DOWNUNDER CRIME UPDATE, NOVEMBER 2025: REVIEWS, NEWS AND PREVIEWS
It is getting down to the business end of the year with the final lot of 2025 books being released just in time for Christmas. It is also the time when reviewers around the world begin to reflect and sift through their favourite reads for the annual ‘Best Crime Novels’ lists!
Downunder crime releases have certainly come thick and fast this year, and there have been some outstanding releases from Michael Robotham, Garry Disher and Fiona Hardy to name a few. The rush, however, is not over and late October/early November brings a trio of very good releases from Jack Heath, Alan Carter and Chris Blake.
Short reviews are set out below, along with news of some exciting releases in early 2026.
NEWS
The past month, or so, has been a busy time for Australian crime authors with a number of writers’ festivals and author tours.
The Canberra Writers Festivals attracted a number of crime authors, including Jane Harper, Jack Heath and Garry Disher. I was fortunate enough to attend the conversation between Sulari Gentill and Toby Schmitz on Murder, Mayhem and Manners. It was a fun talk and it was good to briefly catch up again with Sulari Gentill who has been producing a diverse range of enjoyable crime novels for over 15 years now!
Here is the link to my review of Sulari’s latest novel, Five Found Dead: https://murdermayhemandlongdogs.com/holiday-reading-new-2025-books-by-sulari-gentill-mike-ripley-and-darcy-coates/
REVIEWS
Alan Carter excels in his ability to weave international intrigue and tensions into local crime stories set in Australia and New Zealand.
His latest book, Franz Josef (Fremantle Press, 1 November 2025), returns us to the southern island of New Zealand and detectives Nick Chester and Latifa Rapata. The pair are sent to the small town of Franz Josef, which is perched precariously on the earthquake prone Alpine Fault. A naked body has been discovered suspended in the nearby glacier, and, not surprisingly, the police suspect murder. The difficult job of removing the body has only just begun, when the area is hit by a massive storm resulting in flooding and landslides. With the town isolated, the detectives try to find the killer before they can escape, but when further bodies, and links to international conflicts, are discovered, Chester and Latifa begin to suspect that they are out of their depth.
This is a first class crime thriller. The opening sections are very tense and atmospheric, with the effects of the flooding and the chaos of a natural disaster vividly described with apt descriptions and similes: “Outside the window of my holiday shack, trees thrash in the gale, and the sky is as dark as a disgraced priest’s soul.” Carter really conveys the cold and the wind, the tiredness of the volunteers, and the mounting desperation of the disaster response.
The suspense increases as the number of victims rise, and a dramatic shift to Christchurch adds to the violence and the personal effect of the crimes. The action is steadily maintained throughout the story, which builds to an unexpected climax and a clever final twist.
The characters are finely crafted and credible, and Chester is a flawed, but engaging, central protagonist and a good guide through the chaos. His reflections on the changes in New Zealand, and the wider world, are spot-on and interesting, and, despite his demeanour, he is a compassionate figure.
The book really showcases Carter’s ability to meld international events, such as the civil war in Sudan and corruption in the United Nations, into a provincial New Zealand crime story in a believable manner. These broader concerns add good substance to the story and allow Carter to reflect on their local ramifications.
My only reservations are that the plot wanders a bit towards the end, and that Chester is forced into two unlikely errors in order to progress the story. But these are quibbles, and overall Franz Josef is a very good crime thriller.
Franz Josef is released in Australia on 1 November 2025. Overseas release dates are not clear. Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book for review
New Zealand crime fiction is really going through a boom period at the moment, with a host of good authors, such as Gavin Strawhan, Michael Bennett and Tom Baragwanath, emerging in recent years. Another author to watch out for is Chris Blake (aka Nathan Blackwell), whose Softly Calls The Devil (Echo, 4 November 2025) is a stand-out read.
Matt Buchanan used to be a hotshot detective in Auckland, but after some hard times he is now the sole constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand’s rugged west coast. He enjoys the pace of the job and has earned the trust of the locals. But when Buchanan’s much-loved predecessor, Gus, is found killed by a single shot to the head, things begin to unravel. Another death occurs, and suddenly Buchanan is working beyond his remit in trying to discover why Gus was looking into an old murder-suicide from 1978, and why it is still claiming lives today.
This is initially a slow burn of a crime novel, with Blake taking his time in establishing the rhythm and character of Haast and its inhabitants, and gradually unveiling the demons that led Buchanan to the settlement. About a third of the way in, the pace picks up and the tension quickly mounts as old secrets are revealed.
Good use of short chapters keeps the story ticking along at a steady rate and the book certainly goes down some unexpected paths. Blake’s rich descriptions of the New Zealand countryside add to the pleasure and he manages to convey the both beauty and the spookiness of the deep bush. The book is also enhanced by the authentic police detail that Blake, a former police detective, brings, and his ability to evoke small town dynamics. Similarly, the characters have a gritty credibility to them and Buchanan always behaves in a believable manner.
There is plenty of twisting and turning towards the end and the final blood-soaked climax certainly packs a wallop. In all, Softly Calls The Devil is an impressive piece of work and one of the best Kiwi crime novels I have read this year.
Softly Calls The Devil is released in Australia on 4 November 2025.
