Karen

A beautiful young law student is dead. Falling from her third-storey window onto concrete below in chilly Dunedin, the house is a shared with other university students. The question is did she fall (suicide), was she pushed (murder), coerced (equally murder) or is this staged (suicide with complications). And is her being the beautiful one, with straight A's, a long term devoted boyfriend, and a future all mapped out something to do with all of this or a distraction.

Building on a what feels like a convenient set up of the rich beautiful pain in the neck girl, with a poor but seemingly devoted boyfriend Xander, who is tight with her family, and grateful for the largesse that comes his way, add in the quiet, nowhere near as dazzling or life of the party flatmate Ronnie, and create a love triangle for the ages, and this could all feel a bit contrived. And it does at points, also a bit on the circular side as Ronnie and Xander sneak about and Ashleigh behaves like a spoilt brat, and the rest of the household get to actively dislike her, and suddenly you realise you're not short of suspects, although there's always something a bit brittle, stagey or showy about Ashleigh and the reader can't help but wonder would she throw herself out of a window in the ultimate of "grand gestures".

More of this review on my website.

A group of short stories, this a both gripping, and incredibly clever crime fiction, set within a scenario that will be familiar to some Australian readers.

The central premise of this collection is the reverberations of a serial killer's crime in the lives of ordinary people. The connections are both unexpected and more obvious, but the impacts less predictable, and sometimes disconcertingly random. Each story provides a glimpse into the way that one person's actions create an outward ripple effect, how complicated connections can be, and more importantly, how chance plays such a big part in so many lives.

Full review on my website

THE DEEPER THE DEAD is the third book in the New Zealand based police procedural series feature DI Nyree Bradshaw at the centre of a personal and professional storm. This is definitely one of those sets of books that would be worth reading in order, Bradshaw has a backstory which will allow readers to see the full picture behind the storm that is going on in her personal life, although you can definitely see the impact.

In the last book in the series Bradshaw found herself sort of guilted / sort of keen to accept custody of her very young granddaughter, whose mother had recently died. Her father, Bradshaw's son, is in jail but even before that she had a fractured relationship with him, and would be the first to admit that motherhood wasn't her thing, but police work, and solving crimes most definitely is. So taking on a young girl's care and welfare right now is quite the thing, especially as she's still flat out with cases, and the social workers are hovering. Not a great combination for Bradshaw's often tetchy temperament, especially as the current case is a double homicide on a private island in the Far North. An island that can only be reached by boat, which is wet going. And the weather's generally wet, and somebody's taking liberties with her crime scenes, and paying very fast and loose with the truth.

More of this review on my website.

The second psychological thriller from Lyn Yeowart, THE HOLLOW GIRL, is set in the West of Victoria around Ballarat, Ararat and Horsham, employing the dual timelines of the 1960's when a home for 'girls in crisis' near Horsham known as Harrowford Hall, takes in young, unmarried, pregnant girls, and the 1970's when Ballarat based newly qualified (and controversially as far as her awful boss is concerned) female DS Eleanor Smith is assigned to investigate the murder of a nurse at the now closing Hall.

Starting in the 1970's, Eleanor Smith is a wonderful character, brought to life by a unique voice, determination, and grit in the face of the childish and frankly pathetic behaviour of her boss - who is one of those quintessential 1970s piggish men who should have been obliterated from the face of the earth, and even more pathetically seem to linger on. She's palmed off on this low-profile murder case (the victim is female after all), and assigned a "helper" of a very new constable who is part of a fast-track programme getting newly graduated cops to shadow detectives - so less help / more work experience student, although he does turn out to be handy at taking notes, and tracking down the local fish and chip shops and Chinese takeaways.

Full Review on my website.

The author of this series of now 2 novels, is a bestselling historical fiction writer, and you can tell just how impeccable her research is, even without reading the author's notes at the end of both novels, expanding on the thinking, and investigations that went into the construction of these stories.

Featuring the now twenty-five-year old, and widowed, Tatty (Tatiana) Crowe, the first female undertaker in Sydney, her life now, post the death of her awful husband, is going well. The business, originally her husband's families, is doing well under her guidance, they are providing a sensitive service to paying customers, and plenty of free services where required. The household is functioning smoothly and there is much that you'd think Tatty would be well within her rights to rest on the laurels of. But there's something happening to women and babies in Sydney, with an increasing number of dead babies being found, and an increasing number of women dying from botched abortions.

