Karen Chisholm
Catching up on some of the true crime books stacked about the place.
From the Blurb:
Career criminal John Killick was involved in the most audacious prison break in Australian history when he escaped from Sydney’s Silverwater prison after his partner in crime Lucy Dudko commandeered a scenic helicopter flight at gunpoint.
Australia’s ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ spent 45 days on the run before being caught… Killick was sentenced to 23 years jail; Dudko to ten. After his release, the pair meet up again but are they the same people? Is the magic still there?
Karen Chisholm
Following on from Gideon Haigh's A Scandal in Bohemia, a factual account of the life and fate of Molly Dean, now The Portrait of Molly Dean, a fictional look back and Molly's life from the point of view of independent art dealer Alex Cayton. A fabulous read.
From the Blurb:
An unsolved murder comes to light after almost seventy years...
Karen Chisholm
This year’s longlist for the Ned Kelly Awards announced by the Australian Crime Writers Association celebrates the novels of well established crime writers and talented newcomers.
“Crime Fiction is one of the most popular genres in the world and Australian authors have a strong and distinctive voice.” says ACWA chairperson Rochelle Jackson.
“These longlists celebrate the best of Australian fiction and non-fiction crime writing and show that we are up there with the best in the world.”
Karen Chisholm
Finished this late last night because I wanted to read it and because next up (after a bookclub read) it's Katherine Koviac's book The Portrait of Molly Dean.
From the Blurb:
An unsolved murder takes one of Australia’s foremost writers of non-fiction into the 1930s Bohemian demi-monde, exploring the fate of a talented young woman trying to make her way in that artistic, sexualised, ‘liberated’ world.
Karen Chisholm
Because I've been doing a lot of "required reading" recently, I decided to indulge myself in random dips into the Discworld series on audio. Of course a while ago I also promised myself I'd read the entire Discworld series from start to finish again, so I'm blithely ignoring myself and am, as a result, all over the place - Unseen Academicals being Book 37 in the series. I'd pretend that I picked it because of the coincidental timing with the World Cup but we all know that's tosh. I picked it because I picked it.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Turns out that injury to my partner (he's okay) is something that will bite into your reading time. Things ground to a bit of a halt last week what with himself managing to require hospitalisation for a back injury. He's feeling a lot better now and might have got off with one of those dreaded "you're not as young as you think you are" warnings over a back which we all know is dodgy. Anyway, this has been lurking on the reading pile for way too long.,
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Started this one last night.
From the Blurb:
Not all murder victims are mourned, but the perpetrator must always be punished ...
For Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women.Inmate Grace O'Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she becomes the chief suspect.
Karen Chisholm
I am sort of keeping pace with myself again, having just finished this book...
From the Blurb:
All she wanted was to escape. But why does she still feel trapped. A gripping psychological drama by the author of Mothers and Daughters and Into My Arms.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the pile up of things I should have mentioned a week ago.
From the Blurb:
A top executive dies suddenly.
An accident?
A murder?
An inside job?
Hundreds of suited suspects in one city office.
Detective Sergeant Brian Shaw is recalled from Yorke Peninsula.
From sleepy country town to throbbing city throngs, clashing personalities, old scores to be settled, frustrated ambitions, jealousies, and something new: female tellers.
A hotbed of suspicions from managing director to tea lady.
Karen Chisholm
Latest, just finished read. Hopefully this is the start of another series.
From the Blurb:
The young detectives call Alan Auhl a retread, but that doesn’t faze him. He does things his own way—and gets results.
He still lives with his ex-wife, off and on, in a big house full of random boarders and hard-luck stories. And he’s still a cop, even though he retired from Homicide some years ago.
Karen Chisholm
A memoir originally published in 2015 I listened to Sue Perkins on the audio version of this and thoroughly enjoyed it.
From the Blurb:
When I began writing this book, I went home to see if my mum had kept some of my stuff. What I found was that she hadn't kept some of it. She had kept all of it - every bus ticket, postcard, school report - from the moment I was born to the moment I finally had the confidence to turn round and say 'Why is our house full of this shit?'
Karen Chisholm
I am actually reading this one right now. I'm all caught up in other words!
From the Blurb:
Ten years after surviving special operations in Afghanistan, Danny Clay is working as a scriptwriter in the emotional war zone of TV production. His best mate and editor is Vietnamese neighbour Zan who may or may not have killed a man with her bare hands. When their writer friends start dying in mysterious circumstances, Danny must resurrect his old army sapper skills to prevent himself and Zan becoming the next victims.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the have read pile - this is the 3rd book in the Natalie King series.
