MYSTERIES in PARADISE

From the POV of a twelve year old

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Tue, 21 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

It occurred to me as I was reading this week that I have recently reviewed three books written from the point of view of a twelve year old girl.

In two of them the girl sees herself as a sort of detective, but that is really where any similarity stops. All of them are reminders that children are great observers who don't always interpret what they see in the same way as an adult. At this age too, other things are happening in their lives, their bodies are at times giving rather confusing signals, but they have a great curiosity about their place in the world.

I think it takes a special writing skill to write convincingly from the point of view of a child, especially one on the cusp of adolescence, and each of these authors does it very well. And yet the books are not really meant for teenage readers. It is assumed that the reader is an adult who will be able to fill in the blanks and see a little further than the protagonist. I point out two that two of the authors are female, one male - I think there is another skill we should recognise in the writing of Alan Bradley.

The most recent of the books is THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT by Mari Strachan.

Synopsis (Text Publishing)

Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful; there’s no sound except the hum of the Earth. At school, when I sang the note to Mr Hughes he said it was B flat.

Gwenni Morgan can fly in her sleep—that’s how she sees what’s going on in the village, and how she tries to make some sense of her family and her world. But Gwenni’s mother isn’t too keen on her daughter’s imaginative ways; she doesn’t want anyone thinking her odd.

When Ifan Evans goes missing, Gwenni tries to help find him, much to her mother’s distress. And as she begins to put the pieces together, a terrible truth is revealed.

Set in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets. It’s filled with wonderful characters and written with insight and sparkling tenderness.

See my review

And then on the weekend I finished SUFFICIENT GRACE by Australian author Amy Espeseth.

Synopsis (from the publisher, Scribe Publications, Melbourne)

Ruth and her cousin Naomi live in rural Wisconsin, part of an isolated religious community. The girls’ lives are ruled by the rhythms of nature — the harsh winters, the hunting seasons, the harvesting of crops — and by their families’ beliefs. Beneath the surface of this closed, frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.

Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns, migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the girls’ prayers for deliverance be answered?

Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.

See my review

The third book is a more traditional crime fiction novel, the latest in Alan Bradley's Flavia De Luce series, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES. I read this one a few months back.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they're found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters' diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies.

Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred's death, the English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint's tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked.

Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there's never such thing as an open-and-shut case.

See my reviews:

4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
4.5, A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD
4.7, I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS
4.7, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: G is for GHOST MONEY, Andrew Nette

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Tue, 21 May 2013 04:14:00 +0000

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will feature authors or books that I have read recently.

My contribution this week is Australian author Andrew Nette's GHOST MONEY.

Synopsis

Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of an unstable coalition government scrambling to gain the upper hand.

Missing in the chaos is businessman Charles Avery. Hired to find him is Vietnamese Australian ex-cop Max Quinlan. But Avery has made dangerous enemies and Quinlan is not the only one looking. Teaming up with Heng Sarin, a local journalist, Quinlan’s search takes him from the freewheeling capital Phnom Penh to the battle scarred western borderlands.

As the political temperature soars, he is slowly drawn into a mystery that plunges him into the heart of Cambodia’s bloody past. Ghost Money is a crime novel, but it’s also about Cambodia in the mid-nineties, a broken country, and what happens to people who are trapped in the cracks between two periods of history, locals and foreigners, the choices they make, what they do to survive.

See my review

See what others have chosen for the letter G

Review: THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT, Mari Strachan

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Tue, 21 May 2013 03:13:00 +0000

published in Australia by Text Publishing, Melbourne in 2009
ISBN 978-1-921520-19-8
327 pages
borrowed from my local library

Synopsis (Text Publishing)

Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful; there’s no sound except the hum of the Earth. At school, when I sang the note to Mr Hughes he said it was B flat.

Gwenni Morgan can fly in her sleep—that’s how she sees what’s going on in the village, and how she tries to make some sense of her family and her world. But Gwenni’s mother isn’t too keen on her daughter’s imaginative ways; she doesn’t want anyone thinking her odd.

When Ifan Evans goes missing, Gwenni tries to help find him, much to her mother’s distress. And as she begins to put the pieces together, a terrible truth is revealed.

Set in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets. It’s filled with wonderful characters and written with insight and sparkling tenderness.

My Take

This is a delightful read, a story told from the point of view of 12 year old Gwenni Morgan. There were so many parts evocative of my own childhood (here in post war South Australia), little references and sayings, like little pitchers have big ears, as adults try to have private gossips and conversations.

Gwenni reads detective stories handed on by her Auntie Lol and Gwenni sees herself as a budding detective in the vein of her hero Albert Campion. Gwenni takes notes which makes her a useful witness at times. She doesn't always understand the events, or their aftermath, that she has witnessed and sometimes adults misinterpret what she thinks she has seen. Gwenni is keen to solve mysteries and is a constant source of aggravation to her mother who worries that people will think Gwenni is "odd". Nor does Gwenni always understand what others have said. That's where the reader comes in with our superior experience and interpretive skills. And that's what makes this book fun to read.

The disappearance of Ifan Evans has far reaching consequences for the little village, and in the end the reader may well ask if justice has been done.

The other aspect of this book is village life, close knit families with secrets, deep running prejudices, and mental instability caused by past traumas.

