Review: SISTERS, Gabrielle Lord

• This edition published by Wilkinson Publishing 2019
• ISBN 987-1-925642-60-5
• 390 pages
• source: my local library

Synopsis (publisher)

Sydney screenwriter Greta Maitland’s life crashes at the arrival of the postcard from Crete:

‘Sorry to tell you this, but your sister Xanthe has been missing since May. Police have found no trace….’

Greta immediately flies to Crete to continue the stalled investigation, but there, runs into deceit; the Cretan police officer deliberately mistranslates her questions; Xanthe’s lover lies … more and more disturbing facts emerge about her sister and Greta’s growing suspicions about her husband seem confirmed.

In the ancient house inherited by the sisters, where Xanthe had first been living, Greta notices a faintly penciled phone number surrounded by a love heart, missed by the police and this leads her to the beautiful Etz Hayyim synagogue in Chania, and to her sister’s secret lover.

Using only Xanthe’s damaged artist’s journal and paintings as possible leads, and with earthquakes threatening, Greta must uncover the extraordinary events that have led to her sister’s disappearance. But can her marriage survive such betrayal? And can Greta herself survive the earthquakes in Crete, both emotional and physical, and their shattering consequences?

My Take

While there is plenty of mystery in this story, it is not crime fiction.

Greta's husband Magnus tells her that he has arranged a holiday for them on the French Riviera and almost immediately two things happen which throw those plans aside. First of all her mother, in the last stage of Alzheimers' dies; and then a postcard arrives telling her that her sister Xanthe who has been in Crete for three years is missing. Immmediately after her mother's funeral Greta flies out to Crete to look for her sister.

Almost immediately things back in Australia go awry. Magnus' career as Assistant Police Commissioner in New South Wales goes into jeopardy, he is unable to cope with his teenage daughter and young son, and Greta's publisher wants her next script.

In Crete Greta manages to find out what the police know about her sister's disappearance and she starts to look for clues about where she might be.  On the phone from Australia her husband Magnus becomes increasingly angry and at the same time very distant.

So this is a mystery rather than crime fiction. I found it a difficult read sometimes, a bit too philosophical, and several times was on the verge of giving up.

In March this year Gabrielle Lord wrote
Sisters is finally making its way into the shops.  It's been a long process, held up by unforeseen circumstances but now I'm hoping it goes out into the world and is well received.  This is the worry time for writers.  Will people like it?  Will it be well reviewed? Will it sell?  I'm hopeful that such a good story, well-researched --I lived in Crete for months in the northwest town of Kissamos where the story is set in order to get things right -- well, as right as a non-resident is able, with strong characters, facing difficult choices and often in some danger, create a novel which has been described as 'unputdownable'.  Wilkinson publishing has been very supportive (thank you Jess!) and although it's been a 'difficult birth', the result makes me happy.  I hope it'll bring the same satisfaction to all my readers.

I think maybe it was the depth of research that got in the way of my enjoyment. At times it read like a travelogue. But read it for yourself.

My rating: 4.2

I've also read
BABY DID A BAD BAD THING
DEATH DELIGHTS
DIRTY WEEKEND
4.4, DEATH BY BEAUTY 

Review: DEATH BY BEAUTY, Gabrielle Lord

• Hachette Australia
  
• ISBN 9780733627309
• $32.99
• Paperback - C Format
• September 2012
• 400 pages

Synopsis (Publisher)

Australia's queen of crime fiction, Gabrielle Lord, is back with a chilling new novel. A 'vampire' is stalking the streets, attacking beautiful young women; some are murdered days later, others aren't touched again. Gemma Lincoln, PI, begins to see a pattern - but can she convince the authorities to take action before another life is lost?

How far would you go to look young and beautiful?
A young woman is attacked, she claims, by a vampire . Two more are found dead and hideously disfigured. A journalist goes missing after visiting Sapphire Springs Spa. And it's up to Gemma Lincoln, PI, to find out what is going on.

In her first week back on the job after maternity leave, finding a balance between investigating brutal crimes, caring for baby Rafi and making time for herself and Mike is all too much. Something has to give, but not while a third woman s life is in danger.

