Karen
Technology based thrillers like GOING ZERO can, sometimes, make this reader wary. Very wary, as the “tech” is often so far off course it endangers teeth and the book's ability to stay in one piece. Not so in GOING ZERO - the tech here might be a tad ropey in places, but the application was so believable, and the potential outcome so engaging, I was happy to let it roll along at, it has to be said, a clipping pace.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/going-zero-andrew-mccarten
My review of the not as cosy as you'd think from the look of it crime novel The Tea Ladies by THE TEA LADIES by Amanda Hampson is one of those interesting sort of novels that tippy toes a line between its cosy(ish) setting and some considerably more ruthless plot lines with a deftness that made for a really enjoyable reading experience.
Full review at: https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/tea-ladies-amanda-hampson
My fault this one. I've been enjoying a few crime fiction novels on the cosier end of the spectrum recently, but this one, alas, was too far into that world for my taste. Perfectly good novel for fans of that overtly English, slightly dotty, eccentric small village style of novel. Just not for me.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/murder-candlelight-faith-martin
Rosie Batty is a much better person than I could ever hope to be. Her compassion, fierceness and clear-eyed realism is both inspirational and profoundly depressing. All these years since her son was killed by his father, and yet, reading this book it feels like nothing much has improved.
Oh and Mark Latham's behaviour is appalling.
This was well plotted, and whilst Maigret was his normal gloomy, introverted self, there was something spirited and committed about his determination that lifted this outing slightly. Set around the river Seine and the docks area, the sense of place was really strong as well.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/mans-head-georges-simenon
Listening to the audio version of this, I'd sort of half expected that the multiple viewpoints might be a bit of a problem to keep track of, but the whole thing chopped and changed, moved around, and worked backwards and forwards through the plot elements really well. It kind of felt like a good investigative thriller “show” being played out in front of the listener. All in all, a bit of a high point in a very highly rated series.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/black-widow-christopher-brookmyre
Well worth reading both books on this trial, I'd hung onto this one for a time because we were due to read it for our f2f bookclub. All of whom had not read the other book, all of whom were horrified and appalled by Roberts-Smith actions, and what was done in our name by him. There's "fog of war" and there's deliberate bullying, abuse, killing and utterly disgusting behaviour.
Full Review at Bookwyrm Social.
In 1911, Augustus (Gus) Hawkins is a mounted trooper in rural New South Wales. A veteran of the Boer war he's a complex man with a severe case of PTSD and a bad dose of long-standing longing for Flora Kirkbride, eldest of four children of a local “landed gentry” family. Until the night he discovers the bodies of her three younger siblings, brother and two sisters, shot dead on a road that he should have been patrolling.
https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/bone-lands-pip-fioretti
Set in Hong Kong, DRAGON'S BACK is the first novel in the series introducing PI Galahad Jones. The series currently includes the second novel, DRAGON'S CLAW, and third, DRAGON'S EYE. Galahad Jones is a personally conflicted sort of a man, his business is struggling, he's got a gambling debt that would choke a horse, a big problem with people who want their money or else, and a nice line in female sidekicks, from his unimpressed office administrator to his apprentice Joey Loh - a woman who takes “sidekick” to a whole new level. Full Review: https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/dragons-back-ac-edwards
THE WATER'S DEAD is the first novel featuring DI Nyree Bradshaw (BETTER LEFT DEAD is out in September), set in the upper north island region of New Zealand, with idyllic scenery, pockets of poverty, a strong, tight knit Māori community, and a lot of fractious relationships.
None more so than the relationships of Huia Coburn, a young woman whose body is found dumped in a rock pool at the bottom of a waterfall by a couple of tourists with a messy story of their own. The complications of Huia's murder are compounded when it's realised that she was looking after a young, diabetic child at the time of her death. Lily Holmes is now missing, and time is running out to find her, as well as a killer who would batter a young, pregnant woman to death.
Full Review on my website.
Originally posted at www.austcrimefiction.org.