My rating: 4.7

Other reviews to check:
Blog Critics
Reactions to Reading
EuroCrime

Review: SUFFICIENT GRACE, Amy Espeseth

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Mon, 20 May 2013 01:54:00 +0000

published by Scribe Publications, Melbourne 2013
322 pages
ISBN 978-1-922070-02-9
Read an extract
Book Club notes

Synopsis (from the publisher)

Ruth and her cousin Naomi live in rural Wisconsin, part of an isolated religious community. The girls’ lives are ruled by the rhythms of nature — the harsh winters, the hunting seasons, the harvesting of crops — and by their families’ beliefs. Beneath the surface of this closed, frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.

Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns, migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the girls’ prayers for deliverance be answered?

Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.

My Take

At first glance, SUFFICIENT GRACE is really on the outer edge of the crime fiction genre, although at least one crime does take place. Most reviews have emphasised the literary nature of the book. And so it clings to the crime fiction claim by the slenderest of threads.

I'm finding this a difficult book to review in my usual way because I really don't want to reveal too much of the plot. Told from the point of view of twelve year old Ruth, the story is set in a remote and isolated Pentecostal community in rural Wisconsin.The setting is not that old, perhaps at the end of the twentieth century. The time frame covers a small period, about 5 months over Christmas and New Year, and through the harshest season. The small community is family-based, although there are members who are not immediate family, and attempting to live a close-to-nature lifestyle while the technology they have at their disposal reveals modernity. Life is dominated by attendance at church, and a strict sense of sin.

Ruth often interprets what she sees around her in a religious fashion but then frequently sees things more clearly than the adults of the community, who made me angry with what they were prepared to ignore, and their lack of awareness of the dangers they subjected their children to.

This is a book that will provoke considerable discussion in book clubs so I encourage you to consider the Book Club notes provided by the publisher.

In a final word the author writes:
Finally I appreciate that although this is a work of fiction, people close to me - now or in the past - may read this novel as a betrayal of both the family and church in which I was raised. I have not intended to cause any hurt. I wrote what I was given to write.

My rating: 4.8

Other reviews to check

About the author

Born in rural Wisconsin, Amy Espeseth immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s and lives in Melbourne. A writer, publisher and academic, she is the recipient of the 2007 Felix Meyer Scholarship in Literature, the 2010 QUT Postgraduate Creative Writing Prize, and the 2012 CAL Scribe Fiction Prize. Sufficient Grace won the 2009 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. It was also shortlisted for the Stella Prize 2013.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter G

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 19 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter F

This week's letter is the letter G

Here are the rules

The page telling bloggers which letter to focus on will appear on each Monday together with a Mr Linky.

By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction.

So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)
You probably won't have to do a lot of extra reading in order to participate, but I warn you that your TBR may grow as a result of the suggestions other participants make.
Feel free to use either of the images provided in your blog.

Your assistance in advertising this community meme, and pointing people to this page, would be very much appreciated.

By the end of this week post your blog post title and URL in the Mr Linky below.
Please place a link in your blog post back to this page.
Visit other blogs and leave comments.

Check the Crime Fiction Alphabet page for summaries of previous years, and for links to this year's entries.

Thanks for participating.

On the doorstep, waiting to be read

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sat, 18 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Currently I have many more books in the "waiting to be read" pile than I really have any hope of reading in the near future. Several of them seem to arrive each week at present, and sit on the shelves making me feel guilty.

So I have decided to feature some of them, (mainly review copies forwarded to me by publishers), in a more or less weekly feature, so you get to consider whether you want to read them.
My postings won't be reviews, just titles with publisher's blurbs.
Some I may actually read in the near future and then do a proper review.

I'd like to also stress that there is no rhyme or reason to my selections.

Please note that this listing is in no way a recommendation for you to read a title, simply a chance for you to assess for yourself whether you would like to read it. I will also try to discover whether the book is available on Kindle, particularly for Australian authors which are not necessarily available overseas.

My focus this week is on some library books I have on the shelves.

A DECENT INTERVAL, Simon Brett, published 2013

Charles Paris returns after 15 years!

After a long period of 'resting', life is looking up for Charles Paris, who has been cast as the Ghost of Hamlet's Father and First Gravedigger in a new production of Hamlet. But rehearsals are fraught.
Ophelia is played by Katrina Selsey, who won the role through a television talent show. Hamlet himself is also played by a reality TV contestant, Jared Root - and the two young stars have rather different views of celebrity and the theatre than the more experienced members of the cast. But when the company reach the first staging post of their tour, the Grand Theatre Marlborough, matters get more serious, with one member of the company seriously injured in what appears to be an accident, and another dead.

Once again, Charles Paris is forced to don the mantle of amateur detective to get to the bottom of the mystery.

THE DEVIL'S SANCTUARY, Marie Hermanson, published 2011

This has been chosen by my face to face reading group for our next read.

Synopsis (Hachette Australia)

A breathless, heart-stopping psychological thriller from one of Sweden's best selling authors. Fear lies around every corner. . .
Estranged identical twins Daniel and Max have a complex relationship, so when Daniel goes to visit his bi-polar brother in a remote and expensive Swiss 'recovery' clinic, he has no idea what really lies in wait for him. Lulled by the routine and peacefulness of the clinic, Daniel finds himself unquestioningly accepting Max's plea for help in taking care of some business, and the brothers swap places for a few days.

