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Stonedogs, Craig Marriner01/12/2009 - 2:08pmSometimes you pick up a book, start reading, and instantly start wondering what on earth is going on. Yet for some reason, you cannot put the darn thing down. That's exactly what happened for me with STONEDOGS. Mind you, if I'd have read the blurb that states that Craig Marriner is New Zealand's answer to Irvine Welsh and Quentin Tarantino, I probably could have recognised a hint about what I was in for. STONEDOGS isn't a recent book - it won the Montana New Zealand Book Award Deutz Medal in 2002, but it is a book that was recently bought to my attention by a ... Read Review |
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Lennox, Craig Russell24/11/2009 - 1:54pmCraig Russell is best known for his series of novels featuring Hamburg based detective Jan Fabel, but LENNOX is (it is reported) the first in a series of neo-noir styled novels, this one set in Glasgow, post World War II. Lennox is a Canadian ex-soldier who bears the psychological and physical scars of a brutal war, left with a skill set that makes him an ideal player in post-war, corrupt, grimy, dirty, mucky, violent Glasgow. Organised crime is establishing itself and at the centre of machinations are identical twins, Tam and Frankie McGahern. When Tam is murdered Lennox is "hired ... Read Review |
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Gangsters' Women, John Kerr20/11/2009 - 1:36pmGANGSTERS' WOMEN is one release in a series of "commuter true crime" books. Available via newsagencies and similar outlets, they are designed as quick little books - perfect for the train or tram journey home. Not bad for a Sunday night read as well! This book tells the story of a number of women who, for whatever reasons - and they vary woman to woman - choose to get involved / stay involved with Gangsters. A varied selection, including some well known Gangsters' Women - Roberta Williams, and the women of Terry Clark's drug organisation - now probably more generally ... Read Review |
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The Billionaire's Curse, Richard Newsome19/11/2009 - 1:48pmRemember when you were a kid and The Adventurous Four, The Famous Five and The Secret Seven were just the ticket for an exciting read (okay so you have to be of "a certain age" for that to apply), but I still remember how satisfying those books were. An adventure, a puzzle that had to be solved - by a bunch of kids of a similar age to yourself, all done and dusted and home in time for tea. Many a person "of a certain age" will attest that these books were the ones that got them started on a life-long love of reading. Perhaps that's partly because they were so easy to identify with ... Read Review |
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Pandaemonium, Christopher Brookmyre18/11/2009 - 1:24pmFans of Christopher Brookmyre's dark, black-comedic writing are probably going to do what I did when this book arrived. A bit of dignified happy dancing and a general clearing of the activity calendar to sit down for a jolly good read and, along the way, a lot of very undignified laughing. A lot of readers new to this writer may be stepping away from the book (and this review) in droves. But really - don't. To steal a famous phrase - do yourself a favour (perhaps this needs to come with a strong language alert). Sure Christopher Brookmyre writes gory, savage, lunatic ... Read Review |
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Ice Cold, Andrea Maria Schenkel (review by Sunnie Gill)08/11/2009 - 1:03pmSomehow the format that worked so well in "The Murder Farm" doesn't seem to have quite the same impact in ICE COLD. Whether it's because of the story of that the novelty of the unusual format isn't as fresh, I'm not sure. Perhaps it was the blurb on the book jacket which asked the question, "but is he really guilty?" It is a question that maybe leads to false expections about the ending. I found myself none the wiser at the end of the book than I did when I first opened it. It could be more the fault of the publicists and powers that be who decide what goes on the blurbs ... Read Review |
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The Death of Bunny Munro, Nick Cave02/11/2009 - 12:32pmDespite the title, THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO is not a novel from my preferred genre of crime fiction. Defining exactly what it is, however, is a lot harder. Nick Cave is one of my favourite musicians, despite so much of his subject matter being somewhat more biblical than would normally be of any particular appeal. With this novel he's moved from the overtly biblical, southern gothic feel of AND THE ASS SAW THE ANGEL released in 1989, but not completely away from some of all of its core themes. THE DEATH OF BUNNY MUNRO explores human frailty, fanaticism and vengeance, set this time ... Read Review |
