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Buried for Pleasure, Edmund Crispin29/07/2010 - 1:19pmOriginally published in the 1940's the Gervase Fen mysteries are one of those rights of passage for crime lovers. Or at least they were in my house as I was growing up. Vintage Books have done us all an enormous favour in turning their attention back to some of the classic books - and this set from Edmund Crispin is a real job to behold. Now I have read a lot of these books before, but the chance to reread them, without having to rely on falling on fragile old copies in second-hand bookshops is a joy. And these are still very good crime stories. Slightly eccentric in ... Read Review |
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Murder in Utopia, Philip McLaren27/07/2010 - 1:56pmThere are a lot of reasons why I move heaven and earth to get hold of a Philip McLaren book when I hear there's a new one in the offing. Firstly, as you can probably pick from the synopsis above, there's a very dry, understated wit in McLaren's story-telling style. He's also writing about his own people, in a way that's both affectionate and exasperated. He's also frequently very very pointed about the difficulties Aboriginal people in Australia face on a daily basis. What McLaren is doing in MURDER IN UTOPIA is really interesting. He runs a parallel story of a young ... Read Review |
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Watch The World Burn, Leah Giarratano25/07/2010 - 3:45pmClinical psychologist and best-selling author Leah Giarratano is known for exploring various criminal and/or psychological behaviours in all of her books, and in WATCH THE WORLD BURN, the fourth in the Sergeant Jill Jackson series, she's exploring family, along with extreme psychopathic behaviour. Whilst earlier books clearly demonstrate Giarratano's own background in her deft handling of the extremes of human behaviour, somehow, WATCH THE WORLD BURN is more assured, more informative, more affecting and profoundly unsettling. Readers of the earlier books will know that ... Read Review |
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Mosquito Creek, Robert Engwerda23/07/2010 - 1:27pmMOSQUITO CREEK, the first novel from Robert Engwerda is set in 1855 on the northern Victorian goldfields. It's a particularly pleasing experience to read about this area of the goldfields, deep in flood, when we've spent such a long desperate period in drought. Engwerda has done a fantastic job at putting the reader into this location and the time period. There is a real sense of place and time, evoking the sheer weirdness of the alliances, tension, desperation and transience of the Goldfields. It's very easy to forget, in this day of easy transportation, just how much ... Read Review |
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No Justice, Robin Bowles12/07/2010 - 2:20pmThis is the story of the life of Adele Baily, her death and the connection between the location of her body and the house in which Jenny Tanner died. Victorians, in particular, will probably be well aware of the case of the supposed suicide of Jenny Tanner - who supposedly shot herself in the head, twice, with a shotgun, fired by her toes. But this book's not about Jenny Tanner - it's about Adele Baily and the location of her body and the connection with ex-policeman Denis Tanner. Reading this book wasn't a very satisfying experience to be brutally honest. Probably a ... Read Review |
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King of the Cross, Mark Dapin12/07/2010 - 2:04pmAnybody with a passing interest in notorious Australian "identities" in the not so distant past isn't going to take too long to twig on whom Mendoza is based, and that same reader probably is going to be excused for any guesses about the writer who narrates this fictional book. Basically the story is that a journalist working for The Australian Jewish Times makes a complete hash of a story and ends up being fired by the editor. Circumstances intervene, things happen, he finds himself interviewing / writing the life story of Sydney gangster Jacob Mendoza. Mendoza is what ... Read Review |
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Rough Justice, Robin Bowles07/07/2010 - 12:10pmROUGH JUSTICE comes from that section of True Crime books which include telling the story of particular cases, and then analysing aspects of those cases. As with all these sorts of books whether or not it will work for the reader depends on a number of highly subjective elements - whether you agree with the issues raised by the author (either that they exist or they are issues); whether you agree with the outcome or the methodology of that analysis; and whether or not you like or dislike either the tone of book, the raising of the case, the author or any combination of ... Read Review |
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The Troika Dolls, Miranda Darling05/07/2010 - 5:06pmTHE TROIKA DOLLS is the first novel from new Australian Writer Miranda Darling, and it's a really really interesting debut for a number of reasons. Stevie Duveen is (according to the blurb) "A new kind of heroine for a new kind of world". To be honest I'm not sure I know what that means - but I do agree that Stevie's a very good sort of a heroine. Emotionally and physically fragile, tiny, gorgeous, brilliant, gifted in seven languages and all sorts of combat, Stevie is a strategic analyst working for an organisation that guards, protects and assesses threats to all ... Read Review |
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The Secret Speech, Tom Rob Smith01/07/2010 - 3:42pmTHE SECRET SPEECH is the second book from Tom Rob Smith, following on the stories of many of the characters from CHILD 44. In particular, Leo and Raisa are trying to raise the two young girls they adopted after Leo's part in the brutal killing of their parents, but all is not going well with this instant family. Pressure from within, the eldest girl in particular, is deeply resentful of both her adopted parents and is prepared to show it in quite threatening and frightening ways, whilst they are unaware of the level of vengeance about to be visited on them by somebody else from Leo' ... Read Review |
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Sharp Shooter, Marianne Delacourt30/06/2010 - 2:41pmTara Sharp is a newish entrant in the Australian amateur investigator / mad cap girl / chick lit style of crime fiction. With the added extra of a bit of paranormal ability, as in aura reading. There's been a lot of entrants in this sort of slightly out of control, breathlessly 20-something, girl on the run, living in straightened circumstances, forging a way in the world type books recently, although I'm struggling to think of another one that has that added paranormal feature (that's not to say that there's not lots and lots of them out there). Tara's not overtly ... Read Review |
