by NRB | 7 Sep 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Steeped in a sense of culture, people and place, Blood Matters is crime fiction set at the heart of a family and community. Author Renée is a towering figure in New Zealand. A legendary playwright, novelist and activist, Renée is of Māori (Ngāti Kahungunu), Irish,...
by NRB | 31 Aug 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Set in Florence in 1537, The Darkest Sin is the second novel featuring Cesare Aldo, an officer of the feared Otto di Guardia e Balia. This series currently includes The City of Vengeance and The Darkest Sin, with a third volume, Ritual of Fire, on the way. The first...
by NRB | 3 Aug 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The third novel from pulp fiction aficionado Andrew Nette is a delightful, knowing nod to the genre. Following on from the enjoyable Gunshine State, Orphan Road again features Nette’s antihero Gary Chance, a survivor of military service in Afghanistan, in a new...
by NRB | 13 Jun 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
In Tasha Sylva’s debut novel a young woman obsessively investigates her sister’s murder … and her houseguests. ‘33-year-old woman found dead in a London park’ The woman was Tess’s sister, Rosie, and in her grief Tess has become obsessed with finding...
by NRB | 16 May 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Is Michael Trant Australia’s Lee Child? No Trace delivers a heroic protagonist and a rush of adrenalin in the remote Pilbara. Michael Trant’s Wild Dogs (2022) was an action-packed thriller that introduced Gabe Ahern as Australia’s answer to Jack Reacher. Thankfully...
by NRB | 9 May 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
If you’ve ever wondered what a crime novel written by Noel Coward might be like, Naked Ambition could provide some clues. Fans of Robert Gott’s earlier William Power series, or his newspaper cartoon The Adventures of Naked Man, will not be all that...
by NRB | 2 May 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
James McKenzie Watson’s thriller-like debut brings coherence to a life breaking apart. James McKenzie Watson’s first novel Denizen is partly a thriller and partly a depiction of generational abuse and its consequences, drawing on the author’s upbringing in rural...
by NRB | 25 Apr 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Dennis Lehane returns to familiar territory in his latest novel, but Small Mercies is far from predictable. American writer Dennis Lehane burst onto the crime scene with his hard-hitting debut A Drink Before the War (1994), the first of his Kenzie and Gennaro novels....
by NRB | 23 Mar 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
SD Hinton’s debut novel uses the structure of a thriller to explore myriad responses to trauma. Jake Harlow is a decorated Special Forces veteran, returned from a tour in Afghanistan that went horribly wrong for him. Captured by the Taliban, he was mentally and...
by NRB | 16 Mar 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Rebecca Makkai’s fourth novel examines our obsession with true crime – and where that can lead. True crime and true crime podcasts are having a moment, not only in the real world but also in fiction. However, in fiction, writers can start to get behind the...
by NRB | 9 Mar 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
This fierce, unflinching thriller asks timely questions about threatening behaviour. Why don’t we recognise it? Stop it? Dark Mode is a novel, as the note at the beginning makes clear: While the characters and their precise circumstances are fictitious, the...
by NRB | 28 Feb 2023 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
This latest offering of Australian rural noir contrasts urban and small-town sensibilities from the perspective of a child protection officer. Readers of Crows Nest will not be surprised to learn that author Nikki Mottram has an extensive background in child...
HELEN GARNER The Season. Reviewed by Michael Jongen23 January 2025Helen Garner’s account of a single season of her grandson’s AFL team is about [ … ]
EVA MENASSE Darkenbloom. Reviewed by Ann Skea22 January 2025In Austrian writer Eva Menasse’s new novel, the residents of a small border [ … ]
MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ Annihilation. Reviewed by James Arbuthnott21 January 2025The controversial author of Atomised sets his new – and possibly last – novel [ … ]
CHER The Memoir Part 1. Reviewed by Naomi Manuell16 January 2025Cher is a genuine superstar who has had an extraordinary career across music, [ … ]