Full review on my website.

I have no idea what made me pluck this one out of the library's lists, but I am so very glad I did. The blurb gives some hints about the set up of INNOCENT GUILT, but it didn't say anything that made me think this would be as compelling, and as engaging as it was until I noticed Christopher Brookmyre's quote: 'A pedal-to-the-metal trip into the scariest places in the human mind'. I mean if HE thinks that it gets into the scariest places in the human mind, then I'm in.

It all kicks of when an uninjured woman, covered in blood, clutching a blood covered baseball bat walks, on her own, into DI Leah Hutch's police station in London. She's silent, perhaps in deep shock, unable, or is it unwilling, to explain what has happened, to who, and more importantly where. So everything starts off with Hutch and Randle's team not sure if they are looking for a victim, or a badly injured survivor. Until a man is found battered to death in a nearby park, with journalist Odie Reid in the vicinity after a tip off. Reid is badly in need of a journalistic scoop to recover her flagging reputation and career, so she sets out initially determined to link the death to the woman in custody, only it turns out that the evidence shows this is not as straight-forward as it seems.

Full review on my website.

I absolutely get that this author is doing something different, and therefore very confrontational here, and there's a sense of humour and some expectation exploding going on. But, I don't know, it all felt a bit ... staged? Over the top on purpose. Maybe gleeful. I'm not sure, either way, somewhere just past half way through the book, we end up in a sodding bloodbath, and it all started to get very bizarre and I'd been skipping the worst of the bits that were making MY stomach churn and I found myself fondly recalling there were some shelves that needed dusting, and really I should probably do those dishes piling up, and let's face it - when housework starts to sound appealing, I'm in the wrong book.

Full review at my website

The Orient Express instantly conjures up images of luxurious travel, fine dining, people dressed in their very best, quiet and attentive staff gliding unseen and unremarked through carriages, Inspector Hercule Poirot and 12. Always 12 people.

And so it is with FIVE FOUND DEAD in which one imagines author Sulari Gentill had an enormous amount of fun constructing a story that's partly a hat tip to Agatha Christie's well known novel, and the entire golden age of mystery writing.

In this outing the 12 are the "Bar Council", a group of passengers pulled together by their backgrounds - law enforcement, private investigators, spies, a lawyer and her brother the crime writer. They are called upon by the train manager when a compartment is discovered one morning, empty of its occupant but covered in blood. Of course it's a train so that compartment will be close to somebody, but it's the lawyer and her brother Meredith and Joe - the "main characters" of this outing for want of a better description, and a recently retired French policeman who have the "honour" of being in the cabins either side of the crime scene. As the "Council" convenes to try to solve the mystery of the missing man, and what the crime scene means, a dangerous new COVID variant has been discovered, and two carriages are quarantined from the rest of the train, which also finds itself stranded between France and Italy as authorities react (badly) to this biothreat.

Full Review on my Website

The promotional material pushes the connection, and it's hard not to get a vibe of THE SLAP from the blurb of this one - young families, a tragedy at a bbq that implodes relationships, crumbles friendships and all, but fear not if you're feeling like this is another commentary on parenting, because I will confess that's kind of the worry I had going in as well, and not the feeling I had coming out the other side of Hannah Tunnicliffe's THE POOL.

The catalyst of this story is events at a bbq, nine years ago in Melbourne, after which prince of spin, life of the party, father, Baz King vanished. It's easy to imagine that he's simply done a runner, what with a history of dodgy dealings and a plethora of reasons for him to disappear himself, but there's a lot of suspects on that day including ex-wife Birdie, new wife Madison, colleagues, friends and a complicated interweaving of children, staff, lovers, and married partners who also have lovers. And a eye-watering and skin-crawling tendency towards flaunted privilege, tacky interpersonal relationships, misogyny, and, it has to be said, some truly bloody awful parenting.

Full review on my website.

