Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Syd Fish is a failed journalist, sacked political minder and start up private investigator on the "mean" streets of Sydney.
Shaved Fish is a series of short stories which introduce the reader to the laconic, bumbling, accidental PI.
There's a good touch of humour...Read more
SHE BE DAMNED is the opening salvo in an new series set in London in the 1860's featuring courtesan and professional detective Heloise Chancey. If this opening is anything to go by then this will be a fun, engaging and very lively group of novels.
Given this is the debut, there...Read more
This year I promised myself a read through of the entire Pushkin Vertigo series, starting out with SHE WHO WAS NO MORE by Pierre Boileau and Pierre Ayraud (aka Thomas Narcejac), originally published in 1952. Collaborating as they did on mainly police stories I found the idea that Boilea was...Read more
Every now and then we meet a literary villain who is both villain and victim. Meet Bella, a young woman who does not take kindly to being sidelined or left behind. You might recognize her. Someone who once worked in your office. Someone who once dated one of your friends. Someone you’d...Read more
Sheerwater is an emotionally charged work of both hope and despair, beginnings and endings. Calling this book a thriller won’t be doing it a disservice, but it may give the expectation to the reader that they are about to dive into a work of suspense with no lingering take-homes to mull...Read more
Following up very closely behind Milligan's debut novel PHEASANT'S NEST, SHELLYBANKS features the same main character, journalist Kate Delaney, and many of the same themes - violence and abuse of women, the PTSD and long-term affects of that on victims,...Read more
In essence a chase novel, Shepherd is also a confidently pitched work about something just a little different. There’s not a lot written that is set in this time, being the settler years of Australia, so that alone is something of a literary hook and grab for a young reader to pick up this...Read more
Have had this one in the reading queues for quite a while now, so when an audio version of it appeared, read by New Zealander, Eva Seymour, I jumped at it. There's nothing like hearing the Māori language pronounced the way it should be.
A dystopian eco-thriller, SHE'S A KILLER...Read more
“I step over the threshold. The day is drawing in and the room is shadowy, so it’s not until Mac snaps on the light that I see it. I almost trip over a coffee table in my rush to get to the fireplace or, more specifically, the painting hanging over the marble mantelpiece....Read more
The third book in the Alex Clayton Art Mystery series sees a shift of setting to the Western District of Victoria and one of those big pastoral leases that were such a part of the landscape down there. The title of the novel "The Shifting Landscape" is quite cleverly pitched referring as it...Read more
The second book in the historical series featuring Sergeant Akai Singh, A SHIPWRECK IN FIJI follows on from A DISAPPEARANCE IN FIJI. This series makes for particularly interesting reading if you're aware of the motivation behind the books, which...Read more
I've been a big fan of the Stella Hardy series (GOOD MONEY, TOO EASY and now SHOOT THROUGH), and I will admit that the setting of this one appealed enormously - what with Stella returning to the...Read more
A most unexpected combination of noir and comic/cartoonish stylings, SHOOTING MESSENGERS is the opening salvo in a series tagged as Quake City Investigations. Launching pretty well straight into the action, readers are introduced to two main investigating characters - PI Danny Ashford and...Read more
Frank Calder is a bit of a maverick. Ex-cop / ex-soldier - current day "mediator". He's the sort of bloke that gets called in to sticky situations where unusual solutions are required. He's worked for the Carsons before. When a crazed gunman took store staff hostage, Frank wandered into...Read more
In May 2019 Text Publishing announced their Text Classics version of Peter Temple's SHOOTING STAR, two decades on from the original release date.
It's well worth getting hold of a copy of this edition for Adrian McKinty's introduction alone, as it gives real insight into the...Read more
SHORE LEAVE is the fourth novel in the Frank Swann series. Frank's an ex-cop, now private investigator in 1970's / 80's Perth and Fremantle. In this outing it's 1989 and the Yanks are in town, and with the arrival of a huge US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, there are lots of sailors on...Read more
The second of the Jennifer Shot series I've read, SHOT THROUGH THE HEART is Australian crime fiction of the humorous, slightly dippy female protagonist kind. The sort of girl (and that's appropriate in this case) that lives a quirky alternative lifestyle (this time in an old multi-storied...Read more
There’s not a lot of crime fiction around, unfortunately, for readers who prefer a heist / non-death scenario, but SHWEDAGON is one that delivers exactly that. Author Noleen Jordan’s taken an unusual approach with this novel and, in the main, come up with something that’s engaging, and a...Read more
SIGN OF THE CROSS is the second Spike Sanguinetti novel, in a series that really does need to be read in order. Not that it's any trial to have to do so, as this is shaping up to be a standout.
It's not just the brutality of the murder, there's a fundamental sombreness about...Read more
Garry Disher has two successful major crime series out – very different from each other, both of the highest possible standard. Full Review At ...Read more
THE SIGNATORY is a thriller set in and around an Australian advertising agency, leaving this reviewer wondering if there's an argument that crime fiction set in the corporate / business world is under-represented. On the face of it, perhaps an unlikely setting, but then again, there are...Read more
Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's something happened in Australian Crime Fiction, or at least in this reader's awareness. A lot of local authors started to gain some traction in book shops, many of whom were women. Jean Bedford was one of these authors, originally releasing her Anna...Read more
Because SILENCE is the second of the Detective Kimmo Joentaa series, I read it third. (Rebellious you may well think, not paying attention is a much better explanation).
One of the things that I most love about these three books - ICE MOON, SILENCE and THE WINTER OF THE LIONS...Read more
It's odd, the things that can occur to you when you're reading books. In the case of SILENT FEAR I just could not stop thinking how glad I was to be a reader and not a writer. Honestly, how do these people come up with such consistently good characters and excellent plots? Howell makes...Read more
THE SILENT INHERITANCE strides with purpose for the bulk of the novel as the field narrows and possibilities are discarded. There are a number of separate narratives running alongside each other. The characters are somewhat of a curious yet dispassionate bunch. As a result, readers...Read more
After coming to love the regular January Cliff Hardy fix it was a happy day when SILENT KILL arrived. Reading blurbs though can sometimes be problematic and so it was with this one, and the reference to a "rogue intelligence agent". Recently that seems to have been code for "no idea how to...Read more
Alicia and Gabriel were once that sparkling young couple who appeared to be dazzlingly in love with life and totally bedazzled by each other. The envy of all who knew them, the darlings of the art world to boot. Such charmed lives some couples seem to lead. It is often said that...Read more
The Emmanuel Cooper books by Malla Nunn, set in 1950's South Africa, are another excellent series in what is luckily now becoming a bigger range of crime fiction set in various parts of Africa. SILENT VALLEY (aka BLESSED ARE THE DEAD) is the third book now, centred around Detective Sergeant...Read more
SILK CHASER is the third novel set within the Australian Racing Industry by ex-strapper, trainer and punter Peter Klein. These books, unsurprisingly, have a fantastic sense of place and reality within that setting, covering the difficulties and vagaries of the Sport of Kings from exactly...Read more
Sometimes I wonder if a book gets filed under "will get around to that" because of some sort of subconscious reaction to the blurb. I'm going with that. Makes me feel somewhat less daft than if I confessed that I put THE SILVER DAGGER down on a stack of unread books and then promptly forgot...Read more