As she moves closer to tying the crimes together, Rafi disappears. Facing a mother's worst nightmare, Gemma discovers what she is prepared to do to save her son.

My Take

Other Australian female authors in the past, Kerry Greenwood and Jennifer Rowe to name a couple, have set their murder mysteries around a beauty farm. So what Gabrielle Lord is doing in a sense is giving it a modern take - treatments implementing DNA and modern surgery techniques.

Add too a couple of extra elements - beautiful girls being drugged by a vampire - their memories ensuring no-one will believe them, thinking they are drug-induced; and a young woman returning to work with a young child to care for.

Gemma Lincoln has this idea that she will be able to slowly re-immerse herself in her investigative work, but the nature of her job, and Gemma's own character, ensure that a slow resumption is just not an option. Young mothers reading DEATH BY BEAUTY will find themselves wishing that they had all the backup resources that Gemma has. Add to that the fact that Gemma is living with a man who is not the baby's father, and things become complicated.

Gabrielle Lord has been occupying her time with writing YA thrillers and this is the first Gemma Lincoln novel for 5 years. It shows that Lord has not lost the touch and kept up with the times. I didn't like Gemma Lincoln any the more for it - but that is probably just the way she strikes me.

The story is a chilling one about how much money there is in the industry of helping women retain their beauty and even making them look 10 years younger.

My rating: 4.4

I've reviewed
BABY DID A BAD BAD THING
DEATH DELIGHTS (Jack McCain)
DIRTY WEEKEND (Jack McCain)

Gemma Lincoln series (Fantastic Fiction)
1. Feeding the Demons (1999)
2. Baby Did a Bad Thing (2002)
3. Spiking the Girl (2004)
4. Shattered (2007)
5. Death By Beauty (2012)

Forgotten Book: FORTRESS by Gabrielle Lord

This contribution to Pattinase's Friday's Forgotten Books is yet another female Australian author, so the chances are that she is new-to-you.

FORTESS was first published in 1980, and I read it in 1992.
Gabrielle Lord is one of Australia's more prolific and popular crime fiction writers, with many of her books republished in the last decade or so.

In FORTRESS, the peace of the one-teacher school at Sunny Flat is shattered one morning when the teacher and pupils are kidnapped. As the nightmare escalates, Sally Jones and her pupils become obsessed with the thought of escaping – at any cost.

Reviewed on my blog:
BABY DID A BAD BAD THING
DEATH DELIGHTS
DIRTY WEEKEND
SHATTERED

Gabrielle Lord's website.

Gabrielle Lord embarked about 2 years ago on the ambitious project of writing a crime fiction series of 12 connected books for young adult readers. The series is called CONSPIRACY 365 and is due for monthly publications this year.

In JANUARY, On New Year's Eve, Cal is chased down the street by a crazed man with a deadly warning: They killed your father. They'll kill you. You must survive the next 365 days! Forced into a life on the run, Cal finds himself hunted by ruthless criminals and the police. Somehow he must uncover the truth about his father's mysterious death and solve the Ormond Singularity, a secret from the past, before the year is up. But who can he turn to when the whole world seems to want him dead? The clock is ticking. Any second could be his last. Callum Ormond has been warned. He has 365 days. The countdown has begun ...

Conspiracy 365
1. January (2010)
2. February (2010)
3. March (2010)
4. April (2010)
5. May (2010)
6. June (2010)
7. July (2010)
8. August (2010)
9. September (2010)
10. October (2010)
11. November (2010)
12. December (2010)

Adelaide Writers' Week, Final Day, Day #4 for me

Other things have intervened in the last 2 days, so there are things I've missed. People tell me there was a stunning session with Germain Greer yesterday, and then on Wednesday I missed sessions with Ian McEwan and Geraldine Brooks.

Adelaide is in the grip of what looks set to be one of our longest hot spells ever. Even the white plastic chairs feel warm to the seat, and there were many less people in attendance today. Hand fans were briskly being waved and even water spray bottles were in use.

So much going on in Adelaide just now: the Festival of Arts (of which AWW is a part), the Fringe Festival, and tonight WOMAdelaide kicks off. Tomorrow night the Crows host a home final in the AFL pre-season cup. To cap it all, a state public holiday on Monday for Adelaide Cup ( a horse race).