There have been a number of Australian crime fiction books recently that are tackling the effects of poverty / deprivation / loss and family breakdown in small towns, on small boys in particular. A TOWN CALLED TREACHERY is following, successfully, in the footsteps of authors like Mark Brandi and Stephen Orr, all three of whom have delved deeply, and sympathetically into damage, and resilience.

Life is very hard for eleven-year-old Matty Finnerty. Mother dead, father's absent even when he's around, and his grandfather is slipping further and further into dementia, he's not got a lot to be proud of, or to seemingly look forward to.

Which makes his chosen role-model an obvious, yet disconcerting choice. Stuart Dryden is a rundown, drunken journo, more attached to the pub (where he lives) than his job, his interest finally twigged by a grisly local murder. Or is it Matty, with his disposable Kodak camera and a way of sneaking in under people's guard that is intriguing him?

More of this review on my website.

CUTLER, the novel, features Paul Cutler, the former undercover operative, now working "off the books" in the dangerous and unpredictable world of investigator for hire. In this story he's tasked with finding the truth about the disappearance of an Australian marine scientist, whilst on a Taiwanese distant water fishing vessel, working in the incredibly murky and dodgy world of deep sea trawling and fisheries. With the complication being Bevan's father has his own fleet of distance trawlers, and may not quite be the legal cleanskin he seems to be. Once Cutler starts to scratch the surface of Bevan's disappearance, a slew of dark, horrendous crimes against people, ocean's, environment and just about everything else in their paths, comes to light.

Whish-Wilson has a number of strengths when it comes to his fiction writing. For a start he's a serious, dedicated researcher who is motivated by wrongs in the world. Read the author's note and acknowledgements at the back of this novel and you can get a very clear sense of what triggers his thinking, and how he goes about his work. He's also blessed with the ability to write lean, mean, pointed and unflinching prose in a way that, confronts, but never repulses to the point where readers are forced to look away (remembering always that the subject matter in this one is pretty bloody awful all the way down).

More of this review on my website.

The first in a new series from NZ author Rosy Fenwicke, THE SECRET OF THE ANGEL WHO DIED AT MIDNIGHT is a police procedural novel introducing DSS Kate Sutton.

Set in a wine-growing region of New Zealand, the sense of place in this one is pretty strong, drawing on a small town, with tensions between the old residents and newcomers staying very close to home. The victim in this novel is the local GP, Dr Geoffrey Scott, a man who has taken over his father's practice, a well known figure in the small community in which he's lived his life, his wife being the incomer. Younger, an artist, and right from the start seemingly somebody very different from her quiet, garden loving husband. Turns out that the relationship between these two is complicated, as it the truth behind Dr Geoffrey Scott's own position.

Full review at my website.

When the Director of the Mt John Observatory Professor Evelyn Major is murdered, just as an international conference is kicking off at the observatory overlooking Lake Tekapo, there are a lot of academics in the vicinity, with a lot of secrets, making the pool of potential suspects surprisingly wide. Enter Criminal Psychologist Nellie Prayle who loves solving complicated murders, and finds plenty to be going on with in this web of rivalry, infidelity and emotional turmoil. One thing is for sure, this investigation does not lack for motives, nor does it lack intrigue.

More of this review on my website.

It seems, to this reader at least, that there are a couple of main "types" of crime fiction these days. The new, unusual, clever idea stuff that breaks new ground and the tried and tested world of old ground. The problem with the old ground version is that it's sometimes very easy to sound like same old same old. Which adage most definitely does not apply to STILLWATER.

More of this review on my website.

If you're looking for something that's wild, ranty, full to brim with nobody (including the good, bad, and slightly deluded) winning at anything, then GLASS BARBIE could be just the ticket.

It's a roller coaster ride alongside wild man, crackhead, Karl Copley. He of the big mouth and small brain, who somehow convinces an old mate, now a senior cop, Richie McMullan the two of them can rescue Copey's high school sweetheart Barbara Konstantinou (the Barbie from the title), who is being held for ransom by bikies. I mean why wouldn't a senior cop buy into a plan which doesn't bother to take into account a hefy bit of reluctance on the part of the victim, and a few more complications than just kidnapping. Basically it's a couple of weeks in their madness whilst the reader hangs onto the edge of the page, wondering what the, why the, when the, oh they won't. Will They?

