Crime Scene: MICHAEL ROBOTHAM Close Your Eyes. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The CWA Gold Dagger Winner’s latest novel is a return to his much-loved Joe O’Loughlin series. As is often the way with series books, some knowledge of past novels can enhance a reader’s pleasure, and in this case Shatter (2008) is close to mandatory reading...
Crime Scene: MATTHEW CONDON All Fall Down. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
Courage and humanity are at the heart of this final volume about corruption in Queensland. Matthew Condon’s brilliant final instalment of his Three Crooked Kings trilogy, All Fall Down, was launched at the Queensland State Library. The building is a relatively...
Crime Scene: EMMA VISKIC Resurrection Bay. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A deftly handled plot, strong characters and a sly, dry humour make this an outstanding debut crime novel. Emma Viskic won the 2014 Ned Kelly Short Story Award and the 2013 New England Thunderbolt Award for her short crime fiction, so it’s reasonable to greet...
Crime Scene: OWEN SHEERS I Saw a Man. Reviewed by Donna Lu
This literary thriller is expansive and cerebral in its exploration of guilt, fate, grief and the aftermath of war. As Sarah Crown has pointed out in a Guardian interview, the title of Owen Sheers’s new book is hardly discernable on its cover. The words ‘I Saw a Man’...
Crime Scene: MARK DAPIN R & R. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Dapin’s prose crackles and pops, at turns bloody and poignant, in this novel of the Vietnam War. ‘You know what?’ said Caution. ‘Nobody else in the world gives a damn whether you’re an Aussie or some other kind of faggot. There ain’t one single soul in America who...
Crime Scene: FELICITY YOUNG The Insanity of Murder. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This is the latest in a series of intelligent, well-researched and engagingly written crime-fiction novels set amid the suffragette battles of early 1900s England. Young’s first book, A Dissection of Murder, released in 2012, introduced readers to Dr Dody McCleland...
Crime Scene: PETER DOYLE The Big Whatever. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Music and popular culture provide the backdrop to this long-awaited new Billy Glasheen novel. It’s no surprise that Peter Doyle, authority on popular culture, slide guitarist, university professor and social historian, has written a series of novels that...
Crime Scene: BRIAN STODDART A Madras Miasma. Reviewed by Bernard Whimpress
Murder, drugs, sex, politics, history and geography provide the substance of Brian Stoddart’s fast-paced first novel set in India. In 1920 a young woman’s body is found floating in the ‘putrid shallows’ of the Buckingham Canal in Madras: She lay on her back,...
Crime Scene: ALEX HAMMOND The Unbroken Line. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This unpredictable legal thriller is no courtroom drama and brims with action. The first novel in this series, Blood Witness (shortlisted for the 2014 Ned Kelly Best First Crime), set Will Harris up as a strong and believable central character. A lawyer with a social...
Crime Scene: JUNE WRIGHT. An appreciation by Karen Chisholm
June Wright is one of the early writers who forged a way for the current vibrant Australian crime fiction scene. Unfortunately the crime novels of June Wright have been largely forgotten and unavailable for many years. That situation is now being rectified,...
Crime Scene: KATHERINE HOWELL Tell the Truth: An Ella Marconi novel. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This is the end – for now – of the Ella Marconi series by Australian thriller writer Katherine Howell. In 2007 paramedic Katherine Howell caused quite a stir in crime-fiction fan circles with the release of her debut novel Frantic. Detective Ella Marconi made her...
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