Karen Chisholm
One from the should have read this ages ago pile.
From the Blurb:
To her clients and colleagues, Iris is a therapist in a city psychology practice. But to the police and fire services, she is the Fire Lady – a profiler of arsonists.
After a troubled young man burns down her office, Iris just wants a quiet life. But her peace is shattered when a bomb goes off at a local school. Called in to help, Iris meets James, delusional and dangerous, and Chuck, a lone investigator tracking a serial arsonist he calls Zorro.
Karen Chisholm
Whilst not "strictly" crime fiction this is a fascinating intertwining tale that had me up way past when I should have nodded off last night.
From the Blurb:
When Madeleine d’Leon conjures Ned McGinnity as the hero in her latest crime novel, she makes him a serious writer simply because the irony of a protagonist who’d never lower himself to read the story in which he stars, amuses her.
When Ned McGinnity creates Madeleine d’Leon, she is his literary device, a writer of detective ction who is herself a mystery to be unravelled.
Karen Chisholm
The second novel out of New Zealand I've been able to read that explores the after-affects of crime. Let's hope this is not just a glitch in the continuum as both of these novels now have been thought-provoking and challenging.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Had a bit of a break from work last week so I'm behind with posting these. This was one of those books that I have been looking forward to, set in a part of the world that's not a million miles from home - then and now.
From the Blurb:
In the long, hot summer of 1989, Ben and Fab are best friends.
Karen Chisholm
Another from last week's reading - to be reviewed at http://www.newtownreviewofbooks.com
From the Blurb:
A hot summer. A shocking murder. A town of secrets, waiting to explode. A brooding, suspenseful and explosive debut that will grip you from the first page to the last.
Karen Chisholm
The best part about playing catchup is getting to read some very good examples of different sub-genres.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
This has been languishing on the pile for Way. Too. Long.
From the Blurb:
One year on and Pufferfish - aka Detective Inspector Franz Heineken - remains haunted by his failure to apprehend the killer of a young Hobart woman. Every time he sees a merchant vessel leaving the city's port he thinks of Angie, because that's how her murderer escaped. And that merchant seaman may still be coming and going with impunity, waiting for another opportunity.
Karen Chisholm
Started reading this one from the badly neglected to be read pile last night.
From the Blurb:
Political journalist Nick Hunter suddenly loses his memory. He can't find his wallet, his computer password or even his name. When it comes to women it's even more confusing. Does he have a lover or a wife?
Karen Chisholm
Re-started this late on Sunday, the first in the Dan Forrester series.
From the Blurb:
Dan Forrester, piecing his life back together after the tragic death of his son, is approached in a supermarket by a woman who tells him everything he remembers about his life - and his son - is a lie.
Grace Reavey, stricken by grief, is accosted at her mother's funeral. The threat is simple: pay the staggering sum her mother allegedly owed, or lose everything.
Karen Chisholm
Late in mentioning this one, particularly as I've been reading and re-reading it a couple of times now.
From the Blurb:
Murder, political intrigue, bent cops and the fate of a nation - a thriller set in the murky underworld of 1951 New Zealand.
A man overboard, a murder and a lot of loose ends ...
In Auckland 1951 the workers and the government are heading for bloody confrontation and the waterfront is the frontline. But this is a war with more than two sides and nothing is what it seems.
Karen Chisholm
Was extremely fortunate to read this over the weekend. Beautifully written story about not just the trial but the legal mind behind so much that we take for granted (and should be grateful for) in this country.
From the Blurb:
One of the most shocking murder trials in Australia's legal history, and the tribulations of the man who conducted it
Karen Chisholm
Another from the greatly overdue pile.
From the Blurb:
A chance encounter in a fish-’n’-chip shop set Brendan Murray on the trail of a mystery. Had a gay man been secretly murdered on HMAS Australia during the Second World War?
The veteran he spoke to was certain. ‘I knew about it,’ he said. ‘We all did.’
But was the story true? If so, who was the dead man? And why was it so hard to find out?
Karen Chisholm
Second from the weekend's reading pile - this time about detector dog Elsie, written by her handler Steve Kelleher.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
The final from this weekend's reading pile.
From the Blurb:
Meet BADNE$$. He's the enigmatic, impulsive, exasperating, destructive, big-hearted Aussie outlaw who stole millions of dollars in daring bank robberies and became a folk hero as big as Ned Kelly when he masterminded two spectacular prison breaks in the space of six weeks.
Karen Chisholm
From over the weekend's reading pile - one about the Calabrian Mafia in Australia and the largest haul of ecstasy in the world.
From the Blurb:
Bestselling writer and organised-crime expert Keith Moor takes us behind the headlines of the world's biggest seizure of ecstasy to expose a sophisticated mafia network in Australia.
Karen Chisholm
Read this over the weekend in time for next week's f2f bookclub gathering (which is a change recently - I'm started and finished the book!)
From the Blurb:
Narrator Don Tillman 39, Melbourne genetics prof and Gregory Peck lookalike, sets a 16-page questionnaire The Wife Project to find a non-smoker, non-drinker ideal match. But Rosie and her Father Project supersede. The spontaneous always-late smoker-drinker wants to find her biological father. She resets his clock, throws off his schedule, and turns his life topsy-turvy.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's reading - particularly interesting as this is something I'd not known a lot about beforehand.
From the Blurb:
A gritty and compelling account of an elite police group, the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad (MEOCS).
Karen Chisholm
One from a long weekend pretty much spent reading.
From the Blurb:
The powerful true story of the first police officer to lift the lid on police corruption in Queensland and what then happened to him.
'Wherever there is power and money, there is always the risk of corruption. But everyone has a choice: to become involved or to take a stand against it.'
Colin Dillon is an extraordinary man. He was the first Indigenous policeman in Australia. But that is actually a very small part of his story.
Karen Chisholm
From the recent reading list.
From the Blurb:
'A - Assume nothing. B - Believe nothing. C - Check everything.' Ron Iddles
In an incredible twenty-five year career as a homicide detective, Ron Iddles' conviction rate was 99%. Yet that only partly explains why Iddles is known to cops and crims alike as 'The Great Man'.
Karen Chisholm
This is quite the doorstopper so I may be gone for sometime.
From the Blurb:
Ellen Kelly was born during the troubles in Ireland. When she arrived in Melbourne in 1841 aged nine, British convict ships were still dumping their unhappy cargo in what was then known as the colony of New South Wales. When she died at the age of 91 in 1923, having outlived seven of her 12 children, motor cars plied the highway near her bush home north of Melbourne, and Australia was a modern sovereign nation.
Karen Chisholm
Tue, 27/06/2017 - 12:30pm
Event Information(link is external)
Venue Shangri-La Hotel 176 Cumberland Street Sydney (Australia)
Cost $85 Dymocks Literary Luncheon Members / $100 non-members (Includes a two course meal and all beverages)
Bookings book https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=2741222(link is external) or call 02 9449436
Karen Chisholm
11th July, 2017 at 12.30pm
Shangri-La Hotel 176 Cumberland Street, Sydney (Australia)
$85 Dymocks Literary Lunch Members / $100 Non-Members (includes a two course meal and all beverages)
Bookings: 02 9449 4366 / https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=274507(link is external)
Karen Chisholm
A new series from Ned Kelly winning author Alan Carter, this time set in New Zealand.
From the Blurb:
Nick Chester is working as a sergeant for the Havelock police in the Marlborough Sound, at the top of New Zealand’s South Island. If the river isn’t flooded and the land hasn’t slipped, it’s paradise. Unless you are also hiding from a ruthless man with a grudge, in which case, remote beauty has its own kind of danger. In the last couple of weeks, two local boys have vanished. Their bodies are found, but the Pied Piper is still at large.
Karen Chisholm
Catching up on some recently read books - this is historical romance / crime fiction from New Zealander Author, Jude Knight.
From the Blurb:
Prue's job is to uncover secrets, but she hides a few of her own. When she is framed for murder and cast into Newgate, her one-time lover comes to her rescue. Will revealing what she knows help in their hunt for blackmailers, traitors, and murderers? Or threaten all she holds dear?
Karen Chisholm
Read this one last week and spent most of the time reading it laughing.
From the Blurb:
"Him: But he did buy you a castle.
Her: That's okay I can build my own castle out of the fucks I no longer give."
Meet Eva Destruction, the only thing quicker than her mouth is her talent for getting into trouble. It’s true she’s always had an eye for a bad boy but when she falls for billionaire super-villain Harry Lancing, it seems that even Eva may have bitten off more than she can chew.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's reading - thriller set in Columbia, written with a human rights perspective.
From the Blurb:
When Luzma’s brother Jair unwittingly uncovers the plan by Colombia’s most notorious drug cartel to smuggle an unprecedented cocaine shipment into the US, it puts their family in grave danger.
Karen Chisholm
This is a long book so I've been reading it alongside others for a while now.
From the Blurb:
This non-fiction book explores the true story of H Division, the punishment division within Pentridge Prison, Melbourne, that operated from 1958-1994, which was responsible for cultivating criminals who committed horrific crimes upon their release.
Karen Chisholm
I read this recently.
From the Blurb:
A false accusation. A brutal murder. Can Ngaire find a killer before he finds her?
Ngaire Blakes is trying to put her life back together. The ex-cop resigned from the police after a vicious assault left her battling PTSD. Dragged into a murder investigation, she’s shocked to discover that all the evidence points to her.
Karen Chisholm
Started reading this legal based thriller over the weekend.
From the Blurb:
When feisty lawyer Sasha Stace secures the acquittal of a sleazy politician charged with rape, it’s one legal victory too many. Disillusioned, she looks to the High Court bench for more fulfillment. But before she can become a judge, there’s one more criminal defense – a trial with complications, a trial like no other.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the weekend's reading pile - which wasn't that big unfortunately this time around, bit busy and then next weekend's Eurovision so other than hiding from the media on Sunday before the telecast - will be too flat out cooking :)
From the Blurb:
A funny, disturbing, and deeply affecting novel of power, corruption, and innocence in colonial Africa, by the author of Terms & Conditions.
Karen Chisholm
From the stack of books recently read.
From the Blurb:
It is almost two years since wildfires ravaged the tiny town of Bullock, and Melbourne journalist, Georgie Harvey, is on assignment in the recovering town to write a feature story on the anniversary of the tragedy.
In nearby Daylesford, police officer, John Franklin, is investigating a spree of vandalism and burglaries, while champing to trade his uniform for the plain clothes of a detective.
Karen Chisholm
Picked this one up recently - billed as comic farce.
From the Blurb:
A desolate valley.
A missing mathematician.
A glamorous and beguiling council bureaucrat with a hidden past.
A cryptic map leading to an impossible labyrinth.
An ancient conspiracy; an ancient evil.
A housing development without proper planning permission.
All leading to the most mysterious mystery of all.
Karen Chisholm
First from the last weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
A cryptic message left next to a charred corpse in the middle of Reykjavík leaves police worried they have a gang war on their hands.
Across town Detective Grímur Karlsson investigates a missing girl from a nice suburban family and gets far too close to the truth for his own good.
It becomes clear the two cases are connected and Karlsson doggedly pursues the trail that leads from junkies on the seedy streets of Reykjavík all the way to the very top of Icelandic society.
Karen Chisholm
Second from the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
Detective Jim Kelleher's daughter Annie is a teenage prostitute who's addicted to crystal meth but in his eyes she's still a lamb being preyed upon by wolves. He feels she's far too close to her Polynesian gangster boyfriend and the motorcycle gang and the triads he deals drugs with... and is there even some more forbidden cargo? Meanwhile, Jim's new partner Stuart has the unenviable task of trying to stop Jim from falling victim to the same temptations he's trying to save his daughter from.
Karen Chisholm
From the weekend's reading selections.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
From the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
London in the 1770s is bursting with opportunity. It's a city fuelled by new ideas and new money, where everything is for sale - including entree into the ruling class.
Karen Chisholm
Second from the weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
Solikha Duong lives the carefree life of a village girl in northern Cambodia until her world is torn apart by ‘truck men’ from the south. But Solikha is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...
Alice Kwann is on vacation when she’s set upon by thugs at a stopover in northern Nevada. But Alice too is tough, resourceful, and won’t give up without a fight ...
Karen Chisholm
Final from the weekend's pile.
From the Blurb:
Grammy night, 2021. Ruby wins 'Best Song' and makes an impulsive acceptance speech that excites nature lovers across the world. While Ruby and her band celebrate, an extreme evangelical sect, funded by covert paymasters, dispatches a disciple on a ruthless mission to England.
As the band plays its sold-out tour, Ruby is pursued by eco-groupies insisting she use her new fame to fight climate change.
Karen Chisholm
One from the Easter break where not enough reading was done.
From the Blurb:
When a woman's body is discovered frozen in the ice of a river near the alpine resort of Queenstown, Detective Sergeant Malcolm Buchan faces both a mystery and a moral dilemma. The identity of the nude woman is critical to the motives and manner of her murder, and Buchan is personally involved. So are a number of locals, from ski bums to multi-millionaire businessman.
Karen Chisholm
Another from the over Easter pile.
From the Blurb:
A beautiful New Zealand summer. An ugly past that won’t stay buried.
Paediatric surgeon Claire Bowerman has reluctantly returned to Auckland from London. Calm, rational and in control, she loves delicately repairing her small patients’ wounds. Tragically, wounds sometimes made by the children’s own families.
Karen Chisholm
A bit of a chilly, sometimes showery weekend meant any excuse for some reading - and this was the standout of the entire bunch.
From the Blurb:
Bobby Ress is a cop.
He believes in God and making a difference.
He loves his wife and he loves his daughter.
He has a place in the world.
Karen Chisholm
Second from the NZ list over the weekend - this is another in what's an increasing number of books from that part of the world exploring consequences.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Final dip into the #yeahnoir pile for the weekend.
From the Blurb:
Rachel McManus has just started at the New Zealand Alarm and Response Ministry. One of the few females working there, she is forced to traverse the peculiarities of Wellington bureaucracy, lascivious colleagues, and decades of sedimented hierarchy. She has the chance to prove herself by investigating a suspected terrorist, who they fear is radicalising impressionable youth and may carry out an attack himself on the nation's capital.
Karen Chisholm
A change of format / style from all the crime fiction I've been reading lately - and a local true crime book about the goings on in the Health Services Union.
From the Blurb:
Kathy Jackson was hailed as a heroine for blowing the whistle on the million-dollar fraud of Michael Williamson, the corrupt boss of the Health Services Union. While remaining steadfast in this very public ordeal, she endured bitter personal attacks from enemies in the Labor Party and the union movement.
But what if Jackson was just as corrupt as Williamson? Or worse?
Karen Chisholm
Picked this one up on the weekend - so far rather engaging read.
From the Blurb:
A small community, broken families, a bloody murder, and an ending you won’t see coming
When Frida Delaney returns home to New Zealand after a self-imposed exile the last thing she expects to find is her neighbour’s bloody body and to be caught up in a murder inquiry. An inquiry that reaches into the darkest side of politics, financial conspiracy and families.
Karen Chisholm
All the submissions to the 2017 Ned Kelly Awards have just been announced and as usual, every year as the entries start to roll in, I start to fret about the ones I haven't had a chance to read yet - this year, needless to say is no different :) Check out the full list at: http://www.austcrimewriters.com/2017-submissions(link is external) or follow the links below to those that somebody here have been lucky enough to review.
Karen Chisholm
Started this one on Sunday night - first in the Ngaire Blakes series.
From the Blurb:
Forty years ago Magdalene Lynton drowned in a slurry. She choked to death as her hands scrabbled for purchase on the smooth concrete walls. A farmhand discovered her bloated body three days later.
Or she didn't.
Paul Worthington just confessed to her murder.
Forty years ago Magdalene Lynton died in a dirty shed. He smothered her life along with her cries for help and tossed her defiled corpse into a river when he was done.
Or he didn't.
Karen Chisholm
From the weekend's reading list.
From the Blurb:
On 2 December 2010, the body of a 24-year-old woman was found at the bottom of the rubbish chute in the luxury Balencea tower apartments in St Kilda Road, Melbourne, twelve floors below the apartment she had shared with her boyfriend, Antony Hampel.
Karen Chisholm
Slipping this one in as a bit of a change of pace from fiction.
From the Blurb:
In this tell-all book, discover how the justice system works and why, at times, the innocent are convicted and the guilty set free.
Bill Hosking looks back at his career as a criminal barrister in a candid account of his time at the bar. He tells the true story behind some of his most famous cases, including the Hilton bombings, ‘Toecutter’ Jimmy Driscoll’s attempt to avoid prison time, and the Anita Cobby trial.
Karen Chisholm
Long weekend reading part 1
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Long weekend reading part 3.
From the Blurb:
Set against a backdrop of actual events in 1995, Martyn Percival, a middle-aged New Zealander, seeks adventure on his first OE to the United Kingdom. A chance sighting, providing a possible link between an explosion that has rocked the nation and the whereabouts of a renegade IRA operative, has Martyn reporting his suspicions to an attractive police sergeant in the Cotswolds.
Karen Chisholm
Part 2 of the long weekend's reading.
From the Blurb:
From 1977 to the end of 1986, Duncan McNab was a member of the NSW Police Force. Most of his service was in criminal investigation. The many unsolved deaths and disappearances of young gay men are the crimes that continue to haunt him.
Karen Chisholm
This is more of a novella - entered in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards.
From the Blurb:
Karen Chisholm
Another from the Ngaio Marsh piles - this time a police procedural styled book set in Auckland.
From the Blurb: