AustCrimeFiction - All Blogs

You really have to watch that blurb thing.  When I saw this book, first thing on Saturday morning in the bookshop at the Crime & Justice Festival(link is external) I have got to admit that the blurb didn't do it for me "I couldn't put it down - Great!"  Mick Gatto.  I mean, what on earth does Mick Gatto normally read - would our tastes even vaguely coincide? 

Okay, so it's gone past fibbing and now I'm lying.  I needed a book to fill in the train trip into Melbourne for this past weekend's Crime & Justice festival (which was fabulous incidentally).  So I took Meaner than Fiction with me and it was just perfect, and I finished it that night in the hotel.  Contains a series of stories about Failed Justice from authors Lindy Cameron, PD Martin, Kerry Greenwood, Shelley Robertson, Susan Metcalfe, Leigh Redhead, Kathryn Deans, Robin Bowles, Liz Filleul and Lucy Sussex.

From the Blurb:

Linwood Barclay is an author who is coming to Crime & Justice Festival(link is external) in Melbourne this weekend, so I was happy to sit down yesterday and read this book.

From the Blurb:

Shortlisted for the Glen Dimplex New Writer's Award in 2008, you can find out more about The Semantics of Murder at http://www.thesemanticsofmurder.com(link is external)

From the Blurb:

Jay Hamilton lives in a fashionable area of London, listening to the problems of the wealthy clients who frequent his psychoanalysis practice.

Opening Lines:

Flagged as the "Extraordinary new Gabriel Allon Thriller" MOSCOW RULES is the first of this series I've read so far.

From the Blurb:

The violent death of a journalist leads agent turned art-restorer, Gabriel Allon, to Russia.  Here he finds that in terms of spycraft, the stakes are the highest they've ever been.  He's playing by Moscow rules now.

Opening Lines:

Okay, I'm fibbing again as I've been reading this for a while.  It's a collection of short stories, edited by Ken Gelder and Rachael Weaver, written by a series of colonial Australian authors.  The collection starts with John Lang's - Barrington, 1859 and ends with Allen Micahaelis in 1933 with The Gangster.  More in a full review to come.

I will confess right now, I love Ken Bruen when he's writing that sparse, cut down, terse, lyrical, moving, disturbing fantastic prose that he does.  ONCE WERE COPS is one of those books - and I couldn't wait to read it.

From the Blurb:

Michael O'Shea is a member of Ireland's police force, known as the Guards.  He's also a sociopath who walks a knife-edge between sanity and all-out mayhem.

Opening Lines:

"Where Do I Begin?"

Wasn't that like a song?

And a pretty fucking bad one?

Like my story.

Okay, I'm fibbing a little as I read this one a few days ago, but I've not had time to post anything about it here.  I'm having a bit of an Irish binge for a few days, but Adrian McKinty's a relatively new author for me - having only read one other of his books (although I've got them all).  This is one of those books that, to be perfectly frank, I had no idea what was going on, and didn't care a bit.  Mad, bad and beautifully evocative.

From the Blurb:

It's impossible to read a book like this and not think long and hard about the context - the abuse of the powerless, frequently children, by the supposedly powerful.  SALVATION is a great title for this book, but more on that in an upcoming full review. 

From the Blurb:

In the early 1950s, Rod Braybon's father died, leaving his mother with eight children she couldn't care for.  As a ward of the state, Rod was passed from institution to institution until he finally ended up at the notorious Bayswater Boys' Home run by the Salvation Army.

And now for something completely different:

http://www.youtube.com/AusBookVideoAwards(link is external)

The Book Video Awards is an annual book trailer competition. The trailers are 90 seconds long and are based on three new Random House Australia books, THE TRUE STORY OF BUTTERFISH by Nick Earls, BLACK ICE by Leah Giarratano and STATE OF EMERGENCY by Sam Fisher.

Well, the programme for this festival was released this morning, so we've just faxed off our bookings (I'm lucky enough to be going for the 2 days of the weekend, Adam will come down and join me on the Sunday).

The programme's online at http://www.crimeandjusticefestival.com/(link is external)

So we've booked for:

Tales from the Dark Side - Rochelle Jackson, Colin McLaren and Susanna Lobez with Shirley Hardy-Rix

First book from local first time crime fiction author, Rick Dunlop Cases:  The Maclay Murder and other Mysteries arrived for review recently.

From the Blurb:

Ex DI RIck Dunlop is forced to write his memoir for his guidance counsellor after a certain case for the Victorian Police finds him "mentally unfit for active duty" and turns him into a social outcast.  Ten months on, he has managed to find gainful employment with Jeff, another cast-off from the ranks of the esteemed men in blue, and now proprietor of Fitzroy Field Investigations.

