FIONA HARDY Unbury the Dead. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Melbourne author Fiona Hardy has broken very different ground with her crime fiction debut Unbury the Dead. Hardy is well-known in crime fiction circles as a Melbourne bookseller, crime fiction reviewer and, more recently, an award-winning author of children’s...
ANDREA GOLDSMITH The Buried Life. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Each of Andrea Goldsmith’s three protagonists faces a reckoning with the past in this novel of life and death and friendship. The Buried Life begins with characters whose fates seem predictable, but Andrea Goldsmith is too good a writer to rely on clichés. Adrian...
KATE KEMP The Grapevine. Reviewed by Sally Nimon
Psychologist Kate Kemp’s debut novel opens with blood spatters and goes on to unravel the secrets of a suburban street in 1970s Australia. The time is 1979. The place (namely Warrah Place) is suburban Canberra. It’s summer and the heat is oppressive, disrupting the...
ALEXANDRA ALMOND Thoroughly Disenchanted. Reviewed by Amelia Dudley
Alexandra Almond’s cosy fantasy demonstrates why you really should be careful what you wish for. In Australian author Alexandra Almond’s debut fantasy novel, lovers Genevieve and Oliver spent a weekend in an enchanting old house – that may or may not be haunted...
SUN JUNG My Name is Gucci. Reviewed by Michael Jongen
Gucci the Dalmatian narrates this novel of lives entwined from South Korea to Sydney over multiple lifetimes. I did not expect that a novel narrated by a dog would move and astound me so much. I was not prepared for the richness of My Name is Gucci by Sun Jung. I...
INGA SIMPSON The Thinning Reviewed by Ann Skea
The new novel from the author of Understory explores what happens when mining dramatically changes life on Earth. We haven’t always lived on amber alert, ready to run. When Dianella was the photographer in residence and Dad the head astronomer, we used to have a...
CATHERINE JINKS Panic. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
In her new novel, Panic, Catherine Jinks provides a timely take on online mobs, conspiracy theorists, and sovereign citizens. Bronte is a young woman who, along with most of her generation, records pretty much everything about her life online. One drunken rant,...
MELANIE CHENG The Burrow. Reviewed by Sanchana Venkatesh
The arrival of a pet rabbit proves confronting as well as comforting for the fractured family in Melanie Cheng’s second novel. Amy, Jin, and their ten-year-old daughter Lucie live in an inner-city suburb of Melbourne. Set towards the end of the pandemic lockdowns,...
MARTINE KROPKOWSKI Everywhere We Look. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Martine Kropkowski’s debut crime fiction delves into the devastating consequences of the epidemic of violence against women. Melissa, Bridie and Cassandra are friends, bonded over the sorts of things that connect young mothers – pressure, expectation, exhaustion and...
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...
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...
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