Karen

Given the blurb starts out with the line:

The unforgettable detective duo from 'The Doctor’s Wife' are back, and this time the stakes are even higher.

It's worth starting this review out mentioning that you don't need to have read The Doctor's Wife (but you really should...) as whilst the characters are in the earlier novel, it's not really centred around them.

HOOKED UP, however, is most definitely all about them and styled very much as a police procedural with DS Ramesh Bandara heading up a homicide investigation in a small town in New Zealand, with his unconventional colleague, Hilary Stark working alongside him.

What seems initially like a relatively straight forward investigation, granted one that doesn't seem to come with a motive, soon becomes complicated when Stark spots similarities with a murder case from years ago, which then leads to the cast and crew of a controversial reality TV Show. 'Hooked Up' screened 10 years earlier, a show that had a series of artificially formed "romantic couples" trying to work out how to deal with their brand new other half, and the couples they were competing against. Turns out there were some very very dodgy things going on in the background, the show was canned, and somebody may still be holding a grudge and doing something about the worst of the worst from it.

Sussman always has a way of bringing the complexities of personal relationships into all her novels, and there's no difference here. HOOKED UP has a complicated set of suspects, and people around the tv show, all of whom were forced into some very tricky personal connections. As well as that there's a pretty hefty will they / won't they component around Bandara and Stark that actually works really well (this from a reader who is allergic to this sort of thing). Part of what works is the slight twist in that Stark doesn't seem to be all that interested, and is dealing with a hell of a lot else in her life, and Bandara doesn't really know what he's doing when it comes to personal relationships, let alone a potential one with a junior colleague. The rescue dog that eventually helps tip the balance was a very nice touch, as is the part that this "failed" police dog plays in the final resolution of what's a complicated, but perfectly believable plot.

Ultimately what really works with all of Sussman's novels is at the human level. The interactions, dialogue, sensitivities, failings, successes and general being humanness that she has nailed in every story I've been lucky enough to read are a big part of the attraction, as are the complex plots, which to be fair, always rely on the best and worst of human nature.

Featuring new mother Frida, WHAT RHYMES WITH MURDER? is a cosy, baby focused story about a body in a library, with a bit of social commentary along the way.

The basic premise is that Frida attends her first ever session of Baby Rhyme Time at the library in her inner Melbourne suburb - a trendy place with cafe's / come local stores and a hefty quota of women pushing those huge prams that seem to be all the go nowadays. As the session with a group of new parents, including Frida and new friend / parent Josh, there's a loud thump and a woman has died falling over a barrier to the floor below.

Right from the start you're going to have to be a reader that utterly and completely empathises with the sort of new mother who suffers from considerable anxiety and simultaneously wants to describe everything about having a baby. Nappy changes, feeding times, lack of sleep, pram envy - they are all here in massive amounts. Buried within that there is a bit of social commentary about anti-abortion groups, and the trials and tribulations of dealing with extreme religious groups. There's also a lot of sitting in the local cafe drinking coffee and gossiping.

Needless to say a book targeted at a particular audience, which I freely admit, isn't me. Particularly as the balance here is tipped (hefted?) to the baby side of things - the talk about all of that is extremely forward in the entire novel, taking up a lot of text space, so you're going to have to be the sort of reader that "gets" that, or you may find yourself wondering whether the shelf next to you could stand a bit of a dust....

Of it's type, this is definitely a bit of fun, with a slight edge in the way that the abortion argument is drawn in, although the comparisons to ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING and THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB didn't work for this reader - being a fan of both the later outings which feel more inclusive, less self-involved. Having said that the topics of motherhood, anxiety and life pressures will undoubtedly resonate with some readers.

I tend not to read blurbs on books before I dive in, particularly if the book is by a favourite author who does dark, dirty and high adrenaline as well as Bergmoser does. So I was somewhat pleased to see these lines in the blurb when I went to write this review:

Think: Die Hard meets The Raid, but the funnier, grittier Australian version. Fast, furious and ferocious, this is thriller writing at its nail-biting, unputdownable best.

And a bit tempted to just put that as the review and mark it done and dusted because that Die Hard line is exactly what I was thinking. But a bit more is probably called for. Featuring a couple of characters as the main focus - the unkillable Jack Carlin and the equally indestructible Maggie - both have made appearances in earlier novels, but this is less of a series and more of a character study, if what you're studying is extreme violence and a f***-you attitude to anything and anybody trying to screw with either of them or their mates (which includes looking out for each other's backs as is the case in this one).

What it won't hurt to know however is Jack Carlin's a rogue ex-cop with a history of very dodgy going's on and a daughter Morgan who has had her own fair share of scrapes with the law. Maggie's ... well Maggie. Tagged as "the Fugitive" in earlier novels like The Hitchhiker, she's one of a kind. A difficult life, missing mother, drunken father, plenty of things to be hiding from, she's close to Carlin and when he finds himself in a spot of bother, of course she shows up, and helps out - in the only way she knows - with extreme violence and sheer determination. So to the lines from the blurb:

Fast - it's breakneck. Right from the opening paragraph, even if you have no idea what the hell is going on, you're going to be sucked into this vortex of fast moving, lunatic crazy as Carlin tries to get his daughter to safety, tracking her down to a scungy old tower block of flats where she's currently running a counterfeit operation from the top floor.

Furious - in that there's a few people pissed off with Carlin, and he's not best pleased that Morgan's likely to become collateral damage. Furious in that the violence in this one is extreme. Over the top. And in a bit of a guilty, Die Hard sort of way, funny as hell in more than a few places.

Ferocious - in that Carlin, Maggie and even Morgan once she gets with the program will do what it takes, when required, to survive. And no bunch of loser vigilantes in it for the cash have a chance when ferocious comes with determination and nothing to lose. And that goes double for corrupt cops, and a strangely controlled hitman with a tremor.

This is, as always, just such over the top, action thriller, serious fun (yes I know it sounds sick but it's fiction for goodness sake), and I just love the way the author delivers the fast, furious and ferociousness of each and every scenario.

An audio short story (1 hour and 39 minutes in length), this is tagged as "Sean Duffy Year 1", taking the reader back to the time when newly promoted DS Sean Duffy is given his first command at Carrickfergus CID. For followers of the entire series this short, sharp belt to the head of a story will give you plenty of background to the ongoing battleground - how he ended up at Carrickfergus, a Catholic cop living in a mostly Protestant housing estate, spending his days chasing criminals and his morning's checking under his car for bomb switches.

