The House of Correction

Author: Nicci French Publisher/Year: Simon and Schuster/2020 Publisher description ‘So,’ said Mora Piozzi, her lawyer, looking down at her laptop. ‘In brief: you are charged with the murder of Stuart Robert Rees, on December 21st, between the hours of ten-forty in the morning and half-past three o’clock in the afternoon.’ Tabitha is accused of murder. …

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The Family Doctor

Author: Debra Oswald Publisher/Year: Allen & Unwin/2021 Publisher description Paula is a dedicated suburban GP, who is devastated by the murder of a friend and her children by their estranged husband and father. Stacey and the children had been staying with her after fleeing his control, and Paula is haunted by the thought that she …

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Other People’s Houses

Author: Kelli Hawkins Publisher/Year: Harper Collins/2021 Publisher description The perfect house. The perfect family. Too good to be true. Kate Webb still grieves over the loss of her young son. Ten years on, she spends her weekends hungover, attending open houses on Sydney’s wealthy north shore and imagining the lives of the people who live …

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The Silent Listener

Author: Lyn Yeowart Publisher/Year: Viking/20219 AND The Second Son Author: Loraine Peck Publisher/Year: Text/2021 Reviewer: Sue Turnbull Two debut crime novels about families (the sort that screw you up) from opposite ends of the genre spectrum. While Loraine Peck gives us a fast-paced gangland thriller set in the western suburbs of Sydney, Lyn Yeowart offers …

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Revenge in Rubies

Author: A. M. Stuart Publisher/Year:Berkley Prime Crime, New York/2020 AND Singapore Sapphire Publisher/Year: Berkley Prime Crime, New York/2019 Reviewer: Robyn Walton The name A. M. Stuart isn’t known to many readers of historical crime fiction, but this is an author who arrives with a string of historical romance and mystery titles that began in the …

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The Second Son

Author: Loraine Peck Publisher/Year: Text Publishing/2021 Publisher description Duty always has a price. When Ivan Novak is shot dead putting out his garbage bins in Sydney’s west, his family wants revenge, especially his father Milan, a notorious crime boss. It’s a job for the second son, Ivan’s younger brother Johnny. But Johnny loves his wife …

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Death Beyond the Limit

Author: B.M. Allsopp Publisher/Year: Coconut Press/2020 Publisher description Can a landlubber detective track down crime on the high seas? ​Inspector Joe Horseman stares into the eyes of a disembodied head. Fished out of a shark’s gut, the unknown victim is soon dubbed ‘Jona’ by the media. Did the tiger shark kill Jona or was he already dead when it clamped its …

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Charlotte Pass

Author:  Lee Christine Publisher/Year:  Allen & Unwin/2020 Publisher description When ski patroller Vanessa Bell discovers human bones high on Mount Stillwell at Charlotte Pass ski resort, Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder of the Sydney Homicide Squad is called in to lead the investigative team. Arriving in the isolated, snowed-in village with Winterfest celebrations underway, Ryder soon …

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Dead Man Walking

Author: Kate McClymont (with Vanda Carson) Publisher/Year: Vintage Books Australia (Penguin Random House)/ 2019 Publisher description Employing her insider status and trademark wit, pace and intelligence, Kate McClymont unravels the complex business relationships between Michael McGurk and Ron Medich. Rumour has it that Sydney is full of corruption and crime, but no one expected to …

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The Satapur Moonstone

Author: Sujata Massey Publisher/Year: Allen & Unwin/2019 Publisher description The delightfully clever Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer, returns in an adventure of treacherous intrigues and suspicious deaths. India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri Mountains southeast of Bombay, where the kingdom of Satapur is tucked away. A curse has fallen …

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