Book Reviews

This week in the Canberra Weekly I reviewed three new crime novels that range in style and location from a regional Australian mystery to suspense in the Austrian Alps and serial killer thrills in an anonymous city setting. Tell Me Something True, (Letterwing, 29 September 2026), is the first locally… Read more: CANBERRA WEEKLY 22 OCTOBER 2026: NEW CRIME FICTION FROM MICHAEL ROBOTHAM, TARA GOEDJEN and A. W. HAMMOND

November is always a great month for thrillers, as publishers try to entice buyers looking for an ideal Christmas present, or an enjoyable holiday read (especially here in Australia where the festive season coincides with long summer holidays). This year readers are particularly well served with three highly entertaining thrillers… Read more: LATE 2026 THRILLERS: NEW BOOKS FROM JACK HEATH, SIMON KERNICK & LINWOOD BARCLAY

2026 was an extraordinary good year for espionage novels, with an impressive roll call of high quality books by some of the genre’s best authors. The early signs are that 2027 is also shaping up to be an entertaining year with new books by Paul Warner (Funeral For A Spy),… Read more: LOOKING FORWARD FRIDAY: A TRAITOR’S CALL by DAVID GOODMAN

Way back in 2006 I read and warmly reviewed Patrick Quinlan’s entertaining debut crime novel Smoked. Although I enjoyed it, and Quinlan’s subsequent book The Takedown, I never got around to reading Smoked‘s sequel, The Drop-Off until recently. Before reading The Drop-Off, I thought I would go back and have… Read more: THROWBACK THURSDAY: SMOKED and THE DROP-OFF by PATRICK QUINLAN

Ian Rankin is in good form with his first standalone crime novel in over two decades. Drawing on a limited release short story (The Rise) from 2023, The Heights (Orion, 8 October 2026), is a totally engaging police mystery that grips to the last line. Rankin skilfully places the reader… Read more: THE HEIGHTS by IAN RANKIN

2026 has already seen an abundance of outstanding spy novels, including top drawer books from Charles Cumming (Icarus 17), James Wolff (Spies And Other Gods), William Boyd (Cold Sunset) and David Goodman (Solitary Agents), to name a few. And now in the fading months of the year, we have outstanding… Read more: NEW SPY FICTION OCTOBER 2026: THE BRITISH AGENT by SIMON CONWAY, LONDON STATION by DAVID McCLOSKEY and THE FIFTEENTH MAN by WILLIAM COOK

I have collected over recent weeks a number of interesting older covers from small and obscure publishers. I have also added to my collection two different Horwitz versions of a Carter Brown novel that had its title changed for the American market. Domino Mysteries were a short-lived series of digest… Read more: TRASHY TUESDAY: RARITIES, ODDITIES and an AUSTRALIAN CARTER BROWN COVER

The holiday season is nearly on us, and I have recently read two very different Christmas themed books that would make for ideal reading over the festive season, or as great gifts for the crime and thriller aficionado in your family. Peter Swanson’s 2024 seasonal novella The Christmas Guest, was… Read more: IT’S THE SEASON FOR MAYHEM: CHRISTMAS 2026 THEMED STORIES BY PETER SWANSON and CARTER WILSON

2026 has already seen some terrific crime and thriller releases, including top notch books from William Boyd, Tim Ayliffe and Jordan Harper to name a few (see below). However, there are still plenty more on the way! With only three months to Christmas, the annual end-of-year flood of new thriller… Read more: FORECAST FRIDAY: THE BEST NEW RELEASES OCTOBER – DECEMBER 2026

George Easter has just sent out the latest issue of his Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine (No. 112), and it is a bumper issue featuring reviews, interviews, a valuable list of the best crime books released so far this year, and a whole host of other crime fiction related information. The magazine is… Read more: DEADLY PLEASURES MYSTERY MAGAZINE – NEW ISSUE SEPTEMBER 2026 AND FREE!