There was a great summary article from Stephen Knight in last weekend's Age:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/books/our-dark-materials/2009/06/18/1244918135592.html

The article could serve as a great checklist for current fans to check that they have read through as much of the local offering as possible, or as a starting out list for new readers.

The third book from clinical psychologist turned crime fiction author, Leah Giarratano, BLACK ICE is due out on 1st July - so I'll hold my full review until then.

From the Blurb:

Beautiful people can do terrible things...

A mother out of gaol, hell-bent on vengeance, desperate to be reunited with her son.

An ambitious cop trying to bust a Sydney drug cartel.

A glamorous society couple living the high life - he's a successful lawyer, she's a model. He's also feeding her growing cocaine and ice habit.

Jim Kelly's a great author from the UK - I've enjoyed earlier books of his very much - so Death Wore White as a discussion book on 4MA - well had to get a copy of it.

From the Blurb:

At 5.15pm Harvey Ellis was trapped, stranded in a line of eight cars by a blizzard on a Norfolk coast road.

At 8.15pm Harvey Ellis was dead, viciously stabbed at the wheel of his truck.

And his killer has achieved the impossible:  striking without being seen, and without leaving a single footprint in the snow.

Opening Lines:

I've really enjoyed Bill's earlier books, so it was rather nice to find that with him living not so far away from where we've now moved to, his new books are now much easier to track down.

From the Blurb:

Compulsively Murdering Mao tracks the life of Phillip Coussens from his childhood in a small country town to his life as an investigative journalist and press secretary to the special Minister of State and China Trade, and his seduction by a CIA operative to deliver the fatal move on Chairman Mao.

Opening Lines:

Have you got any authors whose books you regard as your "treat"?  Stuart MacBride is definitely one of those for me.  Okay so there's a lot of them, but it's not often that a new MacBride novel can sit around here before I pick it up.  So it was with Blind Eye.  I felt like treating myself.  I had 3 treat books to choose from - Blind Eye won :)

Mind you, these aren't cosy, sweetness and light books.   Black humour, violent deaths, gory outcomes, love 'em.

From the Blurb:

This year is the year I'm going to keep up with new books by local authors..

Well technically it's another pipedream, but a woman's allowed to have this little delusions.  Besides a hobby is a hobby and there's nothing in the rule book that says it can't be a fantasy.

From the Blurb:

There's a lot of books that I should be reading, and there's a lot that I want to be reading - but I was also in the mood for a good police procedural so this one sort of got plucked from the piles - totally unexpectedly (okay well the idea that I plan what I'm going to read next is tenuous at best).

From the Blurb:

Two murdered teenagers. Who will get to the killer first?  The police, or the crimelord who owes a debt to the dead girl's father?

Opening Lines:

R.M. Davey, a twenty-five year old Bendigo local, has recently published his first book, ‘Rick Dunlop Cases: The Maclay Murder and Other Mysteries’.

I've been very much looking forward to this book, having really enjoyed A CARRION DEATH which was the first book from South African duo Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.

From the Blurb:

I can't begin to describe the happy feeling that arose from finding this book in the pile that the postwoman delivered yesterday.  Even happier was the co-incidence that I just finished my last book, so I could pick it up straight away.  Started last night, this looks to be shaping up to be Barry Maitland's Brock and Kolla at their best.

From the blurb:

Fans of Australian Crime Fiction and, in particular, Arthur Upfield have got a bit of a treat coming up on ABC1 on the 14th June.  3 Acts of Murder will be screening, telling one of those truth is often stranger than fiction stories about Arthur Upfield.

I noticed today that nominations for the 2009 Ned Kelly's have closed (http://www.nedkellyawards.com/(link is external)) and that the short list will be announced when they can.

One day I'll catch up with the books I'm supposed to be reading.  Okay, so it's a fools dream, but one can only hope.  Splinter's been on the list of books that I should be reading fora while, and I'm making a serious effort to do some catching up over the next couple of months as we head into winter (fingers, toes and everything crossed for some of that rain in NSW and QLD to head out here to Western Victoria!)

From the Blurb

I've been meaning to pick this book up for quite a while, and was feeling like a slight break from local authors - so Bleeding Heart Square was just the ticket.

From the Blurb:

Partly based on a celebrated real-life Victorian murder case, this mysterious gothic novel will have readers gripped from the very first page.

Opening Lines:

I started reading this one on the weekend - it's the first crime fiction book from John A Flanagan - who is the author the the bestselling Ranger's Apprentice series. 

