Sorted on book title (not in series order)
When a man like Ihaka hears there are questions about the death of his father of course it will be front of mind. Just as the unsolved murder of a young girl on election night 1987 preys on the mind of his boss Finbar McGrail. It goes without saying that Ihaka is going to start kicking over...Read more
This is one of those books that the blurb will give you a very good feel for the style (and there is a lot of style here) of story-telling deployed. THE FELL I can best describe as a stream of conscious coming of age novel that's light on punctuation, and big on the angst, challenge and...Read more
The second novel in the RJ Rox series, THE FESTIVAL KILLER is a crime novel, with a rejected manuscript at its heart. The connection between the past unsolved case of an ambassador's secret love child going missing at the Berlin Book Festival, and subsequent disappearances from similar book...Read more
A sequel to THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUB and THE VANISHING ACT, THE FINAL CALL is set in 1979 (10 or so years after THE VANISHING ACT) located in Remuera New Zealand, where Rita Saunders is the boss at The Gentlemen's Club, a high class brothel. Rita's more than a madam to her girls though, and the...Read more
The 4th Theodore Tate novel, FIVE MINUTES ALONE sees author Paul Cleave continuing to pull together connections from many of his previous novels - this series and the Christchurch Carver books. Must admit some of these connections, and the continuation in these books fascinate this reader....Read more
This book should have come with a warning - I mean a blurb that simply said 'Lawyers, drugs, deaths, and sneakiness, in New Zealand.' just doesn't cut it.
It should have mentioned:
The 3rd book in the Hunter Grant series, FOLDED sees Hunter and Dao reluctantly pulled into the darkweb and dangerous human traffickers.
After office-worker Grace finds a series of calls for help, folded in tiny origami shapes, dropped outside a high-rise city apartment...Read more
THE FORGER AND THE THIEF takes touches of the mystical (as you'd expect from this author) and builds them into an historical mystery thriller framework in a particularly successful, and extremely atmospheric novel about, in the main, emotional betrayal and lies, set in 1960's Florence....Read more
Wellington, 1923, and a sixty-year-old woman hangs herself in a scullery; ten years later another woman ‘falls’ from the second floor of a Taranaki tobacconist; soon afterwards a young mother in Taumarunui slices the throat of her newborn with a cleaver.
...Read more
The third book now in the Nick Chester series set in New Zealand, this is a police procedural that uses sense of place and great characters as it's starting point, drawing them into nicely twisty plots that rely heavily on location to give them that little extra something.
The...Read more
From the author of Once Were Warriors, FREDERICK'S COAT is equally as surprising, challenging, moving and profoundly affecting. It's also particularly unusual in that it looks past the crime, the investigation and jail time to a life that is being rebuilt.
Johno comes from a...Read more
The third Cal Nyx novel, THE FREEZER, would possibly work as a standalone, but the connections between this and the second novel, THE QUARRY in particular, make the characters here make a lot more sense. Nyx and her partner, DI Liz Scobie, her...Read more
Still juggling, still not getting enough books read. Not the worst problem, I've got, but apologies, as always to the authors and...Read more
This update is bought to you a day early because of the Easter Break which, this year, I hope will be focused on reading, in the spirit of...Read more
Took a break over the first week in March so I'll backdate this post but it's not going live until Tuesday the 10th. So the reader need...Read more
This update is bought to you in the aftermath of an Easter break where not enough reading got done. To be honest, not a lot of anything...Read more
I hope that, because it's Friday the 13th, my current streak of looking vaguely like I'm catching up doesn't end in a screaming heap....Read more
The days are definitely shortening now which means the Spring Classics bike racing is in full swing, which means no sleep and a freaked...Read more
I missed posting the last couple of Friday updates due to other unplanned commitments, and given...Read more
Still managing to not read enough books. The silver lining of the current fuel price / shortage problems is for us that may mean less...Read more
This update hasn't been happening recently - I've been dealing with a tsunami of elderly animal health challenges which have just chewed...Read more
Still juggling, still not getting enough books read. What a "dreadful" problem to have.
...Read more
There's not going to be a lot of posting here over the next few days. ...Read more
The third novel in the Dan Calder series, the title FROZEN SUMMER is the nickname Calder's girlfriend has given to a cold case that he's slightly obsessed with - and not just because he's the only suspect....
Following on from THE AGENCY and THE SECOND GRAVE, this series is one...Read more
A highly charged crime-thriller - the first in an electrifying new series - by multi-award-winning prince of the twist, J.P. Pomare.
PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a...Read more
Any new novel from J.P. Pomare needs to be approached with caution. You're going to have to make sure that you've cleared your calendar, stacked up the pre-made meals, and maybe set some alarms to remind you of the animal medication schedules and feeding rounds, because I can just about...Read more
Carter's first novel featuring Cato (obvious connection for the nickname) Kwong, PRIME CUT, had him exiled to the Stock Squad in the back blocks of regional WA, doing penance. GETTING WARMER has him back in Perth, just as things weather-wise and crime-wise start to heat up. Starting out...Read more