But soon Daniel realises Max isn't coming back, and that the clinic is far from a place of recovery. Struggling to get anyone to believe who he really is, Daniel finds himself trapped in a cruel and highly secretive prison: this is no sanctuary, it's a living nightmare.

THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT, Mari Strachan, published 2009

another chosen by my face to face group.

Synopsis (author)

The Earth Hums in B Flat is set in Wales in the late 1950s and narrated by twelve and a half year old Gwenni Morgan. Gwenni is not like the other children in her small town. A bookish yet spirited young girl, she is suddenly forced into an unusual situation when a neighbour disappears and no one seems to be asking the right questions. As Gwenni makes her own investigations, she begins to find out more about life than she could ever have imagined.

Forgotten Book: COMEBACK, Dick Francis

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Thu, 16 May 2013 22:53:00 +0000

My plan this year for my contributions to Friday's Forgotten Books hosted by Pattinase is to feature books I read 20 years ago - in 1993- from the records I have in my "little green book", which I started in 1975.
In 1993 I read 111 books and was pretty well addicted to crime fiction by then.

I was already a fan of Dick Francis by then. My choice this week is COMEBACK which was published in 1991.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

A globe-hopping diplomat comes face to face with a case of fatal corruption, in Dick Francis's suspenseful new mystery-his thirtieth thoroughbred thriller.

Fresh from a posting in Tokyo, young British First Secretary Peter Darwin decides to holiday in England before taking up his next assignment for the Foreign Office. During a brief stopover in Miami, Peter is accidentally caught in a scuffle that leaves two acquaintances beaten and robbed. Peter stands by his new friends until they are safely delivered to their next destination: Gloucestershire, England, his childhood home and scene of long-buried memories. There he walks unexpectedly into a veterinary surgeon's racehorse-related nightmare. As his involvement with the doctor's plight grows, as as more racehorses meet an untimely end, Peter realizes that events from his own past are the keys to saving some decent people- and the things they love-from destruction.

Tact, intuition, wiliness: such are the weapons of diplomacy. Now Peter Darwin must wield them not for political reasons, but rather to unravel the enigma of the cruel fate befalling the local bloodstock. The trick is to stay alive himself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dick Francis (1920-2010) was widely acclaimed as one of the world's finest thriller writers. His awards include the Crime Writers' Association's Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre, and an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts University of Boston. In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master for a lifetime's achievement and in 2000 he received a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

From 2007 he published several titles with his younger son Felix who now continues the tradition of writing novels connected with the horse racing industry.

Review: THE MARMALADE FILES, Steve Lewis & Chris Uhlmann

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:28:00 +0000

published by Fourth Estate (Harper Collins Australis 2012)
ISBN 978-0-7322-9474-8
311 pages
Read an extract

Synopsis (Publisher)

A sticky scandal. A political jam. THE MARMALADE FILES will be the most-talked about political satirical thriller of 2012!

An imaginative romp through the dark underbelly of politics by two veteran Canberra insiders. When seasoned newshound Harry Dunkley is slipped a compromising photograph one frosty Canberra dawn he knows he′s onto something big. In pursuit of the scoop, Dunkley must negotiate the deadly corridors of power where the minority Toohey Government hangs by a thread - its stricken Foreign Minister on life support, her heart maintained by a single thought. Revenge.

Rabid Rottweilers prowl in the guise of Opposition senators, union thugs wage class warfare, TV anchors simper and fawn ... and loyalty and decency have long since given way to compromise and treachery.

From the teahouses of Beijing to the beaches of Bali, from the marbled halls of Washington to the basements of the bureaucracy, Dunkley′s quest takes him ever closer to the truth - and ever deeper into a lethal political game.

Award-winning journalists Steve Lewis of News Ltd and Chris Uhlmann from the ABC combine forces in this arresting novel that proves fiction is stranger than fact.

My Take

Each of the shortish chapters in this novel is headed with a date, starting with June 16 2011, but the reader soon discovers these chapters are not sequential although there is a logic to them. Eventually this sent me to pen and paper to try to make sure I understood the time line.

We begin with Harry Dunkley, press gallery veteran in the National Parliament in Canberra being given a photo that is about 30 years old. He quickly identifies the Cabinet minister who is centre stage but who are the others? Later on the same day Catriona Bailey, once Labour Prime Minister, but now the Foreign Minister, has a very public stroke on national television.

So Labour's Toohey government, already an unpopular minority government hanging on by a thread, and predicted to lose the next election, begins a downward spiral. Can things get any worse?

THE MARMALADE FILES is political satire rather than strictly crime fiction, although crimes, including a murder, are committed. There's a quirky humour from beginning to end, and certainly connections to current Australian politics, even if events have been warped and names changed.

For me, a fascinating read from beginning to end, although the ending strained my sense of credibility.

I'm not sure that THE MARMALADE FILES will have much appeal outside Australia but in case you do want to look for it, try Amazon (Kindle) or the publisher.

My rating: 4.8

And what do Australia's politicians say? (Do they recognise themselves?)

Other reviews:

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013 - F is for Gillian Flynn

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:12:00 +0000

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will feature authors or books that I have read recently.

