Sorted on book title (not in series order)
THE SISTERS' LOVER is an engaging, slightly quirky historical fiction novel set mostly within Australia. Starting out in post war 1950, Flis, Australian by birth, is returning to the family property after many years in Wellington, New Zealand. Flis hasn't been in contact with her younger...Read more
Flagged as a prequel to McTiernan's acclaimed THE RUIN, THE SISTERS is an audible only novella, set 10 years before the first Cormack Reilly book THE RUIN, which was followed by THE SCHOLAR. McTiernan's two series books have met with considerable acclaim in all parts, and THE SISTERS is...Read more
A radio play available on Audible, this was one of those "why not" picks from the list when I was looking for something to listen to a while ago. Told in a series of short episodes with lots of lead in music, lots of noise and drama, and a reasonably good cast in terms of being...Read more
SIX FOUR is one of those books that demands considerable commitment from readers. At a whopping 656 pages, it's a considerable weight to be holding onto for a long period of time, which you will be, as it's a very detailed, dense and potentially frustrating read.
A form of...Read more
A comedic styled novel tending almost towards satire, which you'll get from title, even before you've even cracked open the spine. SIX MURDERS (for short) is the tale of the weird life of Ponytail O'Gorman - a charming old-style fraudster - who somehow convinced a couple of everyday people...Read more
For the uninitiated, Matthew Reilly does not write crime. He does not write thrillers. Matthew Reilly writes ACTION. Think Indiana Jones with a healthy dose of Die Hard and you'll start to get the idea. Character development just slows down the plot too much. As always, Reilly is...Read more
Matthew Reilly was born in 1974. He is of a generation who grew up on a diet of action blockbuster movies. Reading THE SIX SACRED STONES is like reading a screenplay for one of these movies. The characters careen from one life threatening situation to another at a breakneck speed. There...Read more
The six adult children of Frazer Lattimer have an entire childhood of fraught experiences to draw upon for examples of bad parenting. Their mother, Kathleen Lattimer, was an utter saint though and often served as a buffer between her overbearing husband and their three sons and three...Read more
THE SKELETON MAN is the fifth novel in this series - "starring" Philip Dryden, journalist - once Fleet Street luminary, now small-town newspaper man, and I have to confess this is a favourite series of mine. Not because the books are edgy, or dark or particularly enlightening of the human...Read more
SKIN AND BONE has all the elements of a good crime novel. Well-developed characters: a suitably absorbing plot with intertwining threads and enough clues to allow the reader to solve the mystery.
Kathryn Fox’s first two novels (Malicious Intent and Without Consent) featured Dr...Read more
Tom Bale, it seems, is a pseudonym for David Harrison who wrote SINS OF THE FATHER in 2006, which goes some way to explaining the deftness of touch in this crime fiction thriller. It may also go some way to explaining how the author has managed to install an almost cinematic feel to the...Read more
A paranormal crime thriller with a blokey sensibility, Skin Deep is set in a Brisbane still dealing with the after-effects of many years of Joh rule. Harry Hendrick is a man of his time and circumstance. A journalist by training,...Read more
SKINJOB started out as a self-published novel before being picked up by Random House / Bantam Press. A techno-thriller this is a cross-genre story putting many of the standard aspects of classic crime fiction into a Science Fiction / futuristic setting.
The central theme of the...Read more
Mounted Trooper Augustus Hawkins was introduced to readers in Fioretti's first novel, BONE LANDS. Returned from active service in the Boer War, he's scarred physically and mentally, tortured by what happened in combat, damaged again by the love he found in the first novel having been...Read more
The Dr Siri series has probably got to the stage where new readers will have that odd feeling - you know the one - when you walk into a theme party with no idea what the theme is. Or who most of the people at the bar are....
For fans of the series, there's absolutely nothing...Read more
On the cover of THE SLEEPING DRAGON, Miyuki Miyabe is noted as Japan's Number 1 bestselling Mystery Writer, known for her ability to write strong suspense novels. Which made this particular book an interesting prospect, even allowing for the inclusion of an ESP sub-thread which isn't often...Read more
I don't want to start any arguments here, but my mind-reading chook is an Australorp, currently known as "Underfoot", although a renaming ceremony is now on the cards. I've always been convinced she was a mind reader, although I'm pretty sure there's been no laboratory accidents in her...Read more
'Kill us? They've never needed to kill us,' said Lamb. 'I mean, look at us. What would be the point?'
A year after a calamitous blunder by the Russian secret service left a British citizen dead from novichok poisoning, Diana Taverner is on the warpath. What seems a gutless...Read more
Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River...Read more
Been very intrigued by this series for the longest time, and I'm so glad I finally remembered to add it to the audio queue. Probably been mentioned lots before, but this felt very much like a worthy successor to the espionage thriller crown that sat atop John Le Carre's head for many many...Read more
THE SLOW ROLL is New Zealand based author Simon Lendrum's debut novel, which is worth mentioning because readers could be mistaken for thinking this is one of many. Engrossing, with a well constructed plot, a very engaging couple of central characters, and a dry, almost melancholic style,...Read more
SMALL MERCIES by Richard Anderson is one of those books that should be mandatory reading for all Australians. I certainly hope somebody in education circles SERIOUSLY contemplates putting it into English syllabuses as I don't think most city based Australian's have a clue about the mind...Read more
A large part of the attraction of these novels is the wonderfully grumpy, slightly eccentric, marvellously self-involved Inspector Montalbano. And the food - the meals that Montalbano insists on partaking on a regular basis are frankly, almost obscenely fantastic. Of course, for the books...Read more
SMOKE & MIRRORS is the second Canberra based novel to feature Australian Federal Policeman Brad Chen. Ex-football star, Chinese extraction, first name Bradman - Chen is not exactly a normal policeman. For a start he's almost constantly injured. He pops pain pills like the rest of us...Read more
There is little sympathy to be found anywhere for a man who beats his wife. Caleb Moore finds this out soon enough into his stay in prison, convicted for the assault that has finally severed his shaky marriage to Melissa. The prison staff are fine with turning a blind eye to a little lay...Read more
THE SNOW THIEF is set in Tibet, with a Chinese Detective as it's central character, fighting her bosses for permission to look into the mysterious deaths of multiple little boys. It's a story of murder, a serial killer, stalking the entire country, obviously killing to a pattern, but it's...Read more
Beautifully written, SNOWBLIND comes with great characters; a wonderful sense of place; a cleverly constructed plot; and that introspective, claustrophobic feeling that often appeals to fans of Icelandic and Scandinavian crime fiction. Coupled with a lyrical translation by Quentin Bates...Read more
Brief commentary, rather than a full review.
Read for our f2f bookclub, every book by Jo Nesbø reminds you to read the rest of the series.
It's partially the way that the balance between atmosphere, plot and character is maintained so elegantly. It's partially the...Read more
The return of Maggie Byrnes, heroine of Murder in the Telephone Exchange, finds her married, with a young son, and living in an outer Melbourne suburb. But violent death dogs her footsteps even in apparently tranquil Middleburn. It’s perhaps not that much of a surprise when widely disliked...Read more