Sisters in Crime Australia is dedicated to promoting women who write crime. Here are reviews of crime books (fiction and true crime) written by women.
If you wish to submit a book for review or be a reviewer, see the Contacts page for information.
2016 SidHarta Publishers Reviewer: Kerry James Synopsis To Hell and Back’ is a memoir detailing one policewoman’s trials and tribulations working within the ranks of the Victoria Police Force from the early 1980’s to the present day. Despite numerous instances of harassment, false accusations and character assassinations, the member still manages to maintain her sanity …
2016 echo publishing Reviewer:Kerry James Synopsis ilbreak chronicles the pick of Australian prison escapes with the most notorious prisons and most desperate escapees. Ranging from sheer brutality to love-conquers-all, every one of these stories is riveting and real. Featuring Russell Cox, the only man to escape from ‘escape-proof’ Katingal then try to break back in; …
Allen and Unwin 2016 Reviewer: Celia Jelbart Synopsis It was the work of a moment: On 4 December 1926, Agatha Christie became Teresa Neele, resident of the spa hotel, the Harrogate Hydro. With her wedding ring left behind, and her minimal belongings unpacked, the lost days begin. Lying to her fellow guests about the death …
Ginnenderra Press 2016 Reviewer: Celia Jelbart Synopsis Years of legal practice are put to use in this interrogation of a murder mystery, and the rollicking incompetence of ASIO super sleuths. The stench of rot from Operation Fishnet and its web of corrupt and greedy men, with an eye to illegal immigration and boatloads of contraband, …
2016 Faber & Faber Reveiwer: Celia Jelbart Synopsis Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected—and first female—state’s attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to …
Bloomsbury Publishing 2014 (USA)/2017(GB) Reviewer: Kerry James Synopsis Winifred Allen needs a vacation. Stifled by a soul-crushing job, devastated by the death of her beloved brother, and lonely after the end of a fifteen-year marriage, Wini is feeling vulnerable. So when her three best friends insist on a high-octane getaway for their annual girls’ trip, …
Harper Collins. 2014. Reviewer: Robyn Walton Synopsis Hercule Poirot’s quiet supper in a London coffeehouse is interrupted when a young woman confides to him that she is about to be murdered. She is terrified – but begs Poirot not to find and punish her killer. Once she is dead, she insists, justice will have been done. …
Hot Key Books 2015 Review by Lesley Vick Synopsis New York, 1890. Josephine Montfort is from one of New York’s most respected and wealthiest families. Like most affluent girls, Jo’s future is set: a comfortable life in a suitable marriage – but her heart can’t help yearning for more. And then her father is found …
Harvill Secker London 2016 Review by Lesley Vick Synopsis This was meant to be the perfect trip. The Northern Lights. A luxury press launch on a boutique cruise ship. A chance for travel journalist Lo Blacklock to recover from a traumatic breakdown. Except things don’t go as planned. Woken in the night by screams, Lo …
Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2016 Review by Lesley Vick Synopsis When Nora takes the train from London to visit her sister in the countryside, she expects to find her waiting at the station, or at home cooking dinner. But when she walks into Rachel’s familiar house, what she finds is entirely different: her sister has been …