| Book | Review |
|---|---|
|
|
The Precipice, Virginia Duigan09/01/2012 - 5:02pmI suppose finding some sort of "pattern" in what you're reading, when you read a lot of books, is inevitable, but it always intrigues when I find that sort of co-incidence showing up. At the moment it's well-written unsympathetic, often off-putting characterisations. THE PRECIPICE has more than one of those in spades. Thea Farmer's voice is very realistic, the retired school principal, reclusive, difficult, with a small circle of carefully chosen people she interacts with; her only soft edges come from her relationship with her beloved, and rapidly aging, dog. ... Read Review |
 |
The Complaints, Ian Rankin09/01/2012 - 1:24pmThere is life after Rebus, even if it comes in a package of polar opposites. Rebus was an old school cop - murder squad, Malcolm Fox works for the cops who investigate other cops. Rebus was more than prepared to ignore rules, stretch boundaries and stomp rather resoundingly all over team work. Fox looks for just that sort of behaviour. Rebus was an unreformed grumpy drunk, Fox is a more carefully controlled man with a broken marriage, his drinking under control. They are both solitary men, although with Rebus there was something satisfied about his aloneness, Fox's comes with a ... Read Review |
 |
Murder and Redemption, Noel Mealy04/01/2012 - 3:02pm2011 was an interesting year in Australian Crime fiction with quite a few excellent debut books appearing. In 2012 we've started off with the release of MURDER AND REDEMPTION by Noel Mealey, another debut, another book set in outback Western Australia, and another book aiming for a quintessentially Australian voice and viewpoint. Blurbed as "moody and atmospheric" and "following in the traditions of both Peter Temple and Carl Hiaasen", somebody is setting the bar for MURDER AND REDEMPTION rather on the high side. As you'd expect from those comparisons the ... Read Review |
 |
Comeback, Peter Corris04/01/2012 - 1:17pmBefore everything comes across just a bit gushy, there was a point somewhere in the middle of the Cliff Hardy series where I seriously lost interest. Whilst there are some elements of the books that are always going to be the same, somehow the sameness became very obvious, there was something slightly flat about the storylines and, to this reader at least, nothing much engaged my interest. I never totally gave up reading the series, but most definitely didn't shove things aside as each new book arrived. And then, a few years ago, things changed. Around the time that ... Read Review |
 |
Bound, Vanda Symon31/12/2011 - 1:55pmDetective Sam Shephard is back, promoted (no longer a Detective Constable), working in the same squad as boyfriend Paul and still in head on confrontation with the boss, and slightly off centre confrontation with her mother. Which is particularly difficult as in BOUND Sam's much loved father is dying, just as the case of a brutal home invasion takes most of Sam's attention and energy. There are some absolute givens in the Sam Shephard series. There's going to be an opening to the book which should have the reader paying attention. Sam is going to be part energiser ... Read Review |
 |
Women Writers and Detectives in Nineteenth-Century Crime Fiction, Lucy Sussex20/12/2011 - 3:56pmRediscovery is exactly the word that needs to be applied to this small, but incredibly packed offering from renowned Senior Research Fellow Lucy Sussex. Sussex has to be one of the greatest proponents of the discovery and telling of the tales of the earliest female writers - having now bought Mary Fortune to light, she has turned her hand to exploring not just the origins, but much of the history of early Women Writers and Detectives. Proving once and for all that the crime genre was not just founded by a well-known group of men, many of the women in this book ( ... Read Review |
 |
Luther, The Calling, Neil Cross20/12/2011 - 3:18pmUpside, Neil Cross has written some fantastic recent books. Downside, LUTHER THE CALLING has a connection with a TV series which I've never seen. So interesting to see if a fabulous author has written a fabulous book, regardless of whatever's been going on over on the small screen. Especially as, I believe, this has been a reverse adaptation with the TV series coming before the book. The most important thing about any of this author's books is that, particularly as he has such a name as a scriptwriter, there's nothing filmic or screen treatment about the books. These ... Read Review |
 |
Defender of the Faith, Chris Allen20/12/2011 - 12:31pmIf, like me, you grew up on a diet of Len Deighton, Robert Ludlum and John Le Carre novels, there is a chance you're a bit of a fan of fast paced, military, espionage style novels. DEFENDER OF THE FAITH is a recent entry in the what is rapidly becoming a large pool of choice for Australian readers. Set within our geographical and political sphere, DEFENDER OF THE FAITH introduces readers to Alex Morgan, special forces operative, good bloke, and all round bit of a hero. The action in this book is really very realistic, and it's not difficult to believe highly informed ... Read Review |
 |
Scarlet Stilleto - The Second Cut16/12/2011 - 4:26pmAnother excellent selection of award winning short stories from the Sisters in Crime Australia's annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards. For the past 18 years the Australian Sisters in Crime have been awarding a range of prizes for short stories (the categories have shifted around over the years), and THE SECOND CUT is the (not all that surprisingly!) the second time that many of the prize winners have been compiled into a single volume and published. Again, you'll find an interesting combination of known and published authors, and new and upcoming (hopefully to be published) ... Read Review |
 |
The Courier's New Bicycle, Kim Westwood14/12/2011 - 3:29pmNot being one for speculative fiction, this isn't a book that I would have sought out, even with its cross-genre aspects. However, THE COURIER'S NEW BICYCLE was being talked about a lot and I'm not completely opposed to the occasional foray outside my comfort zone, so all in all the recommendations seemed like a good enough reason to try it out. It did take a little while to work out the style of the book. Westwood has developed a laid back, ironic, almost gentle sort of a style which initially doesn't quite seem to gel with many aspects of the story. It actually took ... Read Review |
