Round-up of the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Best Novel Award longlist. By Karen Chisholm
Two authors returning to crime writing after more than a decade are among an eclectic longlist for New Zealand’s 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel. After considering a total of 69 entries in the New Zealand crime fiction awards (the Ngaio Marsh Awards) across two...
JAMES OSWALD The Gathering Dark. Review and overview by Jean Bedford
James Oswald has been hailed as the new star of Scottish noir – with a difference. The Gathering Dark is the eighth and possibly final book in the Inspector Tony McLean series, which has been going since 2013 when James Oswald self-published Natural...
CHRISTOPHER SEQUIERA (Ed.) Sherlock Holmes: The Australian Casebook. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
An accessible dip into the world of fan fiction, these 16 illustrated short stories are not just for lovers of Sherlock Holmes. Seventeen different authors have contributed to this collection, including the overall editor Christopher Sequiera, himself a Sherlock...
JAMES LEE BURKE Cadillac Jukebox; Sunset Limited. ADRIAN McKINTY Gun Street Girl; Rain Dogs (Sean Duffy 4 and 5). Reviewed by Jessica Stewart
Burke writes about Louisiana, McKinty about Belfast, but these two crime writers have more in common than you might think. Over the last weeks, I’ve been reading Irish-Australian writer Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series (you can read Karen Chisholm’s...
JM GREEN Too Easy. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Too Easy continues an absolutely terrific series that falls on the noirish side of comic farce. In 2015 JM Green’s debut novel Good Money launched social worker – and accidental detective – Stella Hardy onto the mean streets of Melbourne’s inner suburbs. It was...
ANNA GEORGE The Lone Child. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The Lone Child focusses on character development, imbued with sadness, longing, regret and loss. Following on from her stunning debut novel, What Came Before, Anna George has created another claustrophobic and compelling character study of somebody struggling with the...
IAIN RYAN The Student. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The Student is fast-paced, dry as dust, gritty Australian regional noir. The Student is set around a university campus in Gatton, Queensland, in 1994. Nat is a student dealing weed supplied by Jesse, another student and friend. Between them they have a very good...
SARAH BAILEY The Dark Lake. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
A debut novel set in a small Australian town, The Dark Lake is a police procedural with a hefty dose of romantic tension. DS Gemma Woodstock and Rosalind Ryan went to the same school. Back then Woodstock was obsessed with Ryan, who seemed to have it all. From a...
PETER CORRIS Win, Lose or Draw. Reviewed by Tom Patterson
Clear observations and easy rhythms continue to give momentum in this final novel by Peter Corris. Halfway through The Dying Trade by Peter Corris, Cliff Hardy is under a tarp in the back of a Landrover taking stock: ‘I’d been careless and slow and the thought...
EMMA VISKIC And Fire Came Down. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Emma Viskic explores difference, and its consequences, in this sequel to Resurrection Bay. Even before Viskic’s debut novel Resurrection Bay won the 2016 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction and an unprecedented three Davitt Awards, readers were impatiently...
Round-up of the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards shortlist for best fiction. By Jean Bedford
The Ned Kelly Awards are run by the Australian Crime Writers Association and have been going since 1995. I was lucky enough to be one of three judges of the Best Fiction category of the Ned Kelly Awards for this year. As it’s been impossible to keep up with...
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