Karen Chisholm
Karen Chisholm
Fun read for next month's f2f bookclub
From the Blurb:
From the author of The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared comes a picaresque tale of how one person's actions can have far-reaching-even global-consequences On June 14, 2007, the king and the prime minister of Sweden went missing from a gala banquet at the royal castle. Later it was said that both had fallen ill, but the truth is different.
Karen Chisholm
Started this NZ based story on the weekend.
From the Blurb:
The New Zealand government – led by autocratic Prime Minister Wynyard Nairn – approves the establishment of a USA naval facility, and in the middle of Wellington’s pristine harbour.
Given the anti-nuclear stance in the country, all hell breaks out!
Karen Chisholm
This comes with a lot of very positive press and comments. It certainly starts off in the unusual manner that I've come to expect from really good Scandinavian crime fiction.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Sometimes life is very unreasonable. I've been reading Ragdoll now for a few days and having to put it down to ... work, eat, sleep, do stuff is really start to become very bloody annoying.
From the Blurb:
A body is discovered with the dismembered parts of six victims stitched together like a puppet, nicknamed by the press as the 'ragdoll'.
Assigned to the shocking case are Detective William 'Wolf' Fawkes, recently reinstated to the London Met, and his former partner Detective Emily Baxter.
Karen Chisholm
What's this doing on a crime fiction site? Well everyone's entitled a holiday and for me, a summer spent with Jim Maxwell and the rest of the ABC cricket commentary team is one of my favourites. I was very relieved to hear Jim's wonderful voice back on the radio this year, albeit somewhat limited due to his ongoing health problems, but there was this book to fill in some of the gaps as well. And you can read this with Jim's intonation in your head if you're of a mind, and probably some think, mildly batty enough.
Karen Chisholm
f2f Bookclub Read
From the Blurb:
Set in Singapore between the 1970’s and 1990’s, Inheritance follows the familial fissures that develop after teenaged Amrit disappears in the middle of the night. Although her absence is brief, she returns as a different person.
Karen Chisholm
The third Frank Swann book - the setting is wonderfully done - and oddly nostalgic :)
From the Blurb:
It’s the early 1980s: the heady days of excess, dirty secrets and personal favours. Former detective Frank Swann is still in disgrace, working as a low-rent PI. But when he’s offered a security job by the premier’s fixer, it soon becomes clear that someone is bugging the premier’s phone – and it may cost Swann more than his job to find out why.
Karen Chisholm
Have been hiding out from computers, reading a lot and catching up on a lot of nothing in the lead up to returning to work tomorrow. So a catchup on the reading list before then.
From the Blurb:
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who believed in fairytales. Now she is out to get your happy ending.
One day changes Jody's life forever.
She has shut herself down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door and suddenly life seems full of possibility and hope.
Karen Chisholm
This was a bit of a personal treat read.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This one came highly recommended so I've been trying to shuffle it up the list for a while now.
From the Blurb:
When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.
Karen Chisholm
Bittersweet experience reading this - the last Cliff Hardy novel.
From the Blurb:
A missing teenager, drugs, yachts, the sex trade and a cold trail that leads from Sydney to Norfolk Island, Byron Bay and Coolangatta. Can Cliff Hardy find out what's really going on?
Will one man's loss be Hardy's gain?
'I'd read about it in the papers, heard the radio reports and seen the TV coverage and then forgotten about it, the way you do with news stories.'
Karen Chisholm
Another that's been lingering on the reading piles way too long.
From the Blurb:
Everyone keeps telling me I have to move on. And so here I am, walking down the road where he died, trying to remember him the right way.
A year after her husband Zach's death, Lizzie goes to lay flowers where his fatal accident took place.
As she makes her way along the motorway, she thinks about their life together. She wonders whether she has changed since Zach died. She wonders if she will ever feel whole again.
Karen Chisholm
This was a brilliant reading experience, and a history lesson into the bargain. Intricate but fascinating.
From the Blurb:
Charles Levin, Detective Leo Junker’s mentor — and the same man who betrayed Leo — is dead.
Now Leo must find out why. He must follow the thread of the dead man’s own tragedies, which will lead inexorably to the betrayal of Charles Levin’s soul — and the soul of his nation.