From the Blurb:
Natalie King has been hired to do a psychiatric evaluation for the children’s court. A custody dispute. Not her usual territory, but now that she’s pregnant she’s happy to do a simple consult.
Turns out Jenna and Malik’s break-up is anything but simple. He claims she’s crazy and compulsive; she claims he’s been abusing their daughter Chelsea.
Karen Chisholm
Okay so there's a spot of catching up going on - I have been so busy reading, I've forgotten to post updates.
From the Blurb:
Three bodies… three killers?
A taxi driver disappears, his burnt-out cab the only evidence of his last stop. In the same desolate area, a body is found in the boot of a stolen car half-submerged in a muddy creek. It’s not the cab driver…
Karen Chisholm
Really like the way that Ellie Marney creates the settings for these books - they feel very real and the people in them authentic.
From the Blurb:
Boozer, brawler, ladies’ man – nineteen-year-old Harris Derwent is not a good guy.
Karen Chisholm
Nearly caught up now - finished this earlier this week.
From the Blurb:
Meet Timothy Blake, codename Hangman. Blake is a genius, known for solving impossible cases. He's also a psychopath with a dark secret, and the FBI's last resort.
A 14-year-old boy vanishes on his way home from school. His frantic mother receives a terrifying ransom call. It's only hours before the deadline, and the police have no leads.
Karen Chisholm
It's been quite a while since I caught up with these listings as you can probably tell by now.
From the Blurb:
In a single day, a simple mistake will have life-altering consequences for everyone involved.
A moment of distraction, an unlocked car and a missing baby. How on earth could this happen?
All Malia needed was a single litre of milk and now she's surrounded by police and Zach has disappeared.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the past reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Six international artists are invited to a residency in southern Spain. What could possibly go wrong?
Writer’s block and paintings of oranges.
Love, lust, revenge.
A sculptor left for dead on the side of a mountain.
Part love story, part thriller and wholly page-turning, Dig Two Graves shows us once again that ‘Morwood is a classy act.’ – The Australian
For readers who like their crime/thrillers gore-free and more refined.
Karen Chisholm
Two authors who returned to crime writing after more than a decade away have today been named among an eclectic longlist for the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel.
Karen Chisholm
Having just posted a media announcement on the 2018 Ngaio Marsh longlist (the media announcement is here), now for a few personal comments. Firstly and most importantly, if you've been standing by waiting for a review to be posted (especially if your book was in the submissions list), this is the reason for the delay.
Karen Chisholm
This is the third book now in the Agatha Christie Book Club series.
From the Blurb:
It was supposed to a frivolous night out. The champagne was flowing, the rugs were arranged, and the Agatha Christie Book Club had settled in to watch their favourite mystery Evil Under the Sun on the moonlit screen above.
Yet it all comes to a crashing halt when a woman’s lifeless body is discovered lying between the jumble of picnic baskets and blankets. She has been strangled and discarded like an empty champagne bottle.
Karen Chisholm
Set in Mexico, among the worst of the worst behaviour of the cartels, and to be frank, men, a union activist makes a stand. Tim Baker has created wonderful characters in Pilar and Fuentes.
From the Blurb:
The only thing more dangerous than the cartels is the truth...
In Ciudad Real, Mexico, a deadly war between rival cartels is erupting, and hundreds of female sweat-shop workers are being murdered. As his police superiors start shutting down his investigation, Fuentes suspects most of his colleagues are on the payroll of narco kingpin, El Santo.
Karen Chisholm
2nd in the Lewis Trilogy, I've pretty much started this one straight after the first, The Blackhouse.
From the Blurb:
A body is recovered from a peat bog on the Isle of Lewis. The male Caucasian corpse is initially believed by its finders to be over 2000 years old, until they spot the Elvis tattoo on his right arm. The body, it transpires, is not evidence of an ancient ritual killing, but of a murder committed during the latter half of the 20th century.
Karen Chisholm
Turned into the perfect read for a hot Saturday afternoon.
From the Blurb:
Amy is a store detective at Cutty’s, the oldest and grandest department store in the country. She’s good at her job. She can read people and catch them. But Cutty’s is closing down. Amy has a young baby, an ailing mother, and a large mortgage. She also has a past as an activist.
