Crime Fiction

AN ISOLATED INCIDENT is one of those books I've been trying to read for a ridiculously long time now, so being able to finally get to it in the context of our f2f bookclub gathering was an added bonus.

This is such a fascinating book, one that worked particularly well for our...Read more

THE JACK IRISH QUINELLA brings together the first two (of the present four) books in Peter Temple's Jack Irish Series. Both books were originally published in 1996 and 1999 respectively.

Jack calls himself a suburban solicitor, although these days he mostly...Read more

THE JADED SPY is the second in the Jaded Trilogy (the first being THE JADED KIWI), a series of stand-alone-ish (so far) manic thrillers with a strong sense of tongue-in-cheek humour and sense of place and time. Set in 1976 the earlier book concentrated on the war on drugs in New Zealand....Read more

It's been a long time since I was eight years old, and I did grow up in the time of Trixie Belden, The Famous Five and Alfred Hitchcock mysteries, so JANE BLONDE SENSATIONAL SPYLET has come as more than a bit of a surprise.  

I can see that the idea of plain mousey little Janey...Read more

Somebody called Jess Lowther has been demanding that I post reviews of a couple of Mike Boshier's books that were entered in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards. These reviews have been queued up on the site for sometime now, and I've been resisting posting them as there's nothing much I can...Read more

JUST PLAY ALONG is Megan Daymond's debut novel, and she's taken on quite confrontational subject matter. A double date that turns into a snuff film, with one of the girls fighting back and killing one of the attackers in the struggle to survive. From there things go from bad to worse as...Read more

Along with a lot of other readers around the same age, I started out reading Espionage thrillers with John le Carré's George Smiley, Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne, Ian Fleming's James Bond and the novels of Frederick Forsyth and Len Deighton. George Smiley was always a particular favourite,...Read more

The winner of the 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award for Younger Readers, KATIPO JOE is an almost pitch perfect vehicle for older kids (12+) to get some insights into the reality of war, and how identity can come with consequences, and loyalty is hard.

A 12 year old New Zealand boy living...Read more

There's a new Wyatt on the way, and that means it's as good a time as any to do a little tidying up of the back catalogue.

Wyatt is a very careful man, because he has to be.  Wyatt robs banks, lifts payrolls, gets girls, leaves girls, lives the life of a loner, trusts few,...Read more

Plan for the best, expect the worst, note the exit points.

Good bit of general life advice this, although at the time Wyatt is standing, motionless, waiting for any signs his entry into the house he's about to rob has been noticed. Perhaps not...Read more

KILL YOURS, KILL MINE (aka SEVEN SISTERS) is a standalone novel from Katherine Kovacic, a beautifully written, powerful, provocative take on the concept of justice and vengeance, coming from a place of grief, guilt and the failure of the justice system. It's based around the deaths of women...Read more

This review is ridiculously and embarrassingly overdue. The notes for it have been sitting in my queue for way too long, especially as I have always been sorely tempted to gobble read anything by this author as soon as I can get my hands on it. He's one of those authors that knows how to...Read more

I'm starting to wonder if it's become mandatory for ex-SAS or other special forces members to leave active duty and write books. It seems that there are a lot of options for this sort of informed thriller style book, but you'll need to be partial to something that includes a military theme...Read more