Karen Chisholm
Another that's been lurking on the piles for way too long. Perhaps that should be the New Year's Resolution - more reading!
From the Blurb:
A gripping suspenseful thriller with journalist Noel Baker who, after reading a particularly disturbing coroner’s report, investigates the deaths of a group of abused children. The killer is still on the loose…
Karen Chisholm
This list is of standout reads from 2016, grouped into categories with no attempt whatsoever at an arbitrary number and in no particular order.
Favourite Australian Books (Crime Fiction)
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Karen Chisholm
This is a series that has been on my radar for a while, and of course, I've been slow in getting to it and I'm starting with Book 2.
From the Blurb:
Sometimes reliving the past revives old demons . . .
In a Stockholm apartment, five-year-old Tilde watches from under the kitchen table as her mother is brutally kicked to death.
Meanwhile, in another part of town, psychotherapist Siri Bergman and her colleague Aina meet their new patients - a group of women, all of whom are victims of domestic violence.
Karen Chisholm
Picked this up over the weekend - lordy it's good. For review at http://www.newtownreviewofbooks.com.au
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Lot of sitting around waiting recently - so an ebook, and something set in Asia for a change.
From the Blurb:
Good and bad. Life and death. Some choices aren't black and white
A grief-stricken young mother switches her dead baby for an abused child, then spends the next decade living a lie. She remarries and starts to feel safe when she gets a note: 'I know what you did'. Can she save her family from her dark secret?
Karen Chisholm
When Marshall Browne sadly died in February 2014 he had finished, and edited his final Inspector Anders novel. "Inspector Anders and the Prague Dossier" has now been released (1st December 2016) by Australian Scholarly Publishing as is available from them directly at: http://www.scholarly.info/book/524/(link is external)
A wonderful opportunity for fans of Marshall's to catch up with Inspector Anders for the final time, and my copy is on its way.
Karen Chisholm
Time to immerse myself again in Scandinavian crime fiction, although this is a re-read of a book that's been recently re-released. The first in the Stubo and Vik series.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
From the embarrassingly overdue pile...
From the Blurb:
When Brigitte and her family moved from the city, they were supposed to be happier. And safer. But soon her crime-writer ex-boyfriend turns up in town to promote his new novel, in which a woman is found dead — murdered — in a country lake. Hours later, Brigitte watches the police pull a body from the water near her Gippsland home.
Karen Chisholm
2nd in the really enjoyable Mason & Dixie series - set in Thailand and the trans-gender community.
From the Blurb:
Bangkok private eye duo Mason & Dixie are hired to provide protection to Australian soap opera star Belle Cooper, who came under vicious attack from the moment she announced her participation in a Bangkok pageant.
Karen Chisholm
Perfect filler read around weekend activities.
From the Blurb:
1928
After eight years abroad, Rowland Sinclair has come home to a house he hates, and a city which seems conservative ... and dull.
He longs to return to the bright lights of Europe. Until an old friend persuades him to join Sydney Art School.
There, under the tutelage of the renowned Julian Ashton, Rowland learns to paint and finds himself drawn into the avant-garde world of Sydney’s artistic set.
Karen Chisholm
This is one I will admit I've been trying to read for a while. Interesting snippets of life at that time, surrounded by enormous amounts of Lady this and Lord whoever type gossipy stuff that was a boring as...
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Really happy to be reading the latest from Rachel Amphlett, and first in a new series based around Detective Kay Hunter. Blog tour details in the graphic below.
From the Blurb:
A serial killer murdering for kicks.
A detective seeking revenge.
Karen Chisholm
October on AustCrime because I'm back getting my act together.
Read / To be Reviewed:
Karen Chisholm
The fifth in the Dody McCleland series - murder, investigation, women's rights and some crossroads for both McCleland and Pike.
From the Blurb:
The fifth in the Dr Dodi McCleland series - Agatha Christie meets Phryne Fisher
Karen Chisholm
Time for a change as I've been reading a lot of local or straight-forward crime fiction recently. This from an author who is known for their blend of psychological horror and realism.