I've never read the Ranger's Apprentice series, but boy I'm glad I'm reading this book. Despite it being yet another barking mad serial killer (which teeters on the edge of being a serious bore), STORM PEAK has a bit of a twist in the tale which is working very well.

From the blurb:

I'm running very behind with reviews at the moment, but on the upside getting some great books read (I will catch up soon I promise Andrea :) ), but in the meantime, A Decent Ransom is the first adult novel from Australian author Ivana Hruba.

From the Blurb:

When a woman is kidnapped and her husband refuses to pay the ransom, she plans her revenge with the help of her kidnappers in this clever tale of redemption.

Opening Lines:

I'm nothing if not quick on the uptake these days, and it's finally dawned on me that if I spend less time waffling on in blog posts, I can actually get some reading done!  Who would have bloody thought it....

Anyway, Dining with Devils is the latest book from Canadian author Gordon Aalborg who has spent a lot of time in Tasmania.  I'm reading this in PDF format so I'm not going to plow through it as quickly as I'd like as there's just no comfortable way to lie in bed with a laptop - but still, I'm a reasonable way in so far and so far it's feeling very authentic.

I started reading this book a few weeks ago, home alone whilst himself was in the US at a conference.

Big Mistake.

It was way too creepy to be reading at home alone.  It really is a very chilling book - not just because of the subject matter, but the manner in which the book is told is very disquieting.

From the blurb:

I do love this series - hefty dose of woo woo notwithstanding.  Possibly because the woo woo components just seem so culturally appropriate, but it could also be that Dr Siri is so wonderfully eccentric and fabulous you could forgive him a lot of things.  The spiritual elements are, however, ramped up a lot in this book and it could be that this series would be best read in order, as the characters develop, and the relationship of Dr Siri and the spiritual world evolves.

From the Blurb:

According to a report by Jason Steger in The Age last weekend (yes, I'm behind .. so what else is new) there are rumours doing the rounds about Jack Irish making it to the small screen.(link is external) 

Perhaps straight into the blurb might be the best, as I've no idea what to expect.

From the Blurb:

Gregoire Nakobomayo, a petty criminal, has decided to kill his girlfriend Germaine.  He's planned it for some time, but still, the act of murder requires a bit of psychological and logistical preparation.  Luckily he's got a mentor to call on, the infamous serial killer Angoualima.  The fact that Angoualima is dead doesn't prevent Gregoire from having lengthy conversations with him.

Opening Lines:

FYI a 2 minute book trailer about Witch Doctor’s Vengeance, Andy L Semple's debut book.  You can check it out at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQDhXDFBBtU

This is one of those review books that arrived, and just sort of muscled it's way to the top of the pile - probably the Glasgow setting (I'm a sucker for Tartan Noir of all kinds after all). 

From the Blurb:

Eric Chalmers is one of the most popular teachers at Muirpark Secondary School in Glasgow. So when precocious teenager Julie Donaldson accuses Chalmers of rape, the school goes into shock.  How could a deeply religious family man like Chalmers do anything like that?

Opening Lines:

I need to add this author and book to the database here which I'll do when I've finished it, but I started this a day or so ago.  Set in Melbourne, it's flagged as the gripping story of the rise of the Calabrian Mafia in Australia.

From the Blurb:

From the tiny Italian village of Montebello, to the leafy Melbourne suburb of Toorak, a war of honour, greed, crime, vendettas and merciless codes is fought in the name of La Famiglia.

Follow Paolo Valente's relentless pursuit of power that takes him through businesses and bedrooms.

One of the great things about review books is that you often find yourself reading something that, as the buying public, you may not necessarily have picked up.  I always maintain that covers / blurbs from other authors etc make no difference to my reading choices at all - I rely on book buying suggestions from other readers who I respect.  Having said that, there are a few "big name" authors whose blurbs tend to push me away from books - don't know why - just bloody-mindedness on my part probably.  Old City Hall isn't a book I'd have been drawn towards needless to say, and if the first 100

Books first - I promised myself last week to stack up:

It's always a pleasure to see a new Cliff Hardy novel - and it's particularly a happy event given Mr Corris has had more than a bit of a run of health problems recently.  It's probably no coincidence that Cliff's undergoing a quadruple heart bypass in Dead Water, given that's what seems has happened to Mr Corris recently.  Anyway, looking forward to this book, and here's hoping Mr Corris is going from strength to strength healthwise.

From the Blurb:

Serendipity is a wonderous thing.

