Well-respected Australian true crime writer Vikki Petraitis turns her hand to crime fiction with The Unbelieved, and it's a great read!
Senior DetectivWell-respected Australian true crime writer Vikki Petraitis turns her hand to crime fiction with The Unbelieved, and it's a great read!
Senior Detective Antigone Pollard has recently relocated to her childhood home of Deception Bay on Victoria's southern coastline (I imagine it somewhere in the vicinity of Westernport Bay). She's dealing with some significant professional and personal pressures, after a sexual assault prosecution in the city - which appears to have been inspired by the notorious failed rape trial of Luke Lazarus - has gone disasterously wrong.
In addition to an investigation into a series of brutal abduction-rapes that have occurred in and around Deception Bay in recent months, Antigone becomes fascinated with an old case, closed years ago as a murder-suicide, but whose circumstances raise several doubts in her mind as to who may actually have been responsible.
As she contends with Deception Bay's misogynistic "old guard", lead by her senior officer, she reconnects with several contacts from her past, and forms new bonds with several locals with whom she comes into contact in the course of her inquiries.
The Unbelieved is a compulsively readable, entertaining and occasionally confronting read, featuring great characterisations, an evocative rural-coastal setting and not one, but two, twisty and satisfyingly concluded mystery-thriller plotlines....more
As an afficionado of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter series (adapted into a popular television series starring Michael C. Hall), I couldn't reWhat a great read!
As an afficionado of Jeff Lindsay's Dexter series (adapted into a popular television series starring Michael C. Hall), I couldn't resist Blood Sugar when I saw it on the "new acquisitions" shelf at my local library!
Like Lindsay's hero, Sascha Rothchild's protagonist - clinical psychologist Ruby Simon - is a sympathetically-portrayed and relateable multiple murderer. Like the Dexter books, Blood Sugar is also set in Miami, Florida, with its humid climate and multicultural appeal, although I certainly didn't consider this novel derivative in any sense. Despite the extra-curricular interests that they have in common, Dexter and Ruby are quite different creatures.
We meet our heroine Ruby as she's facing a police interrogation, following the recent death of her husband, Jason. The irony is that, while Ruby has a dark secret and has left several dead bodies in her wake, she truly loved Jason and genuinely bears no culpability for his death. Will this death that she's not responsible for be the reason that Ruby might finally be brought to account for her past misdeeds?
From the scene of her police interview, we delve into a series of episodes from Ruby's past, which build the complexity of her character and the motivations for her occasionally murderous actions over the years. She's a truly engaging and relateable character, and as readers we certainly develop a great deal of sympathy for her. The moral ambiguity is tantalising....more
Blackwater Falls is a frequently confronting but fascinating read, an insight into the challenges faced by minorities in a Colorado town where the infBlackwater Falls is a frequently confronting but fascinating read, an insight into the challenges faced by minorities in a Colorado town where the influence of an evangelical Christian church pervades all the residents' lives....more
This is such a great series, and the fourth instalment - Day's End - is no exception.
Police Constable Paul Hirschhausen is solely responsible for the This is such a great series, and the fourth instalment - Day's End - is no exception.
Police Constable Paul Hirschhausen is solely responsible for the extensive rural area surrounding the small fictional town of Tiverton in eastern South Australia. In Day's End, he must manage a range of emerging issues in and around the town, including the disappearance of two international backpackers from their farm jobs, the discovery of human remains in a suitcase, a series of online scams, the horrific death of a young child, and a crash involving an ultra-light aircraft.
As readers have come to expect, Garry Disher's characters, sense of setting and the pacing of the plot are superlative. Regional Australia's experience of the Covid-19 pandemic provides an interesting backdrop for the police procedural plot, as Hirsch must maintain the peace between reinforcing government policy and keeping the peace amongst the many locals who remain suspicious of the mandates. Some of the themes will be confronting for readers, especially the storyline involving a domestic dog attack. A dramatic confrontation at the conclusion of the story draws together many of the sub-plots and cements Hirsch's standing as an unassuming community hero.
I'd enthusiastically recommend Day's End and the whole Hirschhausen series to any reader who loves well-written Aussie Noir fiction.
