AustCrimeFiction - All Blogs

The much anticipated second book from Angela Savage, published this month in Australia.  Small shivers of happy dancing as I pick up this book.

From the Blurb:

Jayne has been hired to investigate the alleged suicide of a young Australian woman in a seedy Thai coastal town.  But Maryanne Delbeck's death is not the only mystery awaiting Jayne among Pattaya's neon signs and go-go bars.  While working undercover at the orphanage where Maryanne volunteered, Jayne discovers something far more sinister.

Opening Lines:

Another remarkable, sparse, fascinating offering from Schenkel - the 2nd translated (the third Bunker arrived here recently).

From the Blurb:

Munich in the 1930s.  Young women are being raped and brutally murdered.  They are disappearing along the quiet country lanes outside the city, cycling to destinations they will never reach.  A Party member by the name of Josef Kalteis is executed for the crimes, but is he really guilty?  Could the murderer still be out there?

Opening Lines:

Secret Reich Business

Sorry everyone - been up to the wazoo fighting back the flood waters (next up is a locust plague - go on / make your comparisons!) - anyway Ned Kelly's announced last night:

True Crime

Kathy Marks, Pitcairn: Paradise Lost, Harper Collins  

Best First Fiction

Mark Dapin, King of the Cross, Macmillan 

Best Fiction

Garry Disher, Wyatt, Text 

SD Harvey Short Story

Lucy Sussex The Fountain of Justice (Came 2nd I understand - sorry not up to date with the winner yet).

Another of those series that I really like, but am very behind with (now there's a surprise)!  In this one ... When MI5 officer Liz Carlyle arrives in Belfast, danger immediately follows - she quickly learns that the peace process in the provinces is precarious.

The reading fairies are smiling on me from a height at the moment.  But with CROOKS LIKE US they have gone all out.  You just wouldn't expect to find a book classified as true crime that's moving, sad, funny, and just so absolutely fascinating that it's unputdownable.

From within the book:

Following procedure:

Bunker by Andrea Maria Schenkel - Quercus Publishing Plc (2010), Hardcover, 224 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

The latest Anna Travis book from Lynda La Plante, BLIND FURY, has a the bodies of two young unknown girls found near a major motorway service centre, eventually connected to the death of a well-known older prostitute.

From the Blurb:

Stand by for a full review - but just in a one word comment:  WOW

From the Blurb:

Sydney, 1992.  Nhu 'Ned' Kelly is a young detective making her way in what was, until recently, the best police force money could buy.  Now ICAC has the infamous Roger Rogerson in the spotlight, and the old ways are out.  Ned's sex and background still make her an outsider in the force, but Sydney is changing, expanding, modernising and so is the Job.

Opening Lines:

I'm really craving short story collections at the moment, and I do like unusual styles of true crime - so COPS:  True Stories from Australian Police was just the thing.

This is a series of tales from the police viewpoint - about specific cases, or generally what it's like working as a day to day policeman.  Great viewpoints and a good reality check.

From the Blurb:

From the bizarre to the brutal to the unbelievable, truth is often stranger than fiction, as these fascinating true stories testify.

As promised - a catchup, especially required as the new book Trick of the Dark has just arrived as well.  Got to say it's no trial whatsoever to do a little Val McDermid immersion reading.

From the Blurb:

When teenager Jennifer Maidment's murdered and mutilated body is discovered, it's clear that there is a dangerous psychopath on the loose.  But it's not long before Tony and DCI Carol Jordan realise it's the start of a brutal campaign targeting an apparently unconnected group of young people.

Opening Lines:

The only good thing about a dose of the lurgy is a spot of reading catching up, although this spot wasn't nearly as productive as I would normally like (okay so the lurgy was a bit more dramatic than I'd normally like as well)... but this is one of the books that I picked up at the recent Crime & Justice Festival, so I took the opportunity to finish it off.

From the Blurb:

LAST RITUALS was the first book from Yrsa Sigurdardottir and it only took that one to shoot this author onto my buy immediately list.  Which is why Ashes to Dust arrived the other day.  I loved the fantastic touches of dark humour in the first book, as well as the really solid plot and good character development.  If you've not read any of these books - highly recommended.

