Review: THE BODY IN THE MARSH, Nick Louth

• 
   this edition read as an e-book on Libby, supplied by my local library
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Canelo, Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 1, 2018
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 380 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1788631455
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1788631457
• Book 1 of 12 ‏ : ‎ DCI Craig Gillard Crime Thrillers 

Synopsis

A woman goes missing - and for the detective, this time it's personal.

Criminologist Martin Knight lives a gilded life. But then his wife Liz disappears. There is no good explanation and Martin goes on the run.

To make things worse, Liz is the ex-girlfriend of DCI Craig Gillard who finds himself drawn into the investigation.

Is this a missing-person case or something more sinister? How dark can the truth be?

My Take

This novel is anything but straightforward. At times it strains the bounds of credibility but nevertheless the plot engages. Plenty of red herrings, plenty of times when you can say what if? and definitely not a cosy.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Nick Louth is a bestselling writer of thriller novels, investment commentator, and an award-winning financial journalist, hailing from Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. He is famous for writing humor, comedy, thriller, mystery, and nonfiction stories. Louth is particularly well known for writing the Bernard Jones diaries series, the DCI Craig Gillard series, several standalone novels, and one widely popular nonfiction book. He is known to have sold more than half a million copies of his books. Louth’s books have appeared on top of the Kindle charts in the UK multiples times and have been translated into as many as 6 different languages. Before making his debut in the field of writing fiction in 2007, he worked as a foreign correspondent for the news agency Reuters. He was also a frequent contributor to MSN, Financial Times, and many other financial magazines on a freelance basis.

Author Louth graduated from the London School of Economics in 1979. After working as a freelancer for a few years, he joined Reuters in 1987. While catering to his duty in foreign correspondence, Louth came across an experience at a 1992 Amsterdam medical conference that inspired him to write his first fiction novel. It was eventually published in 2007 under the title of Bite and reached the top spot of the UK Kindle bestseller in 2014. The book remained on the number one spot for several weeks and sold nearly 500 thousand copies. In the area of financial journalism, Louth has been working freelance since 1998. He has contributed to Investors Chronicle, Money Observer, Financial Times, etc., and has published 7 books based on finance. Author Louth is happily married and currently resides in Lincolnshire. He spends most of his time writing thriller novels and manages some time off from his writing projects to be with his family. 

Review: THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE, Richard Osman

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DJ1TQH16
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 25, 2025
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 409 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1405975629 
• Book 5 of 5: Thursday Murder Club Mysteries  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Who's got time to think about murder when there's a wedding to plan?

It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles, and Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favourite criminal.

But when Elizabeth meets a wedding guest who fears for their life, the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. A villain wants access to an uncrackable code and will stop at nothing to get it. Plunged back into their most explosive investigation yet, can the gang solve the puzzle and a murder in time?

My Take:

 Joyce's daughter Joanna is getting married and Elizabeth is still not really herself. And then at the wedding itself comes an action which brings the Thursday Murder Club a task, after almost a year of inaction. And the old team prove that they've still got it, despite the failings that come with their advancing years. 

There were times when I found this latest incursion into geezer lit both challenging and exasperating.  I struggled at times to remember the background to each character, but thank goodness it all came together at the end. 

My Rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.5, THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB  - #1

4.3, THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE - #2

4.6, THE BULLET THAT MISSED - #3

4.8, THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE - #4

4.5, WE SOLVE MURDERS

Review: THE MOTHER, Jane Caro

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09MQ3PN1W
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin, Australia, Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 1, 2022
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 365 pages  

Synopsis (Amazon)

From the Walkley Award winning journalist, social commentator and author comes a gripping domestic thriller with a moral dilemma at its core.

'A timely, tense and important story that takes you to the heart of a toxic relationship, fighting to get free.' Michael Robotham

Just like the garden, the fuse box, the bills, bin night and blown light bulbs, this was just something else she'd now have to take care of herself.

Recently widowed, Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore real estate agent and devoted mother and grandmother. She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?

When the truth of her daughter's situation is revealed, Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally and her children find themselves increasingly vulnerable and cut off from the world. As the situation escalates and the law proves incapable of protecting them, Miriam is faced with an unthinkable decision. But she will do anything for the people she loves most in the world. Wouldn't you? 

My Take

An absolutely engrossing book. You begin to suspect halfway through where it is heading, and then whammo! 

Two issues stuck out for me. First of all the changes to her life that Miriam has to face when her husband suddenly dies, too young. And then the domestic violence that Ally faces.