My contribution this week is Gillian Flynn's GONE GIRL, a book that has stunned readers world wide.

Synopsis
Marriage can be a real killer.
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, New York Times bestseller Gillian Flynn takes that statement to its darkest place in this unputdownable masterpiece about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong. The Chicago Tribune proclaimed that her work “draws you in and keeps you reading with the force of a pure but nasty addiction.” Gone Girl’s toxic mix of sharp-edged wit and deliciously chilling prose creates a nerve-fraying thriller that confounds you at every turn.

See my review

See what others have chosen for the letter F.

Review: THE BAGHDAD RAILWAY CLUB, Andrew Martin

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 12 May 2013 23:30:00 +0000

first published by Faber & Faber 2012
ISBN 978-0-571-24965-7
290 pages
source: my local library

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Baghdad 1917. Captain Jim Stringer, invalided from the Western Front, has been dispatched to investigate what looks like a nasty case of treason.
He arrives to find a city on the point of insurrection, his cover apparently blown - and his only contact lying dead with flies in his eyes.
As Baghdad swelters in a particularly torrid summer, the heat alone threatens the lives of the British soldiers who occupy the city. The recently ejected Turks are still a danger - and many of the local Arabs are none too friendly either.
For Jim, who is not particularly good in warm weather, the situation grows pricklier by the day. Aside from his investigation, he is working on the railways around the city. His boss is the charming, enigmatic Lieutenant-Colonel Shepherd, who presides over the gracious dining society called The Baghdad Railway Club - and who may or may not be a Turkish agent. Jim's search for the truth brings him up against murderous violence in a heat-dazed, labyrinthine city where an enemy awaits around every corner.

My Take

Most historical crime fiction related to World War One focusses on the Western Front so it is refreshing to find one that has a different setting. Captain Jim Stringer's introduction to Mesopotamia is a talk at the Victoria Street London Railway Club on the Berlin-Bagdad Railway. The railway had been a German scheme to connect with Asia Minor. Control of the railway becomes important to the British after they take Baghdad because it has the potential to give access to the oil reserves of the Persian Gulf. Turkey and Germany have collaborated in building the Berlin-Bagdad railway, a narrow two foot gauge, since 1888. Control of the railway would give Germany the ability to bypass the Suez Canal. Currently the railway is incomplete by about two hundred and fifty miles.

So control of the railway, and particularly over its completion, is particularly important to the British war effort and seems to be within their grasp. But there appears to be a traitor in the ranks who is collaborating with the Turks.

So Jim Stringer receives an assignment to Baghdad to see if he can discover whether the rumours are true. But when he gets there it turns into a murder investigation, which is right up his alley, because in civilian life he has been a detective associated with British railways in York and London. He can also drive steam trains.

I must confess that I read this book by mistake - thinking in fact that it was part of an entirely different series by an entirely different author.

There is an impressive amount of historical detail in this novel, and indeed the author says that his "description of the British occupation of Baghdad is roughly accurate". I think however that I would have benefited by getting to know Jim Stringer better through reading earlier titles (see the list below).

My rating: 4.1

Andrew Martin won the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award for the previous title in the Jim Stringer series THE SOMME STATIONS.

Series (listing by Fantastic Fiction)

Jim Stringer
1. The Necropolis Railway (2002)
2. The Blackpool Highflyer (2004)
3. The Lost Luggage Porter (2006)
4. Murder At Deviation Junction (2007)
5. Death on a Branch Line (2008)
6. The Last Train to Scarborough (2009)
7. The Somme Stations (2011)
8. The Baghdad Railway Club (2012)
9. Night Train to Jamalpur (2013)

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter F

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 12 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter E

This week's letter is the letter F

Here are the rules

The page telling bloggers which letter to focus on will appear on each Monday together with a Mr Linky.

By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction.

So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)
You probably won't have to do a lot of extra reading in order to participate, but I warn you that your TBR may grow as a result of the suggestions other participants make.
Feel free to use either of the images provided in your blog.

Your assistance in advertising this community meme, and pointing people to this page, would be very much appreciated.

By the end of this week post your blog post title and URL in the Mr Linky below.
Please place a link in your blog post back to this page.
Visit other blogs and leave comments.

Check the Crime Fiction Alphabet page for summaries of previous years, and for links to this year's entries.

Thanks for participating.

On the doorstep, waiting to be read

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sat, 11 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

My focus this week is on some e-books, which I have on my Kindle. Some of these are review copies, others books I have recently purchased.

THE LAST POLICEMAN, Ben H. Winters

Recently the winner of Best Paperback Original in the 2013 MWA Edgar Awards.
Published by Quirk 2012
Available on Amazon

Blurb (Amazon)

What’s the point in solving murders if we’re all going to die soon, anyway?

Detective Hank Palace has faced this question ever since asteroid 2011GV1 hovered into view. There’s no chance left. No hope. Just six precious months until impact.

The Last Policeman presents a fascinating portrait of a pre-apocalyptic United States. The economy spirals downward while crops rot in the fields. Churches and synagogues are packed. People all over the world are walking off the job—but not Hank Palace. He’s investigating a death by hanging in a city that sees a dozen suicides every week—except this one feels suspicious, and Palace is the only cop who cares.

