Crime Scene: PD VINER The Last Winter of Dani Lancing; LESLEY THOMSON The Detective’s Daughter. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The not always benign power of memory, and the vagaries of coincidence: these two recent British crime novels are shining examples of the flexibility of the genre. Every now and then crime novels come along that bend the genre and take it into new possibilities. The...Crime Scene: GARRY DISHER Bitter Wash Road; BARRY MAITLAND The Raven’s Eye: A Brock and Kolla Mystery. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
Garry Disher introduces a new character and Barry Maitland continues his successful Brock and Kolla series. Bitter Wash Road is the latest police procedural from Garry Disher. Introducing a new protagonist, and set in the isolated South Australian wheatbelt, this is a...Crime Scene: ANNIE HAUXWELL A Bitter Taste; ALEX HAMMOND Blood Witness. Reviewed by Karen Chisholm
The second in a series set in London and a debut legal thriller show some of the exciting variety of Australian crime fiction on offer. In A Bitter Taste, Catherine Berlin, still suffering from the injuries incurred in In Her Blood (2012), has been fired from her job...LAUREN BEUKES The Shining Girls. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
This intriguing and original time-travelling thriller is not for the faint-hearted. Lauren Beukes is known for her genre-bending. Her first novel, Moxyland (2008), was a futuristic cyber-punk story combined with social realism and her second, Zoo City (2010),...Crime Scene: BELINDA BAUER Rubbernecker. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
The anatomy student, the coma victim – and a satisfying new direction from Belinda Bauer. I have to admit I was disappointed to find that the new Belinda Bauer wasn’t a continuation of the Jonas Holly series, but I was soon immersed in the very different world created...Crime Scene: TANA FRENCH Broken Harbour. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Tana French’s Irish Gothic noir delivers more than the average crime novel. This is the fourth in Tana French’s Dublin Murder Squad series. Each novel stands alone, but takes a character from the previous one and is told from his or her point of view. The...Crime Scene: IAN RANKIN Standing in Another Man’s Grave. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Rebus is back, as individual and interesting as ever. After five years out in the cold of retirement (literally: he’s been working cold cases as a civilian) Rebus has managed to wangle his way back to CID as a semi-official investigator in Standing in Another...Crime Scene: DENNIS LEHANE Live by Night. Reviewed by Peter Corris
This book is among the best of Lehane’s novels. With books like Mystic River and Shutter Island to his credit, Dennis Lehane has a very good track record, and Live by Night is up there with his best work. Talk about grabbing the reader’s attention: this is how...Crime Scene: LEE CHILD A Wanted Man. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
In 1997 Killing Floor crashed Lee Child onto the thriller scene as a major new talent. A Wanted Man is the 17th Jack Reacher novel. Reacher is a macho super-hero, an ex-army cop, who is now a transient. His appeal for me lies in the fact that, unlike most American...Crime Scene: DEREK B MILLER Norwegian by Night. Reviewed by Jean Bedford
Simply one of the best crime novels of the year. Transcending genre, and blending genres, Norwegian by Night is partly a getaway/chase/escape thriller; partly a police-procedural; partly a social novel about family, displacement, guilt, grief and war, and, throughout,...NICOLE WATSON The Boundary. Reviewed by Linda Funnell
Murder, dispossession and revenge fuel this passionate debut. It may have a body on the first page, but The Boundary is no ordinary crime novel. Yes, there is a lawyer-hero (the troubled Miranda Eversley), there is a good cop and a bad cop, bad lawyers, a weak...
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