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Kundela, Terry L Probert07/07/2014 - 2:59pmIt's great to see police procedurals set in rural Australia that don't assume that everything's sinister and vaguely barking mad, and that reflects some of the dry humour, and resilience of both the cops and the locals. KUNDELA perhaps errs a little to much to that descriptive element though, at the expense of much of the plot which seems to get a little lost and confused at points. The scenic descriptions were, however beautiful, and it's obvious that the author loves this area of Australia very much. He's also built a good cast of characters, albeit with some mixed ... Read Review |
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Thornydevils, TW Lawless07/07/2014 - 1:11pmMelbourne in the late 1980s, and journalist Peter Clancy is working for The Truth. Which, for those of us who were around in those days, in that place, conjures up a very clear vision. Booze, coffee, dodgy goings on and journalism from the... well extreme-tabloid end of the scale. After being "promoted" to the Crime Beat and provided with the mandatory police scanner, Clancy is launched into Melbourne's seedy side, way back before mobile phones and the internet made keeping track of everyone and everything part of everybody's daily routine. THORNYDEVILS builds a strong ... Read Review |
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Priest of Evil, The Purifier, Richard Osborn04/07/2014 - 3:54pmNo doubt about it, THE PURIFIER is part of a big, brave trilogy. Nothing at all wrong with these sorts of huge, conspiracy, world domination, evil threat, nuclear armageddon, master criminal types of scenarios. As long as the reader has the option of a bit of suspension of disbelief. Which this reader couldn't achieve. The evil component of the book was obviously aiming very high, alas it headed rapidly into farce territory. Never with the dash and élan that would carry this sort of attempt through. Quickly it all became a bit too unbelievable, dare I say, silly for me ... Read Review |
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A Morbid Habit, Annie Hauxwell25/06/2014 - 5:31pmThe third Catherine Berlin novel from Annie Hauxwell takes the concept of moving a character out of their comfort zone that bit further. Berlin is one of those unrepentant flawed types. A heroin addict she's prepared to manage the addiction with prescription medications, but she's really not able / or willing to give up totally. Anything that threatens her supply of drugs has a major impact on her comfort zone. She's also a welded-on resident of London. She knows her area very well, often walking miles of a night to soothe the cravings and distract her brain. Taking her to Moscow ... Read Review |
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Blood is Thicker, J.S. McGrath25/06/2014 - 3:36pmI fell across this book a few years ago in a shop, having never heard of the author anywhere before. But if it's Australian then I'm almost duty bound to read a book (well that's my justification anyway). This is a story about a serial killer - and the police unit that is investigating - firstly the death of a teenage girl and then the death of a young boy - both killings with a similar, very clinical, method. From the book - the synopsis probably explains it best: "In the bayside suburb of St Kilda a teenage girl is murdered. It is no ordinary murder; the method was ... Read Review |
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What Came Before, Anna George24/06/2014 - 4:25pmAre you allowed to write reviews that just say "WOW"? No, well okay - an explanation of why "wow". From the opening lines of WHAT CAME BEFORE it's hard not to be hooked. The man talking directly to the reader has just killed his wife. He's a lawyer, so his immediate reaction is to record his statement of events - into a dictaphone, sitting in his car. In the background there's the quiet, subdued voice of his wife. Hovering there in the laundry, also talking directly to the reader. Not as often, and not in a strong voice. Well you wouldn't if you were staring at your own ... Read Review |
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The Politics of Murder, Reece Pocock24/06/2014 - 3:12pm
The opening sequence of THE POLITICS OF MURDER continues from ... Read Review |
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No Witness, No Case, Bill Robertson04/06/2014 - 12:39pmIt's hard not to have certain expectations of crime fiction when it's written by a former Victorian Assistant Police Commissioner, as unreasonable or unfair as that may seem. The first expectation is that the plot should have a strong sense of realism about it. NO WITNESS, NO CASE explores Mafia activities in a way that seemed uncommon in crime fiction. Looking at the machinations behind a Mafia boss attempting to turn an illegal, and dangerous business, into a legitimate activity. That needs influence from the bottom of the chain - the workers in a company through the ... Read Review |
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Present Darkness, Malla Nunn03/06/2014 - 3:06pmThere has always been a strong instructive element in the Emmanuel Cooper series. Apartheid South Africa is a world that we know existed, even know some details about, but what it was like actually living in that regime, particularly when you're not definitely part of the elite? Well that's where this series comes in. One of the great strengths of the books is the way that the world that Cooper and his compatriots occupy has been expanding. This is a series that could be read out of sequence but will work much better if you can follow them in order. The progression steers ... Read Review |
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1.9.7 HAMBURG, Alexa Camouro02/06/2014 - 2:03pmA modern day industrial espionage tale, 1.9.7 HAMBURG, the debut novel from Alex Camouro is a very brave undertaking. Moving backwards and forwards in time in chapter jumps, it tells the story of much of Dixon Grace's past life as well as present circumstances. As befits the situation she finds herself in Germany, everything about Grace is complicated - her name, her ethnic background, her family, her current situation, the investigation she's involved in, her love life. Everything. Part of the braveness of this novel is what seems to be the intentional use of ... Read Review |
