Sorted on book title (not in series order)

Crime Fiction

The Chain, Adrian McKinty

Rachel Klein is going about her day when a phone call she receives sends her straight into the pits of parental hell.

Rachel’s daughter Kylie has been kidnapped and there is more than just a money ransom that needs to be paid in order for Kylie to be returned safely to her. ...Read more

The Chalk Circle Man, Fred Vargas

THE CHALK CIRCLE MAN is the first book in the Adamsberg series by French writer Fred Vargas.  As they have been translated out of series order, fans of this fantastic set of books know Adamsberg well by now, without having had the chance to be in at the beginning so to speak.  This release...Read more

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Chasing the Ace, Nicholas J. Johnson

"The Honest Conman" (aka Nicholas J Johnson) used to do a warning segment on scams and frauds on ABC Local Radio, but it was a pleasant surprise to find he'd written a heist / scam novel. Needless to say his debut novel, CHASING THE ACE, reads like the author knows a lot about the subject...Read more

Chasing the Dragon, Mark Wightman

The second DI Maximo Betancourt novel, set in 1940's Singapore, CHASING THE DRAGON continues his story in close follow on from the earlier novel - WAKING THE TIGER. This novel could work as a standalone, but as with anything where the focus is on a main character, it's probably best to read...Read more

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The Chasm, Bronwyn Hall

The second novel from author Bronwyn Hall, THE CHASM is set in and around a fictional small town in Victoria's rugged mountains. Andy King has returned to Stonefield 10 years after her boyfriend, Will Hoffman, disappeared without a trace, something all the locals blamed her for. Despite the...Read more

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Cheaters, J.R. Carroll

J R Carroll writes a really lively combination of gangster thriller crime fiction. Set in and around Melbourne there have been a few books which are a series - using the same characters and a lot that are standalone.

CHEATERS is one of the standalones thus far, or at least,...Read more

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Chelsea Mansions, Barry Maitland

With any long term series, it's not surprising to see an author rejigging the relationships just a little, bringing in new perspectives or adjusting the expectations.  CHELSEA MANSIONS is the ninth Brock and Kolla book from Barry Maitland, and in the last book there were hints that there is...Read more

Cherry Pie, Leigh Redhead

CHERRY PIE is the third book in the Simone Kirsch series, which takes a slightly darker, more edgy direction than the first two.

Working to raise the cash for the gadgetry needed to start her own Private Investigator business, Simone is sidetracked by a desperate phone message...Read more

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Child 44, Tom Rob Smith

CHILD 44 is the debut novel for Tom Rob Smith, set in the dying days of Stalin's Soviet dream society, inspired by a real-life serial killer.

Starting in 1933, with villages of people starving to death in a desperate winter, the opening chapter of CHILD 44 deeply underscores...Read more

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The Child Next Door, Shalini Boland

The fear factor of the baby monitor interference is deliciously creepy and so from the very first chapter of THE CHILD NEXT DOOR we know that we are in for a fun ride.  Author Shalini Boland has the gift for the quick hook and jerk and it is employed here successfully once again in her...Read more

The Children's Pond, Tina Shaw

THE CHILDREN'S POND is a debut crime novel for NZ author Tina Shaw, a well-known writer in her native New Zealand, it's written with the authority of an experienced author. Especially as it puts a city girl, moved to the country to be closer to her son in jail; somebody with a dodgy dating...Read more

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The Chilling, Riley James

This was one of those fortuitous picks from the library (I know I should be attending to the visible from space TBR here, but something about this book appealed when I heard a whisper about it, and sometimes giving into a little bit of temptation is... good for morale). Anyway, I saw this...Read more

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The Chinese Jar

A man is found poisoned at the foot of Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment, apparently having taken his own life. His identity is a mystery that Octavius Rixton (alias Octavius Fanks, detective) is determined to solve. A mysterious cryptogram leads Fanks to believe that oriental...Read more

The Choke, Sofie Laguna

Justine Lee is a little girl surrounded by males. Justine's mother abandoned the family many years ago, and her father Ray is in and out of his children's lives, leaving the main responsibility for raising Justine and her brothers to their grandfather. When Ray is around his criminal...Read more

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City of Animals, Alan Mills

CITY OF ANIMALS is set in Sydney, in and around the Royal Prince Albert Zoo, which actually doesn't exist but bears a striking resemblance physically to the real Taronga Zoo. Let's hope that the resemblance ends there.

