SUSANNA FREYMARK Losing February. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
A fearless and riveting debut novel about love, obsession and redemption. Most people have someone they think of as ‘the one that got away’, the person who could have been the love of their life if only the circumstances, the timing, had been different. Maybe, years...Crime Scene: ANDREW TAYLOR The Scent of Death. Reviewed by Peter Corris
The winner of the 2013 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger Award, this impressive historical crime novel gives a hard-edged depiction of the mindlessness of war. The historical crime novel is a sub-genre and a tricky one. The writer has to satisfy, as it were, two separate...The Godfather: Peter Corris on Mythbusters
My eight-year-old grandson Vincent is a fan of the Mythbusters television show. He stays overnight with us every Saturday and introduced me to it. At first I watched just to see what so interested him but the show got me in and I began to record three or four episodes...ELISABETH STORRS The Golden Dice: Tales of Ancient Rome Book 2. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The second book of Tales of Ancient Rome intertwines the stories of three women to again create a fascinating novel of love and war, richly steeped in history. There is an intriguing hiatus between the previous novel in this series, The Wedding Shroud, and The...TREVOR SHEARSTON Game. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Trevor Shearston presents a fresh view of bushranger Ben Hall in this spare and beautifully written novel. Ben Hall is beginning to tire of life on the road. It isn’t as easy as it used to be and he isn’t getting any younger. He is starting to feel...The Godfather: Peter Corris on the cat in his life
For I will consider my cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God … Christopher Smart Jubilate Agno The 18th-century ‘mad poet’ Christopher Smart is not the only writer to have celebrated a cat. Raymond...Crime Scene: ANGELA SAVAGE The Dying Beach: Jayne Keeney PI in Krabi; PETER COTTON Dead Cat Bounce. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Two recent Australian crime novels – a PI mystery set in Thailand and a police procedural in Canberra – give a strong sense of place. The Dying Beach is the third Jayne Keeney book from Angela Savage, following on closely from Behind the Night Bazaar and The...MAX BARRY Lexicon. Reviewed by Keith Stevenson
This is fiction on the edge of the now – a contemporary thriller that moves backwards and forwards in time. Wil Parke prays it’s a case of mistaken identity when he’s waylaid in an airport toilet by a couple of guys who stick a needle in his eye and propose...The Godfather: Peter Corris on going outback
Although I was born in a country town, Stawell, in the Victorian Wimmera, like most Australians I am a coast dweller. Apart from a brief stint in Gippsland and a few years in Canberra (and even there the water was only a few hours’ drive away), I have hugged the...Crime Scene: JENNY SPENCE No Safe Place. Reviewed by Morgan Smith
This novel introduces a new, very 21st-century Australian crime series full of tension. For women crime readers ‘of a certain age’, Melbourne debut novelist Jenny Spence has nailed her demographic with an intelligent female protagonist who loves literature and is old...DOMINIC KNIGHT Man vs Child. Reviewed by Suzanne Rath
Dominic Knight’s third novel is a return to the snappy observational humour and romance of his debut Disco Boy. In today’s celebrity-obsessed world, we can imagine the pumped-up egos and diva behaviours encountered by those working in the entertainment...
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