Karen from AustCrime's Blog (430)

Review - Harry Curry: Counsel of Choice, Stuart Littlemore

Book Title:   HARRY CURRY COUNSEL OF CHOICE

Author: Stuart Littlemore

ISBN:   9780732293420

Publisher:   Harper Collins

Year of Publication:   2011

Ugly. Irascible. Intolerant. Clever.

From one of our sharpest legal minds comes a brilliant new character, Harry Curry--scion of the establishment and criminal defender extraordinaire. A class traitor, some say.

When Harry′s robust advocacy leads to his suspension for professional misconduct, he teams…

Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 17, 2011 at 1:46pm — No Comments

Review - The Singapore School of Villainy, Shamini Flint

Book Title:   SINGAPORE SCHOOL OF VILLAINY

Author: Shamini Flint

ISBN:   9780749929770

Series:   Inspector Singh

Publisher:   Piatkus

Year of Publication:   2010

Inspector Singh is home - and how he wishes he wasn-t. His wife nags him at breakfast and his superiors are whiling away their time by giving him his usual 'you're a disgrace to the Force' lecture. Fortunately for Singh, there is no rest for the wicked when he is called out to the murder of a senior…

Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 10, 2011 at 7:20pm — No Comments

Review - The Crossing, B. Michael Radburn

Book Title:   THE CROSSING

Author: B. Michael Radburn

ISBN: 9780980741872

Publisher:   Pantera Press

Year of Publication:   2011

Traumatised by the disappearance of his daughter Claire, Taylor Bridges' marriage breaks down, and he exiles himself to Glorys Crossing in Tasmania. Taylor is the only ranger in this isolated town adjoining a national park ... a town dying a slow death as the rising waters of the new dam project slowly flood it.

Struggling with the… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 1, 2011 at 9:48am — No Comments

Review - Counter Attack, Mark Abernethy

Book Title:   COUNTER ATTACK

Author: Mark Abernethy

ISBN:   9781741759396

Series:   Alan McQueen

Publisher:   Allen & Unwin

Year of Publication:   2011

Australia's super-spy, Alan McQueen, has been lured out of retirement. But any dreams Mac has of a cosy office job are shattered when he's dispatched to Singapore to oversee a covert mission. And when things go disastrously wrong, he not only has to defend his reputation in Australia but also stay out of jail… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on October 27, 2011 at 5:51pm — No Comments

Review - Death of the Mantis, Michael Stanley

Book Title:   DEATH OF THE MANTIS

Author: Michael Stanley

ISBN:   9780755381159

Location:   Botswana

Series:   Kubu Bengu

Publisher:   Headline

Year of Publication:   2011

When a Kalahari ranger is found dead in a dry ravine, his corpse surrounded by three Bushmen, the local police arrest the nomads. Botswana's Detective 'Kubu' Bengu investigates the case and is reunited with his old school friend Khumanego, a Bushman and advocate for his people. Khumanego… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on October 25, 2011 at 1:35pm — No Comments

Review - Containment, Vanda Symon

Book Title:   CONTAINMENT

Author: Vanda Symon

ISBN:   9780143202295

Publisher:   Penguin

Year of Publication:   2009

Detective Constable Sam Shepard knows first-hand the desperation of the scavengers- she's got the scars to prove it. Plus a skull in the sand. And a body pulled from the ocean. The undercurrents from one morning's madness are far-reaching. Who else will be caught in the backwash? Can Sam stem the tide?…

Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on October 20, 2011 at 3:43pm — No Comments

Review - Rip Off, Kel Robertson

Book Title:   RIP OFF

Author: Kel Robertson

ISBN:   9781742610054

Series:   Brad Chen

Publisher:   Pan MacMillan Australia

Year of Publication:   2011

From the winner of the 2009 Ned Kelly Award comes a sensational new novel

It's November 2007. There's sewage in the big lake at the heart of the soulless city, Canberra, the TABs have been emptied by a deadly horse virus and the longest Federal election campaign of all time still has a fortnight to… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 22, 2011 at 5:01pm — No Comments

Review - Jane Blonde Sensational Spylet, Jill Marshall

Book Title:   Jane Blonde Sensational Spylet

Author: Jill Marshall

ISBN:   9780330438148

Publisher:   MacMillan

Year of Publication:   2006

'Until now, you have been just plain old Janey Brown. But you are going to grow and grow. You will be what your parents have not allowed you to be. It's in your past. And it's in your future. There's a whole new part of you just waiting to burst out.

You are JANE BLONDE - sensational spylet. Welcome to our… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 14, 2011 at 12:30pm — No Comments

Review - Watch Out For Me, Sylvia Johnson

Book Title:   Watch Out for Me

Author: Sylvia Johnson

ISBN:   9781742376707

Publisher:   Allen & Unwin

Year of Publication:   2011

Australia, 1967. Four children tell a lie to get out of trouble. As a result, an immigrant worker is wrongly accused of a crime, with horrific repercussions.