New zoo director, Dr James Rivers is struggling with his...Read more

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The City of Blood, Frédérique Molay

The third novel in the Paris Homicide Series, THE CITY OF BLOOD sees Chief of Police Nico Sirsky trying to solve a 30 year old murder, whilst his mother is desperately ill in hospital.

Readers of either of the earlier two novels will know that Sirsky is one of those wonderful...Read more

City of Lost Girls, Declan Hughes

Okay, so having finally worked out that this review has never actually made it into the light of day, for reasons which, well no reason. Let's just say idiocy on my part and move on.

CITY OF THE LOST GIRLS deserves much better attention than I've given it. The fifth book in the...Read more

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City of Vengeance, D.V. Bishop

The debut novel in a series featuring Cesare Aldo, former soldier, now an officer in the city's most feared criminal court, CITY OF VENGEANCE is set during the winter of 1536 in Florence, Italy. At that time Florence was a wealthy and influential city, ruled over by the Duke Alessandro de...Read more

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City Without Stars, Tim Baker

Dark humour, brutal murder, appalling degradation, unrelenting poverty and corrupt law enforcement all combine to create something challenging, and thought-provoking in CITY WITHOUT STARS. Following on from his first novel FEVER CITY (shortlisted for the CWA's John Creasey New Blood Dagger...Read more

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Class Act, Ged Gillmore

Book two in the Bill Murdoch series, CLASS ACT follows up almost immediately from the action in the first outing, HEADLAND. This series, now up to three novels with the release of BASE NATURE in 2018, is well worth getting into.

Set in small-town, seaside New South Wales, based...Read more

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Claustrophobia, Tracy Ryan

Using a title like CLAUSTROPHOBIA obviously sets certain expectations for readers, which luckily, in this outing are uncomfortably well imagined. There's something incredibly claustrophobic about everything to do with this book. The enclosed, world that the two main characters Pen and her...Read more

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Clean Cut, Lynda La Plante

CLEAN CUT is the third book in the Anna Travis series, based in London and La Plante knows how to write real female characters, and she's not afraid to make them likable and profoundly irritating all at the same time.

In CLEAN CUT, the spark that started between Anna and her...Read more

The Cleaner, Paul Cleave

The Cleaner is Christchurch, New Zealand based Paul Cleave's debut novel. Set in Christchurch where at one point Joe, the central character, muses that the biggest crime in Christchurch City - apart from the fashion and the Old English Architecture, glue-sniffing, too much greenery, bad...Read more

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Clear to the Horizon, Dave Warner

Back in the late 1970's Dave Warner released music that became part of the soundtrack of my life. When I discovered CITY OF LIGHT, MURDER IN THE FRAME, EXXXPRESSO and other books by him in the late 1990's / early 2000's I was more than a bit chuffed to think a musical hero was also a lover...Read more

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Clinch, Martin Holmén

Ultra-gritty describes the 1930's Stockholm that Harry Kvist occupies, as well as Kvist himself. To say nothing of the people that he mixes with. It's a beautifully evoked  world of dark and despair, littered with violent sexual encounters, drinking, and oddly, an unexpected love affair of...Read more

The Clock Struck One

Julian Edermont lives at the Red House with his ward, Dora Carew and his old friend, Lambert Joad. But things are amiss at the House. First, Edermont suffers a panic attack at church, during the section of the Litany that prays for deliverance from murder and sudden death. Then, he has a...Read more

Close to the Bone, Stuart MacBride

Look, let's just admit that I'm a huge fan of this series and get it over and done with. Love DI Steel, love her glorious over the topness, love McRae's constant sooking and all being put upon. Love the madness of the world in which they have to try to operate as functioning police members...Read more

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