From the Blurb:
For generations, the urban legend of Granny Hatchet has plagued the quiet residential area of Suvikylä in northern Finland. As the story goes, this immortal killer murders her victims with a hatchet, then buries the hearts in a potato field and eats them after they’ve rotted black. But not everyone is convinced it is just a story.
Karen Chisholm
A wonderful collection of writings from a range of inmates in the Junee Correctional Centre. Heart-felt, confrontational, often extremely raw, this is the sort of collection of writings that you need to take your time with, dip in and out of, re-read and think about. More to come on this wonderful volume.
From the Press Release:
Karen Chisholm
Read both of these in preparation for our next f2f bookclub meeting. I predict an excellent discussion.
From the Blurb - To Kill a Mockingbird:
Karen Chisholm
Latest from the review pile - this time for http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com
From the Blurb:
Home can be the most dangerous place of all...
In this chilling psychological thriller, one woman’s dark past becomes another’s deadly future.
In 2003, sixteen-year-old Rebecca Winter disappeared.
Karen Chisholm
I'm an idiot and I'm now two books from different series by author Felicity Young behind. So last night I tossed a coin to decide which one comes first - Flare-Up it is, to be followed closely by A Donation of Murder.
From the Blurb:
Outback murders, dodgy thieves, organised crime and arson - a small outback community is crackling with nerves, as Cam Fraser investigates.
Karen Chisholm
Event Information(link is external)
19th November, St Kilda Town Hall, cnr Brighton Road and Carlisle Street, St Kilda
Fifty leading novelists, true-crime writers, screenwriters, lawyers, producers, publishers, and scholars debate crime in all its infamy.
Simultaneous panels and speed pitching sessions with publishers, agents and producers.
Karen Chisholm
I have been intrigued about this book since first mentioned.
From the Blurb:
The gripping and graphic true story of Sydney's underbelly.
The verdict is guilty.
Karen Chisholm
So far, I'm really liking this one...
From the Blurb:
Bashir “Bish” Ortley is a London desk cop. Almost over it. Still not dealing with the death of his son years ago, as well as the break-up of his marriage.
Across the channel, a summer bus tour, carrying a group of English teenagers is subject to a deadly bomb attack, killing four of the passengers and injuring a handful of others. Bish’s daughter is one of those on board.
Karen Chisholm
August and September combined because - yep I forgot.
Read / To be Reviewed:
Karen Chisholm
Profoundly personal retelling of a family torn apart by a suicide and then a triple murder.
From the Blurb:
This powerful, unforgettable and uplifting story is one part wrenching family memoir, and one part inspirational journey towards healing and forgiveness – but most of all, it’s an unputdownable journey through one family’s tragedy and how they refused to let it define them.
Karen Chisholm
If there's two things this last bout of extreme weather has taught me - don't try to use the much vaunted SkyMuster for anything and don't think you'll get much reading done when you're running around digging trenches for water to run off.
From the Blurb:
Peter Tanner left the flashy world of commercial law following the tragic death of his wife. Now, as a criminal defence barrister, he crosses paths with some of the less desirable but wealthy members of the nation’s underbelly.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the been waiting far too long pile.
From the Blurb:
A week of despair... a century of evil
Damaged but not yet broken, park ranger Taylor Bridges believes his ghosts are in the past - until a raging forest fire in an isolated canyon of The Falls lays bare the remains of a young woman… and a decade-old killing ground.
After the police enlist Taylor in their investigation, the evidence bizarrely points to a deranged preacher who reigned over The Falls a century ago.
Karen Chisholm
There should be no doubt whatsoever that the reason for reading this is that I'm a big fan of Candice Fox's work.
From the Blurb:
When Sydney police department sex crimes detective Harriet Blue is called into her boss’s office, she never imagined it would be to tell her that her brother is the prime suspect in the brutal murders of three women.
Karen Chisholm
Another from last week's reading - opening salvo in the Holger Munch & Mia Kruger series.
From the Blurb:
A six year old girl is found hanging from a tree. Around her neck is an airline tag which says 'I'm travelling alone'.