My thanks to the author, Garry Disher, publisher Text Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this excellent title....more
[IN PROGRESS] Solace House is an intriguing police procedural mystery set in rural Lincolnshire.[IN PROGRESS] Solace House is an intriguing police procedural mystery set in rural Lincolnshire....more
[IN PROGRESS] 4.5* Characters - DI Harbinder Kaur, DS Kim, DC Cassie, Gary, Anna, Chris/Kris, Izzy, Henry, Sonoma
As with previous series instalments, th[IN PROGRESS] 4.5* Characters - DI Harbinder Kaur, DS Kim, DC Cassie, Gary, Anna, Chris/Kris, Izzy, Henry, Sonoma
As with previous series instalments, this book employs a multi-perspective narrative featuring Harbinder, Cassie and Anna. The chapters aren't fully chronological, and readers are frequently given the opportunity to experience the same scene from two different characters' perspectives. This allows Elly Griffiths to maintain tension, build suspense and enhance the complexity of characterisations....more
This seventh instalment in Helen Cox's series featuring Yorkshire psychologist-turned-private-investigator Kitt Hartley takes our heroine out of York,This seventh instalment in Helen Cox's series featuring Yorkshire psychologist-turned-private-investigator Kitt Hartley takes our heroine out of York, to the (fictional) Calderdale former mill town of Andaby (real life Dewsbury and Halifax spring to mind), to investigate the violent death of unpopular museum manager Siobhan Lange.
In this story, Detective Sergeant Charlotte "Charley" Banks, colleague of Kitt Hartley's partner DI Malcolm Halloran and fiancée of Kitt's best friend Evie, plays a co-starring role alongside the series lead character, while the rather irritating Grace Edwards - Kitt's colleague in her private investigation business - takes a back seat. Charley's interest in the murder of Siobhan Lange is more than professional - her older brother Ewan has recently been paroled after a long stint in prison for murder, and is living in Andaby. As a police detective, Charley is well aware that Ewan will attract the attention of the investigating detectives in the Lange case, and engages Kitt to conduct a discrete parallel investigation to uncover Ewan's involvement (if any) in the crime.
Kitt and Charley uncover many interesting leads in Andaby and elsewhere, revealing that the victim had made many enemies over her 38 years, a clue indicating a possible link with Siobhan's days as the local school's bullying "It Girl", and the recent suspicious disappearance of a woman connected to her past offences. All the while, Charley treads a fine line between the pursuit of justice and maintaining her duties as a serving police officer, whilst hiding her presence in the vicinity of another CID team's case from her superiors. After a relatively sedate first half, in which the story follows a police procedural pattern, the action ramps up in the second part of the book, as Kitt and Charley engage in a gripping chase on a replica steam train and later search a spooky ruined building, in their pursuit of the truth.
I found Charley Banks a difficult character to warm to and identify with, when compared to the more gregarious Kitt. She's a taciturn and rather emotionally undemonstrative woman, struggling under the burden of her conflicting feelings about her criminal elder brother and the effect his conviction and incarceration have had on herself and her family. The narrative is frequently punctuated with Charley's ruminations about Ewan, which I began to find a bit repetitive and an unwelcome distraction from the mystery storyline.
The setting, as always in this series, is well-imagined and fascinating. While the town of Andaby and its Industrial Museum, occupying a building that was once a bustling textiles mill, is fictional, Helen Cox has clearly drawn on a copious knowledge of similar towns and repurposed buildings that are sprinkled across West Yorkshire. She develops a real "feel" for the landscape and population of the area, and whets the appetite of armchair travellers with scenes set in real-life locations such as the spectacular Halifax Piece Hall.
I'd recommend Murder in a Mill Town (and the whole Kitt Hartley series) to any reader who enjoys police procedural mysteries in a traditional mould, with engaging female characters and great northern English settings.
My thanks to the author, Helen Cox, publisher Quercus Books, and NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review this title....more
In the Clearing is a tense dual-perspective thriller, simultaneously exploring the lifelong effects of trauma and the murky world of religious cults. In the Clearing is a tense dual-perspective thriller, simultaneously exploring the lifelong effects of trauma and the murky world of religious cults.
