Jill Leovy’s GHETTOSIDE
True crime books get a bad rap, usually deservedly so. They are often sensationally or salacious written, pandering to a voyeuristic nature that plays up the monster angle of those who have perpetuated...
View ArticleHarry Brandt’s THE WHITES
It has been seven years since Richard Price last published a novel and it has been worth the wait. Writing under the transparent pseudonym Harry Brandt, Richard Price again demonstrates he truly is a...
View ArticleStephen Orr’s ONE BOY MISSING
This is one of the best crime books I have read in a while. Totally absorbing, emotionally gripping it is one of those books that sinks its teeth into you and doesn’t let go. Set in the South...
View ArticleDennis Tafoya’s THE POOR BOY’S GAME
Dennis Tafoya is one the best kept secrets in crime fiction. Which is a shame because he deserves to be heralded in the same breath as George Pelecanos and Dennis Lehane. And his new novel only...
View ArticleJesse Ball’s SILENCE ONCE BEGUN
This is one of those great novels that blends up truth and imagination so well that the lines between fact and fiction are so blurred you don’t even know where to begin trying to unravel it. It also...
View ArticleElmore Leonard’s RIDING THE RAP
With news that there will be only one more season of Justified next year I thought it was time to complete my Raylan Givens reading. I’ve read the Raylan Givens books completely out-of-order. I started...
View ArticleNic Pizzolatto’s GALVESTON
I have been completely and utterly addicted to (and obsessed by) True Detective so when I found out the show’s creator and writer had written a crime novel I had to read it. And what a cracking book it...
View Article5Q Interview with P.M. Newton, author of Beams Falling
P.M. Newton worked as a cop in NSW for 13 years. In 2010 she published her first novel, The Old School, set in Sydney in the early 1990s featuring Detective Nhu ‘Ned’ Kelly. The follow up, Beams...
View ArticleLaura Lippman’s AFTER I’M GONE
Laura Lippman delivers another absorbing thriller that sucks you in with vivid characters and great plotting. Inspired by a true story of a Baltimore mobster who went missing in the 1970s while under...
View ArticleP.M. Newton’s BEAMS FALLING
Ex-cop P.M. Newton burst onto the Australian crime writing scene four years ago with her impressive debut The Old School. Newton’s distinctive style and experience brought a point of view sadly missing...
View ArticleMichael Connelly’s THE GODS OF GUILT
I can distinctly remember reading John Grisham as a teenager and really getting into the legal thriller but as his books began to resemble movie pitches rather than novels and as I began to discover...
View ArticleGeorge Pelecanos’ THE DOUBLE
This might just be Pelecanos’s best work to date. Which when I look back at his books that is a big call but one I am more than willing to make because George Pelecanos is carving out something pretty...
View ArticleIvy Pochoda’s VISITATION STREET
“Visitation Street is urban opera writ large. Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochoda’s voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz, and even Alice Sebold, yet it’s indelibly...
View ArticleMartin Cruz Smith’s TATIANA
Ah Arkady Renko, its good to have you back. Still cantankerous and stubborn and able to not only sniff out trouble but completely ensconce yourself in it. One of the most endearing characters in crime...
View ArticleLauren Beukes’ THE SHINING GIRLS
This is one of those books I sat on. It fact I actually dismissed it. The pitch didn’t grab me: a serial killer who travels through time. I felt serial killer novels were pretty much exhausted...
View ArticleKate Atkinson’s CASE HISTORIES
After reading and loving Life After Life I knew I had to go back and read some other Kate Atkinson novels. I went with Case Histories because of the crime element. Interestingly we have never shelved...
View ArticleKen Bruen’s MERRICK
I‘ve always thought Ken Bruen was made for eBooks. His prose and structure is very, well not poetic but poem like, and his novels are often short, sharp and furious. I got an advance of his latest...
View ArticleAndrew Nette’s GHOST MONEY
My knowledge of Cambodia was severely limited before reading this book.I knew they were bombed during the Vietnam War and of course knew about Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge and The Killing Fields but even...
View ArticleTony Cavanaugh’s DEAD GIRL SING
I was mightily impressed with Tony Cavanaugh’s PROMISE and it narrowing missed by Top 10 books of the year. Second novels can be a bit tricky and after the accolades heaped on PROMISE I’m sure the...
View ArticleLavie Tidhar’s OSAMA
The way a story is told greatly affects a reader’s perception. The world we live in shapes our stories to fit within historical and societal contexts. But what if you could retell a story and change...
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