At 80 pages, Weasels in the Attic by Hiroko Oyamada (translated by David Boyd) is more a novella than a novel. But Oyamada manages to pack a punch into this brevity. The three connected stories that make up the novel explore issues of parenthood and responsibility from a Japanese perspective. In the first part of…
Plenty was left up in the air at the end of CK McDonnell’s second Stranger Times book This Charming Man. So for fans if this urban fantasy meets comedy meets horror series, the third volume Love Will Tear Us Apart could not come soon enough. Being the third book in a series this review is…
Anne Buist continues to put the psychology, and particularly the psychology of women and mothers, in the centre with what may be the final entry in her Natalie King series Locked Ward. King debuted in Medea’s Curse and two further books followed – Dangerous to Know and This I Would Kill For. In each of…
Inga Vesper’s debut novel The Long, Long Afternoon was a crime novel set in a perfect Los Angeles suburb in the 1950s. Vesper used that scenario to get beneath the façade of the perfect housewife and community of the time to reveal the racism, infidelity and drug use that sat beneath the surface. Her second…
S. A. Cosby seemed to explode onto the noir crime scene with his 2020 release Blacktop Wasteland, soon followed up by the equally compelling Razorblade Tears. But Cosby had been honing his craft for many years before his “sudden” success. But this success means that readers who have discovered Cosby can now enjoy My Darkest…
British author Kate Atkinson delivers another fascinating, well researched historical novel in Shrines of Gaiety. Set in London between the wars, its focus is on Nellie Coker, the matriarch of a family that runs a group of illegal clubs. The narrative ranges over not only Nellie Coker and her family but others around the clubs…
Stories about people looking to escape from repressive religious communities are having a moment, no more so than stories about the ultra-religious Jewish community. Unorthodox, based on the true story of an ultra-orthodox woman running away from an arranged marriage was a hit for Netflix. In a recent Australian debut, Abomination by Ashley Goldberg, one…
Holly Throsby returns to her version of the NSW South Coast, explored previously in Goodwood and Cedar Valley in her third novel Clarke. Clarke is set in a bigger regional centre than the first two books but still has very much a small town feel. The plot is built around Throsby’s interest in the true…
The top 5 Honourable Mentions Robert Goodman For more of Robert’s reviews, visit his blog Pile By the Bed Robert GoodmanRobert Goodman is a book reviewer, former Ned Kelly Awards judge and institutionalised public servant based in Sydney. This and over 450 more book reviews can be found on his website…
John Grisham made his name with legal thrillers in which courtroom drama and legal shenanigans played an integral role in the story telling. In recent times, his books have tended to have a legal angle but are less about the cut and thrust and more about the legal ecosystem and the processes around it. His…
