Karen from AustCrime's Blog (430)

Congratulations Peter Temple - CWA Duncan Lawrie Dagger Winner for 2007

In very pleasing news overnight it was announced that Peter Temple has won the Duncan Lawrie Dagger award with The Broken Shore.

This is the second year of the Duncan Lawrie Dagger - formerly the CWA Gold Dagger for Fiction - with a prize of 20,000 pounds. This is now the largest award for crime fiction in the world.

www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2007/index.html

Duncan Lawrie Dagger: Peter Temple - The… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on July 6, 2007 at 9:50am — No Comments

Review - The Lying Tongue, Andrew Wilson

Title: THE LYING TONGUE

Author: Andrew Wilson

Publisher: Text Publishing

Edition released: July 2007

ISBN: 978-1-84195-941-2

325 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

Andrew Wilson is the author of a highly renowned biography of Patricia Highsmith and THE LYING TONGUE is his début novel. In an interesting move, the author starts his first novel with the comment "This is not the book I wanted to write. This is not how it was supposed to be at all." All I can say is if… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on July 4, 2007 at 12:30pm — No Comments

June Reads

She's only a tiny little thing - less than 2.5 kilos of thing, but that blasted dog (and The Seducer) ground my reading to a halt this month. Who would think such a thing could happen!

Anyway - pathetic as it is:

Thirty-Three Teeth, Colin Cotterill

(Australian release at last!)

My Rating: Woo woo abounds, didn't care - liked it very much

In THIRTY-THREE TEETH it is summer in Vientiane and it is hot, bloody hot. Laotians greet each other with that phrase as… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on July 1, 2007 at 1:47pm — No Comments

Melbourne Writers Festival - Guest List

I just got an update on MWF guests posted on my blog by Rosemary Cameron from MWF outlining guests that we might be interested in.

Can you see the happy dancing that's going on in our house right this second! This is the update:

"Hello

just wanted to give you an idea of some of the crime/thriller writers coming to The Age Melbourne Writers' Festival this year.

There are some biggies like Jeffery Deaver, Karin Slaughter, Gabrielle Lord, Shane Maloney, Quintin…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 28, 2007 at 5:20pm — No Comments

What do You Do When you're not reading

Well I don't know about anybody else, but it seems we play with dogs.

We've just welcomed our second Australian Terrier to the fold - Jedda is 8 weeks old, she's got a temper, she's destroyed one toy already (and she only arrived on Saturday night) and she's gorgeous.

It's just a bit of a pity that the other Australian Terrier thinks she's the devil incarnate - but hopefully.....

Anyway, I'll post some baby photos here :)

Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 18, 2007 at 10:40pm — 1 Comment

Review - The Sacred Bones, Michael Byrnes

Title: THE SACRED BONES

Author: Michael Byrnes

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Edition released: June 2007

ISBN: 978-1-8473-7011-2

438 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

THE SACRED BONES is another entry in the recently well-populated field of confrontational religious themed thrillers. When a well armed, well organised small group break through the walls of the mosque in the

Temple Mount in Jerusalem they appear to have been very well…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 14, 2007 at 11:09am — No Comments

OT - Mixed Fancies, Brenda Blethyn

Title: MIXED FANCIES

Author: Brenda Blethyn

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Edition released: June 2007

ISBN: 978-1-4165-2786-2

296 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

In this age, where there appear to be more and more people obsessed with being "famous for being famous", and an unfortunate group who follow their every, underwhelming move, MIXED FANCIES arrived in my post box recently.

Brenda Blethyn is one of those actresses you undoubtedly have seen in… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 12, 2007 at 5:40pm — No Comments

Thirty-Three Teeth, Colin Cotterill

Title: THIRTY-THREE TEETH

Author: Colin Cotterill

Publisher: Text Publishing

Edition released: June 2007

ISBN: 978-1-921145-88-9

244 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

THIRTY-THREE TEETH is the follow up to THE CORONER'S LUNCH featuring the elderly, reluctant Laotian National Coroner Dr Siri Paiboun.

In THIRTY-THREE TEETH it is summer in Vientiane and it is hot, bloody hot. Laotians greet each other with that phrase as…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 4, 2007 at 4:34pm — No Comments

Review - The Colour of Blood, Declan Hughes

Title: THE COLOUR OF BLOOD

Author: Declan Hughes

Publisher: Hachette Livre

Edition released: May 2007

ISBN: 978-0-7195-6841-1

346 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

THE COLOUR OF BLOOD is the second Ed Loy novel by Declan Hughes, the first being The Wrong Kind of Blood, published in 2006.