The entire story is set within the first two weeks of Duffy's time on the new job. He's got a case to solve, a violent neighbour to sort out, a blazing inferno to douse, and a new house to be settled into. All the while being warned of where he, as a Catholic cop, should be wary of going, and his housing estate is one of the first places everyone warns him about.

The narrator of this, Gerard Doyle, was a pleasure to listen to, the little bits of background to the Irish Troubles and how that all played out in day to day life were really informative, and the story rocks along at a solid pace. There's plenty here to show how the character of Sean Duffy played out - little bit of bravado, big bit of cheek and a survival instinct second to none.

Ashley Kalagian Blunt continues her exploration of the perils of malicious online communities in Like, Follow, Die.

Full review originally published at: https://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/ashley-kalagian-blunt-like-follow-die-reviewed-by-karen-chisholm/

Followers of NZ Crime fiction from the cosy end of the spectrum may have come across a couple of this author's previous series - The Silvermoon Retirement Village and The Hitchhiker novels. Both cosy, the former featuring a 90 something year old sleuth with a very "unexpected" background, the former being more on the paranormal side of things. Having been following the Silvermoon series, in particular, since its inception, it's been a pleasure to see Strong develop his story telling style and confidence, and seeing now a third series - the Nicolette Briggs series, featuring Wellington's premier (and possibly only) animal detective.

Still, therefore, very much in the cosy vein, even though Nicolette specialising in investigating missing pets and cases of animal cruelty, this first outing sees her taking on the case of a poisoned cat, only to be confronted by a rapidly increasing number of human bodies, and the injury to one of her own dogs when someone breaks into her house.

As the blurb puts it though:

Nicolette Briggs doesn’t do humans.

Although in this case her reluctance turns to determination to solve the case, with the added benefit of maybe showing up her disdainful police detective brother.

Flagged as a "clean, cosy" mystery series, this first outing is twisty and turny with plenty of gentle humour and silliness abounding. Nicolette has arrived pretty well formed in this outing as well, with a daughter, being a teenager, an extended family full of "good intentions" and a business model that's not exactly making her a fortune, she's now also got to deal with a killer who doesn't want her to investigate anything. At all.

The style of these is nicely balanced between mystery and humour, silly and serious, and definitely on the clean side of cosy. It's a nice little, light entertainment novel for anybody who is a fan of that style of reading.

A child disappears in broad daylight—and no one sees a thing.

Three-year-old Oliver, whose nickname is Apple Man (explained as the story progresses), was sleeping in the car in a remote carpark, whilst his father Scott, was supposedly only away for a few minutes, carrying fishing gear down to the beach. On Scott's return, the boy had disappeared, vanished without a trace. Only the reader knows what's happened, meanwhile Scott and his mate frantically search for the boy, then have to report the disappearance first to the police and then, eventually to Apple Man's mother, Fae.

There's a lot going on with this child's family, the baby that Scott and Fae had when she was barely 16, after what could only be called a momentary encounter at a party. They'd tried the couple thing, but really two strangers living in his mother's basement, with a baby - that was never going to work, especially as they are both young, and understandably not ready for anything like that responsibility. Complicated by the fact that Fae's own family background is dysfunctional. All of which comes into play as the story of the disappearance of a young boy is told alongside the absolute train wreck of relationships, heightened by a tendency for just about everybody in this story to be the sort of people you'd normally put a lot of work into avoiding at all costs.

Which sounds like a lack of empathy for a couple of young people in a difficult situation, no doubt about that. The reader's who get the most out of this book will be those that find themselves feeling for Scott and Fae, especially as their background stories fill out. They are annoying undoubtedly, but then so are a lot of people whose lives are off the rails. The contrast between the two of them is also interesting - she's on edge, anguished, flighty, determined to live and party hard. He seems almost passive, put upon in contrast.

The other main player in this story is Tessa. A woman unable to have children she's dealing with an ex-husband who has moved onto parenthood with his new partner, and she's most definitely not coping well with that. A possibly sympathetic figure, it's equally possible she will come across as entitled and overly superior. There's something about that woman that meant this reader, in particular, struggled with any sense of empathy.

Even allowing for the backgrounds of all these main characters, and the situation they find themselves in with a missing young boy in what seems to be the dense, cold bush of New Zealand, I really struggled with the overwhelming feeling that if there were ever people who needed to be lined up and given a bloody good talking to, these 3 were it. I mean Fae's mother is a bloody nightmare, and the terror of where that young boy went should be more than enough to have you caring a hell of a lot about this young couple, and there's a whole heap of ethical and moral considerations in all of this to give the reader more than enough to think on, but fair warning, there was something so annoying about the lot of them, that it did require some hard sock pulling up to keep on with it at points.

A feeling of slog that wasn't particularly helped by the fact that it all turned into an emotional mishmash towards the middle of the novel which made for some very heavy going. Particularly as the basic premise was played out very early on and there wasn't a lot of tension in what was likely to happen from here.

All of which probably makes this sound like it wasn't the greatest read, which is unfair. For audiences invested in the parental nightmare this may work really well. For those really invested in the train wreck that unfolded after the disappearance of the child this may indeed work really well. For those, like this reader, who find the choice to make everyone at the core of a story a pretty unpleasant character to be around, it could indeed work well also. Definitely one for a bookclub, with wine. And a long session of full and frank discussion.

HERO is the 5th book in the DS Lucas Walker series that has taken him from outback Queensland to Germany and back, and from the Australian Federal Police to the Queensland Police Force. One thing that stays the same though is the outreach of organised crime, which is surprisingly prevalent in these small Queensland towns.

Walker is stationed in the small outback town of Katima, driving distance from his home in Caloodie, working as a DS with a local cop who rapidly proves himself to be an able partner. For readers new to this series, there's been quite a bit happen in Walker's backstory, starting out when AFP DS Walker was at home in Caloodie on leave, only to find himself the only cop around to look into the disappearance of young German backpackers in OUTBACK. Which lead to a relationship with a German police officer - Barbara, and a run-in with organised crime and a major criminal bikie group, this time in Surfers Paradise, in the novel titled PARADISE. Back in the outback, and family involvement in OPAL, which then leads to Germany, and another close run in with the leader of that criminal bikie group in NEMESIS. All of which leads to the obvious question - is this a series that needs to be read in order, and pretty much that's a yes.

These novels centre heavily on DS Lucas Walker, his stuttering love life and his extended family. Why he still calls Caloodie home, living in his grandmother's house there, where Ginger the dog came from, how he ended up working as a Queensland Police Officer after years in the AFP is all background that is really going to help you understand how everything fits together. Especially as the action in HERO is mostly about corruption, and criminal activities again, only this time in the world of high-profile sport. Although there's a twist at the end.