The first in a trilogy, The Last Policeman offers a mystery set on the brink of an apocalypse. As Palace’s investigation plays out under the shadow of 2011GV1, we’re confronted by hard questions way beyond “whodunit.” What basis does civilization rest upon? What is life worth? What would any of us do, what would we really do, if our days were numbered?

PRIMAL, D.A. Serra

Published 2012

Available on Amazon

Blurb (Amazon)

The writer who made you laugh with Punky Brewster, who made you cry with Just Ask My Children, will now make you cringe with PRIMAL. This story was originally purchased by one of America's most prestigious storytellers James Cameron.

What if the worst happens and you are not a cop, or a spy with weapons training and an iron heart? What if you're a schoolteacher - a mother? In this gritty crime thriller a family vacation takes a vicious turn when a fishing camp is invaded by four armed men. With nothing except her brains, her will, and the element of surprise on her side, Alison must kill or watch her family die. And then - things get worse.

THE CELTIC DAGGER, Jill Paterson (Australian author)

Published 2012
Available on Amazon

Blurb (Amazon)

University professor Alex Wearing is found murdered in his study by the Post Graduate Co-coordinator, Vera Trenbath, a nosey interfering busybody. Assigned to the case is Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Fitzjohn. Fitzjohn is a detective from the old guard, whose methodical, painstaking methods are viewed by some as archaic. His relentless pursuit for the killer zeros in on Alex’s brother, James, as a key suspect in his investigation.

Compelled to clear himself of suspicion, James starts his own investigation and finds himself immersed in a web of intrigue, ultimately uncovering long hidden secrets about his brother’s life that could easily be the very reasons he was murdered.

This gripping tale of murder and suspense winds its way through the university’s hallowed halls to emerge into the beautiful, yet unpredictable, Blue Mountain region where more challenges and obstacles await James in his quest to clear himself of suspicion and uncover the truth about his brother.

I reviewed MURDER AT THE ROCKS

THE GHOST RIDERS OF ORDEBEC, Fred Vargas

Published 2013

Available on Amazon

Blurb (Amazon)

'People will die,' says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. She has been standing in blazing sunshine for more than an hour, and refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg.

Her daughter has seen a vision: ghostly horsemen who target the most nefarious characters in Normandy. Since the middle ages there have been stories of murderers, rapists, those with serious crimes on their conscience, meeting a grizzly end following a visitation by the riders.

Soon after the young woman's vision a notoriously cruel man disappears, and the local police dismiss the matter as superstition. Although the case is far outside his jurisdiction, Adamsberg agrees to investigate the strange happenings in a village terrorised by wild rumours and ancient feuds.

I've reviewed other novel in this series.

Forgotten Book: THE BROTHERS CRAFT, Peter Corris

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Thu, 09 May 2013 22:59:00 +0000

Synopsis (Good Reads)

It was an impulse buy in a Charing Cross bookshop - "Walking Across the World: The Life and Travels of Basil Craft, M.B.E." But from the moment he started reading it, Vic Bright's journalist's instinct told him it would make a great film.

Once Bright and his journalist partner, Marsha Prentiss, start researching the project, it soon becomes apparent that all was not right with the brothers Craft. The expeditions were real enough - the Crafts in fact were travellers out of their time, undertaking, without modern aids, some of the most hazardous journeys known to man, surviving storms, battles with local tribes and renegades, as well as incredible heat and cold. But they were not the amateur explorers they made themselves out to be, and as Vic and Marsha trace the brothers' extraordinary journeys from Marrakech and the Sahara to Death Valley in Arizona and finally the Gibson Desert in Australia, they find little that tallies with the published record.

While Richard remains enigmatic, Basil emerges as a sadistic megalomaniac whose beliefs are as frightening as they are bizarre. What is more, someone is investigating the investigators.

It is not until they are in the harsh desert of Bright's native Australia that he and Marsha uncover the truth and falsehood and the mystery begins to make sense. But by then events are well beyond their control

Review: TRUST YOUR EYES, Linwood Barclay

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Wed, 08 May 2013 08:06:00 +0000

First published in Great Britain in 2012 by orion Books
ISBN 978-1-4091-1503-8
498 pages
Author's site
Read an extract (Amazon)
Source: my local library

Synopsis (author's website)

A schizophrenic man spends his days and nights on a website called Whirl360, believing he’s employed by the CIA to store the details of every town and city in the world in his head. Then one day, he sees something that shouldn’t be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New York street. Suddenly Thomas has more to deal with than just his delusions, as he gets drawn into a deadly conspiracy.

From Orion Books
Map-obsessed Thomas spends his days and nights on a virtual tour of the world through his computer screen, believing he must store the details of every town and city in his head. Then one day, while surfing a street view program, he sees something that shouldn't be there: a woman being murdered behind a window on a New York street.
When Thomas tells his brother Ray what he has witnessed, Ray humours him with a half-hearted investigation - until he realises Thomas may have stumbled onto a deadly conspiracy, which puts them both in danger...
With enough suspense to rival a Hitchcock film, this is a thriller with edge.

Teaser trailer

My Take

Some books just slip down like jelly despite their length.

Seemingly disconnected plot threads come together in breathtaking fashion. This is a read that just keeps you reading.
A quote on the front cover from Stephen King says 'The best Barclay so far ... riveting', and I have to agree.

