Author: Malla Nunn Publisher: Xoum Publishing Copyright Year: 2014 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: South Africa during the 1950s and the fissures of apartheid run deep. People are divided not just by race, but also within themselves, and Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper embodies all the contradictions. Of course there’s a crime, several in fact, to get things moving. A …
Author: P.M. Newton Publisher: Penguin Copyright Year: 2014 Review By: Angela Savage Book Synopsis: Beams Falling is a powerful book that explores trauma and its legacy in the guise of a police procedural. The central character is Detective Nhu ‘Ned’ Kelly, the child of an Anglo-Australian veteran and his Vietnamese wife who were killed in front of their children, their …
Author: Jaye Ford Publisher: Random House Australia Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 9781742756776 Review By: Sandy Curtis Book Synopsis: Jaye Ford’s title of master of psychological suspense is well-deserved. Blood Secret is a taut thriller that draws the reader into the lives of Rennie Carter and Max Tully. After spending most of her life on the run, never staying more than six …
Author: Sulari Gentill Publisher: Pantera Press Copyright Year: 2014 No of Pages: 375 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: Sulari Gentill likes to tease, blithely slotting real people and events into a crime series set in the 1930s relating the fictional adventures of artist and gentleman of leisure, Rowland Sinclair. In the opening pages we are introduced to pioneer aviators, Charles …
Author: Megan Norris Publisher: The Five Mile Press Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 9781743002506 Review By: Suzanne Bozorth-Baines Book Synopsis: In 2005 just down the street from our home, a divorced father and his 3 sons enjoyed a Father’s Day meal at the KFC. A few hours later, those boys and their father were submerged in a dam outside the town of …
Author: Annie Hauxwell Publisher: Penguin/Michael Joseph Copyright Year: 2014 ISBN: 0434022969 Review By: Angela Savage Book Synopsis: A Morbid Habit is the third novel in Annie Hauxwell’s Catherine Berlin series and to my mind, it’s her best yet. Set mostly in Russia, A Morbid Habit is as bleak and dark as a Moscow winter. The plot is satisfyingly complex, the suspense …
Author: Dorothy Johnston Publisher: Wakefield Press Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 978 1 74305 252 5 (ebook) Review By: Lesley Vick Book Synopsis: The Fourth Season is the fourth book in Dorothy Johnston’s mystery quartet featuring her private investigator, Sandra Mahoney. Other regular characters in the series are Mahoney’s partner (and father of her younger child, a six year old girl), Ivan …
Author: Kathryn Fox Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia Copyright Year: 2014 ISBN: 9781742612324 Review By: Ruth Wykes Book Synopsis: Dr Anya Crichton is a forensic pathologist, and is the main character in all of Kathryn Fox’s seven crime novels. Regular readers will be familiar with Fox’s taut, fast-paced stories and will have come to know Crichton as a strong, independent woman who …
Author: Jane Clifton Publisher: Clan Destine Press Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 978-0-9923295-3-2 No of Pages: 252 Review By: Ann Byrne Book Synopsis: Flush commences with an intriguing Prologue which frames your mind to continually wonder why and how throughout the book. A great way to start what is a good read. Flush is Clifton’s third crime novel, following Half Past Dead and …
Author: Felicity Pulman Publisher: Angus & Robertson Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 978-0-7322-9488-5 No of Pages: 296 Review By: Alexandra Fergusson (Year 8) Book Synopsis: Felicity Pulman has created a truly gripping story about love, loss, discovering the truth, and doing what’s right. Her teen protagonist is the perfect character to follow through the story, with her stubborn nature and curious mind. The …