Highly recommended.  Make sure you read the author's notes at the end.

My rating: 4.9

I've also read  4.8, LYREBIRD 

Review: THE FINE ART OF INVISIBLE DETECTION, Robert Goddard

• 
   Read as an e-book through my local library on Libby 
  
• Published: 30 November 2021, Penguin Australia
• ISBN: 9780552172622
• Pages: 384 

Synopsis (publisher)

Umiko Wada has recently had quite enough excitement in her life. With her husband recently murdered and a mother who seems to want her married again before his body is cold, she just wants to keep her head down.

As a secretary to a private detective, her life is pleasingly uncomplicated, filled with coffee runs, diary management and paperwork.

That is, until her boss takes on a new case. A case which turns out to be dangerous enough to get him killed. A case which means Wada will have to leave Japan for the first time and travel to London.

Following the only lead she has, Wada quickly realises that being a detective isn't as easy as the television makes out. And that there's a reason why secrets stay buried for a long time. Because people want them to stay secret. And they're prepared to do very bad things to keep them that way...

My Take

Umiko Wada has plenty of opportunity to practice her detective skills, trained by her boss, who is killed, apparently through their involvement in their current case. He has already handed an element of the case to her and she decides to go ahead with the investigation, which involves her travelling to London to meet up with a stranger on behalf of a Japanese woman whose husband refuses to allow her to leave Japan.

Quite a convoluted plot and I thought it was an unusual one for Goddard, although I haven't read one of his books for a couple of years. Wada make as unusual and as a middle-aged Japanese woman, almost "invisible" as she tracks people down. 

My rating: 4.5 

I've also read

NAME TO A FACE

4.5, LONG TIME COMING

4.4, FAULT LINE

4.3, BORROWED TIME

4.0, ONE FALSE MOVE

Review: LYREBIRD, Jane Caro

• 
  this edition a paperback published 2025 by Allen & Unwin Australia
  
• 360 pages
• ISBN 978-1-76147-153-7 

Synopsis (publisher)

Lyrebirds are brilliant mimics, so if they mimic a woman screaming in terror and begging for her life, they have witnessed a crime. But how does a young, hung over PHD student and a wet behind the ears new detective, convince anyone that a native bird can be a reliable witness to a murder, especially when there is no body and no missing person?

And what happens when they turn out to be right?
A sound froze her blood. A woman. A woman screaming in pure terror. Screaming and sobbing—begging—out here, in this desolate place.

Twenty years ago, ornithology student Jessica Weston panicked when she heard a woman screaming for her life in the remote Barrington Tops. Her relief, when she discovers that it is a lyrebird making the sounds, is profound. She is thrilled to have caught his display on video. Then she remembers—lyrebirds are mimics. Whatever the wild creature has heard must have really happened, and happened nearby.

Jessica takes her video to the police. Despite support from newly minted detective, Megan Blaxland, with no missing person reported and no body, her evidence is ridiculed and dismissed.

Twenty years later, a body is unearthed, just where Jessica said it would be.

Horrified they let the case go cold, Jessica, now an associate professor, and Megan, recently retired but brought back to head up the investigation, reunite and join forces. They are determined to find the killer, whatever it takes. What they don't realise is that they are not just putting their lives in danger, but also the lives of those close to them . . . 

My Take

This is my first novel by Jane Caro and I can tell already it won't be my last. I read this one in one day which is unusual for me.

The starting point is arresting: a lyrebird imitating the cries of a murder victim. No body found at the time. And then twenty years on, a body is found at that location. And the realisation that what the lyrebird imitated really happened.

The plot becomes much more complex than we might have predicted: the original cop is called out of retirement to take on the case, the person who first recorded the lyrebird's mimicry is involved, and their personal lives are explored. 

A satisfying read.

My rating: 4.8 

About the author

Jane Caro AM is a Walkley award-winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, feminist, public education activist and social commentator. She was awarded the B&T Women in Media Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. Once upon a time, she was a multi-award-winning advertising copywriter and an academic. These days, she is a full-time writer, novelist, speaker, MC and TV, radio and media pundit. She has published thirteen books, including the bestselling novel The Mother. Lyrebird is her second novel for adults. 

Review: THE WILL OF THE STANDING STONES, AG Barnett

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• A Hammond & Circle Mystery Book 1
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C8TWMC91
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oddmoor Press, June 20, 2023
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 236 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

A 1920's historical mystery whodunnit 

Someone has the will to murder…

1920’s England – A group of strangers gathers at an isolated house for the reading of a will. Tensions rise as the mysterious Mr. Badala’s fortune comes with unexpected conditions.