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Outside The Law 2, Lindy Cameron (editor)29/10/2009 - 1:44pmI often wonder why authors get involved in True Crime writing. Surely there must be a component of it that's just soul destroying. Writing about the sad, mad, bad, idiot, evil, opportunist criminals who commit the most senseless acts. Then again, there are a lot of us that read True Crime. I know there's all the analysis of "why" - the voyeurism, the thrill, readers getting a glimpse into a world that luckily most won't ever experience first hand, the readers searching for the why behind so many acts. OUTSIDE THE LAW 2 fits into the middle of the three current OUTSIDE ... Read Review |
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Still Midnight, Denise Mina28/10/2009 - 3:18pmAccording to the famous names quoted on the back of STILL MIDNIGHT, Denise Mina is the crown princess of crime, past winner of the John Creasey Memorial Prize for her first crime novel GARNETHILL. She certainly is a writer that deserves a wide fan base, as she is undoubtedly one of the great writers of the nuanced central character. STILL MIDNIGHT introduces one such new character - DS Alex Morrow. Morrow is prickly, raised by a single mother suffering from chronic depression, there but for the grace she's somehow kept herself out of trouble. She's somebody who the ... Read Review |
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Singing to the Dead,Caro Ramsay27/10/2009 - 4:13pmCaro Ramsay's second book - SINGING TO THE DEAD - has a lot to live up to. ABSOLUTION was just a fantastic book, with a particularly brave ending. That ending means SINGING TO THE DEAD starts out looking back to some of that story, and with a need to shift the focus to many of the lesser characters from the first book, as well as introduce new ones. The disappearance of two seven-year-old boys starts an investigation which finds itself stretched to the limit when a house fire turns into a full-scale murder hunt as well. Then another seven-year-old boy disappears and this ... Read Review |
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Suffer the Children, Adam Creed26/10/2009 - 3:52pmSUFFER THE CHILDREN is the first book introducing DI Will Wagstaffe. A confession early on - I try not to read blurbs on books so the first few chapters referring alternatively to Wagstaffe and Staffe left me mildly confused, a feeling that came back to visit me on a few occasions throughout the book. Staffe is a workaholic, that or he doesn't trust the team he works with. Either way, as one of his past cases resolves leaving him threatened by the perpetrator and his gang of thugs, Staffe is planning a holiday. Which he cancels, or avoids, when somebody starts killing ... Read Review |
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Dead-End Road, Richard Kunzmann22/10/2009 - 2:15pmDEAD-END ROAD is third novel Detective Harry Mason novel from South African author Richard Kunzmann - the earlier books are BLOODY HARVESTS and SALAMANDER COTTON. It was the first of this series that I've read, and I'm not sure that was necessarily a wise move. It's been a couple of years since Harry's last outing and since then he has joined the elite Serious and Violent Crimes unit. They have been assigned to the investigation of the slaying of a minor politician and his family in a township west of Johannesburg. Unsolvable, until a tip sends the unit in pursuit of a ... Read Review |
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The Dark Side, Roger Rogerson21/10/2009 - 3:13pmAs Roger Rogerson puts it on the blurb to the book 'All that people know about me is that I'm a corrupt cop, shot three men, and was a mate of Neddy Smith...'. He's probably right, but he's also probably acutely aware that his is a very Sydney story. In the other states, particularly if you're not old enough to remember the events of Roger's colourful police career as they occurred, he could also be somebody whose name seems to vaguely ring a bell. Didn't Richard Roxburgh play him in a movie on TV once (and wasn't that the first of the banned in the state it was made about sort of ... Read Review |