The title of this novel refers to Caden Conroy, a famous fast bowler, a cricketer that everyone admires. Good at the game, a supporter of up and coming talent, he's made a lot of money in his life, and his brother Cameron and his wife and daughter, as well as his girlfriend Bronte and business Manager Ollie all work hard at ensuring that what Conroy wants and needs, he gets. Until he's found bashed to death in his palatial country estate just outside Katima.

Whilst Walker and his colleague are first on scene, it doesn't take long for the higher ups to fly in the elite murder investigation squad, and Walker finds himself back in Katima trying to work out the story behind the unknown man found hanging from a tree in the local park, and whether or not that death is connected to the unsolved death of another young unidentified man in the area a few years before.

In many aspects, HERO is a hark back to the first novel in the series, in that it's good old fashioned, boots on the ground, investigation and chasing down leads that ultimately means that they are able to solve those two local cases, and the death of a national hero along the way. There's a hefty dose of romantic personal angst in there as well as some career jeopardy, and some complications with his immediate family back in Caloodie that has a bit of a hattip to a common theme these days - sovcit's and their ridiculous carry on.

Whether or not that aspect is actually going to head somewhere in future novels it's hard to tell, and to be honest, one would hope so because it went nowhere pretty rapidly in this one, but that was a minor distraction from the whole question of sport, corruption, money and power. Walker's past in the AFP gave him plenty of ways to find out the things that a standard outback cop might not have access to, and there's plenty of meat to the main plotline, including a lot of things to think about when it comes to sporting heroes.

Recently our senior cat died. Not completely unexpectedly, she'd had a bad heart murmur for a number of years, but still it was pretty quick - she was fine, albeit a bit wobbly for a day and dead the next morning. Which put a spanner in the works of crime fiction reading for a few days while I adjusted. For some reason I went looking at the library's ebook catalogue and there was THE MEMORY BOOKSHOP. No idea why I selected it, but I glad I did.

The story, it seems, has been a Korean sensation. I have to confess I'd never heard of it at all, but then it's magical realism, which is very much outside my normal area of interest. It's frankly beautiful, lyrical, weird and moving, just the right thing for me as I came to terms with a little furry big gap in my life.

Reading the blurb will give you an idea of the premise behind the story:

If you could relive the past with the time you have left – what would you choose?

Jiwon’s life has been slowly disintegrating since her mum died. Until one day, caught in a downpour, Jiwon comes across a mysterious bookstore. Uneasy, she turns to leave when a voice calls ‘If you open that door—You can leave, but you can never come back here.’

The Memory Bookshop stores all of one’s memories within an infinite number of books and appears to those who are looking for a reason to live. Its manager, 'K', offers visitors the chance to travel back three times, in exchange for part of their futures.

Browsing the shelves, Jiwon must choose whether to revisit three chapters of her life. But will changing the past really rewrite her future? Only The Memory Bookshop has the answers – and it’ll teach Jiwon about what it really means to live…

The journey that Jiwon willingly takes herself on is a rediscovery of family, connection and a chance to revisit important moments, she perceives she missed as a result of distraction, or lack of thought. It's the story of a teenager not recognising the moments that will come to mean so much in adult life - and haven't we all been there.

The author note at the end of the story touches on her motivations for the book, and how it's not meant to be an ultimate answer to navigating loss, but in many ways, it works exactly as that. It's reflective, gentle and surprisingly enthralling. Not a long ebook at 184 pages, it's not exactly a quick read either, as it's contemplative and involving. All in all, I loved this one and it came into my life at exactly the right time.

A follow-on from SHEERWATER, LATER, ONLY LOVE REMAINS is a tense, spiralling, dark story built around three main characters, and the life changing events that are happening to them, some a result of their own actions. The story starts out introducing the reader to the main three characters as much as is possible, although reading the earlier novel would definitely help in creating an instant connection, particularly as there are some elements to the men in this story that are very confronting.

Jack Wolfe, survived childhood polio, going on to marry the love of his life. Driving the car that crashed killing is wife, he's retreated to a remote family shack in the Otways, a cold, wet, endlessly windy place, the shack is basic, his life full of remorse and plagued by memory, all he wants is solitude.

Into this life, come two people, firstly Lotus, a young, vibrant woman who insists on connection with Jack, her life has been upturned by her pregnancy, which makes for a family connection with Jack neither of them knows how to manage. In a more sinister way, late one wet and horrible night, after Jack's dog started howling, he discovers a desperate man hiding in his shed, a man who it subsequently turns out has committed an unthinkable act. Which leaves Jack with two choices. Keep Lotus at bay, maintain the solitude he desires, and then whether or not to help another stranger based on what he believes his late wife would have done.

Part of the fascination of this novel is the way that Jack has accidentally done the worst possible thing, Lawrence has deliberately done a dreadful thing, and Lotus seems, perhaps, to have the potential to be the least problematic, most normal of the three of them. All of which is delivered in a lyrical, gentle, rolling sort of a style, although with no punches pulled on the characters worst, and eventually, better traits.

There's no shying away from the reveal of Lawrence's actions early on in the story though - and this review has to warn readers - it involves filicide which will be confronting for some. Having said that, there is consideration and care in the handling of all these stories, nothing sensational, nothing overt.

All of the plotlines in LATER, ONLY LOVE REMAINS contribute to a novel that's ultimately about life, death, male violence, and a yearning for redemption. Balanced as always against love. It's exploring if it is true that at the end of the day, only love remains.

In Jill Johnson’s new novel, Professor Eustacia Rose is done with murder – it’s time to settle down with the love of her life, Matilde.

For anybody new to this series, which began with Devil’s Breath, Professor Eustacia Rose is the Head of Botanical Toxicology at University College. An expert in rare and highly poisonous plants, she’s brilliant, neurodivergent, gay, and a very complicated person to be around. Luckily, her partner, Matilde, is patience personified, even if she is a little bit obsessed with home decorating – something that’s destined to discomfort Rose to the point of explosion, unless her failure to grasp the central premise of ‘done with murder’ drives Matilde back to Spain permanently first.

But I am not most people. I am Professor Eustacia Amelia Rose, Head of Botanical Toxicology at University College London. And I had chosen to walk through the arched entrance, and across the reception to the glassed-off area. I wasn’t here to make a complaint, or to report a crime, and I certainly wasn’t here to hand myself in. I was here because I’d received a phone call from Detective Chief Inspector Roberts not fifteen minutes before and it was imperative I find out why.

