JP POMARE The Last Guests. Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
The new thriller from the award-winning author of Call Me Evie and In the Clearing has a disturbing premise. New Zealand writer JP Pomare opens his sinister thriller setting a scene as though it were a movie set — which it will be, shortly. The Auckland residence...
IAIN RYAN The Spiral. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Inventive and brutal, there are good reasons why Iain Ryan’s third novel is being talked about. It’s fair to say that thrillers come at the reader of Australian fiction at a pretty hefty rate, and it’s hard to avoid some familiar story elements, e.g....
DERVLA McTIERNAN The Good Turn. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The Good Turn continues Irish-Australian writer Dervla McTiernan’s Cormac Reilly crime series, which has become a firm favourite in a very short time. For those that are new to Cormac Reilly’s story, he’s an Irish Garda officer with a messy professional...
KIM KELLY Her Last Words. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Historical novelist Kim Kelly (author of Walking, Sunshine and Wild Chicory) turns to the 21st century in her new novel to deliver a tale of intrigue and literary ambition. What a strange year 2020 has been. The world has already had bushfires, floods, pandemics,...
ANNA DOWNES The Safe Place. Reviewed by Ashley Kalagian Blunt
Anna Downes’s first novel is a thriller that poses uncomfortable questions about families. The Safe Place begins with a dreamlike escape. A young Londoner in a Ramones T-shirt and worn sneakers boards a private jet and arrives in France, where a chauffeur...
LEAH SWANN Sheerwater: extract
This week’s extract is from Leah Swann’s novel Sheerwater, a gripping story of missing children. When it opens, Ava is on the Great Ocean Road, driving to a new life in the little town of Sheerwater with her two young sons, Max and Teddy, her car jammed with their...
SUJATA MASSEY The Satapur Moonstone. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Sujata Massey’s 1920s crime series featuring lawyer Perveen Mistry continues in the absorbingly tangled mystery of The Satapur Moonstone. India 1922: The Crown Prince of Satapur, Jiva Rao, is only 10 years old. His father and his elder brother have died, so he...
KARINA KILMORE Where the Truth Lies. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Shortlisted for the Unpublished Manuscript Award in the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, Karina Kilmore’s debut has got a lot of Australian crime fiction fans talking. She was slipping away. The further she fell, the closer the clouds seemed to come....
CHRIS HAMMER Silver: extract
This week our extract is from Chris Hammer’s second crime novel, Silver. It again features investigative journalist Martin Scarsden, who readers first met in Scrublands where – among other things – he fell for the beautiful Mandalay Blonde in the small Riverina town...
KIRSTEN ALEXANDER Riptides. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Kirsten Alexander’s second novel evokes 1970s Queensland as it explores the fallout of a tragedy. In her acknowledgements at the end of Riptides, Kirsten Alexander touches on the difficulties she faced in writing about her home town: Anyone who grew up in...
SUJATA MASSEY A Murder at Malabar Hill. Reviewed by Ann Skea
A Murder at Malabar Hill is the first instalment of Sujata Massey’s crime series set in 1920s Bombay featuring lawyer Perveen Mistry. Bombay, February 1921. Perveen Mistry is about to enter Mistry House, where she works as a solicitor in her father’s law firm....
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