Review: THE BUTLER, Clare Mackintosh

• 
  This edition from my local library
  
• Published in 2026 by Podium Publishing
• ISBN 979-8-3470-0926-8
• 199 pages  

Synopsis (Amazon)

The South of France is stunning, though not without its imperfections, from pickpockets to burglars to the occasional cold-blooded killer. But in his twenty-five years of service, Baxter—with a spotless reputation as a polished, well-mannered butler—has never run into any issues catering to the ultrawealthy. Until now.

Baxter’s latest assignment is at Villa Sérénité, where Alec Prescott is hosting a colorful cast of characters, including his ex-wife, his much younger lady friend, and some Hollywood hotshots, after the Cannes Film Festival. But it doesn’t take long for a week of sun, wine, and a family birthday celebration to devolve into bickering and backstabbing. And soon, secrets aren’t the only thing floating to the surface . . .

When one of the guests is found dead in the villa’s glittering pool, the unflappable Baxter must assist the gendarmes in determining who’s responsible. With some standing to gain and others motivated to take it away, fingers are pointed in all directions. A good butler is expected to see everything and say nothing—but what if he too becomes a target?

My Take

The family from hell is celebrating a 21st birthday until one of them ends up on the bottom of the pool. The local police don't have much time to solve the murder but they tell the remaining members of the family they can't leave until the murderer is nabbed. There is a touch of humour when Baxter the butler enlists a local pickpocket to help him work out who committed the murder.  

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

• 4.6, I LET YOU GO
• 4.4, LET ME LIE 

Review: SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL, Chris Blake

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby through my local library
  
• Publisher: Bonnier Books UK, 352 pages
• Release date: November 4, 2025
• Formats: OverDrive Read
• ISBN: 9781786585417 

Synopsis (publisher) 

Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.

But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. 

How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?

Tensions rise, there are more deaths, people are threatened, memories surface of a cult that went horribly wrong ... Even when support arrives, Matt finds himself pursuing a case that's well outside his remit and is taking him to places he'd sooner not revisit. Also part of an increasingly terrifying situation are an over-curious journalist and a woman who could be someone special.

Matt has managed to shun his own demons, and is desperate not to face them again, but when confronted by the devil himself, he must take action, rediscover something of the person he was - for his own sake and to save those he loves.
This is the work of an award-winning master storyteller. Fast-moving, spare, compelling and rich in laconic humour, Softly Calls the Devil will grab you from the first page and refuse to let go. 

My Take

This is basically a police procedural with a distinctive rural New Zealand flavour. Matt Buchanan has been a metropolitan CIB detective but is now a sole-charge constable in an isolated rural community. 

His predecessor has been found dead and Matt discovers the case he was looking into was a cold case from 25 years earlier: a murder suicide where a young girl went missing and was never found. The case appears to have been linked to a nearby hippy community but the police investigation got nowhere.

The rural setting and the time frame of the original case provide tantalising elements which reach out into the present.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Chris Blake was born and raised in Auckland. He served briefly in the New Zealand Army's Reserve Force before joining the New Zealand Police in 2006.

His debut novel, The Sound of Her Voice (published under the pseudonym Nathan Blackwell), was a double finalist in the 2018 Ngaio Marsh Awards for best novel and best first novel. Chris was an assistant storyboarder for season two of the crime drama television series, The Gulf, released in 2021.

Review: DARK DESERT ROAD, Tim Ayliffe

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Libby through my local library
  
• Pub Date: 6 January 2026, Echo Publishing Australia
• Extent: 400 pages
• Ebook ISBN: 9781786587220 

 Synopsis (publisher)

A fugitive sister. A dangerous father. A terror cell hiding in plain sight.

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?

My Take

A very confronting story, revealing to the reader a section of the Australian population that I am not familiar with.

Issues: extremism, sovereign citizens, social fracture, anti-government conspiracies. 

Tightly plotted. Most of the characters you would hope never to meet. It felt very credible. An author I have never read before.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Tim Ayliffe is an award-winning author whose thriller novels have been informed by his 25-year global career as a journalist. He writes about crime, espionage, extremism and the global power games at play in the 21st Century. He has been the Managing Editor of Television and Video for ABC News and also Executive Producer of News Breakfast. He is the author of the ‘John Bailey’ series including The Greater Good, State of Fear, The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy – which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2024 Danger Awards – and The Wrong Man. Tim's thrillers are also in development for TV. He lives in Sydney.  

