SD HINTON The Brothers. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
SD Hinton’s debut novel uses the structure of a thriller to explore myriad responses to trauma. Jake Harlow is a decorated Special Forces veteran, returned from a tour in Afghanistan that went horribly wrong for him. Captured by the Taliban, he was mentally and...
REBECCA MAKKAI I Have Some Questions for You. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
Rebecca Makkai’s fourth novel examines our obsession with true crime – and where that can lead. True crime and true crime podcasts are having a moment, not only in the real world but also in fiction. However, in fiction, writers can start to get behind the...
ASHLEY KALAGIAN BLUNT Dark Mode. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This fierce, unflinching thriller asks timely questions about threatening behaviour. Why don’t we recognise it? Stop it? Dark Mode is a novel, as the note at the beginning makes clear: While the characters and their precise circumstances are fictitious, the...
NIKKI MOTTRAM Crows Nest. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
This latest offering of Australian rural noir contrasts urban and small-town sensibilities from the perspective of a child protection officer. Readers of Crows Nest will not be surprised to learn that author Nikki Mottram has an extensive background in child...
MARYROSE CUSKELLY The Cane. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Maryrose Cuskelly’s novel seems to have taken Arthur Conan Doyle’s maxim to heart: ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’ Cuskelly was born in Queensland, where there were several high-profile child...
BARRY MAITLAND The Russian Wife. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The fourteenth instalment of Barry Maitland’s groundbreaking Brock and Kolla crime series is also the last. Scottish-born, English-raised and, since 1984, Australian-based, Barry Maitland published the first Brock and Kolla novel, The Marx Sisters, in 1994. On his...
GILLIAN McALLISTER Wrong Place, Wrong Time. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
British crime writer Gillian McAllister’s new novel explores time travel as crime prevention. Time loops are everywhere these days. Groundhog Day might have popularised them (and in doing so entered the popular vernacular) but the narrative conceit has now gone...
JOHN DARNIELLE Devil House. Reviewed by Robert Goodman
In John Darnielle’s new novel, a true crime writer confronts the limits of the genre. John Darnielle may be best known as the lead singer of the American indie folk rock band the Mountain Goats, but he is also the author of two previous novels, Wolf in White Van...
HANNAH KING She and I. Reviewed by Ann Skea
Hannah King’s debut novel is an unsettling murder mystery with a longstanding female friendship at its core. She and I is a detective story with a difference. It is set in Ireland but there are few indications of this, apart from a police officer’s query about...
CHARITY NORMAN The Secrets of Strangers. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
NZ-based Charity Norman’s sixth novel is her second to be shortlisted for Best Crime Novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. Taut, tense and cleverly constructed, The Secrets of Strangers is a thriller set in London that explores human behaviour in the high-risk...
ROBERT GOTT The Orchard Murders. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The fourth book in Robert Gott’s ‘Murders’ series frees its cast from the constraints of the newly formed Homicide Squad and plunges them straight into a baffling case that threatens many of their number. Readers who are new to this series might be fine starting...
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