In one narrative we follow the experience of yoga teacher Freya, a woman who's trying to recover from her past while raising a young son in country Victoria, Australia. It's immediately clear that she's highly vigilant about security and fearful of any strangers that disturb the privacy of her rural property. But are her fears real or simply the result of a troubled mind? As readers, we have the benefit of some foreknowledge, as chapters are headed with a countdown to the abduction of Freya's son Billy, which occurs at about the halfway point of the book. This is a living nightmare for Freya, exaccerbated by her own personal history and the dawning realisation that someone is planting clues that implicate her in Billy's disappearance.
Meanwhile, via a parallel storyline, we enter the strange and horrifying existence of a 15-year-old girl named Amy, via a series of diary entries in which she describes her life within a dangerous quasi-religious cult. Amy's journals reveal a dangerous group who abduct young children from the outside world to be indoctrinated as the "children" of charismatic leader and mother-figure Adrienne, a life in which they suffer systematic deprivation, sexual abuse and, for those who dare to resist, murder.
As the story proceeds, the reader becomes convinced that the two narratives are interconnected, but exactly how remains a mystery until the thrilling crescendo. It's a testament to author J.P. Pomare's skill that, despite the heavy foreshadowing throughout, the dawning realisation of the truth leads us to a genuinely shocking denouement.
I'd recommend In the Clearing to any reader who enjoys twisty character-driven psychological thrillers, albeit with fairly comprehensive list of potential trigger warnings - child abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, parental neglect, cult indoctrination and violence, including against children....more
4.5* Australian author Sean Wilson's full-length debut, Gemini Falls, is an atmospheric historical mystery, set against the backdrop of the Great Depre4.5* Australian author Sean Wilson's full-length debut, Gemini Falls, is an atmospheric historical mystery, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression in rural Victoria, Australia....more
On Sleep is a short but interesting read, detailing the author’s own struggles with getting a good night’s sleep and her discussions with several currOn Sleep is a short but interesting read, detailing the author’s own struggles with getting a good night’s sleep and her discussions with several current and former Australian politicians and media personalities on the topic of sleep quality and quantity. In particular, she considers the potential impact of chronic sleep-deprivation upon the moral decision-making capabilities of those we elect to govern and those in the "fourth estate" who report their activities.
That said, I've added several quotations that I felt were particularly pertinent from On Sleep to Goodreads' database. It's a great series, one that I hope to be dipping into again in the near future....more
The Trees is a curious yet powerful book, beguilingly straddling an amalgam of genres, including laugh-out-loud social satire, police procedural, histThe Trees is a curious yet powerful book, beguilingly straddling an amalgam of genres, including laugh-out-loud social satire, police procedural, historical re-interpretation, social horror and even a touch of the paranormal. The way Percival Everett cleverly inverts discriminatory (and deeply offensive) social norms and stereotypes, thereby emphasising the fragile basis of the original, brought to mind Naomi Alderman's similarly lauded 2016 release, The Power.
The majority of the narrative is set in the struggling town of Money, Mississippi, which remains notorious as the setting of the real-life lynching of 14-year-old African American Emmett Till in August 1955, ostensibly because he committed the heinous offence of "cheeking" a white female grocery store proprietor (the exact details of what occurred remain in dispute). Till's horrific and undeserved death, combined with the fact that his admitted killers went unpunished, is credited as one of several pivotal events that spurred the rise of the US Civil Rights movement.
The book opens by depicting an extended family, who may well be described as representative of "white trash", whose failings and attitudes are depicted with a wry humour. It transpires that these characters are the younger generation of the family associated with the killing of Emmett Till. One, referred to as Granny C, is actually Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose complaint about Till's behaviour towards her provoked the lynching (The real life Bryant-Donham, like Granny C in The Trees has since admitted that much of her version of events was fabricated). I found it interesting that Percival Everett chose to depict her as a partly fictionalised character, as the real Carolyn Bryant Donham is still alive, 88 years old and living in North Carolina. Although, to be honest, I believe her past actions justify everything that's thrown at her!
Over the following few days, three deaths occur, with the suit-clad body of an unidentified black man found in the vicinity of each mutilated corpse. To add to the consternation of Sheriff Red Jetty and coroner "Doctor-Reverend" Cad Fondle (who's also the head honcho of the local KKK chapter), the black man's corpse repeatedly goes inexplicably missing from the morgue. Who or what is responsible for the killings, and who is the mysterious deceased man?
