Australian journalist Michael Brissenden has followed up his domestic terrorist thriller The List with Dead Letters another Sydney based thriller. Ex Special Forces soldier and Afghanistan veteran and federal policeman Sid Allen is back although handily moved from anti-terrorism to a new taskforce which is tasked with investigating the murder of a prominent federal politician,…
Of all the subgenres in crime fiction the accidental detective is one of the toughest to pull off as a series. Particularly when that detective is stuck in a small country town. If only because of the suspension of disbelief becomes harder as the series goes on. Even for established detectives, too much complicated crime…
Jack Heath does not waste a second in the start of his third book, Hideout, featuring part time FBI consultant and full time cannibal Timothy Blake. Blake turns up at a house in rural Texas, pretending to be a man who he has just killed called Lux, armed with a hammer and prepared to kill…
Genre pigeonholing can be useful when potential readers are trying to navigate a bookshop but can act to the detriment of books that don’t quite fit, like Sara Sligar’s debut Take Me Apart. It is tempting to label this as crime fiction (there is a possibly suspicious death that one character is investigating), or perhaps…
Garry Disher returns once more to the world of small town policeman Paul Hirschhausen in his latest book Consolation. Consolation appears in quick succession after the second book in this series, Peace, which itself came after a long hiatus after Bitterwash Road. Consolation shows that Disher has clearly found his groove with Hirschhausen. Once again,…
Benjamin Stevenson’s first book featuring documentary maker Jack Quick was a revelation, particularly when considered again, in hindsight, from the viewpoint of the second novel in the series. Quoting from my own review of GREENLIGHT at the time: “There’s a something about GREENLIGHT that feels like a non-too-subtle dig at the commercialisation of true crime….
Christchurch based author Paul Cleave has had a way of creating scenarios and settings for his novels that have kept this reader awake and mildly anxious for a long time now. Whatever it Takes is a bit of a departure from his previous style, set in the USA, eschewing a lot of the slight paranormal…
Recently busted back down to the rank of Constable, Mick Goodenough is the newest cop in town. Once a detective always a detective though, and it’s impossible for the experienced investigator not to speak up when it appears that his new colleagues are ignoring the sinister signs of an escalating killer. The Night Whistler takes…
Charlie Parker walks the world alone, but in his dreams and in the thinner moments between the worlds of those who breathe and those who no longer can, there visits two particular ghosts. The Dirty South is a prequel novel, long awaited for, however may not go back quite as far in the life of…
Michael Robotham’s crime novels have always had an easy grace about them, somehow managing to be dense works without appearing to be so. As with all second novels, the second novel of a new series has much on the line in proving to fickle readers that their leap of faith into new territory was warranted. …