This one is easy - I now exactly why it was recently added to MtTBR - because I just love the Ed Loy books.  Well, I was less keen on The Dying Breed but that's relative to the way that I really liked the others (The Wrong Kind of Blood / The Colour of Blood / All The Dead Voices).

Needless to say these books are on my "get as soon as available" list.

Which I'll grant you is an increasingly long list.

I have no idea why I bought this book.  I can't remember if it was recommended, or if I just fell over it somewhere.  Mind you - the author notes would be enough to make me sit up and take notice - 'Esther Verhoef was born in 1968 and gained recognition for her critically acclaimed action thrillers Restless and Under Pressure.  Both were shortlisted for the Golden Noose and Under Pressure was awarded the Diamond Bullet, both prizes for best thriller of the year.  She is also the author of Rendez-Vous, which was awarded the 2006 Silver Fingerprint, the Dut

I think I could possibly qualify as one of the world's stupidest readers.

For some reason (now that I think about it - it was probably the TV series), I've always thought I wasn't much of a fan of the Jordan / Hill series of books by Val McDermid.

I'm such an idiot.

Beneath the Bleeding is fantastic, and I've been sitting here looking at it for a couple of years now, convinced I didn't like the series so much, so shifting other books in front of it.

The Ned Kelly shortlist has been finalised:  http://www.nedkellyawards.com/index.php/short-list(link is external)

True Crime

Peter Doyle, Crooks Like Us, Historic Houses Trust

Kathy Marks, Pitcairn: Paradise Lost, Harper Collins  *

I was so pleased to spy this book in Readers Feast in Melbourne when I was down there last month, and very pleased that I noticed it sitting there when I was wondering around looking for something to follow up from The Ihaka Trilogy - sometimes settling for something new after such a tremendous set of 3 books can be tricky.  Of course the only problem is that now I'm waiting for another Dr Siri to hang onto as my perfect reading option....

From the Blurb:

Bruno, Chief of Police was the first of these books - and one that I really thoroughly enjoyed - so I was pleased to find a copy of The Dark Vineyard.  These books sound rather cutsey, almost cosy or a bit twee - but the first one definitely wasn't.  Needless to say, looking forward to this one very much.

I just loved the first book from Jenni Mills - Crow Stone, so I've been looking forward to the next.  So I was very pleased when it popped up on Book Depository (I think courtesy of my own personal enabler Em in LA!) 

This has an intriguing outline - 1938, war is looming and archaeologist Alexander Keiller - a millionaire with a passion for ritual magic - plans to reconstruct the 5000-year-old stone circle at Avebury.  Frannie, and her boyfriend Davey, are among those who fall under his spell, with fatal results.

The Cemetery of Secrets: A Venetian Mystery by David Hewson - Pan (2009), Paperback, 384 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

Love Songs From a Shallow Grave (Dr Siri Paiboun Mystery 7) by Colin Cotterill - Quercus Publishing Plc (2010), Paperback, 272 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

I cannot begin to tell you the sheer joy on opening the parcel containing this book.  I read book 3 in this trilogy Guerilla Season ages ago and simply loved it.  Went on a quest for book 2 - Inside Dope which I managed to get hold of, but the quest for book 1 - Old School Tie has never come up successful.

Wait for Dark (Alex Delillo Series) by Scott Frost - Headline (2010), Paperback [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

This is another one of those true crime books that I've been meaning to pick up for a while.  It's about the death of a woman who was initially thought (by some) to have jumped off The Gap in Sydney.  Connections to Rene Rivkin, the length of time the investigation took, and the eventual finding of guilty against her boyfriend made the case quite a talking point, although mostly in New South Wales.

Killing Jodie; How Australia's Most Elusive Murderer Was Brought to Justice by Janet Fife-Yeomans - Penguin Viking (2007), Paperback, 296 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

Yes I'm behind with work.  Yes I'm behind with reviews.

The Secret of the Garden: Criminal? Surgeon? Jockey? Friend? (Wakefield Crime Classics) by Arthur Gask - Wakefield Press (1999), Paperback, 214 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

Machete (Jake and Jouma Series) - Piatkus Books, Paperback, 352 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

I blame my friend EM in LA, who insisted on pointing out Book Depository's Advance Order options. 

So I guess I blame Book Depository for being all alluring with these things.

I know everybody likes to refer to Peter Klein as "Australia's answer to Dick Francis" but I'm not sure that's necessarily fair to either author.  Klein's writing books set within the Australian horse racing industry sure, but his central character is a professional punter (gambler) and whilst he has family connections in the training and racing side of the industry, there is a different viewpoint in the Francis books.  There's also a substantially different tone to these books than the very English feel of the Francis books - not that surprising really.

Crosstown Traffic by Robert Hood- Five Islands Press (1993), Edition: First Edition, Paperback, 229 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

I know - another book so not my usual reading fare, but I just felt like something a bit out of the ordinary to fill in a couple of days - so I picked up this very overdue for a read book from M.J. Trow.  In my defence the book includes a prominent cat.  That does not detect. Seems to spend a lot of its life being talked at, but it does not detect.  There are lines after all.

From the Blurb:

Murder on the Eiffel Tower: A Victor Legris Mystery by Claude Izner- Gallic Books (2007), Paperback, 304 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

Cops : true stories from Australian police by Vikki Petraitis - Rowville, Vic. : Five Mile Press, 2005. [Our New Books - LibraryThing)]

Over the years Vikki has written some terrific True Crime books (and she's currently working on fiction!) but this was one book that I lately realised I didn't have here - so now I've filled that gap!

Fatal tango by Wolfram Fleischhauer - Sydney : Pan Macmillan, 2010. [Our New Books - LibraryThing]

Upside:  made it down to Melbourne for Friday night's Sisters in Crime event with Leigh Redhead and Wendy James.  Laughed a lot.  Great night.

Downside:  more than a bit brain dead on Saturday after a 2.00am return home and a dog induced early rise (seems we needed to be reminded of our priorities).

So I was looking for something entertaining to read on Saturday in front of the fire.  Something told me that Blood in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope would be just the thing.

From the Blurb:

The Woodcutter by Reginald Hill - HarperCollins (2010), Hardcover, 400 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing)]

I've been thinking for a while that I've got a problem in the way I mention books.  I have this "slight" tendency to end up with way more books on Mt TBR in a month than I actually can manage to read.

I really like collections of short stories but they are sometimes hard to find.  This is a really great collection with stories by a lot of very well known writers from the UK:

Like I'd have a book set in the Victorian Goldfields lying around here for long.   It's just fascinating to read anything set in this vast part of Victoria, in the days of the goldrush - although this book is set somewhere higher and on the other side of Bendigo from me :)  Mind you, reading about floods in the goldfields - strangely alluring after this drought...

From the Blurb:

Under ceaseless rains, the Murray has burst its banks and engulfed the remote Mosquito Creek goldfield.  Life on the diggings just got even tougher.

Murder in Utopia by Philip McLaren(link is external) - Federal, N.S.W. : Cockatoo Books, 2008. [Our New Books - LibraryThing(link is external)]

There's absolutely no way in this world that a new Philip McLaren crime fiction book will sit long unread in this house and besides, a cold wet windy weekend means a book in front of the fire!

Not being much of a reader of this sort of historical fiction, it's a particularly good thing to step outside my comfort zone for an author who lives well within my comfort zone - or at least in Central Victoria :)

From the Blurb:

Rome is bathed in blood as the Emperor Tiberius is tormented by drug-fuelled terrors of treason.   The innocent are butchered while the guilty do evil in darkness.  None are guiltier than the Emperor's devoted and deluded 'son', Sejanus.

Opening Lines:

The fourth book in the Jill Jackson series, Watch the World Burn covers the subject matter that I've been hoping Leah would get to - psychopathic behaviour.  (Each of the books has a particular subject matter).

From the Blurb:

Miriam Caine is dining with her son in an up-market restaurant when she bursts into flame.

Opening Lines:

Thursday, 25 November 8pm   At eight pm, Troy Berrigan knew everything was going perfectly. 

And then the screaming began.