Nearly forty years later, in London, police gun down an innocent man suspected of carrying explosives concealed by his overcoat; and in Sydney a short time later, on the… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 13, 2011 at 2:05pm — No Comments

Review - How the Dead See, David Owen

Book Title:   HOW THE DEAD SEE

Author: David Owen

ISBN:   9780980856415

Location:   Hobart, Tasmania

Series:   Pufferfish

Publisher:   40 Degrees South

Year of Publication:   2011

The theft of a valuable diamond necklace, and the death by apparent suicide of a notorious film star, have nothing in common. Nothing except Detective Franz Heineken, aka Pufferfish, scourge of an island’s villains and a deadly match for it unpredictable, unsettling… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 12, 2011 at 1:53pm — No Comments

Review - Razor, Larry Writer (True Crime)

Book Title:   RAZOR

Author: Larry Writer

ISBN:   9781742610702

Publisher:   Pan MacMillan Australia

Year of Publication:   2011

Genre: True Crime

This Underbelly TV tie-in edition is the acclaimed, award-winning history of the Razor gangs - now the basis for Channel 9's 13-part blockbuster - Underbelly Razor. In the 1920s and '30s in inner Sydney, some of the most terrifying criminals in Australia's history waged war with razor and gun. As gang fought gang, the… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 7, 2011 at 11:36pm — No Comments

Review - Where the Bodies are Buried, Christopher Brookmyre

Book Title:   WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED

Author: Chris(topher) Brookmyre

ISBN:   9781408702703

Location:   Glasgow

Publisher:   Little & Brown

Year of Publication:   2011

Detective Catherine McLeod was always taught that in Glasgow, they don't do whodunit. They do score-settling. They do vendettas. They do petty revenge.

It's a lesson that has served her well, but Glasgow is also a dangerous place to make assumptions. Either way she looks at it,… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 6, 2011 at 11:40am — No Comments

Review - The Brotherhood, Y.A. Erskine

Book Title:   THE BROTHERHOOD

Author: Y.A. Erskine

ISBN:   9781742750156

Location:   Tasmania

Publisher:   Bantam

Year of Publication:   2011

When Sergeant John White, mentor, saviour and all-round good guy, is murdered during a routine call-out, the tight-knit world of Tasmania Police is rocked to the core.

An already difficult investigation into the death of one of their own becomes steeped in political complexities when the main suspect is identified as… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 1, 2011 at 3:11pm — No Comments

Review - The Siren's Sting, Miranda Darling

Book Title:   THE SIREN'S STING

Author: Miranda Darling

ISBN:   9781741759204

Series:   Stevie Duveen

Publisher:   Allen & Unwin

Year of Publication:   2011

Aboard a luxury yacht as the minder of the world's greatest - and most temperamental - opera star, Stevie Duveen manages to thwart a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia, but soon realises the attack is merely one salvo in a ruthless campaign of terror. Other vessels are being hijacked, and ransoms in… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on September 1, 2011 at 12:13am — No Comments

Review - Plugged, Eoin Colfer

Book Title:   PLUGGED

Author: Eoin Colfer

ISBN:   9780755379996

Location:   New Jersey

Publisher:   Hachette Australia

Year of Publication:   2011

Murder, corruption and hair loss in New Jersey.

'Once I have hair, I'll be happy.' At least that's what Irish ex-army sergeant Daniel McEvoy tells himself.

As doorman at a seedy New Jersey casino, dealing with unpleasant customers, a psychotic neighbour and a receding hairline are all part of Dan's… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 25, 2011 at 6:07pm — No Comments

Review - This Night's Foul Work, Fred Vargas

Book Title:   THIS NIGHT'S FOUL WORK

Author: Fred Vargas

ISBN:   9780099507628

Location:   France

Series:   Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg

Publisher:   Vintage Books

Year of Publication:   2009

On the outskirts of Paris, two men are discovered with their throats cut. In Normandy, two stags have been killed and their hearts cut out. Meanwhile, a seventy-five-year old nurse who had murdered several of her patients has escaped from prison. Is there a connection… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 23, 2011 at 11:54pm — No Comments

Review - Crimespotting, intro by Irvine Welsh

Book Title:   CRIMESPOTTING

ISBN:   9781846971242

Location:   Edinburgh

Publisher:   One City Trust

Year of Publication:   2009

All the short stories here are brand new, specially commissioned and from a unique mix of bestselling crime writers. Each author was asked for a story which features a crime and is set in Edinburgh. The results range from hard-boiled police procedural to historical whodunit and from the wildly comic to the spookily supernatural.…

Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 23, 2011 at 5:55pm — No Comments

Review - The Ghost of Waterloo, Robin Adair

Book Title:   THE GHOST OF WATERLOO

ISBN:   9781921518485

Location:   Sydney

Series:   Nicodemus Dunne

Publisher:   Penguin

Year of Publication:   2011

The young settlement is shaken by a daring bank robbery and a spate of murders. At the Governor's command, Nicodemus Dunne – a disgraced London thief-taker who is now the Running Patterer, a news-hawker roaming the streets of Sydney – sets out to discover the truth.

The evidence points – amazingly – to none… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 19, 2011 at 11:09pm — No Comments

Review - Ludo, Boyd Anderson

Book Title:   LUDO

ISBN:   9780702238987

Location:   Sydney

Publisher:   University of Queensland Press

Year of Publication:   2011

Sydney, 1961: Jockey McAuley is just looking for a little direction in life. On a fast track from high school to the old school, he stumbles into the notorious Phoenix affair, a netherworld of shady deals, half truths and men with more sides than a cut diamond.

And then there's Ludo. Glamorous, unattainable Ludo, playing everyone… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 19, 2011 at 12:34am — No Comments

Review - Close-Up, Esther Verhoef

Book Title:   CLOSE-UP

ISBN:   9781849160919

Location:   Holland

Location:   London

Publisher:   Quercus

Year of Publication:   2009

Leon's partner died in his bath, and although the police report said she took her own life... she didn't.

When he meets Margot, overweight, lacking in confidence and recently separated, he sees an opportunity. Her life's a mess. Who better to help her put it back together than a man who's recovering from his own…

Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 18, 2011 at 11:01pm — No Comments