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In 2016 the unpublished manuscript of Wimmera won the UK Crime Writers’ Association debut dagger – now it’s published and we can see why.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, Wimmera is timely...
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...
Crime Scene: DIRK KURBJUWEIT Fear. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Violence, and fear, fester beneath the surface when a middle-class family is stalked by a creepy downstairs neighbour. The Tiefenthalers are your typical bourgeois Berlin family. Their story is related by Randolph Tiefenthaler, a 45-year-old husband, father of two,...
Crime Scene: GARRY DISHER Signal Loss. Review and series overview by Karen Chisholm
Garry Disher has two successful major crime series out – very different from each other, both of the highest possible standard. In 1991 the first of the Wyatt series, Kickback, was released. In an unusual twist for local crime fiction at the time, Disher had created...
Crime Scene: ROSS ARMSTRONG The Watcher. Reviewed by Derek Dryden
The Watcher is a dark psychological thriller and a first-rate debut whodunnit. This first novel by English actor and writer Ross Armstrong will no doubt appeal to readers who enjoyed The Girl On the Train. Like that book, it features a heroine cut loose from her...
Crime Scene: ROSS GRAY The Dragon’s Skin. Reviewed by Kylie Mason
The Dragon’s Skin heralds an innovative and powerful new voice on the Australian crime scene. Ben Bovell has strapped a bomb to his chest and taken his daughter hostage in her childcare centre. He will only speak to David Edge, a disgraced former copper he has...
Crime Scene: ANDREW NETTE Gunshine State. Reviewed by Lou Murphy
Gunshine State is an Aussie pulp thriller chock-full of colourful characters, aliases, street-wise philosophy and unrelenting action that sustains it to the very last. Meet Gary Chance, a 32-year-old ex-army crook with a distinctive missing left pinkie and a heart for...
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