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Shadows of Sounds, Alex Gray14/02/2012 - 2:19pmI am all over the place with this series, and I don't think that's helping my enjoyment of these books one little bit. Nor, mind you, is the line blazoned all over the front cover 'Glasgow's Answer to Ian Rankin'.... sorry, but that's setting the bar just a tad on the high side isn't it....? So high that you can't help feeling that, as a reader, you're going to be looking for reasons to jiggle that bar. Mind you, from memory, there was something similar screaming from the front cover of the last book in the series I read - which also did not live up to the expectation set. ... Read Review |
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Calibre, Ken Bruen14/02/2012 - 1:57pmWhen your favourite authors start dying even the most reasonable reader should be forgiven for becoming a nervous, obsessed, idiot hoarder of books that can, after all, be re-read should the unthinkable eventuate. Despite an overwhelming desire to continue this hoarding behaviour, eventually the yearning for books like CALIBRE becomes too strong and, as a result, I'm no longer hoarding CALIBRE. (DISCLAIMER: I have no information whatsoever with regard to Mr Bruen's state of health... it's just that he's a favourite author and there's always the chance that any one of my favourite ... Read Review |
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The Devil's Garden, Debi Marshall13/02/2012 - 4:51pmTHE DEVIL'S GARDEN was a book I picked up because the case it covers - The Claremont Serial Killings - is unfortunately still unsolved, and because I've been reading a little about a number of cases in WA recently. It made me want to find out more about the nature of the investigation into the murders of two young women, and the disappearance of a third in 1996 and 1997. What I discovered from this book is an inkling into the tunnel vision of the police force which appears to be consistent with the attitude displayed in another case in the same state of Australia. ... Read Review |
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Crime Scene, Esther McKay13/02/2012 - 1:53pm"Day after day my life was consumed by killings, distress and gruesome sites, each one adding another piece to an ever-growing mosaic that seemed to be made up of bloodied disposable gloves, plastic bags and human waste. . ." I don't think there's any way that Esther McKay could describe her life as a forensic crime investigator in terms that would make it comfortable reading for anybody. Which means it's no surprise whatsoever that this book is confrontational, difficult and frequently disturbing, just as the job must have been. McKay has a way of telling ... Read Review |
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Tooth and Claw, Nigel McCrery10/02/2012 - 3:34pmDCI Mark Lapslie is one of those grumpy, rumpled detective characters, with a slight twist. He has synaesthesia - sounds instantly trigger taste sensations. Which makes participating in the world profoundly difficult. The condition is so out of control that he's had to move to an isolated cottage, communicating with his colleagues via technology, keeping the noise at bay so that he can at least function a little. His wife has left him, taking their children with her, he's lonely, fraught, struggling to cope with the condition and the restrictions it places on his life. ... Read Review |
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The Winter of the Lions, Jan Costin Wagner10/02/2012 - 2:27pmI cannot believe, firstly that I've left the last two books in this series unread for so long, and secondly I'd be daft enough to read the third, THE WINTER OF THE LIONS out of order. Not that it made a lot of difference to the experience. It's hard to use the word enjoyable when you're referring to any of the books by Jan Costin Wagner as they are so steeped in grief and brooding, although, there was just a glimmer that Kimmo Joentaa might be ready to move on a little. Even though the death of his wife is still the defining thing in his life, he is forced to look outside himself, ... Read Review |
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Ice Cold, Andrea Maria Schenkel09/02/2012 - 1:02pmWhilst ICE COLD is the second book from German writer Andrea Maria Schenkel, it's the first book - THE MURDER FARM - that I have to start out mentioning. I still remember my reaction to that book - mesmerised, enthralled, vaguely stunned. Needless to say, trying not to set expectations for ICE COLD was a tricky undertaking. Set in 1930's Munich, ICE COLD is the progression of a rapist serial killer. Various viewpoints are told chapter by chapter, each voice eerily intimate, and personal, distinguished by a change in font to give the reader a visual queue, as well as a ... Read Review |
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Silent Fear, Katherine Howell08/02/2012 - 1:18pmIt's odd, the things that can occur to you when you're reading books. In the case of SILENT FEAR I just could not stop thinking how glad I was to be a reader and not a writer. Honestly, how do these people come up with such consistently good characters and excellent plots? Howell makes her life that little bit more difficult by always bringing in a Paramedic thread, mostly with new characters each book, weaving what happens to them on the job into the plot of an excellent crime fiction / police procedural book. Even allowing for a background as a paramedic, I've no idea how she ... Read Review |
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Death and the Spanish Lady, Carolyn Morwood06/02/2012 - 2:34pmDEATH AND THE SPANISH LADY is the first book from Carolyn Morwood for quite a while, and that, if for no other reason was enough to create some interest in these parts. Set in the period immediately following World War 1, in Melbourne, during the Spanish 'Flu epidemic of 1919, the book introduces Sister Eleanor Jones. Returned from nursing soldiers overseas, she has volunteered to work in the temporary hospital that is set up within the Melbourne Exhibition Buildings to treat the huge number of patients who succumb to the epidemic. Given the number of people dying from ... Read Review |
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Truth Dare Kill, Gordon Ferris06/02/2012 - 1:46pm1945 - World War 2 is over, and TRUTH DARE KILL is another book set in a post-war period that I've read recently. Set in London, this is the story of Danny McRae, an ex-policeman who has returned from the war after being captured by the Germans, incurring a severe head injury in the process. As a result he suffers amnesia and blackouts, which has to make working as a private investigator a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Approached by a woman who wants the possible death of her married lover investigated, McRae takes the job. Partially because he needs the ... Read Review |