As is Shane Maloney's writing, and the way that Peter Corris can spin a yarn (wonderous I mean, although I could mean serendipitous simply because I bloody well want to).

I was pleasantly surprised when Peter Browne the editor of Inside Story dropped me a line yesterday pointing me to an article they have published from Shane writing about Cliff Hardy in particular.  The icing on the cake was when Deep Water - the latest Peter Corris lobbed on my doorstep this morning.

Life truly is too damn good sometimes.

Beautiful Death (Fiona McIntosh) is the follow up to Bye Bye Baby (Lauren Crow).  The first book was published under a pseudonym, the second under the author's real name.  Both of the books feature DCI Jack Hawksworth so there's a level of confusion that seems somewhat pointless and slightly tiresome.  Why?

From the Blurb:

CROOKED was actually released last year, but I've just got my hands on a copy now so I bumped it up the queue.

From the Blurb:

Set against the backdrop of the Askin government, with events revolving around notorious crime identities Dick Reilly, Lennie McPherson and Johnny Warren, Crooked reveals the dark underbelly of Sydney during the late 1960's.

There's a great article / interview with Garry Disher, done by Liz Porter in the online Age(link is external) at the moment.  Well worth reading in the lead up to your reading of Blood Moon.

I've not been blogging much recently - definitely boring myself witless. 

Easter has been a good one (notwithstanding a new car which has meant we've been a little too prone to "oh let's just jump in the car and head over to....), but more positively, it's been a time to do some serious reading.  And himself's overseas for a week from next Sunday, so that's normally a good time for some more serious reading.  But there's some great books around at the moment which I've been lucky enough to get into to.

Where I've been recently:

This is the second book featuring Franz Schmidt, set in Nazi Germany.  The Eye of the Abyss is the first, which received considerable acclaim at the time it was published.

From the Blurb:

Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich.  He has been positioned there by the enigmatic von Streck, a high-ranking member of the Nazi Party, but one who has a different agenda to that of the Fuehrer.

Opening Lines:

The Outcast by Michael Walters(link is external) - Quercus Publishing Plc (2008), Hardcover, 320 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing(link is external)]

I started reading this last night.  It was a coolish night after some horrible ones and I was looking forward to an early night and a good long sleep.  Until I started BLOOD MOON.  I was awake way later than I wanted to be and didn't mind in the slightest.

There's a bit of an edge to this latest offering - I think it would be fair to say that there are some "issues" forefront in the author's mind - to do with what's happening to the semi-rural area of the Peninsula, along with one or two politicians and the general ways of the world. 

From the Blurb:

The iron heart by Marshall Browne(link is external) - North Sydney, N.S.W. : William Heinemann, 2009. [Our New Books - LibraryThing(link is external)]

I'm a tad behind with review books at the moment (well really I'm always a tad behind where I'd like to be), but this book needs an immediate mention.

Year to Learn a Woman, A by Paddy Richardson - Penguin Books (NZ) (2008), Paperback, 396 pages [Our New Books - LibraryThing(link is external)]

THE SHADOW WALKERS is the first in Michael Walters' series of (now 3) books set in Mongolia.  I read the second one The Adversary a while ago and enjoyed it very much, but as the third book is winging it's way in my direction, it's definitely time to read the first in the series - plus I'm QM'ing the discussion on 4MA early in April!

I'm really pleased that 4MA(link is external) picked this book as a discussion book as I've had it sitting here for ages and this gave me an excellent excuse to bump it into the Currently Reading stakes.  It's one of those wonderful, thoughtful, introverted, considered, locked room style of Scandinavian books that are just my all time favourites.

From the Blurb:

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans (with apologies to John Lennon if that's not 100% accurate - but it's been one of those months).

Been busy.

Very very busy.

Sick of being busy.

Hate autumn - seem to be up to my arse in snapping crocodiles on a daily basis at the moment, but enough whinging.  And there's always so much to do - getting the stocks in for a long cold winter (she says hopefully - and while you're at it Hughie, a bit of sodding rain wouldn't go astray!)

This is the follow on book from Die With Me - which I was lucky enough to review when it first came out.  I've really been looking forward to the second featuring DI Mark Tartaglia and DS Sam Donovan.  I'm reading this as part of an online discussion at Murder & Mayhem(link is external).

From the Blurb

This is the first in the Adamsberg series of books, although it has just been translated.  Followers of the series might be mildly amused / confused at the opening of the book whilst Adamsberg muses on the impact of his recent transfer to Paris (in the later books he's almost a Parisian fixture!) but if you're new to the series, you are now in for a treat.

From the Blurb: