Karen Chisholm
Second from this weekend, this author says his influences are John Mortimer, PG Wodehouse and William Boyd and you can definitely see that :)
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
A new book from Crickey correspondent, set in the world of corporate / government cyber-terrorism.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This year I've promised myself a red hot go at reading the entire submissions list for all 3 of the Ned Kelly Categories. Preferably before the 2016 Submissions List is released although there are days when I think I might have bitten off more than I can possibly chew. Still - getting there :)
Next up Best Crime - kept the best to last :)
Karen Chisholm
Been looking forward to this one immensely. Readers who haven't discovered this series yet - can't recommend it highly enough. For review at http://newtownreviewofbooks.com.au(link is external)
From the Blurb:
The fourth engrossing mystery in the acclaimed Dr Dody McCleland series, featuring Britain's first female autopsy surgeon.
Karen Chisholm
Nothing more annoying than knowing you've loved the first book in a series, and despite promises, haven't read the 2nd until there's now 3 and 4 out. Sheesh.
From the Blurb:
DI Helen Grace returns in Pop Goes the Weasel, the electrifying new thriller from M. J. Arlidge.
The body of a middle-aged man is discovered in Southampton's red-light district - horrifically mutilated, with his heart removed.
Hours later - and barely cold - the heart arrives with his wife and children by courier.
Karen Chisholm
This year I've promised myself a red hot go at reading the entire submissions list for all 3 of the Ned Kelly Categories. Preferably before the 2016 Submissions List is released although there are days when I think I might have bitten off more than I can possibly chew. Still - getting there :)
Next up Best First Crime - which is looking better in terms of keeping up with the submitted books.
Karen Chisholm
This book was sitting on one of the hillocks in front of Mt TBR around the place when last weekend my partner happened to pick it up (the hillock was close the couch and he was somewhat movement hampered by 3 dogs demanding nurses). From the first chapter he was extolling its virtues so I thought I should take a look :)
From the Blurb:
At a remote military base in the Indian Ocean, the CIA is trying to get a prisoner to confess. But the detainee, a suspect in an Islamist-inspired terror attack in the United States, refuses to talk.
Karen Chisholm
For our f2f bookclub, this won the 2013 Ned Kelly True Crime Award.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
FIVE OUTSTANDING novels full of mystery and intrigue have been announced as the shortlist for the 2015 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which will be presented at a WORD Christchurch(link is external) event in late September.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the Ned Kelly nomination - this time the Best First category.
From the Blurb:
One dark secret. Two troubled souls. The lie that brings them together could tear them apart.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the 2015 Neddies Best First category read over the weekend.
From the Blurb:
When a battered wife disappears from a women's crisis shelter after her husband's murder, guilt-driven journo Lexie Reed, has to push the already besieged DSS Wil Saddington to help as she uncovers human trafficking of Melbourne's most vulnerable.
If her husband hadn't been murdered - would anyone have noticed she was missing?
Karen Chisholm
Sometimes the world is a kind place and a new book from a favoured author appears, and it is very very good into the bargain.
From the Blurb:
Detective Daniel Clement is back in Broome, licking his wounds from a busted marriage and struggling to be impressed by his new team of small-town cops. Here, in the oasis on the edge of the desert, life is as stagnant as Clement’s latest career move.
But when a body is discovered a local fishing spot, it is clearly not the result of a crocodile attack. Somewhere in Broome is a hunter of a different kind.
Karen Chisholm
This weekend we did the unexpected (and appreciated) thing of taking a day off from everything but the bare essentials "on the farm" and read. A whole day reading. Bliss.
From the Blurb:
It’s 1932, and the Venus Island fetish, a ceremonial mask surrounded by thirty-two human skulls, now resides in the museum in Sydney. But young anthropologist Archie Meek, recently returned from an extended field trip to Venus Island, has noticed something amiss.
Karen Chisholm
We've all been waiting a very long time for this and boy does it not disappoint. To be reviewed at http://www.newtownreviewofbooks.com.au/(link is external)
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Another from the 2015 Neddies Submission List - this time the True Crime section.
