Prior Violations, Jonathan MacPherson

Having been lucky enough to be offered a copy of PRIOR VIOLATIONS for review I was intrigued to see it come with it's own curated Spotify music list. Made for a particularly unusual reading experience although the music would probably mean more to fans of American TV and movies, nearly all...Read more

The Frenchman, Jack Beaumont

A spy thriller that's slightly different from the run of the mill "one man to save the world", there is much to like about THE FRENCHMAN.

For a start this is obviously a book written by an author who knows the reality of life as an intelligence service agent all too well. The...Read more

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Puzzle Me Dead, Kathy Childs

PUZZLE ME DEAD is the story of Careen Tamley, a survivor of the Clown Killer. On her nineteenth birthday, she survived a terrifying assault by a still unidentified serial killer, eleven other girls were not so lucky. Each murder scene included a card, numbered two to twelve. Careen moved on...Read more

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Tank Water, Michael Burge

Small towns, big secrets, inter-generational trauma, unquestioned deaths, fractured families, kids moving away and never returning, all the sorts of things that sound so very familiar to many of us who grew up in rural Australia from more recent history, back, unfortunately, for generations...Read more

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Caught Between, Jeannie McLean

Book 1 in a new series featuring Māori / Chinese character Tova Tan, the title of the novel - CAUGHT BETWEEN - is particularly apt. Tan's life is littered with dilemmas, from the dangerous lifestyle of her half-brother, and her desire to stay in touch, maybe help him; to wanting the truth...Read more

The Festival Killer, Jo McCready

The second novel in the RJ Rox series, THE FESTIVAL KILLER is a crime novel, with a rejected manuscript at its heart. The connection between the past unsolved case of an ambassador's secret love child going missing at the Berlin Book Festival, and subsequent disappearances from similar book...Read more

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The Source

One last chance to reveal the truth...

1996. Essex. Thirteen-year-old schoolgirl Carly lives in a disenfranchised town dominated by a military base, struggling to care for her baby sister while her mum sleeps off another binge. When her squaddie brother brings food and treats,...Read more

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Conviction, Frank Chalmers

Queensland, 1976, the town of Royalton and exiled Detective Ray Windsor, sent to the dying town in the state's west, feels like an alien in his own country. Royalton is ruled by corruption, populated by despair and an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, something that Windsor instantly has...Read more

Stone Town, Margaret Hickey

STONE TOWN by Margaret Hickey follows the story of the central character introduced in her (very good) debut novel CUTTERS END. Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti's moved from the South Australian outback back to his home town of Booralama. Since the death of his mother, he's living on his own in...Read more

The Death of John Lacey, Ben Hobson

As I was reading this novel, I was finishing the autobiography THIS MUCH IS TRUE by Miriam Margolyes in audio form and I was struck by the coincidence of some of the things that she says most powerfully and pointedly, about dehumanisation, the utter and abject cruelty of "Empire" and the...Read more

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A Rake of His Own, A.J. Lancaster

From the Blurb: Marius Valstar doesn’t know which is worse: the dead body in his greenhouse or the naked fae prince on his desk.

The only rakes of interest to Marius are garden tools. Not fae princes. Certainly not the arrogant, selfish fae prince he has the...Read more

Mole Creek, James Dunbar

Pete McAuslan is Vietnam Vet, and retired police officer, now holed up in the family's remote cabin near the small Tasmanian town of Mole Creek, writing his memoir. His grandson Xander is a Sydney based journalist, and they are close. So close that the shock of the death of Pete, and the...Read more

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São Paulo Noir, edited by Tony Bellotto

The Akashic Noir series is a brilliant idea (I have SYDNEY NOIR on the piles at present). The whole thing is a series of Noir styled short story collections from all around the world, launched originally in 2004 with BROOKLYN NOIR.

This collection of stories from Brazil is a...Read more

Halfway House, Helen FitzGerald

Helen FitzGerald is one of those authors who really knows how to write engaging and very offputting central characters that you care about, despite their obvious failings, flaws, and downright stupidity from time to time. As is the case in HALFWAY HOUSE where central character Lou O'Dowd is...Read more

The Woman on the Island, Ann Cleeves

A short story that is officially flagged as 9.5 in the Vera Stanhope series, this is another one of those serendipitous pickups from the BorrowBox catalogue when I was looking for a short story to fill in a bit of time.

Set up as the precursor to THE RISING TIDE, it introduces...Read more

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Leave the Girls Behind, Jacqueline Bublitz

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND is the latest offering from Jacqueline Bublitz, after the absolutely fascinating BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME. This is a different beast entirely, although it's again set in the USA, featuring a strong, unusual central female character.

Ruth-Ann Baker is a...Read more

The Hitchhiker, Gabriel Bergmoser

Fans of the Bee Gees might find themselves with psychological issues post reading or listening to THE HITCHHIKER. I'm not sure I'll hear the particular track that's on high rotation in the car at the centre of much of the action here without a slight twitch ever again to be honest....Read more

Nothing But Murders and Bloodshed and Hanging, Mary Fortune. Edited Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown

Between 1865 and 1910 Mary Fortune wrote over 500 crime stories, set in the Victorian goldfields, Melbourne and the outback. Published initially in newspapers and the like, they form the first detective fiction series written by a woman, although she was published under a series of pseudonyms hiding both her real identity and her gender from the wider world.Read more

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Cold Granite, Stuart MacBride

COLD GRANITE is one of those debut books that come along and slowly cause a stir of comment and discussion in crime fiction forums. So much commentary just makes you want to get that book that everyone is talking about, but at the same time you often wonder if there's a chance that it's all...Read more

Priest, Ken Bruen

Jack is in all sorts of self-inflicted trouble again. He's in hospital, severely affected by a nervous breakdown, after his negligence caused the death of someone very very important to him and his last close friends, when he's bought back from the brink by the kindness of another patient...Read more

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The Cutting Room, Louise Welsh

THE CUTTING ROOM is Louise Welsh's debut novel, published for the first time by Text Publishing in Australia in 2006.

Rilke's not exactly the archetypal hero accidental investigator. He's in his 40's; his personal hygiene is a bit offhand; he's an auctioneer for one of Glasgow'...Read more

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By Death Divided, Patricia Hall

BY DEATH DIVIDED is the 14th book in the Thackeray and Ackroyd series.  Laura Ackroyd is a journalist - her partner Michael Thackeray is a DCI.  Fitting the double central characters, BY DEATH DIVIDED has two main threads - a missing Asian woman and her husband (which Thackeray is...Read more

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Bright Air, Barry Maitland

Maitland has taken a break from his popular Brock and Kolla series with the release of BRIGHT AIR.  It opens with Josh, having recently returned to Sydney after working in London, still mourning the death of his girlfriend Luce, they had both been members of the University climbing club.  ...Read more

A Beautiful Place to Die, Malla Nunn

One thing that will strike readers of A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO DIE firmly between the eyes is how an apartheid society is so incredibly foreign from the ways in which others of us live.  That's not to say that there is an overtly "political" agenda in this book, rather the book does not take a...Read more

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Death Wore White, Jim Kelly

There's nothing better than a well-executed version of one of the good old staples of crime fiction - a twist on the locked room scenario.

DEATH WORE WHITE is the first in a new series from CWA Dagger Winner Jim Kelly, an author well known for his ongoing Philip Dryden books. ...Read more

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