AustCrimeFiction - All Blogs

A debut novel steeped in archaeology and librarianship, very much from the cosier end of the crime fiction scale.

From the Blurb:

Yearning for her former life as an archaeologist, Australian librarian Dr. Elizabeth Pimms is struggling with a job she doesn’t want, a family she both loves and resents, and enforced separation from her boyfriend.

One of those books that I could have sworn I'd read, but then couldn't find a note of it anywhere. Got into it and realised, nope, hadn't read it. 

From the Blurb:

When novelist Owen Quine goes missing, his wife calls in private detective Cormoran Strike. At first, Mrs. Quine just thinks her husband has gone off by himself for a few days—as he has done before—and she wants Strike to find him and bring him home.

Another from this past week's reading (got a lot of catching up done) - this from NZ based author Katherine Hayton.

From the Blurb:

Elisabet wakes with amnesia. The care offered to her by a husband she doesn’t remember descends within weeks into aggression and violence.

Lillian lies hogtied in an underground cell. Forget about escape; unless she can manage the necessities of life she’ll be dead within days.

There's nothing like a new Wyatt to make a reader very happy.

From the Blurb:

Wyatt needs a job.

A bank job would be nice, or a security van hold-up. As long as he doesn’t have to work with cocky idiots and strung-out meth-heads like the Pepper brothers. That’s the sort of miscalculation that buys you the wrong kind of time.

So he contacts a man who in the past put him on the right kind of heist. And finds himself in Noosa, stealing a painting for Hannah Sten.

No idea what to expect with this one but felt like something a little different. Got that.

From the Blurb:

The Euganean Hills golf community in northern Italy is a golfer’s paradise. With a perpetual smell of freshly cut grass, rolling green plains, and bright blue skies, it seems nothing could go wrong for the tight-knit group that lives there.

Latest thriller in the Dan Taylor series, which I will admit to really liking.

From the Blurb:

Dan Taylor has survived two attempts on his life. The rest of his team are missing, and now a terrorist group has stolen a radioactive isotope from a top secret government project.

Can Dan survive long enough to prevent a nuclear disaster on British soil?

Having got out of order on these, now going back to read the first of the Ash Henderson books.

From the Blurb:

The tabloids call him the Birthday Boy. He snatches girls just before their 13th birthdays. One year later the family get a homemade card in the post - 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!' scrawled in blood-red ink above a Polaroid photograph of the missing girl. Detective Constable Ash Henderson is seconded to the investigation.

Debut book from Australian author for review at Newtown Review of Books.

From the Blurb:

Introducing Stella Hardy, a wisecracking social worker with a thirst for social justice, good laksa, and alcohol.

I started this a while ago and had to put it aside due to scheduling, but it stayed with me. Now real life is intruding on finishing it in a most annoying manner.

From the Blurb:

Oliver Ryan is a handsome and charismatic success story. He lives in the suburbs with his wife, Alice, who illustrates his award-winning children's books and gives him her unstinting devotion. Their life together is one of enviable privilege and ease - enviable until, one evening after supper, Oliver attacks Alice and beats her into a coma.

Bit of a self-indulgent pluck from the middle of books that I should be reading.

From the Blurb:

A jilted bride weeps on an empty beach. A local doctor is attacked in an isolated churchyard. Trouble arrives at a bad time to the backwater village of Morfi, just as the community is making headlines with a visit from a high-ranking government minister. Fortunately, where there's trouble, there's Hermes Diaktoros, the mysterious fat man whose tennis shoes are always pristine and whose investigative methods are always unorthodox.

Recently launched, ‘Provocare’ is a multimedia verse thriller created by Meg Vann, writer; Mez Breeze, interaction designer; and Donna Hancox, research lead for Creative Industries at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). It is the first work to be commissioned and produced for ‘Queensland Writers on the International Stage’, an Arts Queensland funded programme created by QUT and The Writing Platform.

September Monthly Summary (told you I had a cunning plan). Although the posting itself is late because of RIDICULOUSLY early fire weather with extreme heat and gale force winds. In October.

Good grief.

Not much reading last month - time off in an attempt to get some things organised before himself headed off on a work trip.

Author that lives in Brisbane, who has written a book set in a particularly brutal part of the New Zealand wilderness.