From the Blurb:
How did a father with no criminal history come to be on trial for the brutal murder of his wife? All marriages have their secrets. Things started to unravel for Gerard Baden-Clay the night his wife Allison vanished. Within days everything private would become public.
Karen Chisholm
From Crime Factory Publications, started this last night and it's dark, brutal and fascinating, with just a hint of something odd going on :)
From the Blurb:
1948 Portvieux City. A scandal photographer shoots a brutally murdered woman through his lens.
But only he can see her.
As the Photographer uncovers the truth about the invisible woman, he delves into the seedy city, where a missing photographer leaves a legacy of lust, and the border between dreams and reality slowly dissolves like a negative in acid.
Karen Chisholm
Another from my quest to read all nominees this year :)
From the Blurb:
Once an artist and teacher, Jen now spends her time watching the birds around her house and tending her lush sub-tropical garden near the small town where she grew up. The only person she sees regularly is Henry, who comes after school for drawing lessons.
Karen Chisholm
Because I'm a glutton for punishment, let's add the 2015 Davitt's Award to the upcoming TBR Mountain Range - this time Adult Fiction.
First up - ADULT FICTION :)
Karen Chisholm
Felt like a bit of a change of pace and style, and an excuse to crave a glass or two of wine.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
First from a bitterly cold weekend's reading. This is another entry from the Ned Kelly submissions to be reviewed at http://www.reviewingtheevidence.com(link is external)
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Look I don't know why these books appeal but they make me laugh!
From the Blurb:
Rainbow's got the blues. His girlfriend's dumped him; his assassin mate Rory's found God; his Aunt Rube's as sick as a bad joke; and his ex-wife's thrown up a barricade - all right, a cordon bleu - around his daughter Imogene.
So when a snake's let loose in a laboratory, his ballet teacher's under siege and a nasty little joker by the name of Cock Robin cops it, Rainbow climbs into the ring because it's his job - but also because he needs the distraction.
Karen Chisholm
Second from SA based author, Reece Pocock.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
A young adult book, written from the viewpoint of Luca, a young man found guilty of murdering his mother and stepfather when he was 13 years old.
From the Blurb:
Based on a real-life story where a 24-year-old Tennessee man was executed for murdering his mother and stepfather when he was 13.
He had been on drugs and had access to a gun.
Karen Chisholm
A debut book that people have been talking up very loudly.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Another picked up because of this year's Ned Kelly Awards submissions list, I've got to get to the Davitt's list next!
http://www.sistersincrime.org.au/content/davitt-readers-choice-voting-2015(link is external)
From the Blurb:
National Parks ranger Erin Taylor loves her job, is falling for her colleague, Simon, and is finally leaving her past behind . . .
Karen Chisholm
The last from my currently reading pile - the latest from Karin Fossum.
From the Blurb:
The new Inspector Sejer novel
‘He'd just learnt to walk,’ she said. ‘He was sitting playing on his blanket, then all of a sudden he was gone.’
A 16-month-old boy is found drowned in a pond right by his home. Chief Inspector Sejer is called to the scene as there is something troubling about the mother’s story. As even her own family turns against her, Sejer is determined to get to the truth.
Karen Chisholm
Another book from both the Davitt's and Ned Kelly listings.
From the Blurb:
Still hurting after a painful divorce, Joanna leaves the city, moving with her six-year-old daughter Mia to a country town. She’s looking for a better, happier life, and when she meets farmer Chris Youngman, she discovers the possibility of a future as a farmer’s wife.
Karen Chisholm
Something for our f2f bookclub gathering on Sunday. Looking forward to the discussion of this one very much.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
The latest Jack Emery book this officially brings to an end my current binge of these three :)
From the Blurb:
What is the true cost of security?
Karen Chisholm
"The true story of Australia's first female serial killer" as it says on the cover, is absolutely fascinating.
From the Blurb:
'Never before in the hundred year history of Australia has a female prisoner become so notorious as Louisa Collins.' - Evening News.
Karen Chisholm
4 days away from the day jobs (so will catch up with some emails etc next week) so I'm treating myself to something I've been wanting to read since it arrived.
From the Blurb:
On the night of 22 December 1980, a plane crashes on the Franco-Swiss border and is engulfed in flames. 168 out of 169 passengers are killed instantly. The miraculous sole survivor is a three-month-old baby girl. Two families, one rich, the other poor, step forward to claim her, sparking an investigation that will last for almost two decades. Is she Lyse-Rose or Emilie?
Karen Chisholm
The third in the DS Allie Shenton series this the second for me.
From the Blurb:
When one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion.
DS Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies.
Karen Chisholm
Set in Africa, this is a series that I've been very remiss in keeping up to date with.
From the Blurb:
Safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand hunts people, not animals. He's on the trail of Linley Brown who's been named as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy.
Linley's friend, Kate, supposedly died in a fiery car accident in Zimbabwe, but Kate's sister wants to believe it is an elaborate fraud.
Karen Chisholm
Second in the Jack Emery series, I'm having a bit of a binge :)
From the Blurb:
A chance lightning strike. A reporter in the right place. A scandal that will rock America.
Journalist Jack Emery has seen it all. Embedded for the New York Standard with the 8th Marine Regiment in the heart of Afghanistan, he has covered everything from firefights to the opening of new schools. But nothing has prepared Jack for the story that is about to explode right in front of him.
Karen Chisholm
There are a lot of books I should be reading right now, but this one shouted loudest.
From the Blurb:
He who holds the pen holds the power.
When a corrupt think tank, The Foundation for a New America, enlists a Taiwanese terrorist to bomb a World Trade Organization conference, the US and China are put on the path to war.
Karen Chisholm
Look I know I shouldn't like these books - they should be the sort of thing I run a mile from. And yet....
From the Blurb:
It’s the beginning of a hot, hot summer in Hobart. Tabitha Darling is in love with the wrong man, and determined to perfect the art of ice cream. Playing amateur detective again is definitely not on the cards—not even when her friends try to lure her into an arty film noir project in the historical town of Flynn.
Karen Chisholm
It looks like in order to get a reasonable number of books read, you also need to have a very busy weekend. It felt a bit like Spencer Street Station here this weekend which you'd normally think not conducive to much reading - but got a lot done. Must of been sitting down waiting for the next group to drop in :)
From the Blurb:
Some people love goodbyes...
Karen Chisholm
Another one from the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
Ben and his sidekick, Mikey, run the Target Ball stand in a ramshackle carnival travelling up the east coast. Ben is trying to put his time in the army behind him and make some money. Mikey—AKA Mekong Delta, Fremantle’s answer to Fifty Cent—wants to work on his flow and impress girls.
Karen Chisholm
Started this on the weekend, new book from the collaboration of Linda Olsson and Thomas Sainsbury.
From the Blurb:
When budding writer Brent Taylor dies a horrific death in the Auckland University Library, his friend, sex worker Jade Amaro, refuses to believe it is suicide. She seeks help from Sam Hallberg, a former government advisor on terrorism, now working as a mechanic.
Karen Chisholm
The latest re-released June Wright book - for review at http://www.newtownreviewofbooks.com.au(link is external)
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
First of my weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
'Why do some people decide to get married when everyone around them would seem to agree that marriage, at least for the two people in question, is a terrifically bad idea?'
Karen Chisholm
Another book from the weekend's reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Miranda shrank away from him, arm pressed to the driver's door. ‘What's your name?' ‘I'm already dead. That's my name now. That's what they called me. I'm Already Dead.'
Journalist Miranda Jack is finally attempting to move on from the death of her husband by relocating up the coast with her young daughter, Zoe. Then a single event changes everything.
On a Monday afternoon as she waits at traffic lights, a stranger jumps into her car and points a gun at her chest.
Karen Chisholm
Head down catching up with some of the books I've had here for too long and contributing to my quest for the Neddies 2015 Best First Crime entries.