Ed Loy is a Private Investigator in current day Dublin, Ireland - a place that's part gritty, poor, desperate and part rich, privileged, twisted. Shane Howard is a Dublin… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 31, 2007 at 12:41pm — No Comments

Graphic, Shane Briant

Title: GRAPHIC

Author: Shane Briant

Publisher: Marburg Press

Edition released: February 2005

ISBN: 0957882610

274 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

There are a stack of books lurking in a corner in my lounge room that are from little / basically unknown Australian authors and I've been promising to catch up on my reading of them to myself for ages

now. GRAPHIC was my most recent read from that pile and I'm really

pleased I…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 28, 2007 at 5:47pm — No Comments

The Coroner's Lunch, Colin Cotterill

Title: The Coroner's Lunch

Author: Colin Cotterill

Publisher: Text Publishing

Edition released: 2006

ISBN: 1-921145-18-8

Classification: Crime

287 pages

Review by: Karen Chisholm

In the lead-up to the Australian release of Colin Cotterill's second book, Thirty Three Teeth, Text Publishing kindly sent me a copy of the charming THE CORONER'S LUNCH. This is the first book in the series featuring septuagenarian and reluctant Laos Chief Coroner Dr Siri… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 16, 2007 at 1:10pm — No Comments

Crow Stone, Jenni Mills

Title: CROW STONE

Publisher: Harper Collins

Author: Jenni Mills

Edition released: 2007

ISBN 9780007253814

399 pages

Genre: Crime Fiction

Reviewed by: Karen Chisholm

"Corax the Raven - the messenger of the gods. Just when you think life is on track, along comes a socking great bird, squawking news of a divine quest. My advice is, shoot the bloody thing....."

The quote at the start of CROW STONE hinted at something…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 15, 2007 at 3:09pm — No Comments

Cherry Pie, Leigh Redhead

Title: CHERRY PIE

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Author: Leigh Redhead

Edition released: 2007

ISBN 978-1-74114-736-0

411 pages

Genre: Crime Fiction

Reviewed by: Karen Chisholm

CHERRY PIE is the third book in the Simone Kirsch series, which takes a slightly darker, more edgy direction than the first two.

Working to raise the cash for the gadgetry needed to start her own Private Investigator business, Simone is sidetracked by a desperate phone message… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 9, 2007 at 4:34pm — No Comments

Murder is Never Pretty... Even When the Corpse is a Blonde, Joe Blake

Latter day Australian Pulp Fiction at it's best, Murder is Never Pretty... is, well hilarious.

Part of the attraction is that it's 100% true to the style and phrasing of the pulp writers of bygone times - but it's all set in current day Perth - dare one say the mean and dirty streets of Perth?

When a beautiful (are there other kinds in pulp?) blonde is murdered (shot / naked of course) in her suburban unit the local police put a call through…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 30, 2007 at 3:33pm — No Comments

Review - The Laughing Policeman, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo

Title: THE LAUGHING POLICEMAN - The Martin Beck Series

Publisher: Harper Perennial

Author: Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo

Edition released: April 2007

ISBN 978-0-00-724294-8

248 pages

Genre: Crime Fiction

Reviewed by: Karen Chisholm

Harper Perennial have recently started republishing the Martin Beck series by Sjowall and Wahloo - originally written between 1965 and 1975. (The full series as at this book, is outlined below.) These books are often… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 24, 2007 at 1:54pm — No Comments

Focus On: New Zealand Writers

There are some great crime writers from NZ around who deserve a lot more attention than they sometimes get.

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/index.php/Category:NZ_Writer

Lists the ones we've identified this far.

Many of these writers don't base themselves in NZ and don't necessarily write about NZ. Some that you might like to track down:…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 23, 2007 at 9:29am — No Comments

Cold Day in Hell, Richard Hawke

Title: COLD DAY IN HELL

Publisher: Scribe Publications, Australia

Author: Richard Hawke

Edition released: April 2007

ISBN 978-1-921215-12-4

288 pages

Genre: Crime Fiction

Reviewed by: Karen Chisholm

Fans of wise cracking, hard men with hearts of gold style Private Investigators are going to be very pleased to catch up with Fritz Malone in Richard Hawke's second book COLD DAY IN HELL.

Set in New York, COLD DAY IN HELL opens up with famous late-night… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 21, 2007 at 2:54pm — No Comments

Review Pile Update

With a sense of perfect timing my review pile has had a bit of a boost over the last week.

It's perfect timing because himself is off to Santa Clara on Sunday, for a couple of weeks for work and a bit of hiking in the Sierra Nevada's so I'm getting in the chocolates and books :)

The new ones are:

The Murder Bird, Joanna Hines

Malice Box, Martin Langfield

All She Ever Wanted, Patrick Redmond

The Reckoning, Sue Walker

and

The… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 18, 2007 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Statistics!

Okay, whose bright idea was it to list the total number of discussion posts that you've made on Crimespace.

I have got to shut up occasionally :)

Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 18, 2007 at 11:42am — 2 Comments

Broken Skin, Stuart MacBride

Title: BROKEN SKIN

Publisher: Harper Collins

Author: Stuart MacBride

Edition released: April 2007

ISBN 978-0-00-725075-2

439 pages

Genre: Crime Fiction

Reviewed by: Karen Chisholm

There's something immensely satisfying about reading a book that tackles some very tricky subject matter head-on, with enough of the

gory details to illustrate rather than titivate and just the right

level of gallows humour. BROKEN SKIN is the third book…

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Added by Karen from AustCrime on April 16, 2007 at 9:59pm — 1 Comment