All the Reviews

Homecountry, TW Lawless

The first of the Peter Clancy books from T.W. Lawless, HOMECOUNTRY takes Clancy to exactly that - home to the town where he grew up, in outback Queensland to bury his mother. With his credo of never looking back this is the first time he's returned to Clarke's Flat since he left, so for the first time he's forced to confront many of the reasons why he left in the first place. And it's not a comfortable outlook.

There's much that's happened in his home town to him, to his family and to friends and people who are still in town. There's questions around his own father's ... Read Review

The Fourth Reich, Helen Goltz

THE FOURTH REICH is the third in the Mitchell Parker series. FBI Agents, with a decided "Australian" feeling about their banter, Parker's team have a fair bit of history which might mean that starting out with the third book is not absolutely ideal. Not that it's not a very readable book in it's own right, and for this reader, the intrigue of the backstory just meant that the earlier books made it onto the must read list immediately.

In thriller style, THE FOURTH REICH starts out at breakneck pace, and that doesn't give up at any point. Combine that with an intriguing ... Read Review

A Compulsion to Kill, Robert Cox

A COMPULSION TO KILL is one of those true crime books that reads like a ripping great yarn. It's an engaging method of delivering history, telling the stories of (in this instance) a range of Tasmania's earliest serial killers, setting them in a vivid example of the landscape in which their actions played out, creating a chillingly realistic version of early white Australia.

As outlined in the blurb it covers a series of cases beginning in 1806 with the first documented serial killers Brown and Lemon, finishing with the unresolved Parkmount case in 1862. The cruelty and ... Read Review

In The Dying Days, Ken Cameron

A bit of a surprise package, IN THE DYING DAYS is an engaging tale of an ex-cop, private investigator plying his trade on the means streets of ... Canberra.

Starting off with a bit of business about a son looking for his father's story, the action quickly shifts to Canberra in 1975. Barry Flynn is a rather down-market PI, who, courtesy of a solicitor connection, finds himself following a very wealthy, well-connected philandering husband. Weirdly though, this wife isn't looking for evidence of unfaithfulness, rather she just seems to want to know what he's up to - kept an ... Read Review

Medea's Curse, Anne Buist

When they say "write what you know" Anne Buist seems to have taken that advice very much to heart, especially when it comes to the clinical and working experience of her central character - Dr Natalie King. Hard to say about the Ducati, history of mental health problems and clothes sense.

MEDEA'S CURSE starts out in extreme acceleration mode with the back story of a contretemps on the steps of the Court, followed by an encounter with Crown Prosecutor (and later sex interest) Liam O'Shea, and the disappearance of a child. The father of the missing child was also the father ... Read Review

Bad Seed, Alan Carter

From the first book featuring Cato Kwong this has been a series to follow closely. A police procedural that's moved him from Coventry (aka the Stock Squad in remote WA) back to Perth and right into the middle of a shocking murder scene. Made worse by his old friendship with the dead family.

Not that it was a current friendship. Kwong and the Tan family had drifted apart many years ago, but the reason for that separation is part of the problem for this investigation:

"Another strong gust shook the walls. Cato couldn't disagree. He knew the boy

... Read Review

Tell No Tales, Eva Dolan

Two books in and the Zigic and Ferreira is a new much anticipated, favourite series.

If you've read the first book, then as soon as you start TELL NO TALES, you're straight back with characters that you really know, in a place that you're comfortable in, even though there is nothing comfortable about events, or the social climate. If you haven't read the first, then it won't matter a bit - there is still plenty here for new readers.

Tackling the question of immigration, immigrant workers, tensions with Nationalist groups, and the explosion in Hate Crimes that ... Read Review

Parasite, Dorothy Cormack

Taking a look at the blurb will give you an indication of whether or not PARASITE is going to work for you. Unfortunately that style "eventuating events" and "charismatic charm" doesn't work for this reader. Combining that with the most offputting dialogue style used for Sasha's brother, meant this book was a struggle to read. The plot, as well, is very much on the icky side, which is most definitely not a bad thing, provided the characters within it make some sense, and there's a feeling of exploration or explanation, rather than just exploitation.Read Review

Trilemma, Jennifer Mortimer

Set in Wellington New Zealand, Jennifer Mortimer's book TRILEMMA brings her main character - Linnet Mere to a new city in search of lost family connections and love. 

Setting this character up with a completely new start gives Mortimer a chance to put her narrator at a loss on a number of levels - no job (at the outset), no connections, no home and no support means Lin is under pressure and out-of-step from the beginning. Although born in New Zealand, she moved away as a young child leaving a fractured family background. The complications of her family are going to ... Read Review