However, DCI Roberts – and others – seem to be more interested in finding a reason why they shouldn’t look into the death of a man from a plant toxin called gamma-coniceine. Despite his superiors’ tendency to regard Roberts and Rose as experts in the field of plant toxin murders, and Roberts’ reluctance, all hesitation is lost when Rose identifies the source of the poison as hemlock – one of the dangerous plants previously stolen from her rooftop garden – and the victim as somebody she’s recently been in very close contact with:

The man stepped out into the passageway. He was wearing a leather apron, the bulging pockets of which I assumed contained gardening gloves, secateurs, twine.

This series is currently made up of three novels: Devil’s Breath, Hell’s Bells, and Bella Donna, with a fourth, Blood Root,due for release in June 2026. It’s also a series that would definitely benefit from reading in order. Professor Rose is a complex woman with simple tastes and an incredibly complicated background. Raised mostly by her single father, whom she worshipped, she still wears his tweed suits and watch, and lives in the apartment they shared.

In the earlier novels she cared for a highly illegal and very dangerous rooftop garden full of illicitly obtained toxic plants, while also performing her role as Head of Botanical Toxicology. Her mother has also returned to her life after abandoning the family when Rose was very young, a relationship as fraught as you’d imagine after all these years. Roses’ neurodivergence manifests as extreme intelligence and laser-like focus on the things that interest her, but little ability, or desire, to interact with others – until things she started to see from her rooftop garden tempted her out into the world, and into the path of murderers with unique ways of killing. Many of these traits appear to circle back to her relationship with her father, and the world he built for his much loved daughter.

I lifted my eyes to the sky as a wave of shame rushed through me. I’d suffered panic attacks since childhood and only Father knew how to calm my racing heart, slow my rapid breathing, soothe away the panic. Only he knew that taking me for walks through the Oxford countryside, pointing out the different plants, teaching me their common and Latin names, patiently telling me about their properties, their toxicities, their folklore, would, as he’d called it, restore equilibrium. But Father was dead.

Her collection of rare plants was stolen as a result of one of the cases she was helping the police to investigate, and the latter novels have included the search to recover individual specimens, some of which appear to have fallen into the hands of organised crime gangs. It’s this background that readers may feel more comfortable understanding, as the links between Rose and the activities she walks straight into all come back to her single-minded determination to recover her beloved plants while not annoying her beloved Matilde – although that bit of human interaction is much much harder for her to deal with. To say nothing of how Rose deals with a new character on the scene – the exotic Zsa Zsa

Matilde let out a soft hum.

‘Should I be jealous?’

‘Of what?’

‘Of you finding a pretty plant for Zsa Zsa.’

I let out a guffaw.

‘That won’t happen.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because she isn’t pretty.’

On the contrary, Zsa Zsa is a very attractive and, it turns out, ruthless woman who is on the same trail as Rose, trying to recover some particularly dangerous plants. Meanwhile Rose and Matilde are navigating the complications of a relationship where one partner is trying hard to fit in with another determined to live their own version of a normal life. Meanwhile DCI Roberts is mostly trying to stay alive, and to stay out of the path of Professor Rose, who he admires and is driven insane by in equal measure.

The balance of Bella Donna is skewed slightly towards the personal relationships, with a number of threads from earlier novels being knitted into this story of organised crime and toxic plant murder. The initial victim, an intermediary that Rose had been in contact with before his death, has died very mysteriously, with no obvious ingestion of the poison that killed him. Subsequent murders have a more obvious cause, but the connections are vague, and the involvement of the gangs across multiple countries insidious and hard to unravel.

Nearly as hard to unravel, it turns out, as love and life. Something Professor Rose is continuing to struggle with, even as she proves herself again to be an intuitive solver of crimes.

Originally Published at Newtown Review of Books

In Tom Baragwanath’s latest crime novel, Lorraine Henry knows only too well how small towns and close communities are a blessing and a curse.

Tom Baragwanath first introduced ‘Lo’ Henry in Paper Cage, a novel about a small but divided community and a string of missing children. In his latest release, Lucky Thing, Lo is back in a story again concentrating on the dangers that can impact younger people – this time teenagers dealing with petty jealousies, bullying, and partying, and the perils of attraction and social stigma. In a small town it’s easy to assume that because everyone knows who or what they are dealing with, kids should be safe.

A place like Masterton, it’s easy to slot someone away, categorised and neat. Trouble, or no trouble at all. Worth keeping an eye on, or not worth the worry.

While it’s definitely not necessary to have read the first book, Lo is an engaging character, and Paper Cage will give the reader a more complete understanding of how she fits into this place. Masterton is a small town in New Zealand, and Lo works as the files clerk for the local police, although her job has been getting more varied.

Mine has been quite the fluid job description lately. Fetching the biscuits for the staffroom, piecing together Dion’s spidery pages of notes into something the prosecutor’s office can read, covering the Chief’s updates to Head Office while he’s at Bunnings. Light child-recovery duties. And now, apparently, calls to next of kin.

Lo’s also in a unique position in the community. A Pākehā married into a Māori family, she is an insider and outsider in both communities. With no children of her own and her husband now dead after a workplace accident, she’s close to niece Sheena and Sheena’s young son Bradley. She’s used to dealing with young kids, recalcitrant teenagers, and tricky parents – she’s a sounding board for many in the community and the sort of woman who sees, hears, and figures out a lot.

Inside these wet eyes, a flash of colour passes in a brief moment of electricity. I’ve done this enough with Sheena, with Bradley. Shaking the brush and waiting for the bird.

The impending birth of Sheena’s new baby is the main thing on Lo’s mind until a young girl is found beaten and dumped in the cold bush. Jessica Mowbrie is lucky to be alive. But the next person isn’t so lucky, and the discovery of a body really stretches a police unit that’s under-resourced and physically isolated. Their commitment to finding who battered Jessica is unwavering, but the death means competing priorities take a lot of managing. For a force made up of boss Rick Ambrose, beat cop Dion, and a file clerk, it was already a big ask. Take Rick out of the picture due to a violent moment, and the stakes get higher.

The angle of the fall is all wrong, Rick’s arms pinned high and useless, his heavy torso coming down like a load of logs giving way. I move forward to reach him, but it isn’t enough; he hits the pavement, and his head strikes the sharpest edge of the camera.

