by NRB | 9 Jul 2015 | Crime Scene |
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,...
by NRB | 25 Jun 2015 | Crime Scene |
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...
by NRB | 26 May 2015 | Crime Scene |
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,...
by NRB | 12 Mar 2015 | Crime Scene |
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...
by NRB | 10 Mar 2015 | Crime Scene |
A missing child, a man framed – this debut thriller has a searing ferocity. It’s everybody’s worst nightmare – the mysterious disappearance of a child. David Kingsgrove is a gay man in his 30s, a freelance journalist who lives in an apartment in Sydney. His...
by NRB | 3 Feb 2015 | Crime Scene |
This gloriously retro private eye series is purely for fun. Crime fiction tends, in the main, to take itself very seriously. Murder after all, isn’t a laughing matter, and the exploration of who did what to whom sometimes demands the playing of a very straight...
by NRB | 16 Dec 2014 | Crime Scene |
Connelly makes the most of his crisscrossing plots and delivers a disturbing picture of a fearful America. I’m forced to ration my reading due to my poor eyesight and I favour history, biography and historical novels over other books. Once an omnivorous reader of...
by NRB | 2 Oct 2014 | Crime Scene |
A crime has been committed and Maud knows this – but what was it? She can’t remember. Eighty-two-year-old Maud Horsham is losing her memory. But some things are firmly stuck in her mind – the most important being that her friend Elizabeth is missing. She knows this...
by NRB | 4 Sep 2014 | Crime Scene |
One of Australia’s great storytellers: Michael Robotham’s crime fiction and the tantalising premise of his new novel. Michael Robotham’s latest novel, published ten years after his first, was more than 20 years in the making. In a recent interview, the author...
by NRB | 21 Aug 2014 | Crime Scene |
Questions of masculinity and notions of guilt and innocence are probed in Helen Garner’s disquieting examination of the tragic death of three young boys and the murder trial of their father. Most Australians will be familiar with the high-profile case at the...
by NRB | 15 Jul 2014 | Crime Scene |
A novel of abandonment, crank and the Ozarks, written with flinty integrity. Daniel Woodrell has written several novels set in the Ozark region of the central United States. One critic has termed his work ‘hillbilly noir’, and if you’re interested in this sub-genre,...
by NRB | 12 Jun 2014 | Crime Scene |
The saga of Queensland’s notorious decades of police corruption continues with Matthew Condon following the lives of key players as they seize control. The searing and sensational sequel to Three Crooked Kings will only further stoke the fire of the average...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm6 December 2024June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone [ … ]
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey5 December 2024This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is [ … ]
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith3 December 2024Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and [ … ]
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea28 November 2024Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in [ … ]