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The Sleeping Dragon, Miyuki Miyabe03/02/2012 - 3:17pmOn the cover of THE SLEEPING DRAGON, Miyuki Miyabe is noted as Japan's Number 1 bestselling Mystery Writer, known for her ability to write strong suspense novels. Which made this particular book an interesting prospect, even allowing for the inclusion of an ESP sub-thread which isn't often something I'm particularly comfortable with. But I am very comfortable with something that has a strong sense of place, and a strong sense of the culture that it comes from. Even allowing for the novel being translated, there remained something quintessentially Japanese about this ... Read Review |
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Shadow Show, Pat Flower02/02/2012 - 2:16pmRe-reading any of Pat Flower's excellent books is always a very bittersweet experience. Reading SHADOW SHOW even more so, as my edition was published after Flower died, from the effects of pentobarbitone poisoning, taken intentionally, in September 1977. Patricia Mary Bryson Flower was born in February 1914 in Kent, England. Her family came to New South Wales in 1928, where she lived firstly at Kyogle and then in Sydney. In the 1940's, whilst working as a secretary for the New Theatre League, she wrote sketches and plays in her spare time. Whilst she was ... Read Review |
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Wink Murder, Ali Knight01/02/2012 - 2:29pmWINK MURDER is the debut book from ex-journalist and sub-editor Ali Knight. Given that the book is set within the cut-throat and odd world of tabloid television, perhaps her background has informed the way that the world of the media (albeit she worked in print) works. There was so much about the run down and the early part of this book that didn't appeal, I wasn't at all sure I'd be able to get to the end of it. The high-flying husband returning late at night, drunk, covered in blood, muttering. The stay at home mother with the part-time, lesser job in her husband's ... Read Review |
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Miles Off Course, Sulari Gentill30/01/2012 - 5:12pmNot sure what's weirder, talking to fictional characters, or the feeling that you actually know those fictional characters... Either way, you have to think it's quite a feat for a writer to get you to the stage where you're more than happy to regard her characters as real people. MILES OFF COURSE is now the third book from Sulari Gentill featuring Rowland Sinclair and his band of supporters - Edna, Milton and Clyde and that feeling of connection, of reality and authenticity continues ... in spades. The connection is probably helped by the way that Gentill sets her ... Read Review |
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Cocaine Blues, Kerry Greenwood30/01/2012 - 1:54pmI really shouldn't get all impressed by a new cover, but having no idea whatsoever of who Essie Davis is, I was really pleased to see her popup on the re-release of Kerry Greenwood's first Phryne Fisher book COCAINE BLUES. I think the casting people for the upcoming ABC TV series may just have done a very good job! Re-releasing the books is an excellent idea, not just because of the TV tie in, but also because it gives old fans, as well as a new audience a chance to catch up with the opening onslaught of what is now up to 18 or something books, from which 13 episodes are ... Read Review |
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Arms for Adonis, Charlotte Jay25/01/2012 - 4:24pmI have been promising myself for a few years now to go back to some of the older classic Australian Crime Fiction books and reread them with a view to noting something about them on the website. Mostly because all of these books were read a long time before I started writing my own reviews, and I really need something to check my reactions against if I re-visit them again (which I'm inclined to do every now and then). Hence ARMS FOR ADONIS, which Wakefield Press published in 1994, with an excellent afterword by Peter Moss and Michael J Tolley. ARMS FOR ADONIS was first ... Read Review |
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Until Thy Wrath Be Past, Åsa Larsson24/01/2012 - 3:42pmOne of the most appealing aspects of the Rebecka Martinsson series from Asa Larsson has always been the strong sense of place and culture that the books seem to have as part of their DNA. The fourth book, UNTIL THY WRATH BE PAST, is no slouch in this department at all. The opening of the book is Wilma telling the story of the day that she and Simon died. Wilma's presence remains active within the book, encouraging Rebecka, slowly explaining her own story, drawing out the details. Her body, on the other hand isn't found for months after she dies. When it is, the ... Read Review |
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Beyond Fear, Jaye Ford23/01/2012 - 12:01pmBEYOND FEAR is journalist Jaye Ford's first book, billed as an adrenaline-pumped suspense thriller. Which, if you're reading it with that aim in mind it absolutely is. The book starts out with one of those scenes that just make you know something bad's going to happen. Something very bad. Four thirty-something women are heading off for a regular girls' weekend away, champagne in hand, towards a remote, recently renovated barn deep in isolated country Australia. Jodie, the main character of the book, is a woman with a secret from her best friends. So, when these woman are run off ... Read Review |
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The Dinosaur Feather, Sissel-Jo Gazan17/01/2012 - 3:08pmJanuary is often a very good reading month for some reason. That alone doesn't make a lot of sense - it's normally hot enough to melt the tin on the roof, which isn't conducive to concentration. Making THE DINOSAUR FEATHER look like a rather risky choice. At 535 pages it was way too big for any struggle with concentration, and after starting the book and finding myself deep in discussions on paleo-ornithology and not a lot of "crime action", I was feeling somewhat sceptical to say the least. Add to that a central character who is just a little inclined to be whingy, very prickly, ... Read Review |
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She's Never Coming Back, Hans Koppel10/01/2012 - 3:35pmIt didn't really come as much of a surprise that somebody has taken up the "girl in the cellar" storyline, although in SHE'S NEVER COMING BACK the victim is an adult woman, kidnapped on her way home from work, held in the cellar of the house opposite her own home. Talking about this book is going to be a balancing act, as without giving away too much, there was just so much about it that simply did not work, that actually worried me. Worried me to the point where I got my partner to sit down and read it as well, so that we were then able to discuss the concerns that, in ... Read Review |