The synopses above will give you enough idea of the plot, so you don't need me to say anything more about it.

It is a stand-alone, so you don't need to have read any of Linwood Barclay before. This is one not to be missed.

My rating: 5.0

I've also reviewed
NO TIME FOR GOODBYE
TOO CLOSE TO HOME
4.5, FEAR THE WORST
4.6, NEVER LOOK AWAY

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013 - E is for Y. A. Erskine

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Mon, 06 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will feature authors or books that I have read recently.

My choice this week is THE BETRAYAL by Y.A.Erskine

Tasmania is in the grip of one of the longest, bleakest winters on record and it's particularly icy at the Hobart Police Station. Of the many golden rules in policing, one is especially sacred: what happens at work stays at work.

So when a naive young constable, Lucy Howard, makes an allegation of sexual assault against a respected colleague, the rule is well and truly broken.

Soon the station is divided. From Lucy's fellow rookies right up to the commissioner himself - everyone must take a side. With grudges, prejudices and hidden agendas coming into play, support arrives from the unlikeliest of corners.

But so too does betrayal ...

See my review

See what others have chosen for the letter E

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013: the Letter E

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 05 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - a Community Meme.

This meme is an annual event on this blog. This is its 4th outing.
We already have a strong core of weekly contributors but you can join at any time.

Last week we featured the letter D

This week's letter is the letter E

Here are the rules

The page telling bloggers which letter to focus on will appear on each Monday together with a Mr Linky.

By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week.

Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction.

So you see you have lots of choice.
You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.
(It is ok too to skip a week.)
You probably won't have to do a lot of extra reading in order to participate, but I warn you that your TBR may grow as a result of the suggestions other participants make.
Feel free to use either of the images provided in your blog.

Your assistance in advertising this community meme, and pointing people to this page, would be very much appreciated.

By the end of this week post your blog post title and URL in the Mr Linky below.
Please place a link in your blog post back to this page.
Visit other blogs and leave comments.

Check the Crime Fiction Alphabet page for summaries of previous years, and for links to this year's entries.

Thanks for participating.

Review: BAY OF FIRES, Poppy Gee

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 05 May 2013 11:49:00 +0000

Published by Headline Review 2013
ISBN 978-0-7553-8784-7
305 pages
Available on Amazon

Synopsis (Hatchett.com)

When the body of a backpacker washes ashore in an idyllic small town in Tasmania, the close-knit community starts to fall apart. As long-buried secrets start to come out, the delicate balance of their fragile lives is threatened...

Deep in a national park on the east coast of Tasmania, the Bay of Fires is an idyllic holiday community. There are no more than a dozen shacks beside the lagoon - and secrets are hard to keep; the intimacy of other people's lives is their nourishment.

The fact that Sarah Avery has returned, having left her boyfriend and her job, is cause for gossip in itself. Then, the bikini-clad body of a young girl is found washed up on the beach; a year after another teenage girl went missing. Journalist Hall Flynn is sent to the coast to investigate, and all too quickly the close-knit community turns in on itself.

My Take

The idyllic holiday community at the Bay of Fires has been meeting each summer for years. But things change, children grow up, parents get older, and at the core of what seems like paradise, decay grows.
It takes Hall Flynn's outsider's eye to pick some of the fragility.

Deep in the national park on the east coast of Tasmania, three or four hours by car from Launceston, Bay of Fires is sufficiently isolated to make communications slow. The novel is set over the Christmas Day to New Year's Day holidays.

This time the dead person is an outsider, a backpacker, and no-one is willing to put everything together. The shack owners don't reveal all they know. Just twelve months earlier one of their own children disappeared without trace and the sea conveniently bore the blame for that too.

Poppy Gee does a clever job of weaving sub-plots, such as why Sarah Avery has come home and why Hall Flynn is not romantically attached, in with the main mystery of what happened to the backpacker. The tension between the shack owners and the incoming campers is well depicted, as is the willingness to blame a local resident who is not "normal". Investigating the backpacker's death is carried out by Sarah and Hall, sometimes together, sometimes independently.

The setting almost plays the role of another character and certainly sent me off researching.

This was an engaging and refreshing read, another new author to watch.

My rating: 4.3

About the Author

Poppy Gee was born in Launceston, Tasmania in 1977. She spends every summer with her family at their shack in the Bay of Fires. This novel was written as part of a Masters in Creative Writing, at the University of Queensland, which Poppy completed in 2011. This is Poppy's first published fiction. She has worked as a journalist, editor and book reviewer and currently teaches journalism and creative writing. Poppy lives in Queensland with her husband and two beautiful children. She has nearly completed her next novel, another literary thriller set in the Tasmanian ski village Ben Lomond.

Author's website

On the doorstep, waiting to be read

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Sun, 05 May 2013 03:18:00 +0000

DARK HORSE, Honey Brown
published by Penguin Australia April 2013

Available on Amazon
ISBN 978-1-921901-53-9

Blurb
It's Christmas morning on the edge of the rugged Mortimer Ranges. Sarah Barnard saddles Tansy, her black mare. She is heading for the bush, escaping the reality of her broken marriage and her bankrupted trail-riding business.

Sarah seeks solace in the ranges. When a flash flood traps her on Devil Mountain, she heads to higher ground, taking shelter in Hangman's Hut.

She settles in to wait out Christmas.

A man, a lone bushwalker, arrives. Heath is charming, capable, handsome. But his story doesn't ring true. Why is he deep in the wilderness without any gear? Where is his vehicle? What's driving his resistance towards rescue? The closer they become the more her suspicions grow.

But to get off Devil Mountain alive, Sarah must engage in this secretive stranger's dangerous game of intimacy.

About the Author
Honey Brown lives in country Victoria with her husband and two children. She is the author of three books: Red Queen, The Good Daughter and After the Darkness. Red Queen was published to critical acclaim in 2009 and won an Aurealis Award, and The Good Daughter was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award in 2011. After the Darkness was selected for the Women's Weekly Great Read and for Get Reading 2012's 50 Books You Can't Put Down campaign.

SILENT VALLEY, Malla Nunn
published by Pan Macmillan Australia 2012

Available on Amazon
ISBN 978-1-7426-1088-7

I've reviewed other books by Malla Nunn

Blurb

A remote town. A girl of rare and exquisite beauty. A murder that silences a whole community.

The body of a seventeen-year-old girl has been found covered in wildflowers on a hillside in the Drakensberg Mountains, near Durban. She is the daughter of a Zulu chief, destined to fetch a high bride price. Was Amahle as innocent as her family claims, or is her murder a sign that she lived a secret life?

Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate. He must enter the guarded worlds of a traditional Zulu clan and a white farming community to gather up the clues Amahle left behind and bring her murderer to justice. But the silence in the valley is deafening, and it seems that everyone – from the uncooperative local police officer, to the white farm boy who seems obsessed with the dead girl – has something to hide.

With no cause of death and no motive, Cooper's investigation is blocked at each turn. Can he tough it out, or will the small-town politics that stir up his feelings about the past be more than he can bear?
In this page-turning tale of murder and mystery, Nunn entangles us in a rich and complex web of witchcraft, tribalism, taboo relationships... and plain old-fashioned greed.

TAKING EVE, Iris Johansen

First published 2013 by St. Martin's Press and by Pan Macmillan Australia

Available on Amazon

ISBN 978-1-7426-1203-4

Blurb

An Eve Duncan novel.

Forensic Sculptor Eve Duncan's mission is to bring closure to the families whose loved ones have vanished. She knows their anguish – her own beloved daughter, Bonnie, was taken from her when Bonnie was just seven years old. It is only recently that this mystery was resolved and Eve could begin her journey to peace.

Now Jim Doane wants the same kind of answers that Eve always longed for. His twenty-five-year-old son may or may not be dead, and he has only burned skull fragments as possible evidence. But he cannot go to the police for answers without risking his own secrets and exposing his dark past, so instead he chooses a bold step to find the truth – a truth that takes Eve down a twisted path of madness and evil and into the darkest heart of her own history.

Doane needs Eve Duncan's skills and he'll do anything to get them.

I reviewed PANDORA'S DAUGHTER here.

GODS OF MISCHIEF, George Rowe
Published first by Touchstone and then Pan Macmillan Australia 2013
ISBN 978-1-74261-307-9
Note this will not be published until late May/early June
It will be available on Amazon

Blurb

March 9, 2006, it's hours before one of the largest motorcycle gang busts in history. George Rowe has spent the past three years as an informant, working undercover with the Vagos, one of the most dangerous biker gangs in the country. His fiancee, a struggling heroin addict carrying their unborn child, is asleep next to him. She's got no idea who he really is, what he's done, or what's about to happen. Rowe wonders how did it go so far?

A gritty and harrowing memoir about human redemption and self-sacrifice, Rowe tells the story of the first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. George Rowe, drug dealer, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, never thought he'd work for the feds. But when he watched the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend everything changed. He decided to pay back his Southern California hometown by bringing down the gang that terrorised it. Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life – riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers that he secretly hoped to put away for good. The road to redemption wasn't an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home – even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They've vowed to search for him until the day they die.

I somehow doubt that I will read this one - it is true crime - but I will pass it on to hubby who likes non-fiction.

Update: AWW2013 completed at Franklin level

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Fri, 03 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

This week I completed reading my 10th crime fiction title for the
Australian Women Writers Challenge but will continue recording the books for the rest of the year.

Most of the titles below are recently published and many of them are debut titles.

Level of challenge: read only, or read and review

Stella: read 4 – if reviewing, review at least 3
Miles: read 6 – if reviewing, review at least 4
Franklin: read 10 – if reviewing, review at least 6

Forgotten Book: THROUGH THE WALL, Patricia Wentworth

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Fri, 03 May 2013 03:16:00 +0000

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Blog Carnival April 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:30:00 +0000

There are some fascinating posts in the April 2013 Agatha Christie Reading Challenge blog carnival.

Agatha Christie Reading Challenge Participants

1. Review: MRS McGINTY'S DEAD - Margaret @ BooksPlease
2. Notes on SLEEPING MURDER (Christie in a Year)
3. Notes on A SPIDER'S WEB (A play) - from Christie in a Year
4. Notes on THE MURDER OF ROGER ACKROYD - from Christie in a Year
5. Agatha Christie's Marple:The Pale Horse - review (TV series)
6. Review: 4.50 FROM PADDINGTON
7. Review: Notes on MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA (Christie in a Year)
8. Review: The Murder on the Links - TracyK
9. Interview with David Suchet
10. Review: Notes on A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED (Christie in a Year)
11. On the Orient Express - with Martin Edwards

It is never too late to participate: the May ACRC Blog Carnival is now open for entries: blog posts, news items etc.