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Football Mambo, Peter Tonkin29/05/2014 - 2:48pmBeing profoundly disinterested in all things AFL, I will admit that for a while I did think the possibility of a real life Centralian Galahs teams sounded quite feasible. As did the idea that drop kicks weren't just drongo's, but somehow something very undesirable in a game (okay so I had to check with somebody who would know what a drop kick was...). The idea that cynical PI Bruce Bilger would be called into investigate the mystery of why a famous player would suddenly throw a game via the aforementioned kick didn't seem too far of a stretch as well (although to be ... Read Review |
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Stalin's Gold, Mark Ellis29/05/2014 - 11:48amThe thing with really enjoyable review books that are part of a series is that there's no option but to go back and get the earlier books. Regardless of how teetering the current reading pile might be. Which is what happened here after finishing STALIN'S GOLD. Interesting enough this is now the second series built around the Polish in England that's appealed - albeit this isn't set in current day. Despite it also being the second book in the series, it's very easy to get into sync with Frank Merlin. A cop kept behind in England whilst the war rages, because of the ... Read Review |
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St Kilda Blues, Geoffrey McGeachin28/05/2014 - 4:52pmST KILDA BLUES is the third Charlie Berlin novel from dual Ned Kelly Award winning author Geoffrey McGeachin. Starting out just after WWII, this series is as much a character study of Charlie Berlin and the after affects of war, as it is a police procedural. It's the great strength of these 3 books, and why they are increasingly earning the attention and commendation that they deserve. McGeachin doesn't make things easy for his central character though. Berlin is still suffering the after affects of the war, even though it's 1967, the summer of love, and Melbourne is ... Read Review |
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Through the Cracks, Honey Brown13/05/2014 - 3:21pmHoney Brown moves to the city and suburbs for her new thriller, shedding light into some very dark corners. Psychological thrillers are an interesting reading prospect. Often very confrontational, the best of these sorts of books should generate a definite reaction in the reader. They will also seek to explain, or at least explore, the reasons for the worst – and best – of human behaviour. Through the Cracks, Honey Brown’s fifth book, explores, challenges, and will confront many readers. But for every scintilla of discomfort that a reader may ... Read Review |
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Trinity, M M Rochford13/05/2014 - 2:57pmIt's always interesting to see what might get a writer's thinking process started, and from the MM Rochford's bio it seems it's a love of reading crime and thrillers, and opera. Knowing that, the victim in this debut novel makes sense. It's also good to see an author having a go at a PI in Australia, with ex-cop Louise Keller called into this case by the victim's widow. There were some nice details built into the story - yellow roses, a local boy made good come back to town, and a long list of possible suspects, albeit with a touch of the closed room about the small town ... Read Review |
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Watching You, Michael Robotham12/05/2014 - 4:02pmIn this seventh novel in Michael Robotham’s Luiz/O’Loughlin series the sense of unease and anticipation builds from the opening lines. Marnie Logan, young, married, with two children, is struggling to survive since her husband Daniel simply vanished a couple of years earlier and it quickly becomes obvious that there's a lurking presence in her life that has been there for a long time:
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The Tainted Trial of Farah Jama, Julie Szego08/05/2014 - 2:12pm"How did a young Somali man end up in goal for the rape of a woman he had never met, in an over-28s nightclub he was too young to be admitted to, in a Melbourne suburb he had never visited?" THE TAINTED TRIAL OF FARAH JAMA starts out asking this question, and is never able to provide anything like a satisfactory explanation. Which is a very serious wake-up call for the justice system, and for the community it serves. In the reality of the media landscape these days, this sort of investigative journalism is more likely to be supported by books ... Read Review |
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Nightmare in Burgundy, Jean-Pierre Alaux & Noël Balen07/05/2014 - 3:32pmThe third in the Winemaker Detective series, NIGHTMARE IN BURGUNDY takes our hero Benjamin Cooker away from his native Bordeaux to Burgundy, where he is being named Chevalier du Tastevin by the Knights of the order that are proud of their slogan 'Never whine, always wine!'. Which will probably give you a little bit of an indication of the tone of this charming series, set deep in the world of French wine, and the intrigues that seem to pile up alongside it. In NIGHTMARE IN BURGUNDY this intrigue revolves mostly around a series of extremely erudite graffiti attacks which ... Read Review |
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The Lost Girls, Wendy James03/05/2014 - 2:32pmWendy James has once more taken a close up, and uncomfortable look at the reality of family secrets. Something that she's not only specialising in, she's particularly good at into the bargain. We're programmed to think that the family unit is safe, staid, even boring (perhaps because the alternative is too confrontational). Certainly for most, it's not necessarily dangerous and most definitely not devious. But in James' hands, somehow the respectable, the normal, the supportive twists and turns into everything that's wrong, and frequently sinister. Even ... Read Review |
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The Poor Man's Guide to Suicide, Andrew Armacost02/05/2014 - 4:32pmA review book obtained through Netgalley THE POOR MAN'S GUIDE TO SUICIDE was one of those "why not" book choices. The overview describes it as "a powerful, slashing, terrifying, hilarious, explosive, sarcastic, misanthropic and lyrical black comedy about losing your will to live — and possibly getting it back." Most of which is going to be very subjective based on the reader's own experience as THE POOR MAN'S GUIDE TO SUICIDE is an interesting beast. Laced with irony and heavy on the sarcasm, the tone of this book needs the reader to get to grips with those ... Read Review |