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Blood Stain, Peter Lalor30/06/2010 - 1:52pmYou can't possibly say that you've ever been looking forward to reading a book about a case like this, but I have had this book here since it was first published, and I've picked it up and read a little now and then since then. Frankly, the subject matter made me queasy. But in the same way that the author wanted to know what on earth made Knight go so far over the top, ultimately, I was wondering the same thing. So I eventually stopped sooking and sat down and read this book. It's no wonder that Katherine Knight is never to be released, and whilst the ... Read Review |
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Where Have You Been?, Wendy James26/06/2010 - 11:38amWhat would you do if your teenage sister just simply disappeared when you were a little girl. And then reappeared at about the same time as your mother's estate was to be distributed? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Wendy James explores what Susan and Ed Middleton do when Susan's long-lost sister Karen - now known as Carly - reappears in response to a lawyer's advertisement. Susan isn't sure she'll be able to identify her sister, and Carly is definitely not the same sort of woman as Susan - but there do seem to be some memories they share, some nicknames, or events that gel, ... Read Review |
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Gangland Australia, James Morton and Susanna Lobez19/06/2010 - 1:33pmI bought this book at last years Crime & Justice festival, and at the time Susanna Lobez was kind enough to sign it with me including the inscription "Stay curious!". And that is the best way I can recommend this book - staying curious, reading this sort of historical true crime fiction, reminds you that nothing is ever really new. And nothing is ever "the worst it has ever been" or "never before in the history...." or whatever else the media feeds you (obviously I'm thinking of the "Underbelly Wars" here). Commencing at the beginning of the arrival of ... Read Review |
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King of Thieves, Adam Shand16/06/2010 - 2:07pmI'm one of those people who have vaguely heard of the Kangaroo Gang but didn't really know many of the specific details. What I never realised was how wide the reach of this gang of thieves was. KING OF THIEVES is a wonderful tale about the exploits of a brazen bunch of Aussie thieves and shoplifters who hit London and the Continent, with aplomb, starting in the mid 1960s. It's also one of those books that makes you feel slightly guilty - it's hard not admire this bunch of astounding, brazen, clever, and straight out cunning band of crooks. One of the ... Read Review |
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The Diggers Rest Hotel, Geoffrey McGeachin08/06/2010 - 4:17pmIt's always interesting to see a favoured author head off in another direction, and THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL is a big directional switch for Geoffrey McGeachin. Moving away from the madcap all-Australian James Bond of the Alby Murdoch books, we are introduced to a new character, a new timeframe and a very different approach. Set in post World War II Victoria THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL introduces Charlie Berlin. A pilot during the war, back to the police on his return, Charlie is deeply traumatised. Sent to Albury-Wodonga to investigate a series of robberies that have ... Read Review |
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No Weather for a Burial, David Owen04/06/2010 - 11:45amFour Pufferfish novels were never ever going to be enough for dedicated fans of this wonderful, quirky Police Procedural from Tasmanian based author David Owen. There was always a real sense of disappointment that Owen didn't appear to have been given the opportunity to publish more of these books (or at least I believe that's what happened). The sight of NO WEATHER FOR A BURIAL was therefore a cause of much excitement in these parts - and a mad scramble to the publishers website (you can buy your own copy direct from ... Read Review |
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In The Dark, Mark Billingham03/06/2010 - 2:10pmIf somebody could explain to me what I did with my common-sense I'd be very grateful. I have this list of favourite authors, and a tendency to hoard their books. Makes no sense whatsoever when I think about it, but IN THE DARK got caught in the daftness and lurked on the shelves here for much much longer than it should have. A standalone novel, IN THE DARK is a thriller with an unexpected scenario and an interesting twist. As the blurb outlines, there's a car crash in the night. A driver is forced off the road, into a bus stop. A man (in this case a policeman) is ... Read Review |
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Random, Craig Robertson02/06/2010 - 12:02pmOne of the things that I really like about reading review books is that I constantly find absolutes in my reading tastes aren't. Ask me about serial killer books before reading RANDOM and I would have categorically stated been there, over it. Add being inside the serial killer's head for the entire of the book and I'd have put my hand on my heart and said it's all too tedious. Then I read RANDOM and found myself really hooked on the internal monologue of a serial killer. Based in Glasgow, RANDOM, on one level is your typical serial killer book. Unconnected victim's, ... Read Review |
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Thrill City, Leigh Redhead01/06/2010 - 4:05pmTHRILL CITY has arrived. The fourth Simone Kirsch book from Australian writer Leigh Redhead has been much anticipated by fans of this fantastic, Melbourne-based, stripper turned Private Investigator series. Mind you, it's not just Simone that I was pleased to see back, but Chloe, Sean, Alex, Curtis, all the other strippers, the bars and the way that the streetscape comes alive. When bestselling crime author Nick Austin pays Simone to let him follow her on a few jobs - to get the feel of how a female PI works - that leads to a writers festival, a crime panel, a couple of ... Read Review |
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Captured, Neil Cross01/06/2010 - 2:13pmOne of the things that I've really come to expect from author Neil Cross is not quite knowing what to expect when you pick up one of this books. CAPTURED is the latest in a set of standalone novels that have just all been fantastic, and I'm happy to report that CAPTURED keeps up the standard. When Kenny finds out he has a matter of weeks to live he draws up the sort of list that I guess many of us might draw up. People that he wants to clear the air with. He starts out tracking down the man who, as a little boy had been nearly abducted. Kenny had seen the suspect ... Read Review |