Review: THREE REASONS FOR REVENGE, Dervla McTiernan

• 
  this title a library book from my local library
  
• Published by Harper Collins Publishers Australia 2026
• ISBN 978-1-4607-6016-1
• 326 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

Three gifts. Three victims. One deadly game.

Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found.

Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient - and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim.

Detective Sergeant Judith Lee is smart and experienced, but this is no ordinary case. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable. And she's convinced that somehow, it connects back to Alexis Turner.

As she races to uncover the connection between three seemingly unrelated people, Judith discovers she's no longer just investigating the game - she's being forced to play.

My Take

This standalone is a complex, tightly plotted, and increasingly layered story. It starts with a university student reporting an assault by a clinical psychologist, and following that there is roll out of what seem to be individual stories, but each is connected to the last. We see glimmers but really are not offered the final shocking connections until the very end. Meanwhile Detective Sergeant Judith Lee faces her own demons.

A story of planned vengeance, and systemic failure in a number of ways. 

Highly recommended. 

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.8, THE RUIN -#1

4.8, THE SCHOLAR - #2

4.8, THE GOOD TURN  -#3

4.6, THE MURDER RULE

4.6, THE MURDER RULE 

4.8, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA?

4.8, THE UNQUIET GRAVE - #4 

Review: NO TRACE, Michael Trant

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published by Penguin Random House Australia 2023
• ISBN 978-1-76104-693-3
• 344 pages 
• #2 in series featuring Gabe Ahern
  

Synopsis (publisher)

From the author of WILD DOGS comes an electrifying combination of outback action thriller and the classic locked room mystery.

‘Did you have to kill them all?’
It’s the question Gabe Ahern has been running from since he bust open a major criminal operation – and left a dozen men dead. He knows that one day the ‘bad guys’ will come for revenge.

A skilled dog-trapper, Gabe has one rule: leave no sign, leave no trace. And for the last year he’s been successfully hiding out on a friend’s remote cattle property in the Pilbara.

But when Goldmont Station opens its gates to a bunch of city folk eager for an authentic outback experience, Gabe can feel eyes on his back. Are all these visitors really tourists?

In the space of 24 hours, the station’s helicopter falls from the sky . . . the phones and internet go down . . . and one of the guests turns up dead . . .

With major flooding suddenly cutting off all exit roads, Gabe fears he’s as trapped as the dogs he hunts. And that his bloody past has finally caught up with him. 

My Take

When we last saw Gabe Ahern in WILD DOGS we were not sure he was going to survive, but he obviously did. Quite a bit of time has passed and there has been a trial at which he was acquitted. But the Afghan whom Gabe rescued in that book and his family are now in immigrant detention, and Gabe has been threatened by the brother of one of the men he killed.

So Gabe is in hiding from the gang who were involved in the people smuggling, in the remotest part of Australia he could think of, working as a dogger and a general station hand, hoping he doesn't bring trouble to the family he is working for. He has been there for a year with no problems, but everything is about to change. 

This story has a terrific atmosphere, great tension, as Gabe helps fight both Australian weather, and someone at the station who seems determined to wreak havoc.

A great read.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.4, RIDGEVIEW STATION

4.7, WILD DOGS