Genius Squad by Catherine Jinks

Author: Catherine Jinks Publisher: Allen and Unwin Review By: Tanya King Book Synopsis: Genius Squad is the sequel to Catherine Jinks’ 2006 Davitt Young Adult award-winning, Evil Genius. Cadel Piggott, boy genius, returns, but this time he’s trying to make it on the side of good, rather than evil. Cadel is faced with the grim prospect of killing time …

Read more

Secrets To The Grave by Tami Hoag

Secrets to the Grave is a solid, well-crafted tale of murder, secrets, and the lengths to which people will go to hide them. The mystery Hoag presents is intriguing – a single mother who may not be who everyone thinks she is, many plausible suspects, and a plot that kept me guessing the killer’s identity …

Read more

Shattered Sky by Helene Young

Author: Helene Young Publisher: Hachette Australia Copyright Year: 2011 ISBN: ISBN: 9780733624919 No of Pages: 342 Review By: Sharon Halasz Book Synopsis: A fast-paced and enjoyable read, SHATTERED SKY is Helene Young’s second novel set in the surveillance world of the Border Watch pilots. In the first novel, Wings of Fear (formerly titled Border Watch), co-pilot Lauren survived a missile strike mid-air …

Read more

The Labyrinth of Drowning by Alex Palmer

Author: Kerry Greenwood Publisher: Allen and Unwin Review By: Bronwen Scott I hadn’t read either of Alex Palmer’s first two, award-winning novels. So when the opportunity came to review her third novel for the Sisters in Crime, I jumped at the chance to address this oversight. It’s a challenge for an author to write in such a way …

Read more

Dead Man’s Chest by Kerry Greenwood

Author: Kerry Greenwood Publisher: Allen and Unwin Review By: Bronwen Scott The eighteenth novel in Kerry Greenwood’s series about Phryne Fisher sees the titled private investigator on holiday in the Victorian coastal town of Queenscliff. Even before Miss Fisher and companions arrive at their destination, they run into trouble. Phryne was getting out of the car. Dot closed …

Read more

Matter Of Trust by Sydney Bauer

Author: Sydney Bauer Publisher: Mac Millan Reviewed by: Ann Byrne Book Synopsis: Matter of Trust delves into old friendships, family and relationships in this fifth novel with David Cavanaugh, the Boston criminal Attorney in the lead. Cavanaugh answers a call from an old school buddy Chris Kincaid, now a US Senator that takes him back to his hometown, …

Read more

Move To Strike by Sydney Bauer

Author: Sydney Bauer Publisher: Mac Millan Reviewed by: Ann Byrne Book Synopsis: Move to Strike Psychology and its multiple dark sides are explored through the looking glass of the outward presented perfect family in Sydney Bauer’s third Boston based thriller. David Cavanaugh, the criminal attorney, his detective friend Joe Mannix really have their work cut out this …

Read more

Sharp Shooter by Marianne Delacourt – 2010 Davitt Winner

Author: Marianne Delacourt Publisher: Allen and Unwin Copyright Year: 2009 Review By: Tanya King and Ann Byrne Book Synopsis: Tara Sharp has a rather unusual gift, one which she considers a curse. She can read people, in particular their auras. She can read their emotions, and given she sometimes has trouble keeping her mouth shut, at times this almost renders …

Read more

A Greater Guilt by Noline Kyle

Author: Noeline Kyle Publisher: Boolarong Press Copyright Year: 2009 Reviewed by: Sylvia Loader Book Synopsis: Subtitled “Constance Emilie Kent and the Road Murder”, this is the well-researched life of Constance Kent who grew up in a dysfunctional English family, came to Australia and lived to celebrate her one hundredth birthday. Road is a village in Wilshire, England, where Constance lived …

Read more

Hedge Burners: An A-Z PI Mystery by Goldie Alexander & Marjory Gardner

Author: Goldie Alexander Publisher: Interactive Publications Copyright Year: 2009 Book Synopsis: Old cypress hedges are going up in smoke all over Grevillia, a leafy Melbourne suburb and thirteen-year-old Anna,who’s been crazy about detective work since she uncovered the culprit pinching art materials in Year 5, is determined to track down the firebugs. Her sometimes reluctant sidekick and best friend …

Read more