Lisa Ellery takes a risk in her debut crime novel Private Prosecution. That is to have a main character who, while his heart is sometimes in the right place, is not particularly likeable. Another is that the story that he is dropped into the middle of can be a little far-fetched. But as long as…
If any setting was just made for Guillermo del Toro, it’s got to be the circus. Colour, spectacle, carnies, creepy clowns, “freaks” – it positively screams for treatment from the modern master of smart horror. But del Toro is mercurial. Just as he turned his hand to big-budget action in Pacific Rim, he pivots in…
Everything Korean seems to be raging right now – from Squid Game to K-Pop to Korean fried chicken and beer. But these things did not just appear overnight, And much like all of those examples, Korean crime fiction has been bubbling along in the background just waiting for the West to discover it. And there…
With a haunting look in his eyes, Oscar Isaac (Dune) excels in Paul Schrader’s (First Reformed) intense crime drama The Card Counter. Isaac is William Tell, a cheerless loner who likes to go under the radar. As an elite card player, he travels extensively between casinos, but doesn’t like to draw attention to himself. To…
In the wake of The Sopranos (1999-2007) – one of the most popular and acclaimed TV series of the noughties – comes a cinematic prequel in The Many Saints of Newark. While the film is about the emergence of The Sopranos’ central character Tony, it centres around his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti* (Alessandro Nivola). It opens…
Relative newcomer to the Australian streaming scene, Paramount +, has bold plans. The Ten-affiliated streamer wants to embrace live sport and movies along with its TV offerings. And one of the first big-name movies to be added to the platform is Queenpins. And it’s a pretty good way to kick things off. Writer-directors Aron Gaudet…
Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a cop who has been demoted for some unspecified incident and is now working night shifts at the Los Angeles Police Department’s 911 dispatch call centre fielding calls from the desperate and frightened victims of crime. This is his final shift before a court appearance in the morning that will…
Imran Mahmood’s second book, I Know What I Saw, is a crime thriller with much more on its mind than crime. The main character, Xander Shute has been homeless and living on the streets of London for thirty years. And the narrative is as much about the trauma that pushed him into that life and…
Silvia Moreno-Garcia seems determined to prove that she can deliver in any genre. Her breakout book Mexican Gothic was, as the name suggests, in the traditional gothic style with a Mexican twist; her book The Beautiful Ones was a historical fantasy set in an alternate Central America; and her Gods of Jade and Shadow was…
Colson Whitehead deservedly won the Pulitzer Prize (and a bunch of other awards) for his previous two novels. Both detailed tragic times in the history of America: The Underground Railroad (2016) was a dark fantasy on responses to slavery, while The Nickle Boys (2019) explored the impact of institutionalisation and the associated abuse of young…
