Book Reviews

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!

This week in the Canberra Weekly I reviewed three new Australian crime novels that range from dark noir to literary crime and international thrills. James Dunbar’s Blood Moon, (Echo, 1 September 2026), is a follow-up to his Mole Creek from 2023. The book features the two principal leads from the… Read more: CANBERRA WEEKLY 17 SEPTEMBER 2026: NEW AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION BY JAMES DUNBAR, DAVID WHISH-WILSON & ROBYN DENNISON

While travelling on holidays, I have been catching up on books that I missed earlier in the year, including a couple of books that I was unable to readily get in Australia, as well as the new novel from Tess Gerritsen. Eye Spy (Pan) by C. M. Ewan is a… Read more: HOLIDAY READING: NEW 2026 CRIME NOVELS by TESS GERRITSEN, C. M. EWAN and JORDAN HARPER

I am just back from a long holiday and have been doing some Australian Spring cleaning: looking back over the books I have read so far this year, sorting through the piles of books that are scattered across the floor of my study and looking ahead at releases coming out… Read more: SPRING CLEANING – THE BEST CRIME NOVELS AND THRILLERS OF 2026 …. SO FAR!

James Dunbar made a good entry into the Australian crime writing ranks in 2023 with his first novel, MOLE CREEK, and subsequently followed it up with the psychological thriller TWISTED RIVER. We now have an entertaining sequel to MOLE CREEK, in the form of BLOOD MOON, (Echo, 1 September 2026).… Read more: AUSTRALIAN CRIME FICTION 2026: BLOOD MOON by JAMES DUNBAR

Greetings from Athens! I am currently travelling but before I left, I did a couple of reviews for the Canberra Weekly, which have continued to run. On 6 August 2026 I did a review of three very different, but highly entertaining, novels by Anthony Byrt, Alex Dook and Riley Sager.… Read more: CANBERRA WEEKLY 6 AUGUST 2026: NEW BOOKS FROM RILEY SAGER, ALEX DOOK and ANTHONY BYRT

2026 is shaping up to be a very good year for spy fiction. We have already seen impressive releases from Charles Cumming (Icarus 17), James Wolff (Spies And Other Gods) and David Goodman (Solitary Agents), among others, and later in the year we can expect promising new books from Simon… Read more: SPY FICTION AUGUST 2026: COLD SUNSET by WILLIAM BOYD and DYING DAYS by ANTHONY BYRT