The key to understanding why Jessica was battered, and the particularly chilling murder, comes down to the connections between people, the locations of events, and a lot of local knowledge. As with all small places, there are the monied few – landed gentry types, mostly white Pākehā families whose kids go to private schools, own a lot of land, and have a tendency to lord it over everyone. An attitude that is mirrored in the teenage community, with girls like Jessica and her cousin from working-class families trying to find a way to fit in with the ‘it’ crowd. As is often the case, the ‘it’ crowd are a bunch of bullies who are in too deep themselves. Not surprisingly, it’s Lo who hears a rumour that might explain some of the tension.

‘See what he knows about the debating club.’ I nod. ‘Apparently some of the Aquinas girls weren’t too keen on having Jessica there. He might have heard something.’

Baragwanath takes a deep dive into the nature of insider and outsider communities in Lucky Thing. Lo has always straddled the two worlds of Pākehā and Māori, landed gentry and working families. He expands that out with Jessica and her cousin, and the two young boys deeply involved in the story, Tāmati and Stu, all dealing with teenage angst against a background of those who have and those who have not so much. Then he takes that scenario right into a family who appears to have everything, and the past events that say a lot about who they are and what they stand for.

Maybe that’s the point of Lucky Thing – those who have everything may not be the luckiest people, because so much tangible ‘stuff’ was acquired by force or manipulation, and subsequent generations have struggled to hang onto it. Perhaps the lucky ones are those with a sense of community, family and connection. Not so tangible, not so easy to lose because of a momentary bad decision.

There's a school of thought that says that Bunny McGarry's done well to avoid jail up until now, although that school is a bit unreasonable, especially if you ignore the small matter of the death of his long term police partner, and the whole faked death thing, but ending up in jail under a fake identity, with the intention of breaking somebody else out of jail, at the request of a dodgy criminal gang who are holding the only nun that knows the whereabouts of his beloved Simone? Sure. Why not.

That the jail is supposedly unbreachable, the person he's supposed to take out with him has no idea it's happening, and is a bit on the "unusual" side, well all these things are by the by when the Sisters of The Saint dream up a plan it's going to work or somebody (not them) is going to get hurt trying (maybe Bunny), or possibly a tank full of snakes. You'll have to listen / read the story for yourself to find out.

Book 3 in the McGarry Stateside I do like the blurb's final line "The third book in the McGarry Stateside series is The Shawshank Redemption meets Ocean’s Eleven."

The blurb for HONEY starts out with a no punches pulled approach.

The first time, Yrsa doesn't intend to kill.

Which is going to mean that the style of this novel might come as a bit of a surprise to some readers. If you're one of those, like me, that was more than mildly put off by the chick lit tone of the opening sections, and felt just a little bit like something needs to happen soon... then hang in there. This goes from feeling all a bit silly to deadly (and I mean deadly) serious in the blink of an eye. A blink that might make you think you've missed something.

Having said that, the tone never does vary which makes for an astounding combination of disconnect and deep involvement in every single word, thought and action of the central character Yrsa.

A young university student and lecturer, Yrsa is bored with life, bored with her friends, bored with her active, and mostly self-initiated sex life, basically she's majoring in bored. Which you'd think would make her, as the narrator of her own story, also a bit boring, bordering on whingy. But she's engaging, probably because she's also profoundly confusing. A young woman who seems to have it all, a loving family, although she thinks her mother is overly pushy and her father too passive. She's also very good at poor decisions, impulsive actions, and what an outsider would be excused for assuming is complete and absolute self-involvement. With fleeting moments of compassion and concern for others, when she's not allowing her worst instincts to take over, and well, there's no other way to say this, and indulging in a bit of vigilante behaviour.

All of which sounds confusing I know and in this particular instance it's hard to write a review of this book without slipping into some major spoilers. Instead let's cut to the chase. The blurb also says:

Comic, sexy, addictive, unpredictable, Honey is about the not-always-righteous path of taking justice into your own hands.

Yes to all of that, and as to the question of whether or not I'd wholeheartedly recommend this - it's complicated. If you'd asked me that at the outset I'd have told you there's probably nothing to see here, quarter of the way in I'd still have been suggesting that moving along might be the best choice, halfway through I'd have asked you to go away because I was reading, and by the time the unresolved / will she / won't she / did she / what the hell just happened ending came around, I'd have said most definitely yes.

Followers of this series have probably read the second book THE LEWIS PASS, which when I reviewed it way back, I did mention:

The only downside is one of those endings that sort of reeks of "and in the next book", which may drive some readers bats, and might mean others are standing by in anticipation. All in all though, a series well worth keeping an eye on (from the very start if you can).

THE NIGHT BELONGS TO HER is that next book, and a lot of stuff is finally resolved, although this really is a series that needs to be read in order because there is a lot of "stuff" to be going on with.

Centred around disgraced, now exonerated DS Dylan Harper, who has now been reinstated at Sergeant level, he's working out of the station in small-town Westport (New Zealand). A location where he wasn't expecting a murder investigation quite so soon - but after a mysterious, barely audible phone call to him, two men are shot with a high-powered rifle through the window of a local bar, killing one and critically wounding the other. Detectives arrive, a strange sequence of letters are discovered etched into a bullet, and messages written in blood indicate that this is just the start of a killing spree - or at least so Harper believes. The detectives themselves don't seem quite so convinced, so it's left to the locals to take up the case. A case which gets very personal when somebody breaks into Harper's home as he sleeps. Is he a potential victim or is this something else entirely?

With an aim of getting his old job back in Christchurch, Harper is determined to solve this mystery, helped in motivation by the antagonism of the Detectives assigned to the case. It's a classic case of "the bosses" not appreciating the underling, complicated by Harper's own past, and just a heap of standard "you're just a country copper" bias. Whilst that's well worked over ground these days, in this series it is well written and the fast pace and complex plot provide plenty of meat for the reading detective to be going on with, the "angst" aspect never overblown.

It looks like this is the final novel in the series for now. Not sure if there are more planned.

A standalone mystery novel from prolific author Ann Cleeves - I listened to this as an audio book borrowed from the library. Set in Northumberland, Detective Peter Porteous is called to Cranwell Lake, where a diving instructor has found the body of a teenager, clearly dead for many years. A quick trawl through missing person reports concludes that the body is that of an enigmatic and secretive young man who had been reported missing in the early 1970s (I'm pretty sure now that the blurb is wrong - wasn't he reported missing by a lawyer after his foster parents died...?).

The discovery comes as a particular shock to his old girlfriend, now prison officer, Hannah Morton - she'd been with him on the night he disappeared and there's something she's not telling anyone, although to be fair, it's hard to work out what with the depth and variety of red herrings being dumped about the place.

