NRB readers’ favourite reviews of 2024
Welcome to our most popular reviews of the year. Is your favourite among them? It’s that time of year when we go through our stats to learn which reviews appealed to readers most. Is one of your favourite books on the list? Or perhaps there are a few titles...
RONNI SALT Gunnawah. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Ronni Salt’s debut is historical crime fiction at its best, with a strong sense of place and time and wonderful characters at its core. Ronni Salt will be well-known to denizens of what was Twitter, now X, and followers of independent media. A pseudonym that has...
KIRSTEN KRAUTH and ANGELA SAVAGE (eds) Spinning Around: The Kylie Playlist. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Not just for Kylie fans: the editors of this anthology inspired by Kylie Minogue have assembled a diverse range of authors and genres. Each of the 24 writers featured in Spinning Around has taken a Kylie Minogue song – ranging across her repertoire from 1987’s ‘I...
JUNE WRIGHT Mother Paul series. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
June Wright has faded from view, but in 1948 her novel Murder in the Telephone Exchange outstripped sales of Agatha Christie in Australia. Between 1948 and 1966, Australian author June Wright published six mystery books, raised six children, and maintained a marriage...
ANDREW O’HAGAN Caledonian Road. Reviewed by Catherine Pardey
This new novel from the author of Mayflies is set in London, but Glasgow is never far away. Andrew O’Hagan is again drawing upon his Glaswegian background for Caledonian Road, with characters who are slightly similar and far more sinister than those in his previous...
IAIN RYAN The Dream. Reviewed by Ben Ford Smith
Iain Ryan’s latest novel continues his fascination with 1980s Queensland and the tentacles of corruption that captured police and politicians. The Gold Coast, 1982: Queensland is deep in recession and mired in corruption reaching from the premier all the way down to...
MARINA YUSZCZUK Thirst. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Argentinian writer Marina Yuszczuk puts her twist on the vampire novel in Thirst, set amid Buenos Aires’ oldest cemetery. There’s something defiant about how she doesn’t look away when I fix my eyes on her. Her dark hair is a long, tangled mess; she looks like a bag...
MINETTE WALTERS The Players. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Minette Walters’ new historical novel features a consummate spy in the aftermath of an ill-fated seventeenth-century English rebellion. A man of Royal descent stepped ashore this day in our fair port of Lyme Regis. Handsomely attired, he declared himself to be Duke of...
ANN LIANG A Song to Drown Rivers. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Ann Liang’s first novel for adults reimagines an ancient Chinese tale of deception and betrayal – and the life of a legendary beauty. Based on the story of one of the Four Beauties of ancient China, Liang’s novel is a gripping tale about love, war, sacrifice and...
EMILY MAGUIRE Rapture. Reviewed by Ann Skea
The author of Love Objects and An Isolated Incident turns to historical fiction to tell the story of a young ninth-century woman whose quest for knowledge will not be denied. Rapture is a romance. Not just because it follows the love and passion of an unconventional...
RODNEY HALL Vortex. Reviewed by Paul Anderson
Rodney Hall has won the Miles Franklin Award twice (Just Relations, The Grisly Wife); his new novel is a panoramic alternative history of the twentieth century. Queen Elizabeth II visited Brisbane on 9 March 1954 as part of her longest-ever Commonwealth tour. A...
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