 |
Dublin Dead, Gerard O'Donovan14/12/2011 - 12:22pmIt was rather pleasing to see DUBLIN DEAD, mostly because O'Donovan's first book, The Priest, actually managed to get me to rethink my "over serial killer" books stance. So no pressure on this one... at all. There is some reference back to The Priest in DUBLIN DEAD, which is unavoidable really given that both books feature journalist Siobhan Fallon and policeman DI Mike Mulcahy. If you've not read the earlier book, that shouldn't put you off completely, as there is some recapping of what happened, particularly to Siobhan. Whilst it should be enough to allow new readers ... Read Review |
 |
Scarlet Stiletto - The First Cut13/12/2011 - 4:23pmFor the past 18 years the Australian Sisters in Crime have been awarding a range of prizes for short stories (the categories have shifted around over the years), and THE FIRST CUT was the first time that many of the prize winners were compiled into a single volume and published. It's a worthwhile collection to read for the sake of the stories included, as well as to discover some "name" authors who have since gone on to get books published, or have felt that they got a real kickstart from the Scarlet Stiletto Awards. You'll find stories here from some authors you may ... Read Review |
 |
Murderer No More, Colleen Egan01/12/2011 - 3:35pmI've said it before, and I'll say it again. I have no idea how some authors can get themselves involved in a miscarriage of justice, see the case through to its conclusion, write an incisive and revealing book about the state of justice (particularly when it's in the state in which they continue to live), and not develop the odd twitch. Not, I'd hasten to add, have I had more than a few moments chat with Colleen Egan, but having now read this book I admire both her persistence and her stamina profoundly, and can remember no such twitch. Despite Egan's involvement in the ... Read Review |
 |
The End of Wasp Season, Denise Mina30/11/2011 - 1:02pmThe second in the Alex Morrow series, THE END OF THE WASP SEASON is a book that it would actually be possible to read before the earlier. The opening chapters of the book introduces the reader to the three women at the centre of this story - DS Alex Morrow, Kay Murray who worked for Sarah Erroll and Sarah herself, 24 years old, murdered in a house that she rarely used. Somehow, however, the focus of the book seems to be Lars Anderson, millionaire banker, disgraced financier, suicide hanging himself from a tree in the garden of his house. Father in a family that's about ... Read Review |
 |
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes28/11/2011 - 12:31pmBlast. Bother. Damn. So many years sniffing at the thought of a Booker Prize Winner that would actually be a book that I'd even bother reading, let alone enjoy and in one fell swoop, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING has blown all that out of the water. Fortunately the scandal around "readability" would seem to mean that this is may simply be a blip on my record :) This is really fantastic story telling, slowly building a mystery, engaging the reader in the story of Tony, a sixtyish man looking back at his life and how events played out for his friends Adrian and Veronica, as ... Read Review |
 |
Midwinter Sacrifice, Mons Kallentoft17/11/2011 - 2:38pm"An investigation consists of a mass of voices, the sort you can hear, and the sort you can't. You have to listen to the soundless voices, Malin. That's where the truth is hidden." The quote at the start of the blurb of MIDWINTER SACRIFICE intrigued. The opening of the book with the naked, mutilated body of a man hanging from a tree in a frozen, snow covered location was startling. A new detective character, Malin Fors, single mother of a teenage daughter engaging. But ultimately it was the concept of the "voices" of an investigation that weave their way ... Read Review |
 |
Harry Curry - Counsel of Choice, Stuart Littlemore17/11/2011 - 12:37pmThere's increasing signs of "write what you know" in Australian crime fiction, so it's probably not at all surprising that well known QC, and media commentator Stuart Littlemore has followed exactly that path. Although, to be honest, I'm not sure I agree 100% with labelling HARRY CURRY: COUNSEL OF CHOICE as crime fiction. Whilst the idea is definitely that our hero, Harry Curry, is a criminal defence lawyer, this book is less about the crimes and a lot more about the exploits of Curry in getting all and sundry off, each and every charge thrown at them. HARRY CURRY etc ... Read Review |
 |
The Singapore School of Villainy, Shamini Flint10/11/2011 - 3:54pmFor those reading the Inspector Singh Investigates series in order, THE SINGAPORE SCHOOL OF VILLAINY is the third book. Given these are a series, is it necessary to read them in order? Whilst there's always something gained when reading books in the order that the author wrote them, this is a case where I'm not sure you need to be too obsessive about it. Of course, from the start you'll get to know the good Inspector a little more, but to be honest, there's not a lot of expansion of character going on here. It's obvious that Singh's constantly in trouble with his superiors, that he's ... Read Review |
 |
The Crossing, B. Michael Radburn01/11/2011 - 5:24pmEven allowing for the theories about the limited number of plot lines there are out there, it's always surprising when you come across a couple of books that have a central premise that's remarkably similar, written within the same time period. And this isn't a particularly common shared premise. THE CROSSING by B. Michael Radburn is the second book with a male protagonist mourning the inexplicable and sudden disappearance of a much loved young daughter. In THE CROSSING Taylor Bridges' is completely traumatised by the unexplained vanishing of his daughter Claire - so much so that ... Read Review |
 |
Compulsively Murdering Mao, Bill Green01/11/2011 - 11:54amA little book I've had salted away for quite some time, it took the sad death of Bill Green to get me to stop dipping into and out of it, and sit down and read it. Having finished it, the quote from Mungo McCallum on the back sums up the political component:
But there's also a little more to this book, knowing, from chatting to the author, that part of the action - something about a plucky Australian going up against a CIA ... Read Review |