Crime Scene: GARRY DISHER Signal Loss. Review and series overview by Karen Chisholm
Garry Disher has two successful major crime series out – very different from each other, both of the highest possible standard. In 1991 the first of the Wyatt series, Kickback, was released. In an unusual twist for local crime fiction at the time, Disher had created...
Crime Scene: ROSS ARMSTRONG The Watcher. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
The Watcher is a dark psychological thriller and a first-rate debut whodunnit. This first novel by English actor and writer Ross Armstrong will no doubt appeal to readers who enjoyed The Girl On the Train. Like that book, it features a heroine cut loose from her...
Crime Scene: ROSS GRAY The Dragon’s Skin. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
The Dragon’s Skin heralds an innovative and powerful new voice on the Australian crime scene. Ben Bovell has strapped a bomb to his chest and taken his daughter hostage in her childcare centre. He will only speak to David Edge, a disgraced former copper he has...
Crime Scene: ANDREW NETTE Gunshine State. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Gunshine State is an Aussie pulp thriller chock-full of colourful characters, aliases, street-wise philosophy and unrelenting action that sustains it to the very last. Meet Gary Chance, a 32-year-old ex-army crook with a distinctive missing left pinkie and a heart for...
Crime Scene: JAYE FORD Darkest Place. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Darkest Place is Australian thriller writer Jaye Ford’s fifth book of stand-alones involving women under threat who are definitely not victims. In 2011 Jaye Ford released Beyond Fear, telling the story of a girls’ weekend away at an isolated country hideaway....
Crime Scene: BELINDA BAUER The Beautiful Dead. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
Bauer’s new novel keeps us guessing until the very end. This is the fifth book by Belinda Bauer, the Gold Dagger award-winning author now resident in Wales. Unlike some crime writers who, once they’ve developed a successful character, stick with them forever,...
Crime Scene: B MICHAEL RADBURN The Falls. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Emotion, reaction, damage and recovery are at the core of B Michael Radburn’s dark thrillers. In 2011 The Crossing arrived in the Australian crime fiction landscape, combining aspects of the supernatural with the story of Taylor Bridges as he dealt with the extremes...
Crime Scene: HERMAN KOCH Dear Mr M. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Metafiction is pushed to the limit in Dear Mr M, a sardonic and self-conscious thriller. This is a multilayered story told with conviction through multiple viewpoints: the jaded downstairs neighbour of ageing bestselling author Mr M, the writer himself and the...
Crime Scene: TANIA CHANDLER Dead in the Water. Reviewed by Robin Elizabeth
Crime fiction is blended beautifully with elements of commercial women’s fiction in Dead in the Water. Tania Chandler brings back the femme-fatalesque Brigitte in the sequel to her Davitt and Ned Kelly Awards shortlisted debut novel, Please Don’t Leave Me Here, but...
Crime Scene: FRED VARGAS A Climate of Fear. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
This enjoyably quirky and nourishing police procedural is typically Vargas. The Inspector Adamsberg series, of which A Climate of Fear is the eighth instalment, all contain a delicious quirkiness and sense of fun that springs from the pen of this best-selling French...
Crime Scene: MELINA MARCHETTA Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Tell the Truth, Shame the Devil engages many of today’s pressing political issues within a well-crafted crime fiction plot. Melina Marchetta’s seventh novel, a realist crime story aimed at adults, is a switch from her previous fantasy and Australian-based YA books....
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