Karen Chisholm
Launch by Maggie Baron (former forensic scientist): 6 for 6.30pm Wednesday 20 June
Readings St Kilda, 112 Acland Street., St Kilda
Free event, but please RSVP by Tuesday 19 June to carmel@shute-the-messenger.com
Karen Chisholm
Started this one last night, it's due for publication sometime soon and so far it's really engaging.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Latest from the audio pile.
From the Blurb:
Peter May has crafted a page-turning murder mystery that explores the darkness in our souls, and just how difficult it is to escape the past. Winner of Prix Ancres Noires 2010. The Blackhouse was published in French as L'Ile des Chasseurs D'Oiseaux before publication in English, and won the prestigious 'Prix des Lecteurs' (readers' prize) at the Le Havre festival of crime writing.
Karen Chisholm
Started this one over the weekend and didn't get nearly enough reading time to finish it, which has turned out to be a bit annoying as it's very good.
From the Blurb:
Can a man who’s lived a life of crime ever escape his past? The world’s most reluctant private investigator is about to find out.
Former bad boy turned local hero, Bill Murdoch, should be happy with his little piece of paradise. After all, he’s got the fancy car and the big house by the beach. The only trouble is he’s slowly suffocating in small town life.
Karen Chisholm
Technically this is a was reading, as it's been bubbling along in the background as a just a couple of chapters book, until it got to the point where sleep was lost finishing it.
From the Blurb:
When former police detective Ted Conkaffey was wrongly accused of abducting thirteen-year-old Claire Bingley, he hoped the Queensland rainforest town of Crimson Lake would be a good place to disappear. But nowhere is safe from Claire’s devastated father.
Karen Chisholm
As you can possibly tell, the weather's gone a bit cooler. So there is more time for reading.
From the Blurb:
Set in New Zealand, Rat Bait is a tense thriller which follows the activities of Zack Garroway as he pursues a one-man crime spree after being released from prison. Being part of a small community has its drawbacks despite the lengths to which he goes to cover his tracks, and the local police are not as laidback as they appear.
Karen Chisholm
Listening to this on audio for a change - first book in the DCI Daley series, that I confess to having randomly chosen from a list of audio books.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
One from the weekend's pile
From the Blurb:
Detective Ngaire Blakes is back on the case when a skeletonized murder victim is discovered - a crime that took place during the Springbok Tours of 1981. A period that pitted father against son, town against city, and police against protestors.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the currently reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Former Special Forces soldier Jeff Bradley is meeting with the mafia in Bari, Italy, to discover the whereabouts of his nemesis—criminal overlord Avni Leka—when he receives a message from an old friend. Barry is on board a tourist bus that has been hijacked by terrorists near Istanbul. Strapped with explosives, it is racing across Turkey to the northern borders of Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Karen Chisholm
The latest from the NZ pile.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Another from the New Zealand pile read over the weekend.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Particularly intriguing one from recent day's reading.
From the Blurb:
Cassy blew a collective kiss at them. 'See you in September,' she said. A throwaway line. Just words, uttered casually by a young woman in a hurry. And then she'd gone.
It was supposed to be a short trip - a break in New Zealand before her best friend's wedding. But when Cassy waved goodbye to her parents, they never dreamed that it would be years before they'd see her again.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's New Zealand piles.
From the Blurb:
"In the silence she could hear the oncoming hum, like a large flock approaching. She didn’t want to hear his story; she’d had enough of them."
Tess is on the run when she’s picked up from the side of the road by lonely middle-aged father Lewis Rose. With reluctance, she’s drawn into his family troubles and comes to know a life she never had.
Set in Masterton at the turn of the millennium, Tess is a gothic love story about the ties that bind and tear a family apart.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's pile of New Zealand fiction, the second in the Raymond Electromatic trilogy.
From the Blurb:
A blend of science fiction and stylish mystery noir featuring a robot detective: the stand alone sequel to Made to Kill
Karen Chisholm
One from a weekend's reading catch up on the New Zealand / Ngaio Marsh piles.
From the Blurb:
A SUICIDE. A MURDER. A CONSPIRACY.
DIGGING UP THE PAST CAN BE DEADLY . . .
A thirteen-year-old boy commits suicide.
A sixty-five-year old man dies of a heart attack.
Dan Forrester, ex-MI5 agent, is connected to them both.
And when he discovers that his godson and his father have been murdered, he teams up with his old friend, DC Lucy Davies, to find answers.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the New Zealand piles.