REview: WHY DIDN'T THEY ASK EVANS, Agatha Christie

• 
  This edition read as an e-book
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0046A9MZO (AmazonAU)
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 14 October 2010
• Originally published 1934, (aka THE BOOMERANG CLUE)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 305 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0007422906 
• my earlier review 

 Synopsis (AmazonAU)

 When a man plunges down a cliff, two adventurous young friends decide to find his killer…

While playing an erratic round of golf, Bobby Jones slices his ball over the edge of a cliff. His ball is lost, but on the rocks below he finds the crumpled body of a dying man. With his final breath the man opens his eyes and says, ‘Why didn’t they ask Evans?’

Haunted by these words, Bobby and his vivacious companion, Frankie, set out to solve a mystery that will bring them into mortal danger…

My Take

 I have read this story for the umpteenth time for discussion with my U3A Agatha Christie discussion group.  I think I covered the main discussion points in my earlier review on this blog which I posted over 15 years ago.

The story has a large cast of characters and the plot gets quite complicated and messy.

The Wikipedia account is helpful. 

Here are the discussion points which I intend to raise:

• the rather obvious class differences between the characters
• the fact that both Bobby and Frankie are rather gullible in the way they react to other characters
• and the fact that eventually they owe their lives to the person they both have a pretty low opinion of.
• the romantic element - more than one romance.
• the irony that the character "Evans" is actually a person that Bobby should have thought of first (although, to be fair, she had changed her name) 
• what was the motive for the murder? 
• What did you think of the murderer getting away with it? Was justice done?
• When the book was first published what would readers have liked or not liked? 

After our discussion we  will watch a television version which introduced Miss Marple (portrayed by Julia McKenzie) into the story. 

My rating: 4.4 

All my Agatha Christie reviews.  

Review: PAPER CAGE, Tom Baragwanath

• 
  This edition an e-book from Borrowbox through my local library
  
• Published 30 August 2022, Text Publishing
• ISBN 9781922791023
• Extent 320pp 

 Synopsis (publisher)

Winner of the 2021 Michael Gifkins Prize, this thrilling debut unravels a series of mysterious child abductions in a small New Zealand town.

Masterton isn’t a big town. The community’s tight, if not always harmonious. So when a child goes missing it’s a big deal for everyone. And when a second kid disappears, the whole town’s holding their own children that little bit tighter.

Lorraine doesn’t have kids, but she has a nephew. She’s holding him a bit tighter, too, because she works for the police, and she knows they don’t have any idea.

Lo’s not a cop, she’s a records clerk. She sits out back among the piles of paper, making connections, remembering things. Working things out that the actual cops don’t want to hear about.

Until the new investigator, Hayes, arrives from Wellington, and realises Lo’s the only person there with answers to any of his questions. Which is just as well—because the clock is running down for the children of the town.

Both a nail-biting thriller and a beautifully written, acutely observed portrait of a community, Paper Cage is the prize-winning debut from young New Zealand novelist Tom Baragwanath.

My Take

Always difficult to write crime fiction set in your home town.  The community is concerned with the disappearance of three children and Lorraine knows the clock is ticking. 

Themes covered: low socio-economic effects, simmering race relations, gang-related violence and drug and alcohol-fuelled suburban culture. The abducted children are from fragmented families and haven't had the best start in life, but they are loved. Their families are bewildered by what has happened, and the police seem to think their abduction is the result of gang warfare. 

Sections of the story are narrated by different points of view, and the style and the language, particularly local idioms, were at times a challenge for the reader.

Lucky Thing by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing) is on the longlist for best novel 2026  Ngaio Marsh Awards.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Tom Baragwanath is originally from Masterton, New Zealand, and now lives in Paris with his young family. His first novel, Paper Cage, was published by Text to international acclaim. 