My purchase today: RENDEZVOUS AT KAMAKURA INN by Marshall Browne.

A real treat for crime fiction addicts this afternoon. Elsewhere I have grumbled about programming Gabrille Lord and Garry Disher in rival Meet the Author sessions.
Here are some snippets from the sessions I attended.

Session 1: Meet the author: Marshall Browne

In 2000 he won Best First Crime Novel in the Ned Kelly Awards for THE WOODEN LEG OF INSPECTOR ANDERS.

Browne began writing in the 1970s as a "Sunday morning" writer, when living in Hong Kong. Marshall Browne seems an unlikely author, coming over more like the banker that he's been most of his life.

He was very candid about how his novels develop, how his ideas often begin as images, seen early in the morning, sometimes when he is half asleep. Incidents and details often emerge from his own life. The book gradually emerges from his sub-conscious, which he is in thrall to. He doesn't plot the book prior to writing and researches as he needs to. He often mixes real characters with fictional.

He is really one of Australia's lesser known crime writers, but there is plenty in the 12 already published novels, some out of print. Indeed at AWW he warranted a larger audience.
He is currently working on 3 books: the sequel to EYE OF THE ABYSS will be published later this year, the 4th Inspector Anders is in draft, and next year will work on his 4th book in the "Melbourne" series. His bio says he works 40 hour week.

Session 2: Meet the Author: Gabrielle Lord

Gabrielle Lord appears a number of times elsewhere in my blog, and her latest book SHATTERED shares top spot in my best reads for 2008.

She has collected 2 awards: The Ned Kelly Award for best novel in 2002 for DEATH DELIGHTS, and a Davitt Award in 2003 for the best Australian crime novel by an Australian woman in the previous year for BABY DID A BAD, BAD THING.

Gabrielle began by describing what led to the writing of her first published novel FORTRESS in 3 weeks. She says that for any book, writing is only 5% of it. getting to the writing stage, for her is the hard part and accounts for 95% of the effort. She plans and researches all her books meticulously. The depth of research is what results in the meticulous details. She interviews experts and finds that most enjoy talking about what they do, especially if they recognise that you have made some effort to get your head around the topic,a nd can ask focussed questions. Gabrielle has done work experience in surveillance, attended victims of homicide meetings, done courses in anatomy, stood on the streets with prostitutes, toured morgues.

She believes most central characters will be flawed - that is what makes them so interesting. "Angels" are generally not very interesting, and she constantly looks for very human stories. She is always looking for stories to engage the reader.

Gabrielle says writing a book is a lot like knitting. Complexity emerges to keep the author intrigued. She sets herself problems and challenges. At the same time her setting is Australia because she tries to focus on what she knows.

She talked briefly about her 12 part thriller for YA, designed to be a continuous story, in 12 parts. Each will be self contained but all 12 will add up to a whole. They will come out on a monthly basis and be named January, February, etc.

Gabrielle feels very strongly about issues such as women's rights, e.g. in Islamic communities both here and abroad.

Session 3: Friday Crime
A panel with Marshall Browne, Garry Disher, Gabrielle Lord, Denise Mina.
Garry Disher won the Ned Kelly Award for best crime novel in 2007 for CHAIN OF EVIDENCE. In April, oz_mystery_readers are discussing this book.

The panel at first individually attempted to explain why crime fiction is becoming so popular.

Garry Disher:

• it has always been popular, the real question is why it has become so acceptable
• enormous diversity in the genre
• some approaches "literature"
• fed by the popularity of true crime books, and TV shows
• strongly narrative, lots of acvtion
• social barometer, tells us about the "real" world
• gives us vicarious pleasure, often darkly humorous
• at one level can be very re-assuring as justice is often restored
• main characters are often just like us
• "who dunnits" have been replaced by "what makes people tick"
• the reader is the investigator
• an exploration of our darker side

Gabrielle Lord

• dramatic shift from cozies - those days have gone
• sees herself as a relationship writer rather than a crime writer. Crime is the vehicle to draw the story along - the hook
• how do people connect?
• how do people tell the truth in fiction?
• creation of tension