I'm not sure that this suffered from being a listen rather than a read, but the core mystery just seemed to keep going missing in the middle of what felt like a fish monger's at more than one point. There were so many red herrings, and so much attempted distraction from the truth, that it ended up distracting from the entire story which I really REALLY struggled to hang onto. And the conclusion, when it did arrive, was downloaded in such a hurry, particularly given the convoluted nature of the motive, I was very underwhelmed in the end - in fact my notes for the final chapter included say "lot of noise just to end up here...".

Normally I just love everything that Ann Cleeves writes - this is the first one that I came away from thinking well that was a bit of a disappointment. Maybe start with Shetland, or the wonderful Vera series if you're new to this writer's work.

When they said write what you know, Trish McCormack got the memo. Growing up at the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand, and having worked in various national parks in NZ, her settings are always gloriously depicted. In this case Mt Cook is the central location, with two timelines wind through the story of Kath, her family, and her disappearance.

The two timelines are 1946 - when a volatile Stella is hired as mountain guide, vowing never to return to the more expected domestic life of a woman. She roams the Southern Alps, alongside her mentor Philip and a troubled returned soldier Jim, reveling in the freedom their work life gives them, but a tragedy at that time threatens everything they love.

In 2019 veteran journalist Kath walks away from her life, leaving behind old mountaineering photographs, and not a lot of other clues as to why she has suddenly disappeared. When her daughters, journalist Robin, and alpine guide Helen, discover a deathbed confession, they then have to work out how that connects to Kath's own disappearance. Which needless to say weaves its way back in time to the story of Stella, Philip and Jim.

I say needless to say, because it's obvious that there must be some connection, otherwise why the two timelines, but what and how or even why is not clear at all. What is clear is the way that the two timelines are executed really well, never confusing or bamboozling the reader, always moving the story forward, despite the necessary backward steps.

The author has blended historical and crime fiction here, with what almost reads like a travel guide to a wonderful location, which frankly is almost as big a character as the people in this story. Never detracting from the story of these multiple generations though, it's quite evocative to think of something dreadful happening in such a peaceful, welcoming place though.

Notable as well that despite the presence of Philip and Jim, this is a story of the women - their capacity and competency, and their connections.

A debut novel with a very evocative title, LIE DOWN WITH DOGS, is centred around a burnt out, damaged Detective, Kyle Williams. After being shot and losing the love of his life in a disastrous undercover investigation, he's strangely best placed to take on the cold-case murder of two young lovers. There's something a bit personal about his determination to solve this, although the link he discovers between the undercover operation that went badly wrong, and this murder is almost enough to derail him completely. But as you'd expect, when it comes to corrupt cops, wealthy drug dealers, and a chance for revenge, there's no taking a backward step.

Williams is definitely one of those broken, morose, hell-bent on revenge style of detectives, that stick with an investigation, no matter the damage it inflicts on them. After all, there's nothing more healing than throwing the damage back in a few faces sometimes, and this crowd is very much the wrong sort, who need taking down a peg or two. The action is delivered in a fast-paced manner, and Williams is an odd combination of profoundly sympathetic and deeply annoying character that just works. It's a vivid, violent read, mired in the worst of Christchurch - a location normally prized for it's beauty and gentility. No surprise that this author is known for his cinematography - he's got an eye for location which shines through.

A worthy finalist in the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Crime Fiction Awards, Best First Novel category.

(You might be wondering why suddenly reviews of books read last year have begun to show up - I found all my notes from the time - too many backup drives / not enough indexing!)

A stand-alone novel from Australian author, Sandi Wallace, WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW is set on a secluded island where Tess works at home, writing children's mystery books, and her travelling husband returns to on weekends from the job he loves, to a wife that he adores. It seems, to all the world, like the perfect life, enough neighbours to create a sense of community, enough distance to create a buffer, a sense of sanctuary, even a goofy chocolate labrador dog. A feeling shattered by sightings of a prowler, triggering unresolved trauma for Tess - her best friend's death was never explained, and suddenly Tess is doing all sorts of odd things she can't explain, and Joe seems to be hiding something. Then a young local woman is abducted and what seemed idyllic suddenly starts to look very shakey indeed.

The use of secrets and past events to set up a present day threat isn't new territory in crime fiction, but WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW uses them, and the isolated, almost locked room setting, to good effect. The inclusion of electronic stalking and hijacked communication is also a very current day and real threat, which creates a sense of immediacy and overall / overwhelming threat here that invokes such confusion in Tess, and therefore becomes increasingly unsettling - the idea of who you can trust when everything suddenly gets very odd is palpable here.

The setting is well invoked as well - small community / small island and the immediacy of the weather and the remoteness is cleverly done, as is the author's own knowledge of the solitary life of an author, made even more stark by Joe's long absences from home. His reasons for being away - a salesman on the road selling environmentally-friendly insulation is plausible, but on the home front there's a neighbour who has suddenly started behaving oddly, and some weird in house things - passages of text appearing in her work in progress, things moving / going missing / adding to the presence of that stalker, meaning a constant ramping up of the pressure, tension and fear. And, in something that is again all too believable, a lurking property developer, pushy and unpleasant.

Meanwhile there's Kathy, held captive for nearly forty years, keeping her feelings on scraps of paper, determined to never let her much older captor break her spirit.

So a lot going on, much of which has Tess as the obvious connection, which will leave the reader really wondering about her sanity, whilst also open to questioning Joe's commitment to his wife, or maybe there's something dodgy about the neighbours and the island in general, whilst always there's the thought of who on earth Kathy is in the background.

Whilst it could all sound very busy, the pace is high, and events, and introductions to a lot of people and situations roll out quickly, with the reader never struggling to keep track of who or what although why doesn't become clear (as you'd expect) until you get to the ending of what was a very believable, tension packed ride of a novel.

Well this is surprising, and a testament to the power of a bit of a tidy up sometimes, because in the process of doing so I discovered I'd not published these notes ... a long time ago. Apologies to the author - this is a series of four books set in Iceland, from Kiwi Author Grant Nicol. The main character is Grímur Karlsson and it's well worth reading.

A dour, somewhat put upon character Karlsson is one of those dogged, downtrodden sorts of detectives that seems to specialise in falling into major cases, literally sometimes. The author has a particularly inventive touch here in the way he sets Karlsson up against the treacherous geography of Iceland, and the equally treacherous aspects of human nature - the greed, selfishness and addiction of too many people part of the reason for Karlsson's constant darkness.