Review: MAJOR BRICKET AND THE BODY IN THE BELL TOWER, Simon Brett

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published by Constable in 2026
• ISBN 978-1-40872-133-9
• 242 pages 

Synopsis (publisher) 

For Major Bricket, attending church in his village of Stunston Peveril in Suffolk is a good way to keep up with the village gossip. Having only recently retired from a career where he was privy to many international secrets, the Major likes to stay in the know.

Events take a turn one Sunday though when, after the morning service, Major Bricket notices the door to the bell tower open... and finds a body at the bottom of the stairs.

The dead man is dressed in a suit and dog collar. But who is he? And could someone in Stunston Peveril have killed him?

Perhaps predictably, most of the village residents seem more concerned with the Parish Council flower arranging rota than the mysterious corpse.

Major Bricket will have to rely on his long-nurtured detection skills, and his trusted friends Nga Luong and Rod, to solve the case.

My Take

Not quite so cozy as the first in the series: a little more violence occurs when Major Bricket is hunted down by an old Eastern European opponent. Bricket's partnership with local restaurant owner Nga Luong and teenager Rod Enright is developing nicely as are the local characters added into the story. This is a series you will need to read from the beginning. I am enjoying the quirky nature of the story.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

BLOOD AT THE BOOKIES
THE POISONING IN THE PUB
4.4, THE SHOOTING IN THE SHOP
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD
4.2, A DECENT INTERVAL
4.5, BONES UNDER THE BEACH HUT
4.2, GUNS IN THE GALLERY
4.6, THE CORPSE ON THE COURT
4.3, THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE
4.2, THE CINDERELLA KILLER
4.5, THE TOMB IN TURKEY
4.4, CHARLES PARIS: MURDER UNPROMPTED
4.2, CHARLES PARIS: CORPORATE BODIES
4.4, THE KILLING IN THE CAFE
4.4, THE LIAR IN THE LIBRARY

Major Bricket series

• 4.4, MAJOR BRICKET AND THE CIRCUS CORPSE -#1 

Review: MAJOR BRICKET AND THE CIRCUS CORPSE, Simon Brett

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published Constable 2025
• ISBN 978-1-40872-130-8
• 232 pages
• #1 Major Bricket Mystery

Synopsis (publisher) 

Introducing a new, but not-so-amateur, sleuth from another peaceful English village with an alarmingly high death rate! The first mystery in a new cosy series from one of the world's favourite crime writers - perfect for fans of Richard Osman, Janice Hallett, Robert Thorogood and M. C. Beaton.
_______________________

Meet Major Bricket, an infrequent resident of Highfield House in Stunston Peveril, Suffolk. In the past the Major's work assignments, frequently in foreign countries, have prevented him from spending much time there and a result, there is an air of mystery around him while everyone in the village speculates on the nature of his occupation.

But now the Major has retired and has come home for good in his open-topped little red sports car... and what a homecoming it is, for lying spreadeagled on his lawn in the summer sunshine is the corpse of a clown.

The circus is in Stunston Peveril for the annual village fair, yet none of their quota of clowns is missing - or at least, nobody is saying. Could the body be that of an unfortunate early guest at the village's highlight of the social calendar, the Fincham Abbey Costume Ball?

Fortunately Major Bricket's past clandestine career means that he is now very well placed to solve the mystery of the dead clown on his camomile lawn . . . 

My Take

The beginning of a new series of cozies, with a couple of characters who have had a history in espionage, but are now apparently retired. As always with Simon Brett: interesting characters, and mysteries that are sufficiently engaging without being over the top or too noir, plus slightly quirky humour.

Not as good in my books as the Fethering Mysteries, but it is early days yet. 

My rating: 4.4

BLOOD AT THE BOOKIES
THE POISONING IN THE PUB
4.4, THE SHOOTING IN THE SHOP
4.3, SO MUCH BLOOD
4.2, A DECENT INTERVAL
4.5, BONES UNDER THE BEACH HUT
4.2, GUNS IN THE GALLERY
4.6, THE CORPSE ON THE COURT
4.3, THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE
4.2, THE CINDERELLA KILLER
4.5, THE TOMB IN TURKEY
4.4, CHARLES PARIS: MURDER UNPROMPTED
4.2, CHARLES PARIS: CORPORATE BODIES
4.4, THE KILLING IN THE CAFE
4.4, THE LIAR IN THE LIBRARY