Also very enjoyable is Kill Your Boss, (Allen & Unwin, 4 November 2025), by the always entertaining Jack Heath.
Detective Sergeant Kiara Lui has just broken up a loud brawl between two local troublemakers in front of the public library in rural New South Wales Warrigal, when a man inexplicably plummets from the roof of the building onto the bike rack in front of her. The dead man is Neville Adams, the unpopular head of library services. Adams is not well liked by his staff, or the borrowers, and as Kiara investigates she comes to realise that there are a lot of people who wanted the librarian dead, and for good reason.
Heath takes the classic murder mystery scenario of unpopular victim and limited number of suspects and adds his own unique style, and some great twists. Skilfully alternating between the investigation and events prior to Adams’ death, Kill Your Boss is a fast moving tale that smoothly glides its way through frequent unexpected turns and some surprisingly dark moments. The various characters are nicely limned, and relatable, and Kiara, who we last saw in Heath’s previous book Kill Your Husbands, is a marvellous creation, full of uncertainty and astute reasoning. Like Alan Carter’s Nick Chester, Kiara probably pushes on beyond reasonable human endurance, having survived some serious attacks, but she is very engaging and amusing at times.
Heath is very good at mixing tension with dark humour, and there are some marvellous lines and conversations:
“‘But come on, no one likes their boss. And she’s not a murderer. She’s a vegetarian, for God’s sake!'”
The story certainly grips attention from the opening pages and Heath keeps a tight hold on our attention until the end. The frequently shifting perspectives helps to build the mystery, and while some parts are guessable, he skilfully keeps the identity of the killer well hidden until the final pages.
In all, a first rate murder mystery that surprises and delights to the end.
Kill Your Boss is released in Australia on 4 November 2025. It is also released on Audible in the United Kingdom on the same day. Thanks to the publisher for a copy of the book for review.
PREVIEWS
Leading off the 2026 crime releases is Tim Ayliffe’s Dark Desert Road, (Echo Publishing, 6 January 2026).
Ayliffe’s previous books have featured veteran reporter John Bailey, and, similar to Alan Carter’s novels, have neatly shifted international storylines onto Australian shores. With Dark Desert Road he heads in a new direction:
“Kit McCarthy hasn’t seen her identical twin sister, Billie, in more than a decade.
The sisters don’t see eye to eye, which is understandable, considering Kit’s a police officer and Billie followed their violent father into a life of crime.
Kit is no angel. Burnt out by years working in child protection, she has been accused of using excessive force in the arrest of a violent drunk. Kit has just been ordered to take time off work when she gets a frantic message from Billie, telling her she has a young son and that somebody is trying to kill her.
And then Billie disappears.
Determined to find her estranged sister, Kit’s only lead comes after visiting their father in prison. Malcolm McCarthy claims Billie married a former United States Marine and has been living with a group of sovereign citizens in the desert country of the New South Wales Riverina.
Kit’s journey to find Billie takes her through shuttered towns destroyed by drought, where everybody owns guns, nobody talks to cops, and people get lost for a reason.
Out here a war is brewing between a ruthless bikie gang and a separatist community that is re-engaging with society in the most violent way.
Kit will risk everything to find her sister and the nephew she never knew she had.
But does Billie really want to be saved?”
Sovereign citizens are emerging as a popular backdrop in recent Australian crime novels and I am interested in seeing how Ayliffe, with his sharp journalistic perspective, treats the issue. Dark Desert Road looks like providing a good start to 2026.
Natalie Conyer’s first two novels, Past Tense and Shadow City, were spectacularly good, and her forthcoming book, Finding The Bones (Echo Publishing, 3 March 2026), also seems to be full of promise:
“Sydney, 1980s: Belle Fitzgerald, young, rich and spirited, lives in Kings Cross, the city’s bohemian heart. When she learns of plans to demolish her street and evict its residents, she commits to fighting the development, even though this brings her up against the Cross’s crime lords and their servants, the notoriously corrupt local cops. Recklessly, dangerously, against her better judgment, she embarks on a passionate affair with one of those cops, Sergeant Stanton Rose.
Then Belle goes missing. Her disappearance becomes one of the nation’s great mysteries.
Sydney, today: Stanton Rose, retired, is an Australian icon, celebrated for his undercover work in the Cross. Jackie Rose, his daughter, has followed in his footsteps. She’s a homicide detective, uncompromising and ambitious.
When Belle Fitzgerald’s bones are discovered, Jackie is given the very cold and very public case. This will be her moment to shine. But what she uncovers threatens to turn her life -and the lives of those closest to her – upside down.
As her investigation deepens, Jackie has to decide how far she will go to navigate the fine line between love and betrayal, loyalty and corruption.”
Jackie Rose featured in Natalie’s last novel, Shadow City, and in an earlier short story. She is an interesting character and Finding The Bones, with its Juanita Nielsen overtones, looks like being a great read.
So plenty of good Downunder crime for you to get into between now and the end of the year, and into 2026. Over the next few weeks I will be doing my annual review of the best crime novels of 2025, and around Australia Day I will do my usual listing of the Best Australian based crime novels of the previous 12 months.
Which books did you like the most over the past year?