The story revolves around Karlsson's search for a young girl who has run in to a cold dark night, whilst a cryptic message left beside a charred corpse in the centre of Reykjavik seems to be hinting at a possible gang war. The connections between these two occurrences eventually reveal themselves, leaving Karlsson with a trail that leads from junkies on the streets to the very top of Icelandic society.

This is the third novel in this series, which I've really enjoyed, and finding these notes reminds me that I've still got the fourth book here - bumped up the queues immediately now.

One of those book series in audio format I've been borrowing from the library on and off now, A LESSON IN DYING is the first in the Inspector Simon Ramsay series, which is one of those quintessentially British, small town mystery, where the murders often have that slightly dotty sense about them (in this one a particularly nasty headmaster is hanged in the playground on the night of the school Hallowe'en party). Because it's been a while since I listened to this - think of this more as a note to self than a full review, but I really like this series. Ramsay is a great character, as you'd expect from a writer like this, the mysteries are twisty, but followable in audio, and the resolutions are never quite as obvious as they seem. In this outing, the caretaker of the school, and a governor is the one that really sets out to prove that the headmaster's wife (the obvious suspect) didn't do it, ably and enthusiastically assisted by his daughter. As is often the way with these small English village mysteries, there are a lot of people hiding a lot of dark secrets.

A good audio version that is easily followed whilst doing other things - which is always useful for the weekend task runs about the farm.

Alexis Turner walks into a police station to report her assault by a psychologist - the same man that DS Judith Lee has taken a report about in the past. By the end of that same day Turner appears to have vanished, and Lee is dealing with the guilt that she feels over the poor advice she gave the first accuser 10 years ago. It's a job a bit outside Lee's normal remit, but nothing in Lee's life is exactly normal right now. She's also dealing with the fallout of her arrest of a fellow police officer, a nepo baby of the worst kind, a corrupt thug and a bully protected by his higher up father. Lee has some support in the service, albeit a lot of which stays very low under the radar, meanwhile her motorbike is vandalised in police parking and it seems that her career could very well be in jeopardy.

Soon after Turner vanished into thin air, beautifully wrapped packages, containing cryptic notes start showing up. At the psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and the run down apartment where a single father, Jack, lives with his young son after the suicide of his partner many years before, a complicated relationship, leaving him doing the very best he can to raise his son, without realising the full extent of her experience.

Until the psychologist is shot dead, the socialite and her young daughter die from poisoning and the young father is framed for their murders. It's an elaborate, and dangerous plot that's being executed by somebody who seems to be in the know, very well prepared and resourceful, especially as it looks like Lee is the only person who starts to see some connections, which have to be painstakingly pieced together by trawling backwards through old records, to find the source of the gun, and then a hint of a possible explanation or connection. Meanwhile the threat becomes very personal as Lee's past actions are pulled into what's a complicated and very chilling story.

Styled as a thriller, this is also a story of childhood trauma, and the way that society struggles to find a way to help those that have been severely damaged by the actions of others. It pulls Lee into that scenario whilst also revealing her own family backstory and a violent event in the past, that could very well be used against her by this determined and ruthless perpetrator. Each of the victims seems to have been punished, sexual misbehaviour revealed, betrayal uncovered, and ultimately, a young father manipulated into appearing for all the world to be the guilty party.

There is a lot going on in THREE REASONS FOR REVENGE, and looking at it objectively, you'd think that it might be just a bit overwhelming, but the multiple stories are rolled out carefully, with the reader able to follow a complicated series of backgrounds, and the revelations without any heavy lifting on their part. Unlike the characters here, many of whom, not least Lee herself, are doing some very heavy lifting of their own, as the novel explores the way that childhood trauma informs current day actions - both positively and negatively - forming personality types that can go either way. The strength of this novel is not so much in the investigation, which is excellently portrayed, fast paced and cleverly constructed, but rather in the exploration of trauma and the reactions. Particularly the way that Judith and her, frankly unhinged mother, remember and react to the past that involved them both, reflected in the way that two sisters were affected by the actions of a violent, awful father, and the realisation of those outcomes on the people around them.

THREE REASONS FOR REVENGE is confronting reading, intense and powerful, it's a highly recommended revenge story that has some very battered edges to it.

Second in the McGarry Stateside series which is a spinoff from the Dublin Trilogy series (which isn't a trilogy), and a side road from the MCM Investigations series and, well for those that have read Caimh McDonnell's books already you'll get the "chaos" and if you're new to the whole thing - welcome to the best little madhouse in Ireland. Or the US in this case. And, of course, I'm behind with this review - maybe the chaos is contagious. Maybe I'll go with that as an excuse from here on in.

Anyway - Bunny McGarry (you really really REALLY have to read at least the first few Dublin Trilogy books and then the first in the McGarry Stateside series to have an ice-creams chance in a hellscape of figuring out what the actual .... is going on here - but trust me, that's no trial. In fact you may find yourself, like I am now, vaguely obsessed waiting for the next book to arrive - preferably in audio format because Morgan C. Jones is just the best narrator there is (although hasn't the voice of Smithy switched a bit in recent outings), and what's with the Sisters of the Saint and why is Bunny in America searching for Simone, which always seems to end up as the furthest thing from his ticked off list when all hell breaks loose.

Read the blurbs on these books and you'll get a slight hint of the styling, but there is nothing, absolutely nothing, like the utterly absorbing chaos field that you step into once you start reading (listening in my case) to these series.

Anyway - long story short, Bunny's a man on a mission to find the woman he loves. As are a lot of dangerous people. The only ones who know where she is are members of a rogue order of very unusual nuns (The Sisters of the Saint) who have, in the words of the blurb "raised not being found to the level of art form". They've also had a good kick at being the most unexpected types of nuns you're ever likely to come across. In the meantime, Bunny's drawn around him a very unlikely band of brothers - most of whom appear to be something straight out of "unexpected superhero casting 101".

In this outing it turns out that the required nuns have been kidnapped, and we're sort of in a Labours of Hercules type scenario where every step forward is a step to the left. The labours are being dictated by the kidnappers in a round about sort of way, but the Sisters are determined to get their fellow nuns back, and they are not above using McGarry as a human battering ram in the process. So when McGarry discovers that the one man that might have the clue to the next Labour is a priest whose life work is keeping kids out of gangs, although why such a man would have an assassin on his tail is just one of the mysterious questions that McGarry had better get an answer to in a hell of a hurry. Even if that does mean going undercover in the church, although the no swearing, no drinking and no violence rules might be the thing that finally breaks the camels back.