Full review on my website.

There is obviously considerable expertise at the heart of these novels, this author knows his stuff, and is writing about a life that he's lived. He rarely lets that get in the way of telling a ripping yarn however, even though, as mentioned, the start of this one is building a lot of context into the action to come. Once the mission really reaches a telling point, the pace, the threat, the feats of daring and the thinking, plotting, planning, and extremes that intelligence agencies go to, to thwart the intentions of others is breathtaking, as are the potential consequences. There's nothing lone wolf about de Payn though, he's the central character, but there's a team of very good people around him, with the surprise return of one character from the earlier stories that will delight followers of the series.

Where or how, or even why an intelligence agent as experienced as de Payn goes after this novel, or even what will be his role, is another question altogether, and, as with each of these stories, it seems there's not a lot left in the tank, but in this one in particular, you have to wonder where to from here.

Full review on my website.

This novel, soberingly based on a true story, is set in the 1830's in England, telling the story of a sensational divorce trial instigated by Frances Dickinson after years of enduring abuse and degradation at the hands of her appalling husband. 18 years old and wealthy when she married Lieutenant John Gells, she soon discovered there was much more to him. A cruel, violent, predatory man he subjected her to years of physical, sexual and mental abuse, spending her money with abandon, whilst preying on their staff, she was kept separate from everyone, hidden away on his family's Scottish estate. Rest of the review on my website.

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) and a wellness guru.

I mean a wellness guru shows up and you know you're in trouble, unless you've got a dragon who is more than prepared to step in I guess.

You get the picture, this is another series for those that like their crime on the fluffy, crazy side, with hefty doses of tea, cakes, paranormal goings on, water sprites, arch humour, and dragons....

Oh and a bit of a concentration of ladies of "a certain age". Being somewhere in that category myself now I'm not sure whether the recognition is appreciated, or I should take the time to point out that not all of us get to that age, and insist on going fluffy and cosy. Some of us are still listening to heavy metal and punk music and actively engaged in a lot of pointed swearing and glaring.

I know, what on earth - bridge dwelling monsters, magical toasties, a caffeine-addicted dog, ducks, deadly brewers, superpowered DJs, raging florists, ALL OUT OF LEEDS (book 1) and TROUBLE BREWING IN HARROGATE (book 2), and this reader. Not a match made in heaven. But it's not always about personal taste, and somewhere there will be readers going ... oooo, who is writing this sort of right up my country lane style paranormal cosy fiction?

Kim M. Watt has a number of series along these lines, these being the first 2 books in the DI Adams set, which as at the date of this review has 3.5 entries in it. They are sort of police procedurals, with a hefty dose of overt humour and ... well magic. (Did I mention that the dog, in this case a black dog called Dandy is also invisible. It's not completely weird, Adams can see him). More of this review on my website...

I know, what on earth - bridge dwelling monsters, magical toasties, a caffeine-addicted dog, ducks, deadly brewers, superpowered DJs, raging florists, ALL OUT OF LEEDS (book 1) and TROUBLE BREWING IN HARROGATE (book 2), and this reader. Not a match made in heaven. But it's not always about personal taste, and somewhere there will be readers going ... oooo, who is writing this sort of right up my country lane style paranormal cosy fiction?

Kim M. Watt has a number of series along these lines, these being the first 2 books in the DI Adams set, which as at the date of this review has 3.5 entries in it. They are sort of police procedurals, with a hefty dose of overt humour and ... well magic. (Did I mention that the dog, in this case a black dog called Dandy is also invisible. It's not completely weird, Adams can see him). More of this review on my website...

I started listening to the audio of this series when it was available at the library, and I felt like something quintessentially "British". These fit that bill perfectly, with central police inspector Stephen Ramsay a laconic, feeling slightly rumpled, divorced cop, new to the area, the force and living on his own in the middle of nowhere. As well as trying to solve murders, he's trying to sort his life out and figure out how to work with a subordinate who seems to resent him, or at least they haven't yet found a way of connecting.