Review: IN HER BLOOD, Annie Hauxwell

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Thu, 02 May 2013 02:08:00 +0000

Published by the Penguin Group Australia 2012
ISBN 978-1-921901-17-1
261 pages
Read an extract
Available on Amazon (Kindle too)

Synopsis (Penguin Australia)

Everyone is hooked on something.

It's not that easy to kick the money habit. After the world meltdown forces London's bankers to go cold turkey, people look elsewhere for a quick quid: the old fashioned East End.

So when investigator Catherine Berlin gets an anonymous tip-off about a local loan shark, the case seems straightforward – until her informant is found floating in the Limehouse Basin.

In another part of town, a notorious doctor is murdered in his surgery, and his entire stock of pharmaceutical heroin stolen. An unorthodox copper is assigned to the case, and Berlin finds herself a reluctant collaborator in a murder investigation.

Now Berlin has seven days to find out who killed her informant, why the police are hounding her and, most urgently of all, where to find a new – and legal – supply of the drug she can't survive without.

My Take

I love coming across new voices in Australian crime fiction and Annie Hauxwell's first novel was well worth the read.

Set in contemporary London it took me into a world I hadn't visited before and set up some connections I hadn't thought about before: an agency that investigates financial irregularities and outsources information to London police; a fraud investigator with a drug addiction; a very nasty loan shark with connections to regular finance; a doctor who dispenses heroin under legitimate licence; an anti-drugs campaigner who provides addiction counselling.

At the centre of it all is Catherine Berlin, an unusual protagonist in a number of ways.

The case conference with the Murder and Serious Crime Squad was perfunctory. The men at the table regarded Berlin with indifference. She was just a civilian investigator with a regulatory agency. At fifty-five her lean frame was tending to look wasted. Her hair, once blonde, was now a dirty melange of grey, streaked with tarnished gold.

Annie Hauxwell has a real flair for description and her characters truly come alive.

The other thing she does well is suspense and I found myself almost holding my breath as the book drew to its close and the final threads came together.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Annie Hauxwell was born in London and emigrated with her family to Australia when she was a teenager. She abandoned the law to work as an investigator for a private firm, and after working as a screenwriter she turned her hand to novels. She now lives in Castlemaine, Victoria, and travels to London frequently.

#2 in the Catherine Berlin series: A BITTER TASTE coming soon

Other reviews to check

What I read in April 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Wed, 01 May 2013 22:53:00 +0000

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2013

Another good reading month, with a few new-to-me Aussie authors, and some good British crime fiction.

4.5, BRYANT & MAY AND THE INVISIBLE CODE, Christopher Fowler - audio book
4.4, THE RICHMOND CONSPIRACY, Andrew Grimes - Aussie author
4.8, THE HIGHLAND WITCH (aka CORRAG), Susan Fletcher - audio library book
4.1, MANLY MURDERS: A MOTHER WITHOUT A CHILD, Gunilla Haglundh - Aussie author
4.4, THE CARRIER, Sophie Hannah - library book
4.7, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES, Alan Bradley - library book
4.2, THE AFFAIR, Bunty Avieson - Aussie author
4.0, MURDER WITH THE LOT, Sue Williams - Aussie author
4.4, 4.50 FROM PADDINGTON, Agatha Christie - Agatha Christie Reading Challenge
5.0, DEAD WATER, Ann Cleeves - library book
4.9, BLACK SKIES, Arnaldur Indridason - translated
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD, Simon Brett - audio library book

My pick of the month is DEAD WATER by Ann Cleeves
Jimmy Perez is back!

When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found outside the house of the Fiscal down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry. It emerges that Markham was chasing a story. One that must have been - for someone - significant enough to warrant his death…

See my review

BLACK SKIES by Arnaldur Indridason was a close runner up.

See what others have chosen for their pick of the month.

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month April 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:30:00 +0000

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month 2013

Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for April 2013, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.

Crime Fiction Alphabet 2013 - D is for a DEADLY CAMBODIAN CRIME SPREE

noreply@blogger.com (Kerrie) — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 23:23:00 +0000

Following a pattern established in 2012, my contributions to the Crime Fiction Alphabet in 2013 will feature authors or books that I have read recently.

My choice for the letter D is INSPECTOR SINGH INVESTIGATES: A DEADLY CAMBODIAN CRIME SPREE by Shamini Flint

If you haven't yet met Inspector Singh then there is a treat in store for you.

Inspector Singh is in Cambodia - wishing he wasn't. He's been sent as an observer to the international war crimes tribunal in Phnom Penh, the latest effort by his superiors to ensure that he is anywhere except in Singapore.

But for the first time the fat Sikh inspector is on the verge of losing his appetite when a key member of the tribunal is murdered in cold blood. The authorities are determined to write off the incident as a random act of violence, but Singh thinks otherwise.

It isn't long before he finds himself caught up in one of the most terrible murder investigations he’s witnessed - the roots of which lie in the dark depths of the Cambodian killing fields. . .

My review is here

Check what others have chosen this week for the letter D.