots "political" movement that those environments seem to be, then there could be resonances throughout this book. There's a light-hearted, slightly tongue-in-cheek tone used to tell this story, that even finishes chapters with ... Read Review |
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Saigon Dark, Elka Ray28/03/2017 - 2:46pmIt's taken an age to get this review to the point where it can be published, because it's it's been so hard to clearly identify what about SAIGON DARK really worked for this reader, and why there were some niggling doubts remaining. A seemingly straight-forward story where Lily, a competent, respected surgeon has returned to her native Saigon, two children with her - leaving behind a failed marriage to an American Vietnamese man. When her young daughter dies in a drowning accident, she buries the body in her garden - never telling anyone what happened. Then grief-stricken ... Read Review |