Crime Scene: JUDITH RODRIGUEZ The Hanging of Minnie Thwaites. Reviewed by Paula Grunseit
The real-life hanging of a 19th-century baby-farmer inspired award-winning poet Judith Rodriguez to tell the story in a variety of literary forms. I am Minnie Thwaites. I am under Melbourne. Wherever lime goes, where it seeps, where the sour juices of the city are...Crime Scene: MICHAEL DUFFY Call Me Cruel. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This true crime account attempts to explain the mind of a manipulative killer. It’s a cliché, but in this case it’s apt; if you came across a scenario like this in crime fiction you’d be hard pressed to stop your eyes from rolling. As is often the...PATTI MILLER The Mind of a Thief. Reviewed by Anna Maria Dell’oso
A return to Patti Miller’s childhood home in country New South Wales sparks this investigation of place, identity and dispossession. ‘D’ya have any blackfella in ya?’ The skinny woman across the room looked directly at me. So begins Patti Miller’s search under...OLIVER SACKS Hallucinations. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The greatest mystery is the human brain, and Oliver Sacks is the ultimate detective. Oliver Sacks is a neurologist who writes with the imagination of a poet and with the sharp curiosity of the dedicated scientist. He delights in the variety of human experience...Crime Scene: MATTHEW CONDON The Toe Tag Quintet and Three Crooked Kings. Reviewed by Annette Hughes
History, mystery, truth and fiction; these two books expose the underbelly of south-east Queensland. In complete control of the genre, Matt Condon adds his own secret herbs and spices to his collection of murder mysteries: an uncanny knack for writing great...RICHARD DAVENPORT-HINES An English Affair: Sex, Class and Power in the Age of Profumo. Reviewed by Peter Corris
Lies, puritans and hypocrites: England’s class system and the notorious Profumo Affair of the early 1960s. I can safely say I’ve never read a book with as many hyphenated names in it as this. As the author, with his own double-barrelled name, plots the comings...DAMON YOUNG Philosophy in the Garden. Reviewed by James Tierney
This book invites readers to drink from a beautifully blended philosophical cup. Philosophers occupy a diffident space in Australian public life. No antipodean philosopher dominates debates here in the manner of Europeans like Slavoj Žižek or Bernard-Henri Lévy,...Crime Scene: JOANNE DRAYTON The Search for Anne Perry: The Hidden Life of a Bestselling Crime Writer. Reviewed by Paula Grunseit
Crime novelist Anne Perry began her life as Juliet Hulme, who in 1954 was convicted of murder. Heavenly Creatures, Peter Jackson’s eerie film about the Parker-Hulme murder (starring Kate Winslet) is not easily forgotten. Set in 1954 in Christchurch, New Zealand, it...VICTORIA GLENDINNING Raffles and the Golden Opportunity. Reviewed by Peter Corris
This colonialist seized his chance and became known as the man who founded Singapore. Raffles and Singapore go together like a horse and carriage; it is impossible to think of one without the other. Thomas Stamford Raffles was an unlikely empire builder. Born into...Crime scene: PAMELA BURTON The Waterlow Killings: A Portrait of a Family Tragedy. Reviewed by Tom Kelly
This sensitive account of a family tragedy details the terrible consequences when the mental health system fails. How’s this for a great horror/who-done-it plot? Nick Waterlow is a world-renowned art curator, past director of the Biennale, with an Order of...SARA MAITLAND Gossip from the Forest: The Tangled Roots of our Forests and Fairytales. Reviewed by Folly Gleeson
The forests of Britain entwine with retellings of Grimms’ fairytales in Sara Maitland’s imaginative investigation. This book is definitely for the bedside or the beach, perhaps for life. It offers a long leisurely exploration under the guidance of a sort...
Recent Posts
WRIGHT THOMPSON The Barn: The murder of Emmett Till and the cradle of American racism. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck10 February 2026Wright Thompson’s account of the 1950s murder of a Black teenager in [ … ]
JOSHUA BLACKBURN The Language-Lover’s Lexipedia. Reviewed by Ann Skea5 February 2026Joshua Blackburn has compiled a treasure-trove of the humorous, the obscure, [ … ]
MARIAN WILKINSON Woodside vs The Planet: How a company captured a country. Reviewed by Braham Dabscheck3 February 2026Australian governments are addicted to fossil-fuel exports that harm the [ … ]
CHRISTOPH BAUMER and THERESE WEBER Rock Art and its Legacy in Myth and Art. Reviewed by Ann Skea29 January 2026This account of ancient rock art in Eurasia, Arabia and the Sahara attempts to [ … ]