From the Blurb:

“The Maori call this place Ata Whenua—Shadow Land.”

Television reporter Callie Brown likes safe places with good coffee. But she joins friends from the past on a trek into New Zealand’s most brutal wilderness, in the hope of healing a broken heart.

What she doesn’t know is that someone wants them all dead.

Overnight it was announced that Henning Mankell has died. Diagnosed with cancer early last year, he seemed to move behind the scenes after he wrote a diary about the experience. We knew he was ill, we probably all realised that he was unlikely to survive, and yet, 67 seems too young. Too young particularly, to remove a writer of such thought-provoking and insightful books as those that Mankell has penned. 

Paul Cleave became the Crown Prince of antipodean crime writing when his thriller FIVE MINUTES ALONE was named the winner of the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel on Sunday night.

irst from a long, hot weekend of reading. Did I mention hot. It's OCTOBER and it's stinking. Sigh.

From the Blurb:

"Do you think it's possible to live again, Monsieur? ... I mean ... is it possible to die and then ... live again in someone else?"

Got quite a bit of reading done over the weekend what with the heat and daylight saving meaning I had an extra hour of a night to get a few things done. He's off to Amsterdam middle of this week though so I'm not promising this can / will continue.

From the Blurb:

One more from over the long weekend.

From the Blurb:

Travelling from England to Australia in the late nineteenth century, Abigail Sergeant and her brother, Bertrand, are looking forward to their new life.

Leaving behind the prejudices that would likely have seen Bertrand committed to an institution before he reached adulthood, Abigail hopes their new life will offer freedom and security.

Another from the week off - am really behind with this series, so hope to start the second soon.

From the Blurb:

At night Armand lay in bed with a sadness in his heart that ballooned until there was room for nothing else.

He thought with horror of the lying-down room...

Paris; in the stifling August heat, Commandant Serge Morel is called to a disturbing crime scene. An elderly woman has been murdered to the soundtrack of Faure’s Requiem, her body then grotesquely displayed.

The final from the week off's reading, a book I've been looking forward to very much.

From the Blurb:

Have taken a week away from the computers so a bit of "whatever I want" reading is being fitted in around farm chores.

From the Blurb:

Mumbai, murder and a baby elephant combine in a charming, joyful mystery for fans of Alexander McCall Smith and Rachel Joyce.

On the day he retires, Inspector Ashwin Chopra inherits two unexpected mysteries.

The first is the case of a drowned boy, whose suspicious death no one seems to want solved.

And the second is a baby elephant.

As is always the way when we take a week off in Spring to get started on fire season preparations, there's an arctic blast that drives freezing cold winds through. No rain of course, but lordy it's cold out there so we all (me / him when he's not in the shed doing mysterious things, Meg the old dog, Mambo the Puppy, and Injira the new terrier, 2 hiding cats) are in front of the fire. They're snoring. I'm reading. There is red wine.

From the Blurb:

Needed some non-confrontational reading this weekend so perfect time to return to the first of the memoirs of Clive James.

From the Blurb:

'I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War, but for the moment, that did not affect me.' In the first instalment of Clive James's memoirs, we meet the young Clive, dressed in short trousers, and wrestling with the demands of school, various relatives and the occasional snake, in the suburbs of post-war Sydney.

Second from a weekend's reading of taking it very easy.

From the Blurb:

Terry Pratchett’s fantasy classic Wyrd Sisters, a novel in the Discworld series, is the story of Granny Weatherwax, the most highly regarded non-leader a coven of non-social witches could ever have.

THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD, in association with WORD Christchurch and The Press, is pleased to reveal that whodunit and who-won-it will be announced at a great event at the Court Theatre on 4 October.

First from this NZ based, Swedish born author.

From the Blurb:

Karen's life is abruptly thrown into chaos when her flatmate is gunned down in front of her in the street where they live.

Within days she is forced to take drastic action to ensure her own safety. She criss-crosses New Zealand to evade the killers, changes her appearance and settles into a small community as 'Cara'. But danger still stalks her and she is forced to make dramatic choices in the face of threats and brutal violence.

Didn't get a lot read this weekend again because, visitors and out and about on Saturday night. But started out with this one on Friday.

