Book Reviews

Harlan Coben is one of the most popular authors in the world today and his books are always a ‘must read’. In recent years the success of his twisty, unpredictable novels has been enhanced by a well produced succession of Netflix mini-series based on his books, which have ramped up… Read more: NEW HARLAN COBEN BOOK FOR 2025 – NOBODY’S FOOL – AND LOOKING BACK AT MISSING YOU BEFORE ITS RELEASE ON NETFLIX!

Debuts are the lifeblood of crime fiction. Without new authors and new ideas, the genre would become stale and boring. Every year we see an influx of new authors, including an increasing number of self-published and small press books. While many debut authors pursue familiar paths and storylines, there are… Read more: BEST DEBUT CRIME NOVELS OF 2024

Coming up with the Best Books of the Year is always a challenging task. The idea of ranking and rating books never really sits right with me, as so much comes down to individual taste and even the mood that you are in when you read the book. There is… Read more: THE YEAR’S BEST: MY FAVOURITE CRIME NOVELS AND THRILLERS OF 2024

There is still almost month to go until the end of 2024, but already the books are beginning to pile up for 2025! I will be doing a post on my most anticipated titles for 2025 in the New Year, but here are seven of the more promising 2025 releases… Read more: BOOK HAUL: THE BEST NEW TITLES FOR 2025, SO FAR!

With the end of the year quickly coming, I have been trying to catch-up on some of the releases from earlier in 2024 that I did not get to at the time. One of these is The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone, (Penguin, September 2024), by Gareth Ward and Louise… Read more: THE BOOKSHOP DETECTIVES: DEAD GIRL GONE By GARETH WARD & LOUISE WARD

The latest edition of Paperback Fanatic (No. 49) by Justin Marriott just arrived, along the new Men’s Adventure Quarterly (No. 11), and both are terrific issues! As usual, the latest issue of Paperback Fanatic is full of fascinating articles, from the Falklands War Fiction of the 1980s and 90s, to a tribute… Read more: TRASHY TUESDAY: PAPERBACK FANATIC 49, WWII ASSASSINATION NOVELS, THE MARK HOOD BOOKS, RYFKA By PATRICK ALEXANDER AND THE LATEST MAQ!

2024 is quickly coming to an end, but there is still a trickle of new Australian crime releases to enjoy before Christmas. Iain Ryan’s 2023 book The Strip, was a tough, gritty crime novel set on the 1980s Gold Coast that raised the bar for urban noir in Australia. Now… Read more: DOWNUNDER CRIME ROUND-UP DECEMBER 2024: IAIN RYAN, RILEY JAMES, NATALIE CONYER AND FIN J. ROSS

The Christmas and summer holiday season (at least in Australia) is nearly on us and I have recently read three books that would make for ideal reading over the festive season, or as great gifts for the crime and thriller aficionado in your family. Simon Kernick is one of those… Read more: NOVEMBER 2025 CRIME ROUND-UP: NEW BOOKS BY SIMON KERNICK, DAVID BALDACCI AND DAVID HEWSON

A new John Lawton novel is always a treat and in 2025 we are going to get the ninth book in his excellent series about Frederick Troy of Scotland Yard’s Murder Squad, Smoke And Embers (Atlantic Monthly/Grove Press, 13 May 2025). Lawton’s last two books have been about the cat… Read more: LOOKING FORWARD TO 2025: SMOKE AND EMBERS By JOHN LAWTON

This week in the Canberra Weekly I reviewed crime novels by two relatively new Australia crime authors, Pip Drysdale and Patricia Wolf. Sydney based author Pip Drysdale has quickly established herself as a ‘must read’ writer for those who enjoy dark, edgy, first person suspense thrillers with a hot, contemporary feel to… Read more: CANBERRA WEEKLY 31 OCTOBER 2024: NEW CRIME FICTION BY PIP DRYSDALE AND PATRICIA WOLF