A special homicide unit in Oslo is re-opened with veteran police investigator Holger Munch at the helm. He must convince his erstwhile partner, Mia Kruger, an extremely talented but eccentric investigator, to leave the solitary island to which she has retreated in order to take her own life.
Karen Chisholm
Having just had a week off to work on the property, didn't quite achieve the numbers of books to be read that I'd hoped.
From the Blurb:
Carly Townsend is starting over after a decade of tragedy and pain. In a new town and a new apartment she's determined to leave the memories and failures of her past behind.
However that dream is shattered in the dead of night when she is woken by the shadow of a man next to her bed, silently watching her. And it happens week after week.
Karen Chisholm
On Thursday 6th October, there are some events being organised around the University of Melbourne and a research project: "Genre Worlds: Australian Popular Fiction in the Twenty-First Century", with some great crime, romance and fantasy writers speaking!
Karen Chisholm
From the increasing true crime stacks.
From the Blurb:
When Don Osborne went to Pentridge in 1970, he found a nineteenth-century penal establishment in full working order. It held about 1200 inmates, most of them cooped up in tiny stone cells that sweltered in summer and froze in winter. Some had no sewerage or electric light.
Karen Chisholm
Catching up on the backlist as much as I can - this has been in the queue for a while now.
From the Blurb:
A suicide.
A secret.
To the grave.
That was the promise that ten girls made many years ago, and now the time has come when they will be forced to make a choice. Keep the secret and lose their lives, or reveal it and risk the lives of others.
Karen Chisholm
I've been wanting to see what the buzz was about - particularly as it's a debut and there have been some stonkingly good debuts around recently.
From the Blurb:
Sixteen years. That’s how long Clyde Barr has been away from Colorado’s thick forests, alpine deserts, and craggy peaks, running from a past filled with haunting memories. But now he’s back, having roamed across three continents as a hunter, adventurer, soldier of fortune, and most recently, unjustly imprisoned convict. And once again, his past is reaching out to claim him.
Karen Chisholm
This is more of a have read, than an am reading, as I tore through this very rapidly.
From the Blurb:
Sophie is haunted by the things she can't remember - and visions from the past she will never forget. One morning, she wakes to find that the little boy in her care is dead. She has no memory of what happened. And whatever the truth, her side of the story is no match for the evidence piled against her. Her only hiding place is in a new identity. A new life, with a man she has met online. But Sophie is not the only one keeping secrets ...
Karen Chisholm
Having had a stellar run of reading recently I've been doing a fair amount of starting, and then not being able to go on with books this week. Nothing to do with the books.
From the Blurb:
These are the true and uncensored accounts of Australia’s hardest inmates, from Australia’s hardest inmates.
Karen Chisholm
By now everyone knows that the winners of the 2016 Ned Kelly Awards were Best: Dave Warner for Before it Breaks, Best First: Emma Viskic for Resurrection Bay, Best True: Gideon Haigh for Certain Admissions and SD Harvey Short Story: Roni O'Brien for Flesh
Karen Chisholm
It was a hometown quinella on Saturday night as Paul Cleave and Ray Berard were announced as the winners of the 2016 Ngaio Marsh Awards at the WORD Christchurch Writers and Readers Festival.
Karen Chisholm
Started reading this a few nights ago and as much as I say I'm not really one for paranormal, this is a great, Australian "blokey" paranormal series.
From the Blurb:
Freelance journalist Harry Hendrick is beginning to realise that you’re only as good as your last exclusive, and buzz doesn’t pay the bills, when he’s blackmailed by the police into investigating a series of bizarre suicides.
Karen Chisholm
It rained over the weekend so I gave myself a treat to celebrate.
From the Blurb:
Rebecca Thorne is a successful television journalist, but her world is thrown into turmoil when her Saturday night programme is axed because of falling ratings. Not only will she lose her job but her big story on the convicted triple murderer Connor Bligh, whom Rebecca believes is innocent, has to be abandoned.
Karen Chisholm
It was still rainy on Sunday so I continued the celebration.
From the Blurb:
Giverny. During the day, tourists flock to the former home of the famous artist Claude Monet and the gardens where he painted his Water Lilies. But when silence returns, there is a darker side to the peaceful French village.