Cue Ed Morgan and Jim Davis, two African American agents of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI), who bring a much-needed dose of investigative intelligence and social insight to backward Money. At the Money "Dinah", they make the acquaintance of waitress Gertrude, who introduces them to her formidable 105-year-old great-grandmother, Mama Z., a woman who has amassed a personal archive documenting a century's worth of lynching in the USA. As more mutilated victims begin to stack up, in Money and around the country, Morgan and Davis are joined by Washington D.C.-based FBI Special Agent Herberta "Herbie" Hind and Hattiesburg medical examiner Helvetica Quip (aside from the two MBI detectives, the character names are hilarious!).
While on one level, The Trees might be read as a farcical social satire, at its core is the very dark history around race relations in the USA, and the history of lynching in particular. At one point in the book, a list of names illustrates the horrendous scale of the violence, in respect of which the vast majority of perpetrators never met with any legal consequences.
What was most unsettling was that they all read so much alike, not something that one wouldn't expect, but the reality of it was nonetheless stunning. They were like zebras, he thought - not one had stripes just like any other, but who could tell one zebra from another? He found it all depressing, not that lynching could be anything but. However, the crime, the practice, the religion of it, was becoming more pernicious as he realized that the similarity of their deaths had caused these men and women to be at once erased and coalesced like one piece, like one body. They were all number and no number at all, many and one, a symptom, a sign. (p.171)
'Everybody talks about genocides around the world, but when the killing is slow and spread over a hundred years, no one notices. Where there are no mass graves, no one notices. American outrage is always for show. It has a shelf life. If that Griffin book had been Lynched Like Me*, America might have looked up from dinner or baseball, or whatever they do now. Twitter?' (p.291) (*The reference is to Black Like Me (1961) by John Howard Griffin)
The Trees is undeniably a disquieting read, occasionally making the reader question where the line between darker-than-dark humour and genuine social horror lies (I've concluded that's a subjective issue for each of us, based on personal experiences). Given the subject matter, it's a deceptively easy read, with short chapters and a grippingly fast-paced plot. On the whole, I found it a stimulating and entertaining read, one I'll probably return to for a second reading after a few months time to digest....more
4.5* A Game of Fear is another engrossing instalment in Charles Todd's series featuring WW1 veteran-turned-Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge. It's a4.5* A Game of Fear is another engrossing instalment in Charles Todd's series featuring WW1 veteran-turned-Scotland Yard detective Ian Rutledge. It's a well-written series in the traditional mould, which I find reminiscent of P.D. James's rather cerebral mysteries featuring Commander Adam Dalgliesh.
It's Spring 1921 and Inspector Ian Rutledge is deputed to investigate a curious incident at Benton Hall on the Essex coast. The mistress of the manor, Lady Benton, has reported witnessing a murder on her grounds, steadfastly identifying the killer as a man believed deceased during the Great War. However, when local police searched the scene, neither a body nor any trace of a miscreant could be found.
The Hall was built to incorporate the remnants of an ancient Benedictine Abbey, and adjoining land was commandeered as an airfield during the recent war. Lady Benton had become acquainted with many of the servicemen who became her neighbours over the war years, and was particularly close to an intelligent young man, Captain Nelson, to whom she permitted unfettered access to Benton Hall's library. It is Captain Nelson who Lady Benton believes she observed by moonlight, attacking another man in her garden - but the captain is known to have died in a tragic car accident years earlier...
Rutledge conducts his investigations in his usual taciturn and understated manner, forging an uneasy bond with Lady Benton, whose credibility he respects, despite the seeming impossibility of the crime she claims to have witnessed. When one of her ladyship's employees, a local war widow, is found dead in suspicious circumstances inside a building on the disused airfield, the stakes are raised. Uncovering a link with a prior series of brutal crimes, Rutledge chases down leads as far away as Flanders before a dramatic denouement in which all is finally revealed.
A Game of Fear is a satisfying, multi-layered mystery, with plenty of historical interest and a complex central character. Much of the narrative comprises Rutledge's internal ruminations, including his frequent dialogue with Hamish MacLeod, the ghost of a dead comrade from the Somme, a constant presence in the inspector's psyche. The setting in time and place is superlative, with the losses associated with the war still looming large over the populace and the landscape, especially that of northern France, still bearing many scars of the conflict.
I was saddened to learn of the death in August 2021 of Caroline Todd (Carolyn Watjen), one half of the mother-son duo who have, until now, collaborated to write this series under the pen name Charles Todd. I hope that David Watjen will continue this much-loved series in spite of her loss.