Marshall Browne

• basically only 2 genres: books you like & those you don't
• novels are places where you can explore the exotic and bizarre
• the main thrust is the developing story
• character driven fiction
• determined to conquer the writing of shorter novels

Denise Mina

• thought about writing under an alias - how about MissDMina?
• fan of literary fiction
• crime fiction often seen as trash
• literary fiction should aspire to having the readership of crime fiction
• move for crime fiction to be taken seriously
• crime writers are expected to write about 1 book a year, and they often make a pretty good living (if they are successful)
• crime writing lays the author's politics bare
• social & political issues become part of the novel's underlying fabric.
  

So that is Adelaide Writers' Week for another 2 years.
Today's events ended at about 5 with drinks and nibbles - very civilised.

DEATH DELIGHTS, Gabrielle Lord

Does history repeat itself? Do patterns recur in families from one generation to the next? For forensic scientist Jack McCain, recently moved from Sydney to Canberra, it certainly seems to.

The disappearance of his daughter Jacinta two years ago after an argument with her mother seems to have a lot in common with the abduction of his little sister Rosie when he was a teenager.

As Jack becomes involved in the investigation of the grisly murders of two elderly paedophiles, the police at Kings Cross, Sydney, take an anonymous call from a woman who knows where Jacinta is. Jack blames ex-wife Genevieve for Jacinta leaving, and she him. A second anonymous call from the same woman claims that Jacinta is working in a brothel. Jack discovers both the murdered paedophiles had been released from gaol early, and yet another is due to be released within days. Will he also be in danger?

As the complexity of this novel escalates, with layer piled upon layer, you can't help wondering if Australian author Gabrielle Lord will manage to bring it all to a satisfactory resolution. I can report that she does, but you'll have to read it for yourself to find out how.

This is the first in the Jack McCain series, and regrettably I read them out of order. It is always a little disconcerting to know what happens in the second book in a series when you are reading the first, so take my advice, read DEATH DELIGHTS before you take on #2 DIRTY WEEKEND. DEATH DELIGHTS won the 2002 Ned Kelly Award for best novel.

My rating 4.7

Adelaide Writers Week program available online

See 2012 information

The program for Adelaide writers Week 2-7 March 2008 is available online at http://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/library/WWTimetable.pdf

You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader 8 to read it - if opening the pdf stalls on your computer then the likely answer is that you need to update your Acrobat Reader.
You can do that easily by going to http://www.adobe.com/uk/products/reader/ and choosing the Download option.

So what do I think of the program?
On the first day, 2 March, Sunday Crimes - a 90 minute session with Thomas Cook, Peter Corris, and Denise Mina looks right up my alley.

But on the next day, 3 March, I have to make a choice between Dorothy Porter and Peter Carey (the latter will probably win)
There's a session called Window on Scotland with James Meek and Denise Mina.
And then a couple of sessions in the afternoon including Peter Corris.

Day 3
A book launch with Peter Carey
But who set Thomas Cook and Denise Mina on at the same time? grrr..........
Not really much more on that day for this little duck.

Day 4
A session with Ian McEwan at the beginning of the day.
And later in the day a session that includes Geraldine Brooks looks good.

Day 5
All looks a bit cultural for me - maybe I'll have a day home just reading

Day 6, last day, 7 March
Meet the author Marshall Browne looks good
But what klutz makes me choose between Gabrielle Lord and Garry Disher??
But then at the end of the day we get all 3 in a panel session, so I guess I'll be happy.

However with 2 timetable clashes of crime genre writers, can't help feeling it could have been done better.

Just need nice weather now - not a lot of hope of rain so we should be ok there. It can be hot in March though.

DIRTY WEEKEND, Gabrielle Lord

Jack McCain is the acting chief scientist in the Criminalistics section of the Australian Federal Police. As a supervisor, he is supposed to be delegating more, and certainly not answering calls to crime scenes. And yet here he is, in the carpark of Canberra’s Blackspot Nightclub, where the body of a former colleague has been found. So begins the first case in Gabrielle Lord’s DIRTY WEEKEND.

