by NRB | 8 Sep 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The glamour of prewar Paris is the backdrop to a murder in this new novel from the author of The Lost Jewels. Drums rolled. The orchestra struck opening chords as the elegant hostess, Lady Eleanor Ashworth, stepped into the spotlight dressed in a black tulle Chanel...
by NRB | 16 Aug 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
After more than 25 years of writing true crime, Vikki Petraitis turns her hand to fiction. Australian true crime author Vikki Petraitis won the inaugural Allen and Unwin crime fiction prize for The Unbelieved, her first fictional outing. And while this is fiction, it...
by NRB | 28 Jun 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
British crime writer Gillian McAllister’s new novel explores time travel as crime prevention. Time loops are everywhere these days. Groundhog Day might have popularised them (and in doing so entered the popular vernacular) but the narrative conceit has now gone...
by NRB | 10 May 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Jane Caro’s new novel deals frankly with coercive control. Though I knew the gist of the issues raised by The Mother before I began – I’d read the devastating stories of victims of domestic violence, watched the news, and thought I understood the issues – this...
by NRB | 12 Apr 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
In John Darnielle’s new novel, a true crime writer confronts the limits of the genre. John Darnielle may be best known as the lead singer of the American indie folk rock band the Mountain Goats, but he is also the author of two previous novels, Wolf in White Van...
by NRB | 22 Mar 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Set in small-town New Zealand, Boy Fallen is beautifully written and elegantly plotted crime fiction. Auckland Detective Brooke Palmer returns to her home town of Taonga to support her best friend Lana when the body of Lana’s teenage son is found at the base of the...
by NRB | 17 Feb 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Australia’s leading writer of rural crime fiction, Garry Disher, has been quietly crafting an excellent series set in the dry wheatbelt of South Australia. This latest instalment won the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction. There are three books now in the...
by NRB | 15 Feb 2022 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Hannah King’s debut novel is an unsettling murder mystery with a longstanding female friendship at its core. She and I is a detective story with a difference. It is set in Ireland but there are few indications of this, apart from a police officer’s query about...
by NRB | 21 Dec 2021 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
In Tank Water Michael Burge brings a fresh dimension to crime fiction set in small Australian towns. Michael Burge’s debut novel Tank Water is a crime thriller set in rural Australia. Beautifully and vividly written, I read it quickly in one day. And a few weeks...
by NRB | 17 Dec 2021 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
NZ-based Charity Norman’s sixth novel is her second to be shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Taut, tense and cleverly constructed, The Secrets of Strangers is a thriller set in London that explores human behaviour in the high-risk...
by NRB | 2 Dec 2021 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
The ninth novel from Wendy James is a classic page-turning mystery that is both psychologically complex and authentically Australian. Best known as the ‘queen of domestic noir’, James brings a keen understanding of social and political history to her richly layered...
by NRB | 14 Sep 2021 | Crime Scene, Fiction |
Colson Whitehead’s new novel is a story of ambition and the American dream – and heists, shady characters, and corruption. Colson Whitehead deservedly won the Pulitzer prize (and a bunch of other awards) for his previous two novels. Both detailed tragic times in...