The Van Apfel Girls are Gone by Felicity McLean hooked me in with its all-too-familiar north-west of Sydney 1990s setting and the missing girls premise reminiscent of Joan Lindsay’s classic Picnic at Hanging Rock. Here’s the blurb: Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old during the long hot summer of 1992 – the summer…
As a teenager I scoffed at elders who insisted that the generation gap was alive and well. They claimed we spoke a different sort of English to them, that the things we were obsessed with were unfathomable, the complications of our lives irrelevant, and the music sucked. Then I recently found myself saying the problem…
The Lost Girls by Jennifer Spence is a new release reminiscent in some ways of 1998 movie Sliding Doors, but with a darker, more urgent tone. The central question asks, “What would you do if you had the chance to change a pivotal moment from your past?” Here’s the blurb: At the core of the…
I’ve been following with interest the updates on Cassie Hamer’s debut novel After the Party. Thanks to Netgalley, I was able to read an advance copy and I’ll say now, add this to your reading lists if you are a fan of Liane Moriarty and her sister Nicola Moriarty. You’ll get a story that mixes…
Jasper Jones isn’t your typical drama. It’s presented by Queensland Theatre as a restaging of the Melbourne Theatre Company production and based on the smash hit novel by Craig Silvey. This rollercoaster of a plot – which brings to life the stories of a sleepy 1960’s town, Corrigin – packs a veritable punch. While I…
What should you do when making a film of a world-famous book by Agatha Christie and a large part of the audience knows the ending already? Well, the best thing you do is to gather a star cast and using the necessary digital magic tricks to ensure a wow effect. Whether this is enough in…
Can lightning strike twice? Well, “yes” according to playwright Lachlan Philpott whose work was inspired by real life events. Colder concerns the disappearance of David in Disneyland at age seven and then again in a different place 26 years later. On the first occasion, he reappears after seven frantic hours. The second time, he does…
Rear Window meets The Girl on the Train in thriller The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. A chilling psychological thriller about an agoraphobic woman convinced she’s seen a crime take place, the twisty-turny story brims with red herrings and doubts as it draws readers to a disturbing conclusion. Here’s the blurb: What did she see? It’s been ten…
Isabel Allende’s In the Midst of Winter is a quiet, emotive read about friendships built out of unlikely circumstances – a freak snowstorm, a car accident and a dead body. Here’s the blurb: Amid the biggest Brooklyn snowstorm in living memory, an unexpected friendship blossoms between three people thrown together by circumstance. Richard Bowmaster, a…
Agatha Christie is the world’s best-selling author. Some 2 billion copies of her crime and mystery novels have been sold. She wrote 66 novels; 33 of which feature her famous creation, the arrogant but brilliant Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Many of her books have been filmed to varying degrees of success, although apparently Christie herself…