I'd recommend A Game of Fear (and the entire Inspector Ian Rutledge series) to any reader who enjoys intricately-plotted crime-mysteries. This isn't a series for readers who demand fast-moving or action-packed narratives, but will prove rewarding reading for those willing to commit to its introspective style and sometimes languid pace....more
The deliciously dark and twisty narrative alternates betweenThe Wrong Woman is another gripping crime thriller from the pen of NZ author J.P. Pomare.
The deliciously dark and twisty narrative alternates between the present perspective of private investigator Vince Reid, reluctantly returning to his hometown to investigate a suspicious car accident, and that of crash survivor, Eshana Stiles, over the weeks and months leading up to the fateful night.
Upon his arrival in the "twin towns" of struggling Manson and more upper-class Ethelton, Reid discovers that the death of Sandown College academic Oliver Stiles and the serious injury of his wife in a car accident are not the only tragedy to face the towns. A local teenager has gone missing several days ago - and not just any girl, but the seventeen-year-old daughter of Reid's former boss, Chief of Police Stubbs. Maddison's disappearance follows upon that of another local girl, Kiara King, some months earlier.
As Reid digs into the circumstances of Oliver and Eshana Stiles's accident, more than once crossing the line between acceptable and illegal activity, he comes across alarming connections between the deceased college professor and missing girl Kiara. And it becomes clear that Reid is facing more than just the normal small-town animosity surrounding an insurance investigation - someone wants him off the case permanently. Can Reid uncover what really happened that dark and wet Wednesday night? Was Oliver Stiles's death the tragic accident it appears, and is it possible that he had something to do with the disappearances of Kiara and Maddison?
With short chapters and a back-and-forth split narrative, The Wrong Woman is a compulsively readable crime-thriller. Reid is an engaging hero, a man with a chequered past as a police officer, but a tenacious thirst for truth and justice, in spite of the barriers that seem to be constantly being placed in his way. Eshana Stiles, meanwhile, is a beguiling character - have her suspicions about her husband's fidelity led her to do something dreadful, or is she simply an innocent victim? The reader's sympathies are pulled backwards and forwards as her side of the narrative unfolds.
I'd thoroughly recommend The Wrong Woman to any reader who enjoys dark and twisty thrillers, especially those that employ the trope of small-town insularity and prejudice. Readers who love Jane Harper, Garry Disher or Chris Whitaker's work will gobble this up!
My thanks to the author, J.P. Pomare, publisher Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley (UK) for the opportunity to read and review this title....more
Things have settled down in the Cotswolds village of Berrywick, since the excitement of events depicted in An English Garden Murder. Our heroine, retired social worker Julia Bird, has settled into the rhythms of village life, with her boisterous black Labrador Jake by her side. She volunteers one day a week at the local charity store, catches up on local gossip at "The Buttered Scone" cafe and is enjoying a new romance with local doctor Sean O'Connor. Supporting her best friend Tabitha, the local librarian, Julia attends a much-anticipated talk by locally-born bestselling author V.F. Andrews. Vincent Andrews exudes charm as he talks about the upcoming release of his new historical fiction title, but there are clear signs within the audience that not everyone is as keen on Vincent as it may first appear. While helping Tabitha clean up after the party the following morning, Julia discovers his body - clearly the victim of murder - half-hidden between the shelves of books.
"This was not the first, nor even the second, but in fact the fourth body that Julia had come across in Berrywick. 'You do have the most peculiar luck, Julia,' said [DI Hayley Gibson]" (Loc 346)
The case has a personal element for Julia, as Vincent's widow Sarah happens to be Sean O'Connor's cousin, and quickly becomes the focus of police investigations into her late husband's death. Working all her contacts in the village, and making the most of her rapport with DI Gibson, Julia and her friends uncover skeletons from Vincent's past, professional enmities and marital disharmony. When a second person is murdered and the manuscript for Vincent's next book goes missing, the stakes are raised considerably...
Murder in the Library is another enjoyable romp around a quintessential English village, with a colourful cast of characters, both new and recurring. Julia and her friends are likeable and identifiable, notwithstanding that the ease with which she has inveigled herself into a second murder investigation beggars belief a little.
Loading...