Jack McCain, former alcoholic, is now a workaholic who has trouble building relationships with people because he lets his work rule his life. He runs from intimacy, from revealing his hopes and fears. His relationship with Iona, who has moved from Sydney to live with him, is in danger of collapse because he constantly puts work first. His first marriage collapsed for the same reason, and his children have become used to his absence from their lives. But Jack strongly believes in what he is doing and that makes it nigh impossible for him to work 9 to 5.

Just as Jack is preparing to go home at the end of a long day, the second case emerges. The head of Canberra’s Agricultural Research Station contacts Jack with a delicate situation involving two of his research scientists. Their work is straightforward agricultural research on rabbit control, involving highly infectious materials, supposedly only dangerous if you are a rabbit. Claire Dimitriou is not to be found although her car is in the car park, and the door to the secure area appears to be open. Jack discovers Dimitriou’s body on the floor of a lab that has been meticulously steam-cleaned. That and the fact that her research partner Peter Yu has gone missing, their research log has gone, and that the lab no longer houses any of the research rabbits, rings alarm bells. At least a couple of people witnessed Peter and Claire in the lab arguing vehemently, she in tears, and he very angry.

DIRTY WEEKEND presents one puzzle after another. Two strands of investigation become many, including a twenty-year old cold case. The reader is right with Jack McCain, reading crime scenes, evaluating evidence, drawing conclusions. Gabrielle Lord’s detailed research is evident both in the development of the novel’s main themes, and the technologies used in the forensic investigations. Jack solves cases with a mixture of careful forensic investigation, memories of earlier cases, and intuition.

DIRTY WEEKEND is in many ways a brave novel. Gabrielle Lord determinedly uses Australian colloquialisms, carefully describes Australian settings, and places Australian events, and Australian scientific research, in a world setting. Watch out also for Lord’s quirky sense of humour seen in Faithful Bunnies, Terminator Rabbit, a thief called the “giant chicken”, and even in the book’s title.

13 novels in 10 years is no mean feat, and in that time Gabrielle has collected 2 awards: The Ned Kelly Award for best novel in 2002 for DEATH DELIGHTS, and a Davitt Award in 2003 for the best Australian crime novel by an Australian woman. DIRTY WEEKEND is the third in Jack McCain series: look for DEATH DELIGHTS and LETHAL FACTOR. If you'd like to find out more about Gabrielle Lord, check her website out at http://www.gabriellelord.com. Currently she is writing CONSPIRACY 365 - a 12 volume YA crime/thriller/mystery/series for Scholastic Publishing.

My rating 5.0
Join the discussion with Gabrielle Lord on oz_mystery_readers from February 17

Appealing to an audience

I'm wondering- do authors write with a specific audience in mind? If they do, does that cut other audiences out?

The reason I'm asking is that I am still reading DIRTY WEEKEND by Gabrielle Lord (how having to work cuts your reading time down!)
Lord is writing in a male persona, using Australian colloquialisms quite liberally. (Where else would you find up at sparrow fart but in an Australian novel?) I'm trying to decide whether she tries really hard to bring out the Australianness of language and setting, or does it just happen?

Last year oz_mystery_readers discussed DEAD SET by Kel Robertson, coincidentally also set in Canberra.
Here is what I recorded:
The Hon. Tracey Dale, Australia's Minister for Immigration (ALP) has been murdered in her Canberra apartment. She was the author of Australia's current immigration policy: the Compassionate Australia Program, which has recently resulted in significant increase in Australia's refugee intake. Some believe her death is the work of terrorists, or at the very least racists. Federal Australian Police Detective Inspector Brad Chen is returning from sick leave of 3 months, and this is his first case back. Some would see him as a man with many handicaps: still on crutches after being knocked down by a car, an Australian-Chinese with Chinese appearance but unmistakeable Australian accent, addicted to pain killers of the worst sort, and named after a cricketer. DEAD SET is almost a political thriller as much as a murder mystery. Set in Canberra and Melbourne. As Chen's investigation proceeds, the list of suspects grows, and others die. Tracey Dale ignored a time bomb, something that spelled political ruin for her. A debut novel for Kel Robertson.
I ended up wondering what non-Australian readers would make of the language and the local political references. My rating was 4.0

Some non-Australian readers tell us they need a glossary of terms to help them read an Australian novel. And yet I don't think that happens when they read Adrian Hyland's DIAMON DOVE.

