Sorted on book title (not in series order)
1945 - World War 2 is over, and TRUTH DARE KILL is another book set in a post-war period that I've read recently. Set in London, this is the story of Danny McRae, an ex-policeman who has returned from the war after being captured by the Germans, incurring a severe head injury in the...Read more
In THE TRUTH WILL OUT, author Jane Isaac has created the beginnings of a classic British police procedural series. At the heart of the book is DCI Helen Lavery, a cop leading a team of murder investigators. She's a widow with two teenage sons, living in a shared caring arrangement with her...Read more
TRUTH by Peter Temple is probably the most keenly anticipated novel in this house for many years. Let's get the verdict out of the way right up front so there's absolutely no doubt - it did not disappoint. Not in any way.
TRUTH has been "billed" as the follow up to the...Read more
TUNNEL VISION is the follow up novel to PERFECT CRIMINALS which unleashed Danny Clay and his neighbour, friend, sidekick, he would / if she would romantic interest, Zan on the world. Danny's an ex-army sapper, now scriptwriter, veteran of many battles - in war and peace. Zan's the daughter...Read more
Alan Turing develops a machine he calls Nautilus that can send messages back in time. He uses it to fix a disastrous D-Day that threatens to lengthen the war and see Hitler triumph. Seeing the power and potential, he decides that it can only be entrusted to family. For Alan this means his...Read more
It must be quite an experience for an author to start out on the long cycle of writing a book about crime and corruption in the financial system, and then, just as you complete the manuscript, have real life intercede in apropos fashion. As Neil A. White puts it on his website:...Read more
The opening salvo in a new detective series based around Jake Shaw, TURNING POINT is set in the US, written by a Kiwi author and published by a New Caledonian based company. Which unlikely series of events has come together to create a multi-threaded thriller styled novel with some very...Read more
Back in the 1970's there was discussion, debate and disagreement about the likelihood of Croatian extremists operating in Australia, and whether or not there was any involvement by the Communist Yugoslavian Government. Tony Jones, ABC Journalist and Q&A host apparently raised this topic...Read more
THE TWILIGHT TIME is the debut novel from ex-cop Karen Campbell - featuring Sergeant Anna Cameron as the central character. In 2009 Campbell won Best New Scottish Writer at the Scottish Variety Awards, and there is now a second book out: After the Fire, which switches the viewpoint to two...Read more
The second novel in the Constable Sammi Willis series, THE TWISTED KNOT, has Sammi returning to work after a close shave with death in the first novel (which you don't have to have read to get this one, but it wouldn't hurt).
Life back at work isn't easy though, and she's...Read more
It’s not only the guilty who have something to hide.
When charity worker Cate and website designer Rory, a married couple in their thirties, return from their European holiday, they make a nightmare discovery. Their credit cards...Read more
Set in Dunedin, New Zealand, local writer Jane Woodham obviously loves the place that she lives in. Incorporating a lot of local landmarks, geographical elements and a strong sense of place, TWISTER is her debut novel featuring DSS Leo Judd and a series of investigations into everything...Read more
Current readers of TWO DAYS will be greatly relieved to know that DRAINLAND (Book 1) was released in early August 2016 because this novella is the prequel and it would be very unfair if we had to wait for the full show.
Iain Ryan does a particularly good job when it comes to...Read more
Part of "The Community" series, which is made of up THE SECRET COMMUNITY, THE ETERNAL COMMUNITY (I may have the order of these slightly squiffy sorry) and THE ULTIMATE COMMUNITY. This one is the story of Alice Parker - who I believe is a character from the earlier novels. This is most...Read more
UNBLESSED is the latest in the Jane Halifax series of books, featuring the TV series character of the same name. A forensic psychologist, Halifax has worked with all sorts of criminal types - from serial to opportunistic killers, and in the last book, herself, when she suffers from sudden...Read more
This unpredictable legal thriller is no courtroom drama and brims with action.
The first novel in this series,...Read more
First in the series "The Notting Hill Mysteries" originally published in 1992, An Uncommon Murder introduces Alex Tanner is another entrant in a long tradition of accidental investigators, although working, as she does, as a freelance researcher - this time for a possible magazine article...Read more
Dick Francis has been a hugely successful author over a period of thirty years and has a devoted following. It has been many years since I read any of his novels which I used to enjoy. However, I found myself struggling with UNDER ORDERS. I’m not sure if my tastes have changed or if Mr...Read more
Cold-case detectives are everywhere these days, but the latest creation from Garry Disher, Alan Auhl, is not as straightforward as some might expect. Full review at ...Read more
This is a very polished work from a debut author. Nora is quite alone in her new reality despite all the new people she now has to deal with as the investigation into the killing develops. Author Flynn Berry has nailed that sense of being alone in a crowded room, as we see Nora struggles to...Read more
There's absolutely nothing better in Australian Crime fiction than a short, sharp burst of Cliff Hardy in his prime. And THE UNDERTOW has all those elements that fans of the hard-boiled, down-trodden; put upon; unlucky in love; hard man; unflinching good guy - only slightly dodgy around...Read more
It’s going to be impossible to talk about THE UNEXPECTED INHERITANCE OF INSPECTOR CHOPRA without comparing the style of writing with Alexander McCall-Smith and the central character with Poirot, but I’d also throw in Inspector Singh from Shamini Flint’s excellent Inspector Singh...Read more
The unaware, vaguely idiotic central character provides a deep mine of material for any type of slightly tongue in cheek story-telling, and UNFAITHFUL UNTO DEATH uses the premises in setting up Dr Cyril Peabody from the outset of the novel. Cyril is perpetually disappointed in life. He has...Read more
Sri Lanka, 2009. Decades of civil war and bloodshed are being brought to an end at last—by any means necessary. In the capital, Colombo, tenacious journalist Ameena Fernando is murdered, execution-style, on a busy street near her home, with no witnesses.
With...Read more
Based on a true story, set in the Victorian Goldfields in the 1860's, THE UNFORTUNATE VICTIM is part fiction, part reminder that life in those days, particularly for women, was not easy, pleasant or fair. When the body of young newly-wed Maggie Stuart is found in the home she shares with...Read more
The second novel in the Monsarrat series, THE UNMOURNED is set in Sydney, based around the Parramatta Female Factory - the epitome of appalling institutions in a line up that you'd think would be hard to lead.
The investigator in this series is ticket-of-leave recipient,...Read more
The fourth book in the Cormac Reilly series from Irish / Australian author Dervla McTiernan, has a series of strange deaths in bogs near Galway as the central focus, with a sideline in Reilly trying to find an Irishman missing in Paris, and some potential career changes for him and his...Read more
If you ever need to sum up UNRAVELLING OLIVER by Liz Nugent in one word then mesmerising is it. It starts out with the serious assault of Alice by her husband Oliver Ryan and then steps back through the previous five decades, charting the events in Oliver’s life leading up to the assault....Read more
I got confused which is nothing, absolutely nothing, new. But one night, for some reason, I plucked THE INNER CIRCLE by Mari Jungstedt from the stacks, and started reading. Then I got quite convinced I'd already read the book. So I went to check and found UNSEEN, which I then re-read,...Read more
Up front, it was utterly impossible to avoid comparisons with McCarthy's THE ROAD right from the start of this novel, so I gave up trying not to. Dystopian in nature, thriller in intent, UNSHELTERED is yet another one of those novels that I suspect will spark widely different reactions, and...Read more