From the Blurb:
Something is very rotten in the state of Tasmania.
Brad Finch, the marquee player of the Tassie Devils Football Club, is the victim at the heart of a new murder mystery. Intense media interest, interfering superior officers and corrupt business interests all threaten to derail the homicide investigation conducted by the Serious Crimes Squad.
Karen Chisholm
The third book in the Peter Clancy series sees him in London, working for one of the "red-top" gossip newspapers and getting his love life all out of control. Not sure why these books aren't getting more attention - it's a great series.
From the Blurb:
Australian journo Peter Clancy is in London this time, working for a notorious scandal sheet. While writing salacious stories on celebrities, Clancy poses as a biographer to dig the dirt on drug- and alcohol-raddled Olivia Michaels, once a star of the screen.
Karen Chisholm
To be reviewed over at Newtown Review of books - this is the second of the re-released Maggie Byrnes series.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This year I've promised myself a red hot go at reading the entire submissions list for all 3 of the Ned Kelly Categories. Preferably before the 2016 Submissions List is released although there are days when I think I might have bitten off more than I can possibly chew. Still - getting there :)
Starting out with the True Crime list because I CLEARLY have some work to do here:
Karen Chisholm
It's probably the cover - which makes me sigh with how shallow that sounds - but I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. Set in Melbourne in World War II thus far it's beating expectations hands down.
From the Blurb:
1943 is a dangerous time to fall in love...
Karen Chisholm
Started reading this over the weekend. Very engaging young adult novel that tackles an interesting combination of more current day problems for the younger crowd, along with much that has always been the same.
From the Blurb:
Cooper Bartholomew's body is found at the foot of a cliff.
Suicide.
That's the official finding, that's what everyone believes. <br>Cooper's girlfriend, Libby, has her doubts. They'd been happy, in love. Why would he take his own life?
Karen Chisholm
Debut book - high tech bank robbery!
From the Blurb:
A bank in Los Angeles, assumed to be impregnable, has its valuable taken. No idea how or when the crime was committed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, a woman is kidnapped but her husband does not alert authorities for three days. Why?
Karen Chisholm
A book I've been trying to juggle to the top of the list for a while - this is historical true crime, written in the style of a great yarn.
From the Blurb:
The latest work from acclaimed historical author Robert Cox, A Compulsion to Kill is a dramatic chronological account of 19th-century Tasmanian serial murderers. Never before revealed in such depth, the story is the culmination of extensive research and adept craftsmanship as it probes the essence of both the crimes and the killers themselves.
Karen Chisholm
'Tart noir has a new champion' Angela Savage is one of the quotes on the cover of this book. Tart noir is one of my very favourite things.
From the Blurb:
Forensic psychiatrist Natalie King works with victims and perpetrators of violent crime. Women with a history of abuse, mainly. She rides a Ducati a size too big and wears a tank top a size too small. Likes men but doesn’t want to keep one. And really needs to stay on her medication.
Now she’s being stalked. Anonymous notes, threats, strangers loitering outside her house.
Karen Chisholm
Weekend reading - very very good weekend reading - the 2nd in the brilliant new DS Ferreira and DI Zigic series/
From the Blurb:
The car that ploughs into the bus stop early one morning leaves a trail of death and destruction behind it.
Karen Chisholm
Second book from the weekend's reading - historical set in the timeframe and place of the Dismissal.
From the Blurb:
Canberra, November 1975.
Gough Whitlam's Labor government is in crisis. Denied supply by a hostile Senate, distracted by the desperate moves of his wayward cabinet, Whitlam is seemingly confident of prevailing and oblivious to an opposition led plot to overthrow his government.
Karen Chisholm
Second in the series, second I've read - even though I'm working my way backwards because that's what I do (sometimes). Circumstances led me to reading the third book in this series first (The Fourth Reich). Despite a few misgivings about the character style and interaction it was still a most enjoyable thriller of the global domination threat type that at the time I promised myself a chance to read the earlier two in the series.