Back in Russia, with side trips to Switzerland, England and other European locales in Miranda Darling's first book The Troika Dolls.  And this is a most unexpected pleasure.  Exactly what you'd not expect from a book that does concentrate quite a bit on the female central characters physical appearance.  But it concentrates a lot more on her abilities and her doubts and her all-round reality.  A strong female lead in a new book by a strong new female writer.  In Australia.  Happy reader here.

From the Blurb:

This is the latest novel from Michael Koryta - yet another author that I'm dreadfully behind with.  Picking up this one goes some way towards fixing that, but I do have to read a few from his backlist as well.

From the Blurb:

Congratulations to Peter Temple, who has just been announced as the 2010 Miles Franklin winner:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/22/2934164.htm

This is a book that I was really keen to get hold of, and very interested to read as soon as it arrived.  So I'm not sure why, but I am really struggling with it.  It may be that it will have to be set aside until I can try again, perhaps with my head clearer or when I'm more willing to accept that the central storyline seems to be drifting there, just slightly out of reach.

From the Blurb:

I'm probably as surprised as everybody else to be reading this book - it's not my normal fare - but then again I'm not even sure I have a "normal" fare anymore.  I tend to SPLASH around a lot.

From the Blurb:

Tara Sharp might have been just another unemployable, twenty-something, ex-private school girl.  But Tara has an uncanny gift for reading people - a gift that has lost her a job or two, but which also makes her a very handy investigator.

Opening Lines:

I'm lying again - I picked this up over the long weekend, meant to blog post about it, got reading.  Didn't put it down again until I'd finished it.  Review on its way.

From the Blurb:

Emily Tempest.  Small, black, snaky as a taipan's tooth: the woman least likely to pursue a career in policing.

Opening Lines:

I closed my eyes, felt the ragged harmonies flowing thorugh my head.

The blurb gives you the general outline, this is flagged as an explosive, gritty, hilarious and truly original book.  It's definitely an unexpected styling.  Still making up my mind about the rest of the claims :)

From the Blurb:

Set in 1930's Australia, this book is a combination crime fiction, combination historical look at a very worrying and frankly weird as period of Australian history - between the 2 world wars, the Fascist power struggle against the supposed Communist threat. 

From the Blurb:

Rowland Sinclair is an artist and a gentleman.  In Australia's 1930s, the Sinclair name is respectable and influential, yet Rowland has a talent for scandal.

As nice as it is to catch up with a favourite series character, it's also really interesting to see a favourite author branching out in a new direction.  The Diggers Rest Hotel introduces a new central character - Charlie Berlin and the blurb to this book is very intriguing.

From the Blurb:

Like there would be a new Pufferfish mystery in the house that I wouldn't pick up immediately.  Especially as this wasn't the easiest book in the world to get hold of.

But the joy of a new Pufferfish entry is just fantastic.

From the Blurb:

How long should long service leave be?

It's been a little bit of a wait since Cherry Pie, but Thrill City is finally here.  And there's more than a touch of the dryly funny about the opening scenario - a Crime Writer, after arranging to shadow PI Simone Kirsch to add authenticity to his next book, meets up with his ex-wife and her new lover on a panel at a Writers Festival, after which everything goes very pear-shaped.

The latest outing from Leigh Redhead is definitely showing some serious series development and it's just an out and out joy to be spending time with Simone and Chloe again.

The really good thing about finally getting some wet weather in these parts is that you get some reading done!  So I'm really doing some catching up.  IN THE DARK is a standalone from the wonderful Mark Billingham which has been lurking here for quite some time.

From the Blurb:

A deadly crash

A dangerous quest

A shocking twist

Opening Lines:

Helen Weeks was used to waking up feeling sick, feeling like she'd hardly slept, and feeling like she was on her own, whether Paul was lying beside her or not.

Doing some more catching up, this is flagged as the second book from the author of International Bestseller, The Juror (which I haven't read).

From the Blurb:

When grifters Shaw and Romeo pull up at a convenience store in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a faulty tyre and be on their way to Florida.

But this happens to be the store from which a $318 million jackpot ticket has just been sold - and when the pretty clerk accidentally reveals the identity of the winning family, Shaw hatches a terrifyingly audacious plan.