SULARI GENTILL The Mystery Writer. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
In Sulari Gentill’s new novel, aspiring writer Theo and her brother Gus become embroiled in increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories. The Mystery Writer is the latest book by the prolific and always intriguing Australian author Sulari Gentill. Set in the USA, as her...
IAIN RYAN The Strip. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith
The new novel from the author of The Spiral and The Student delivers a noir excursion into the underbelly of the Gold Coast in the 1980s. Steeped in corruption, incompetence, and alcohol, 1980s Queensland seems like the perfect setting for a distinctly Australian...
BENJAMIN STEVENSON Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Benjamin Stevenson’s sharp eye and love of the crime genre are on display in this follow-up to Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone. After the success of his last novel Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, Benjamin Stevenson has returned with a sequel of...
AW HAMMOND The Berlin Traitor. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
It’s July 1945, and the war in Europe is finally over. Auguste Duchene has survived, but the past will not let go. The second novel featuring Duchene, The Berlin Traitor closely follows the first, The Paris Collaborator, which was set in and around occupied Paris....
ADRIAN HYLAND The Wiregrass. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
In Adrian Hyland’s latest crime novel, Jesse Redpath is back, stationed in a new town during a time of stormy weather. The much anticipated follow-up to Canticle Creek, The Wiregrass is set in the temperate rainforest area of Victoria in the fictional town of...
BEN SANDERS Exit .45. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
When Marshall Grade agrees to meet his former NYPD colleague Ray Vialoux, he does not expect Ray to end up dead on the floor of a New York restaurant. Exit .45 is the third Marshall Grade novel by New Zealand-based author Ben Sanders, following on from American Blood...
BRYAN BROWN The Drowning. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Actor and Australian icon Bryan Brown brings his laconic style to his first full-length crime novel. The Drowning is set on the northern beaches of New South Wales in a small town that is mostly occupied by surfers, retirees, outsiders and backpackers. But with the...
TOM BARAGWANATH Paper Cage. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A finalist in the Ngaio Awards for Best First Crime Novel, Paper Cage is the story of a divided community and a string of missing children. There’s not much that happens in Masterton that Lo Henry doesn’t know about. One of two Pākehā sisters who married...
FIONA SUSSMAN The Doctor’s Wife. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Fiona Sussman’s fifth novel pieces together a suspicious death, a fatal illness and erratic behaviour within a group of lifelong friends. Carmen Andino, Tibbie Lamb and Tibbie’s husband Austin have been friends since school. Austin and Tibbie got together, and...
CHARITY NORMAN Remember Me. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A dementia diagnosis reveals clues to a decades-old mystery in this new novel from the author of The Secrets of Strangers – Charity Norman’s third to be shortlisted for NZ’s Ngaio Marsh Awards. In June 1994, 21-year old Emily Kirkland had been working at a petrol...
DOMINIC HOEY Poor People with Money. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Fast paced, heart-wrenching, darkly comic, Dominic Hoey’s new crime novel is dark and unrelenting. Do you remember when I was a hero, Eddy? Back when everyone thought I saved you, before my face looked like a broken dinner plate. Mt Albert girl, 15, rescues brother...
Recent Posts
2026 Summer Surprise Giveaway12 February 2026Surprise! Here’s a very special giveaway of four recent novels. Take your [ … ]
WRIGHT THOMPSON The Barn: The murder of Emmett Till and the cradle of American racism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck10 February 2026Wright Thompson’s account of the 1950s murder of a Black teenager in [ … ]
JOSHUA BLACKBURN The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia. Reviewed by Ann Skea5 February 2026Joshua Blackburn has compiled a treasure-trove of the humorous, the obscure, [ … ]
MARIAN WILKINSON Woodside vs The Planet: How a company captured a country. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck3 February 2026Australian governments are addicted to fossil-fuel exports that harm the [ … ]