In this example, Alice Parry, seemingly popular, committed to causes in her local village, is murdered in her own backyard on a bitterly cold St David's Eve, in the middle of the night. Only her backyard is a bit unusual, as is her house, and her family relationships with two much loved nephews who are seemingly devoted to her. Except when she's interfering in their complicated personal lives, and, it turns out, her popularity is slightly tainted. Being helpful and deeply devoted to local causes, sometimes can come across as meddling and all is not as serene as it seems on the face of it in Heppleburn.

Nicely done, with a dose of the detective's personal life thrown in to balance against the personal lives of the suspects and the victim. Easy to listen to, with a good narrator's voice, this one is the second in the Inspector Simon Ramsay series.

At it's heart, this is a police procedural series, built on great characterisations, with a central theme of the affects of crime that ripple outwards in this community of proud First Nations peoples. There is great strength in the glimpses the novels provide into a way of life, and thinking that is different, and yet not. The novels are built around people from an unfairly oppressed culture who have found pride in who they are, where they came from, and where they are going. Full review of this and the earlier two novels in the series on my website.

One day I will finally understand how it is that I can find a book in a series intriguing (DEAD CAT BOUNCE in this case), and then completely and utterly miss the existence of the second novel. I mean there's catching the miss and there's waiting 7 or so years to notice the miss...

Anyway, I've finally managed to notice and DEAD HEAT arrived just in time for a short break to catch up on some reading so I bumped it up the list and sat down to revisit Darren Glass, who really does seem to have gotten his act together well and truly. If you don't include being bumped out of Canberra to Jervis Bay, and playing second fiddle to senior Intelligence Officers from the Royal Australian Navy, then there's a bit of dare doing on motorbikes in Central Australia, a couple of dead Royal Australian Navy operators, some drones, a dead Aboriginal woman, a dead Navy sailor, an attack on a highly secure Naval Base, some nukes, a booby trapped culvert, a constantly going missing Aboriginal woman, a Land Rights / come bikie conspiracy, blown up boats, shark attacks, and ... well a lot. It's busy this one. Engaging, complicated, and very very busy.

More on this and the earlier book, DEAD CAT BOUNCE on my website.

A polarising book, it almost feels like that's a given these days with anyone who makes it onto a Booker list of any kind, there is a dark streak to the humour, and an unflinching attempt at something unsympathetic in many ways, anonymous and disassociating for a reader - connection with the narrator of this story will be hard fought for, and all the more rewarding if you achieve it. More of this review on my website.

LIKE A BULLET is the third novel in The Paperback Sleuth series from author Andrew Cartmel, also known for his Vinyl Detective Series. Having now read one from each of these, the overriding aspect of these novels is a slightly over the top humour that is going to be perfect for some readers. And confuse and possibly annoy the hell out of others.

There are, apparently, also a lot of crossovers of characters in both series, so whilst it's not completely necessary to have read any of the earlier books from either set, it would perhaps help a little to have read some of the earlier Paperback Sleuth ones, because the central character here, Cordelia, is someone to be going on with.

The idea behind the series is that Cordelia specialises in tracking down rare paperback novels for fans who have a lot of money and no idea / desire to do the job themselves. She has special contacts and ways and means of finding these little gems, starting out combing charity shops and jumble sales, but not above a spot of nefarious dealings and burglary to get her hands on her much desired prizes. All of which seems to always come with a hefty dose of wrong target, very big bother, when it comes to parting owners from their much prized books. And some quite surprising ill-gotten gains along the way.

To be fair, it's all a bit of high-silly fun, and some of the supporting cast, like her landlord Edwin and his dog, are lovely characters. Cordelia, on the other hand, is a more tricky undertaking, bordering on unlikeable, which will mean that new to the series readers might be wondering just who she thinks she is. But remembering this is high humour, almost farce, that humour will either work. Or not. For this reader it kind of did, and then it all got a bit too much, and two one armed men and a few seriously silly names later, and I was mildly annoyed, and more than a bit confused by how or why or how anyone would want to spend any time at all with a bibliophile who is mostly just in it for the cash. Although, to be fair, she's not above a very decent gesture if you're in this book to the end.

Definitely one for fans of a very tongue in cheek brand of humour, with hefty doses of farce and some very uncomfortably understandable threats on the life of The Paperback Sleuth.