Cut off from civilization by a raging storm, the guests must uncover the truth when one of them dies in an apparent accident. As paranoia and accusations mount, it becomes clear that there is far more at play than a simple inheritance.

In a battle of wits and wills, the group must navigate secrets and lies to survive.

My Take

The scenario described in the blurb made this sound a more attractive read than it turned out to be.  It had too many characteristics of a "first" novel: too much convolution, too many deaths, and a central character who was a really poor judge of character. The setting of the standing stones had almost no relevance to the plot.

My rating: 3.2

About the author

AG Barnett lives in Oxfordshire with his wife, daughter, three ridiculous spaniels, and four frizzle chickens. 

Review: HIGHWAY 13, Fiona McFarlane

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CYZKF3C1
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin, July 30, 2024
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1761189234 
• WINNER - 2025 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction
• WINNER - 2025 Story Prize
• SHORTLISTED - 2025 Australian Book Industry Award for Literary Fiction Book of the Year
• SHORTLISTED - 2025 Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction

Synopsis (Amazon) 

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged with a series of brutal murders of backpackers along a highway. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims' families, but its impact travels even further - into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes.

Highway 13 takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more: through the investigation of the aftermath of this violence across time and place, from the killer's home town in country Australia to the tropical Far North, and to Texas and Rome, McFarlane presents an unforgettable, entrancing exploration of the way stories are told and spread, and at what cost. 
In overlapping stories, Highway 13 explores the reverberations of a serial killer's crimes in the lives of everyday people. A brilliant and illuminating account of loss and its extended echoes across an entire society.

My  Take

An intriguing collection of 12 overlapping stories all related in some way to the murder of backpackers along an Australian highway. The stories vary in methodology and style, nor are they presented sequentially, although we are given years to place them in, and at times the author makes the reader work hard to establish the connection to the original backpacker-murder scenario.

I don't think it would really matter what order you read the stories in, although perhaps I am mistaken there.  What is interesting to me is the way each story contributes to the reader's knowledge and understanding of how people were affected by the (fictional) backpacker murders.

Highly recommended. 

My rating: 4.9 

About the author

Fiona McFarlane’s first novel, The Night Guest, won several prizes including the Voss Literary Prize and a New South Wales Premier’s Award. It was also shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Miles Franklin Literary Award, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize for First Fiction, among others. She is also the author of a short-story collection, The High Places, which won the International Dylan Thomas Prize. Her stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Zoetrope: All-Story, and Best Australian Stories. Her second novel, The Sun Walks Down, will be published in Australia (October 2022), the United States (February 2023), and the UK (March 2023).

McFarlane grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she teaches at the University of California, Berkeley. Her website

Review: LINES OF INQUIRY, Rhys Dylan

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C7CVK6NY
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Wyrmwood Books, Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 5, 2023
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 354 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1915185167
• Book 9 of 18 ‏ : ‎ DCI Evan Warlow Crime Thriller 

Synopsis  (Amazon)

One of our own...

DCI Evan Warlow believes that murder is a cardinal sin. Even when the victim is a drug dealing, money-laundering criminal. But when a police officer is shot in the same incident at a tranquil beach near Tenby in South Pembrokeshire… Suddenly it’s personal. What appears, on the surface, to be a falling out between partners in crime soon spirals into an operation involving gang warfare and a great deal of money.

But even Warlow is not prepared for what lurks beneath the surface of this most terrible of crimes. The truth, hidden under a tangled knot of lies, will lead him to a terrifying conclusion, and that most dangerous of beings; a killer with nothing left to lose.

Another fast paced, gripping police procedural that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. 

My Take

Another strong episode in this very readable series. One person found dead in a remote location, two police shot, one critically. Warlow's team is landed with a new member, a former under cover cop looking for a permanent placement. But there is something about him...

The business partner of the dead person goes into hiding, and their business seems to have been doing remarkably well.

I really enjoy the puzzles these stories provide.   

My rating: 4.5 

I have read

4.6, THE ENGINE HOUSE - #1

4.5, CAUTION: DEATH AT WORK -#2

4.6, ICE COLD MALICE - #3

4.5, SUFFER THE DEAD - #4

4.6, GRAVELY CONCERNED - #5 

4.5, A MARK OF IMPERFECTION - #6

4.5, BURNT ECHO - #7 

4.6, A BODY OF WATER - #8

4.5, NO ONE NEAR - #10 

4.6, THE BOWMAN - #15