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Born or Bred?, Robert Wainwright & Paola Totaro (review by Sunnie Gill)11/10/2009 - 12:38pmBORN OR BRED? began life as a book to tell Bryant's mother's story. However, unhappy at what the authors wanted to do, Carleen Bryant quickly pulled out of the project. By that time Wainwright and Totaro had become fascinated into trying to find if there was something in Bryant's past that would explain in inexplicable. They spoke to neighbours, friends, family, teachers; anyone who knew Bryant and his family willing to talk, trying to shed light on the man. All are interesting; some are revelatory. Probably the people who come closest to giving us an ... Read Review |
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Red Queen, H.M. (Honey) Brown10/10/2009 - 2:08pmThere's an immediate dive into the here and now with the opening chapter, each of which is a self contained character study, and each chapter grouping is titled appropriately. Honey Brown touches gently on each chapter as if it were in preparation for a scene change in a film or play. This kind of novel usually does offer up some futuristic and frightening prophecy for the future with a moral message that can't be avoided, rather like the surfer riding the wave of catastrophe. The biological concoction that is Red Queen is not explained in any great detail, so you are ... Read Review |
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The Dead of Winter, Rennie Airth (review by sunniefromoz)07/10/2009 - 2:05pmIt‘s not often that I don’t finish a review book. I feel obligated to read the entire book in order to do justice to the review. Sadly, I had to give up on THE DEAD OF WINTER. Not because it was a necessarily a poorly written book. I don’t think it is. I have read worse and finished them. So why did I give up at page 197 of a 408 page book? I ran headlong into one of my pet peeves. This particular peeve is when the author pauses the plot to give the back story of a character. It’s all very fine and dandy for a couple of major characters but when the reader is being ... Read Review |
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Shallow Water, Stuart Black25/09/2009 - 2:31pmStuart Black, ad exec turned author has his first book out - SHALLOW WATER - in September 2009, published by Sid Harta Publishers. It is the story of a down to earth Australian builder and would be musician Brad West, who, by marrying the beautiful Jemma Beckford, gets a wife and her very wealthy and dysfunctional family. The tension between Jemma and her sister Rose is exacerbated when Jemma, who considered herself heir apparent to her father's wealth and companies, sees control of the company and therefore the family fortune, willed to her older, more stable sister. ... Read Review |
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Fifty Grand, Adrian McKinty23/09/2009 - 11:59amAdrian McKinty has an awful lot to answer for. Sitting down to read FIFTY GRAND, I thought this would be another good book from an author whose books I've increasing come to like. What I didn't expect was a nearly straight reading sitting, leaving the entire household making do with scratch meals, and the dogs threatening to pack their bags and leave home if meals and playtime didn't get back to normal pretty darn quick. FIFTY GRAND features a new character from McKinty, Cuban cop Mercado. There are some vague similarities to earlier books in plot location though - set ... Read Review |
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Death and the Running Patterer, Robin Adair17/09/2009 - 1:55pmDEATH AND THE RUNNING PATTERER is the book that won Penguin's last Most Wanted Crime Writing competition, and there's a comment in the acknowledgements that explain a little about the development of the book: "I owe a debt to Robert Sessions, Penguin Australia's Publishing Director, who overcame his initial shock at being confronted with a manuscript knocked out on an old manual typewriter...." The reason for highlighting this is that whilst reading DEATH AND THE RUNNING PATTERER was a very enjoyable overall experience, the book is made up of a series of ... Read Review |
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Outside The Law 3, Lindy Cameron (editor)01/09/2009 - 1:46pmEvery year in Australia, there are a lot of true crime books released. The OUTSIDE THE LAW series from Five Mile Press is now up to number 3, edited by Lindy Cameron, released in August 2009. It includes an interesting forward from the editor where she says (amongst other things): "What is it about ordinary law-abiding Australians and our bizarre fascination with robbers, murderers and low-life crooks? Why do those of us not personally affected by the violence or incomprehensible loss visited on too many in our society want to know the details of what happened - of ... Read Review |