From the Blurb:

Myanmar’s Shwedagon Pagoda stands a hundred metres high; its exterior coated with gold, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and topaz. This opulence pales in comparison to the pagoda’s centrepiece—a single seventy-six-carat diamond perched atop the pagoda’s spire since 1871.

From the Ned Kelly nomination list, and the winner of the 2015 Best Adult Davitt - this one's been sitting here for a while now for re-read / review.

From the Blurb:

'I guess it started with the mothers.'

'It was all just a terrible misunderstanding.'

'I'll tell you exactly why it happened.'

Pirriwee Public’s annual school Trivia Night has ended in a shocking riot. One parent is dead. Was it murder, a tragic accident...or something else entirely?

I know, I've tried to do these monthly summaries before and lost interest but I have a plan. No really. Stop laughing. Right, so August was another interesting month at AustCrimeFiction. Only 14 books from myself this month, with a few reviews from last month, and some added by Robert Goodman as well - so in date within category order:

This debut from the 2014 Ned Kelly S.D. Harvey Award for Short Story writing is for review at Newtown Review of Books.

From the Blurb:

The second from a quieter reading weekend than usual (honestly whoever came up with this idea of having to work around the place...)

From the Blurb:

When a major Parisian modern art event gets unexpected attention on live TV, Chief of Police Nico Sirsky and his team of elite crime fighters rush to La Villette park and museum complex. On the site of the French capital's former slaughterhouses, the blood is just starting to flow, and Sirsky finds himself chasing the butcher of Paris, while his own mother faces an uncertain future.

I should be reading lots of other things, but damn it, I'm reading this.

From the Blurb:

In a darkened bar, up a wide old stone staircase, deep in Trades Hall Melbourne on Saturday night we gathered for the 20th Anniversary of the Ned Kelly Awards.

These awards were special for a few reasons - they were back in Melbourne, it was the 20th Anniversary of the Neddies (as they are affectionately known) and ACWA had a few surprises up its various sleeves. And I don't just mean the winners of the awards.

Reading this for review at Newtown Review of Books - you can read Robert's review of the book in the meantime.

From the Blurb:

I close my eyes and feel my heart begin racing

Someone is coming

They're going to find me

Acclaimed author, journalist and screenwriter Helen Garner has won the 2015 Ned Kelly Award for Australia’s Best True Crime book for ‘This House of Grief – the Story of a Murder Trial’.

It is the second Ned Kelly Award for Garner, who picked up her previous award ten years ago with ‘Joe Cinque’s Consolation’ – another account of a murder that involved revenge, jealousy and betrayal.

A first for me from this author, written in a very engaging manner.

From the Blurb:

For Keiko Nishisato, leaving Tokyo is a rare adventure, but it’s living in the quiet little town of Painchton, Scotland, that shows her how far she is from home.

Read this over the weekend - one of those stories that sort of sit in the back of your mind, but the details were sketchy.

From the Blurb:

From the "no idea why but let's read it anyway pile".

From the Blurb:

If it had another name, I never knew, but the locals called it the Loney - that strange nowhere between the Wyre and the Lune where Hanny and I went every Easter time with Mummer, Farther, Mr and Mrs Belderboss and Father Wilfred, the parish priest.

Flagged as a number 1 bestseller in Sweden, this is a very unusual book featuring a most unexpected protagonist.

From the Blurb:

A naked and bloody seven-year-old girl walks into a bank, clutching a grubby teddy bear. She plays a threatening recording, demanding money. No one dares intervene. 

The child leaves the bank and disappears, without leaving a trace of evidence.

Craig Sisterson interviewed on Radio NZ: Kiwi Crime Writing and the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Awards http://kiwicrime.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/radio-nz-crime-writing-and-2015-...

Another series I'm slow off the mark with, unfortunately.

From the Blurb:

A Greek gangster arrives in Stockholm, only to be murdered in a macabre fashion at Skansen zoo, his body consumed by animals.

As the Intercrime Unit – a team dedicated to solving international violent crime – investigate what brought him to Sweden, eight Eastern European women vanish from a refugee centre outside of the city while an elderly professor, the tattooed numbers on his arm hinting at his terrible past, is executed at the Jewish cemetery.

