The insidious nature of grooming and the environment in which it needs to support its secretive and incremental processes is a topic rarely encountered in fiction. A common crime, yet rarely recognized as such by the victim or those who may witness its purposeful impact. Dark Vanessa is a fictional account of the circumstances in…
The publicity blurb for Kyle Perry’s thriller debut The Bluffs describes it as a cross between Picnic at Hanging Rock and Mean Girls. The hook is four teenage girls missing in the inhospitable landscape of Tasmania’s Great Western Tiers and the aftermath of their disappearance, coupled with a bit of horror-inspired local folklore. Whatever Perry’s…
Twenty novels and twenty years later, British crime author Mark Billingham takes his fans back to where it all began with his latest crime fiction thriller, Cry Baby. The year is 1996, and Detective Sergeant Tom Thorne is already a ten year veteran of nightmares born from a case that will never leave him. With…
Wanting what others have fast becomes a fatal obsession in The Other Passenger. Whether that be your job, your house, your bank balance or your relationships, perhaps there is always someone in your circle of friends and acquaintances who feels that for you in particular, it all came a bit too easy. Unable to cope…
The London life of a young actor can be one of flopped auditions, money scrounging, crummy rentals and the occasional spot of couch surfing. Emily Proudman has just lost her day job as well as her agent, so at this point is absolutely open to all opportunities that could save her from yet another begging…
Two women who strike up a conversation at an airport have one pressing concern in common. Both need to disappear, and urgently. Claire and Eva decide to exchange boarding passes and take the seat of the other on their two flights. The Flight is an exciting dual narrative thriller that presents a unique opportunity for…
Second novels are tricky beasts loaded with expectations, particularly when they come on the heels of recent stellar debuts. Australian author Christian White has written another confidently executed work of family drama and generational intrigue that will take up a just a few hours of your life, likely spent dedicated to polishing The Wife and…
What more effective tool of terror is there than your own high school reunion looming on the horizon to make you take a long hard look at how far you’ve come – or not? Who We Were drags the past of a group of thirty somethings back into the present as the prospect of being…
It is difficult to read of women’s lives being micromanaged by their domestic captors to the point of scheduled toilet breaks, and of young children being raised entirely behind closed doors. These are hard novels to take on. If you are reading this because you have heard Dear Child compared to ‘The Room’, you will…
His and Hers, and whoever that other person is. Television presenter Anna Andrews, DCI Jack Harper and an unknown observer all contribute to this twisted tale of murder and treachery that has its origins in past cruelty inflicted by English school girls. The very thought of it. Anna Andrews has the breath knocked out of…