The whole thing is manic good fun, with daring doings, fabulous twists and turns, and some extensive and hilarious dialogue, misunderstandings and mayhem. And really if this review has confused you, dear reader, then welcome to the Bunny McGarry / States/ MCM Investigations / Dublin (not a) Trilogy and a whole world of highly addictive crazy good fun.

Inter-generational trauma is explored with explosive impact in Candice Fox's latest novel REDBELLY CROSSING.

When a young woman is found stabbed to death in an upstairs bedroom of a busy pub in the small country town of Redbelly Crossing, it brings together two brothers Russell and Evan Powder. Both cops, Evan is more local to the scene, lower ranked, with a professional past in which he's made a grave error.

Russell is the older brother, parachuted in from the city, he's there because he's also screwed up more recently and has been sent to the back of beyond as a sort of punishment. He's higher in rank than his brother from whom he's been estranged, and barely been able to be civil to, for a long time.

Included in this mix is the brother's father – an ex-cop himself, he was a violent single father with frankly psychopathic tendencies revealed as the story unfurls. He's an awful man, who increasingly makes you wonder how either of these two brothers survived, and went onto have families of their own.

Unsurprisingly those families are also screwed up, with Russell having been married, with a young daughter, before finally having to admit to himself, and his family, that he's a gay man. A gay man who had never cheated on his wife while they were married, has a “Prick Switch” he is very fond of flipping against his work colleagues, and an attitude problem. This investigation is also at the worst possible time, a week taken off work to try to reconnect with his now young adult daughter, upended into a house boat in the middle of a paddock in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of a baffling investigation that goes nowhere fast. Although in a strange way it's the making of his relationship with daughter Bridie, a resourceful and resilient young woman whose main interest in life is the rescue of stranded and endangered wildlife.

Because this family has made a competition out of being dysfunctional, Evan is at the centre of a whole storm of trouble at home of his own. A good relationship with his wife is strained by his absence at this time, with their frankly unsettling son's birthday celebrations in full swing, and Evan away on this case at the behest / bullying of his deeply disturbing father, his wife's not best pleased. Mind you that's the tip of the iceberg that's about to tip over into melt that threatens to wash them away when the young man leering the victim at the bar just before she died bears a striking resemblance to Evan's son – the boy who swore he was at home the whole time.

What starts out as a very complicated case – not the least reason being why somebody would have stabbed a young woman to death and how they did it with nobody noticing their movements on the busiest night of the week in the pub - gets even more complicated when Evan realises his son could be in a heap of trouble here, and starts actively covering up things. As that happens more and more truths come to light about the brother's own childhoods, and a history of the unsolved killings and rape of women in the area.

Sounds dire, and the book should come with some very pointed trigger warnings. About men and boys behaving appallingly and being allowed to get away with it – frankly the son Chris comes across as somebody who needs less cover up and more glaring spotlights for a start. Russell's attitude is abusive and reeking of attitude, albeit maybe with reasons but not excuses for it. Evan's minor superpower seems to be stupid decisions, maybe triggered by panic. Either way both the brothers are classic cases of severe PTSD, and it looks like the damage goes both ways up and down the male line.

All of which sounds confrontational and it is, but Fox is a good author, and whilst there is so much to find discomforting and just plain wrong about the subjects explored in this novel, the touch is careful, the atmosphere tense, the pace rapid and there are consequences. Be aware though, the Who Done It is a) pretty obvious and b) revealed reasonably early on but REDBELLY CROSSING doesn't feel like it was ever pretending to be a traditional mystery in that way, rather it was always about the exploration of consequences. For damage inflicted, and that which you inflict on others. And how or who can get their act together and survive all that which is much more of a mystery than why it happened, and ultimately, if, intergenerational trauma can ever be stopped.

(Worth reading the author's note at the back of the novel as well which gives an insight into the thinking behind this fictional story).

NO GOOD DEED is a very welcome Australian crime fiction book, written by one of the leading local writers in Katherine Kovacic, set in the stinking hot outback, featuring Rena - a 60something retired geologist on a trip through the area that is partly fulfillment of a long standing plan, partly an attempt to heal a broken heart after the death of her much loved husband. Rena and Tom had been planning this trip for years, both of them retired, a camper van fitted out with careful thought to being very self-sufficient and mobile, they wanted to get out into the remote areas, with just each other for company. Only Tom died suddenly of cancer, and Rena headed out on her own, devastated by the loss, moving through the the sorts of country that she knows well, as a healing exercise, and a search for purpose.

Very early on in the trip, she comes across signs of a fire burning off the highway. Venturing out to see what services would be required the scene is confronting - a crashed vehicle, consumed by flames, the driver still inside. The eventual revelation that the driver was a fellow geologist that she hadn't seen for 20 or so years, a disreputable character with a very dodgy past, piques the interest of a woman who is more than ably equipped to do a lot of outback sleuthing, much of which revolves around mining interests in the area, and a rumour of stolen, rare and very valuable, pink diamonds.

It's very obvious when reading NO GOOD DEED that Kovacic has done her research well. But she's too good a writer to turn this into a geology / mining text book. The tale here is interesting, and the character of Rena and those she pairs up with along the way are really believable, and extremely personable. It's hard not to want to really cheer the use of an older, talented and resilient female character at the centre of this story, but it's not done gratuitously or as some sort of nobler than thou feminist treatise. Instead, this character fits into the scenario effortlessly, she's believable, very emotionally fragile, but physically capable, experienced and it just makes sense that she would follow the leads in a field that she knows particularly well. The plot here is well laid out, perhaps not as suspenseful, or fast paced as some, but set within the overarching disruption of big mining, amplifying the competing priorities of small towns looking for economic impetus, and indigenous communities trying to protect their sacred places and country. The depiction of the colours of the landscape, the stark beauty and the all too oppressive heat are spot on, as is the vastness of the locations, and the oddness of encountering people in the most unexpected of locations. Not all those people mean well though, and whilst there are a couple of aspects of the plot that aren't that hard to work out, the resolutions to many threads take an unexpected path.

There is also a sly, very Australian, dry as the dust around her sense of humour about Rena. She's aware of her emotional fragility, aware that leaping into the investigation of a murder that is nothing to do with her is dangerous, and equally aware that there's no reason for her to be doing what she's doing. But she does. Partly it's that search for purpose, partly it's her natural sense of justice, partly it's incurable curiosity. Whilst curiosity this time around didn't quite kill the cat, there were points when you had to wonder whether or not she should have been having a long hard think about her choice. Then again, Rena doesn't seem like the sort of person that backs off when the going gets tough. Let's hope there's another book in her story.