So what do you think? Does writing for a specific audience mean the novel will have limited appeal to readers who don't identify with that audience?

SHATTERED, Gabrielle Lord

Released last year, SHATTERED is #4 in the Gemma Lincoln series.
Superintendent of Police at Manly, Bryson Finn and his sister-in-law Bettina are killed by an unknown gunman when she opens the front door of her house. His 9 year old son Donny, also shot, saw the killer and may die. Gemma Lincoln, private investigator, becomes involved when she helps her friend DS Angie McDonald.
The investigation affects a third friend Senior Constable Jaki Hunter, a ballistics expert, in a number of ways. Work has been a bit slow for Gemma in recent months but now three cases arrive at once together with complications in the Finn investigation. And Gemma has personal problems - she is pregnant but the baby's father has left her; her sister whom she has recently located has fallen under the influence of a religious group; and Hugo the Ratbag seems to have moved in with her.
I found this a bit difficult to settle into at first but then decided to try to read it a bit more slowly, letting things jell a bit between reads, and it was worth it. In the end the threads are resolved nicely. My rating was 4.6

BABY DID A BAD BAD THING, Gabrielle Lord

This book is the first Gabrielle Lord that I read, although it is her 9th book.
Published in 2003, it was #2 in the Gemma Lincoln series.
With it she won the Davitt Award in 2003 for the best Australian crime novel by an Australian woman in the previous year.

Gemma Lincoln, is trying to discover who has been raping and murdering street girls from Kings Cross. Parallel cases follow the suspicious death of a high profile Sydney businessman and philanthropist, and an utterly ruthless drug dealer whose hobby is maintaining a small zoo of poisonous snakes. In addition to these enquiries, Gemma has to contend with sabotage from within her own small organisation and pangs of jealousy over boyfriend Steve, whose own undercover work involves getting up close and personal with an extremely beautiful society woman. How much is Steve acting a role and how much is he really involved with the woman? Always haunted by the insecurities of her past, Gemma struggles to pull her life together in increasingly sinister circumstances.

My rating 4.0

Gabrielle Lord

In mid February, oz_mystery_readers is having a quarterly activity called Quiz an Author. Our guest next month will be Australian author Gabrielle Lord. I am to be the host of that event, and we spend the week with the author replying to a bunch of pre-prepared questions, and spontaneous questions from members. So far in this activity we've quizzed Brian Kavanagh, P.D. Martin, and Adrian Hyland. Quiz and Author begins on 17 February.

By early next month I hope to have read 3 of her novels, DEATH DELIGHTS (2002), DIRTY WEEKEND (2005), and SHATTERED (2007) and sent off some qeneral questions to Gabrielle. I've made a head start because I actually read SHATTERED last year, but I'll have to do a light skim-read to get the grey cells working again on it. I began DIRTY WEEKEND yesterday, and am enjoying it. DEATH DELIGHTS awaits on my bookshelf.

Gabrielle Lord's first novel WHIPPING BOY was published in 1998, which really isn't so long ago when you think about. There is a complete list of her books in date order at Australasian Crime Fiction.

13 titles in 10 years is no mean feat, and in that time she has collected 2 awards: The Ned Kelly Award for best novel in 2002 for DEATH DELIGHTS, and a Davitt Award in 2003 for the best Australian crime novel by an Australian woman in the previous year for BABY DID A BAD, BAD THING. Another interesting thing about Gabrielle is that she has written not only stand-alones, but also with a male protagonist, Jack McCain, and a female one, Gemma Lincoln. Another Australian author who has done something similar is Michael Robotham, but more of that another time.

If you'd like to find out more about Gabrielle Lord, check her website out at http://www.gabriellelord.com
Currently she is writing CONSPIRACY 365 - a 12 volume YA crime/thriller/mystery/series for Scholastic Publishing.

Gabrielle Lord will also be coming to Adelaide Writer's Week and I'm looking forward to hearing her speak there.