One of Australia’s most well-known authors, Helen Garner is among a strong list of writers competing for this year’s Ned Kelly Award for Best True Crime. The shortlist, announced by the Australian Crime Writers Association (ACWA) on Saturday August 8 at the Byron Bay Writers Festival includes journalists Debi Marshall, Kate McClymont, Linton Besser, David Murray, Amy Dale and freelance writer Liam Pieper.

Reading for this for f2f bookclub this weekend.

From the Blurb:

Slight change of pace before heading back into the stacks of crime fiction around here.

From the Blurb:

BEHIND THE WALLS OF GOULBURN JAIL

An unprecedented spate of murders in the 1990s – seven in just three years – earned Goulburn Jail the ominous name of ‘The Killing Fields'. Inmates who were sentenced or transferred to the 130-year-old towering sandstone menace declared they had been given a death sentence. 

It was cold this weekend, dry because ... you know non-existent drought in Victoria ... but reading weather because frankly too cold to battle it out the vague pointlessness of the garden.

From the Blurb:

Joel Fitch used to be a con artist.

That is, until his scam paid off but his life went belly up. Now, two years later, at the ripe old age of 22, Joel has a mattress full of cash and no idea what comes next. The movies never tell you what to do after you’ve walked into the sunset.

Right - subject matter of this one's been a bit of an issue in getting started, but big girl's pants on and reading underway.

From the Blurb:

The hunt is on

A GRUESOME GAME

A madman is kidnapping women to hunt them for sport.

A FRANTIC SEARCH

Detective Janine Postlewaite leads the investigation into the disappearance of Samantha Willis, determined not to let another innocent die on her watch.

A SHOCKING TWIST

The killer's newest prey isn't like the others. Sammi is a cop. And she refuses to be his victim.

To be honest I was leery about another Darian Richards book being so completely over the utterly mad serial killer thing. But this is different and I'm finding it very hard to put down.

From the Blurb:

Darian Richards is an ex-cop, a good one. He did whatever it took to solve a crime and stop the bad guy. Whatever it took! But after sixteen years as the head of Victoria's Homicide Squad, he'd had enough of promising victims' families he'd find the answers they needed. He had to walk away to save his sanity.

One from a cold weekend's reading

From the Blurb:

Set in Queensland, this debut crime novel Double Madness by Caroline de Costa, takes us into a sordid underbelly of psycho-sexual depravity. 

As local residents and authorities in Far North Queensland assess the damage in the aftermath of Cyclone Yasi, a woman's body is found in bizarre circumstances deep in the rainforest.

Soji Shimada, author of over 100 mystery novels, is a designer, musician, and astrology writer. Let's hope this isn't the only one of his books translated because it is wonderful.

From the Blurb:

A debut novel from Melbourne based author - to be reviewed at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au(link is external)

From the Blurb:

Kurt Cobain stands at the top of the stairs, wearing the brown sweater. ‘Please don’t leave me,’ she yells up at him. But it’s too late; he’s turning away as the tram slows for the stop out on the street.

Then she’s lying on the road. Car tyres are going past, slowly. Somebody is screaming. A siren howls.

The first of last weekend's reading.

From the Blurb:

Rebecca Wilding, an archaeology professor, traces the past for a living.

But suddenly, truth and certainty is turning against her. Rebecca is accused of serious fraud, and worse, she suspects – she knows – that her husband, Stephen, is having an affair.

Sneaking in a "want to read" rather than a "have to read" as a bit of a reward for good behaviour. When I say good behaviour of course I mean sticking to the must read piles, as opposed to actual good behaviour. Don't want anybody to get the wrong idea. I'm ridiculously behind / out of order with this series which has been frustrating to say the least.

From the Blurb:

An unusual cross genre book - to be reviewed at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/(link is external)

From the Blurb:

When washed up journalist Harry Hendrick wakes with a hangover and a strange symbol tattooed on his neck, he shrugs it off as a bad night out.

When more tattoos appear — accompanied by visions of war-torn Afghanistan, bikies, boat people, murder, bar fights and a mysterious woman — he begins to dig a little deeper.

In a weekend where reading was somewhat brief and fleeting, this was such a lucky choice. Fascinating little book.

From the Blurb: