Sorted on book title (not in series order)
Crime Fiction
Softly Calls the Devil, Chris Blake
In 2018 a novel barnstormed its way into the Ngaio Marsh Awards with THE SOUND OF HER VOICE making it to double finalist in both the Best First and Best Novel categories. At the time I remember thinking this is an author with...Read more
Sold, Blair Denholm
You have to admire any author who doesn't just create a profoundly unlikeable protagonist but then grants them full permission to be as ordinary a human being as they can possibly be. In SOLD, Blair Denholm's creation, Gary Braswell is the sort of bloke that you'd be forgiven for belting...Read more
Soldier of Fortune, Edward Marston
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE is the first book featuring Captain Daniel Rawson, although the author has written at least 40 other crime novels, in a range of different groups set in four distinct periods of history.
This book opens with Daniel - the child - greeting his father on...Read more
Solo, William Boyd
As the first of the restarted Bond franchise novels that I've tackled I wasn't really sure what to expect. Especially as we've been doing a rewind of all of the movies recently so there's a certain perception of Bond jammed in my brain that's obviously going to take precedence over and...Read more
Somebody's Crying, Maureen McCarthy (review by sally906)
Three years ago Tom’s best friend Jonty was arrested for killing his aunt Lillian. Tom's father was the lawyer who got Jonty released as there was no evidence and the police case fell apart. Jonty doesn’t remember what happened....Read more
Someone Else's Skin, Sarah Hilary
Right from the commencement of SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN there's something extremely engaging about the protagonist DS Marnie Rome. Arriving at her parent's house, five years earlier, to the sight of ambulances and police outside, and the news that her parents are dead inside, it's not hard to...Read more
Something for Nothing, Andy Muir
As Australian as a dingy, and dead set likely to get himself into bother, Lachie Munro is a good bloke. Sure he's an abalone poacher, but only to pay off a lapse of concentration gambling debt. And sure he and his best mate Dave don't report the giant heroin haul they find when they are out...Read more
Something in the Waters, Kim M. Watt
The Beaufort Scales Mysteries are another paranormal cosy series from Kim M. Watt - this time with dragons. And tea and cakes, a dodgy water supply, endless rain, a water sprite called Nellie who has vanished, a battalion of furious geese (that one I can get behind, got one of those myself...Read more
Something is Rotten, Adam Sarafis
A collaborative effort, SOMETHING IS ROTTEN is the first book from New Zealand based pairing of Swedish-born novelist Linda Olsson and award-winning playwright Thomas Sainsbury writing as Adam Safaris.
A quick look at the blurb for this book might have you shaking your head a...Read more
The Son, Jo Nesbo
The second book I've read this year with a break out of jail plotline, which means nothing except in my mind. In THE SON, Sonny is a heroin addict, long term prisoner who escapes and goes on a retribution trail on behalf of his father. Simon Kefas is a police officer and husband haunted by...Read more
A Song for the Dying
He’s back...
Eight years ago, ‘The Inside Man’ murdered four women and left three more in critical condition—all of them with their stomachs slit open and a plastic doll stitched inside.
And then the killer just... disappeared.
Ash Henderson was a Detective...Read more
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No in Series:
2
Stored :
A Song for the Dying, Stuart MacBride
Said it before, should say it again. Will read anything Stuart MacBride publishes... eventually. And yes I know they are extremely violent, dark, with a warped sense of humour and slightly mad edge. What, therefore, is not to love.
A SONG FOR THE DYING isn't, however, a Logan...Read more
The Sound of Her Voice, Nathan Blackwell
Cop-turned novelist, Nathan Blackwell (true identity hidden due to covert police operations) has written a debut novel, THE SOUND OF HER VOICE, which is intense, unsparing, realistic, brutal and will stay with the reader for a long time.
Every year the Ngaio Marsh awards for New...Read more
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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Southern Aurora, Mark Brandi
Evoking a particularly poignant sense of the time period in which it is set, SOUTHERN AURORA is yet another pitch perfect book from Mark Brandi exploring intergenerational damage, domestic violence, small town and rural life and young boy's experiences - good and bad.
Raw,...Read more
Spare Me The Truth, C.J. Carver
Australian readers will probably remember C.J. Carver as Caroline Carver - writer of a series of Australian set books <cough> years ago. Recently, she's returned to notice writing under the name C.J. Carver - with a series of thrillers built around Dan Forrester, recently bereaved...Read more
Spider Light, Sarah Rayne
Antonia Weston, former psychiatrist has to try to rebuild her life, shattered by murder and obsession. When she is released from prison after serving her own sentence for manslaughter, her former boss finds her a small cottage to rent in the quiet village of Amberwood.
The...Read more
Spider Trap, Barry Maitland
The bodies of two young girls are found, shot and discarded in an old abandoned warehouse in the Cockpit Lane district in Brixton, London. Nearby the activity of the police investigation sparks the interest of a young schoolboy who is obsessed with a school myth about "Brown Bread" and an...Read more
Spiked, Bruce Melrose
When it comes to knowing anything at all about sport, if it's not cricket, then I'm the last person you want on your trivia team (and then only if you're really short of subject matter experts). The author of SPIKED, on the other hand, seems to know a lot about this environment,...Read more
The Spiral, Iain Ryan
Inventive and brutal, there are good reasons why Iain Ryan’s third novel is being talked about. Full review at Newtown Review of BooksRead more
Splinter, Michael MacConnell
One of the best things about a good thriller is when they present a scenario that could just possibly happen. The reader of SPLINTER has no trouble at all believing in the possibility of the kidnapping of the child of Hollywood celebrities; they can join in the initial rush of sympathy for...Read more
Spook Street
Twenty years retired, David Cartwright can still spot when the stoats are on his trail.
Radioactive secrets and unfinished business go with the territory on Spook Street: he's always known there would be an accounting. And he's not as defenceless as they might think....Read more
Series Name:
No in Series:
4
Status:
Stored :
Sprigs, Brannavan Gnanalingam
SPRIGS by Brannavan Gnanalingam is a searing expose of white, male privilege and the brazen underpinning of enablement and support that seemingly encourages, and if required, covers-up the actions of young men. Trigger Warning: It's about a gang rape, young men and an even younger victim....Read more
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, John Le Carre
Number 3 in the George Smiley series, probably the best known of the lot, just before listening to the audio of this we watched the Richard Burton / Claire Bloom movie version again after discovering it on one of the streaming service subscriptions in one of those late night, can't be...Read more
St Kilda Blues, Geoffrey McGeachin
ST KILDA BLUES is the third Charlie Berlin novel from dual Ned Kelly Award winning author Geoffrey McGeachin. Starting out just after WWII, this series is as much a character study of Charlie Berlin and the after affects of war, as it is a police procedural. It's the great strength of these...Read more
Stage Fright, Marianne Delacourt
The HK Monaro wormed it's way into my heart in 1968. Bathurst, Bruce McPhee, Hardie-Ferodo, pole position and the race lap record at that time. A life-long love of those cars was started on the lino of the kitchen in South-West Victoria, shouting at a dodgy TV telecast, enthralled. Sure, my...Read more
A Stain on the Silence, Andrew Taylor
James and Nicky are a happily married couple, no kids, new big fancy house, everything seemingly idyllic between them. Until the day that James receives a call on his mobile: “Jamie .... It's me!”. The only woman who has ever called him Jamie was Lily Murthington. When James was a young boy...Read more
The Stakes, Ben Sanders
THE STAKES is the latest noir thriller from NZ writer Ben Sanders, and it's a standout. Set once again in the US, this time NYPD detective Miles Keller is onto what he thinks is a pretty good idea; ripping off rich New York criminals, with a view to early, anonymous retirement. I mean...Read more
Stalin's Gold, Mark Ellis
The thing with really enjoyable review books that are part of a series is that there's no option but to go back and get the earlier books. Regardless of how teetering the current reading pile might be. Which is what happened here after finishing STALIN'S GOLD.
Interesting...Read more