From the Blurb:
How do you protect your family when you can't remember who's hunting them? A gripping international thriller, perfect for fans of Lee Child and Mason Cross
A family in England is massacred, the father left holding the shotgun.
PC Lucy Davies is convinced he's innocent
A sleeper agent in Moscow requests an urgent meeting with Dan Forrester, referencing their shared past.
His amnesia means he has no idea who he can trust.
Karen Chisholm
Easter reading pile number whatever I'm up to now.
From the Blurb:
“I was aware of the weight of Spoole’s head, clutched against my stomach. I hadn’t thought of a head being something that was heavy to carry. Another new thing learned.”
Karen Chisholm
Starting off with this one over the Easter long weekend.
From the Blurb:
Army veteran Hunter Grant thought he had left war behind in Afghanistan – a conflict that left him with physical and psychological scars. But finding an unconscious girl in the Northland bush and gradually untangling her story involves him in a war of a different kind in his own country.
Karen Chisholm
From the current reading pile.
From the Blurb:
SUPERPOWERS SHOULD NOT BE WASTED ON THE YOUNG
Euphemia Sage watched helplessly as Jane, covered in blood, clutched her precious jewelry and was bundled into the Mercedes. Just a few days earlier she’d discovered that Alison, her mousy receptionist at Sage Consulting, had been working as a loan shark on the side. And now Alison, her husband and those thick-necked men in the cheap suits wanted the money back.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend pile
From the Blurb:
If art can capture a soul, what happens when one of those souls escapes?
When art appraiser Anita Cassatt is sent to catalogue the extensive collection of reclusive artist Leo Kubin, it isn’t only the chilly atmosphere of the secluded house making her shiver.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's pile (don't you love cool, slightly damp weekends!)
From the Blurb:
“We are The Division. This is what we do.”
A politician’s daughter goes missing in Turkey, as Russia bombs neighbouring Syria and chaos explodes throughout the Middle East. Rob Moore of Division 5 is sent from London to find her, but he’s a man with his own problems.
Karen Chisholm
From this damp (YEAHHHH) weekend's reading
From the Blurb:
Theft. Murder. Love Tested.
A priceless Shakespearean First Folio is stolen from an English manor house.
A man is dead.
Oxford student Stephanie Cooper is drawn into the dangerous criminal world of art theft when she meets attractive young detective Luke Spencer.
As her rock-star boyfriend tours Japan with his band, Stephanie and Luke's quest becomes personal as they follow an increasingly perilous trail that leads from Oxford to London, Paris and Venice.
Karen Chisholm
From the current reading pile.
From the Blurb:
The third novel in this Australian murder mystery series takes the reader behind the friendly laid-back facade of Darwin, Australia’s northern capital, into a world where a crocodile roams the waterways in search of revenge and evil ripples in the hearts of humans.
Karen Chisholm
From the current pile.
From the Blurb:
When Mickey got out of the fiasco that was Lehman Brothers, he thought he had left high-risk finance behind. Now he passes his days driving a London black taxi and filling in with the occasional domestic private investigation.
Karen Chisholm
One from the weekend's pile.
From the Blurb:
Peter Fraser was our greatest prime minister on the international stage. He proved it as World War Two was ending and he played a major part in shaping the United Nations. In the process he made enemies. He is back in New Zealand, where a plot is under way to kill him. If it is successful, New Zealand’s influence on the international stage ends and the country descends into chaos, a divided country ripe for international manipulation.
Karen Chisholm
And finally, from the past weekend.
From the Blurb:
Chapman Bouttell, an Australian homicide detective, is drawn violently back into a conspiracy he thought he’d escaped while serving in the Vietnam War when members of his former army unit were found murdered.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's reading pile.
From the Blurb:
A stranger just put Kelsey’s boyfriend in a coma. The worst part? She asked him to do it.
Karen Chisholm
A quick departure from the #yeahnoir pile.
From the Blurb:
“The Claremont”, an outdated, run-down apartment building, is thrown into turmoil when its latest and most celebrated resident, Crispin Fairchild, conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, is found murdered.
Karen Chisholm
From the NZ piles about the place - an historical novel set in Dunedin.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
I'm not going to pretend that today's been a day like any other. When the news of the death of the master of Australian Crime Fiction Peter Temple reached us yesterday, courtesy of a fellow august Australian writer it was a blow. It wasn't totally unexpected sure, there'd been rumours, but it was still one of those moments where a glass of whiskey and a short contemplation was required.