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...
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...
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...
Crime Scene: SULARI GENTILL Crossing the Lines. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Known for her Rowland Sinclair historical crime series and her YA Hero trilogy, Sulari Gentill delivers something very different with this new novel. What if you wrote of someone writing of you? In the end, which of you would be real? Crossing the Lines is an...
Crime Scene: MARK BRANDI Wimmera. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
In 2016 the unpublished manuscript of Wimmera won the UK Crime Writers’ Association debut dagger – now it’s published and we can see why. Set in the late 1980s in Stawell, a town on the edge of the Wimmera farming region in north-western Victoria,...
Crime Scene: DAVID COHEN Disappearing off the Face of the Earth. Reviewed by Robin Elizabeth
David Cohen masterfully captures a repellent main character in this comic mystery novel. David Cohen’s new novel has been described as ‘a warped comedy with a body count’ by Brisbane writer Nick Earls. It is set in Brisbane and is packed with Australian humour...
Crime Scene: Round-up of the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards longlist. By Karen Chisholm
The longlist of 10 novels in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards has just been announced, clearly demonstrating how strong crime fiction has become in New Zealand. The convenor and driving force behind the Ngaio Marsh Awards is Craig Sisterson, well known for his passionate...
Crime Scene: SARAH SCHMIDT See What I Have Done. Reviewed by Justine Hyde
This fictional rendition of a true crime by Sarah Schmidt is full of brilliant and off-kilter imagery that reinforces the unsettling mood of the novel. Reading Sarah Schmidt’s debut novel See What I Have Done is like pressing down on a blossoming bruise. It is...
Crime Scene: CAROLINE OVERINGTON The Lucky One. Reviewed by Robin Elizabeth
In Caroline Overington’s new thriller, the Aldens don’t just have a skeleton in their closet, they have a whole castle full. Caroline Overington’s 11th book, The Lucky One, is a dysfunctional-family crime-farce and she has spared nothing in her depictions. It...
Crime Scene: ADRIAN MCKINTY Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly. Review and overview by Karen Chisholm
Part history lesson, part social exploration, the Sean Duffy series from Irish-Australian writer Adrian McKinty is required crime fiction reading. The Sean Duffy series was originally intended to be a trilogy, not surprisingly, given McKinty’s history with the...
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