Review: TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE, Michael Robotham

• 
  this edition published by Letterwing (Hachette Australia 2026)
  
• ISBN 978-0-7336-5289-9
• 421 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The astonishing, emotional epic from Michael Robotham: a mystery, a coming-of-age tale and a love story wrapped into one, set against the simmering tensions of a small Australian town.

'Do you think this town will ever forgive me?' I ask.
'Not in a million years.'

Small towns are quick to anger and slow to forgive, but Arlo Hackett doesn't expect mercy when he emerges from a twelve-year prison sentence and makes his way back to Yulara, a waypoint on Australia's Great Southern Road. The last time Arlo was home, his brother Luke was charged with a terrible crime and Arlo was found guilty by association. 

His return to the former goldrush town is like cracking open a time capsule full of hatred and violence, along with memories of the people he loved - the ones he couldn't save.

Yulara wants Arlo gone, or worse, but every insult and humiliation pushes him to confront what really happened all those years ago.

The truth will shock you, surprise you, and break your heart. 

My Take

At last, the book from Michael's "bottom drawer"; the one set in Australia that friends and followers have been hoping to see one day. And it is a story that will stay with you as you rethink some of the plot lines. For me it was about inaction, prejudice, taking the easy way out, and the sort of miscarriage of justice that we all know exists and we hope never to see.

The characters are strongly drawn, the setting strongly Australian country town. Thank you Michael for a great read. 

My rating: 5.0 

About the author

Michael is the only Australian to twice win the UK's prestigious Gold Dagger Award for best crime novel, for Life Or Death and Good Girl, Bad Girl as well as the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for When She Was Good. Lying Beside You was shortlisted for the Australian Crime Writers Association's Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2023. Storm Child, his fourth novel in the globally bestselling Cyrus Haven and Evie Cormac series, was a No. 1 national bestseller in Australia. It was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction 2025. The White Crow, published in 2025, is the second book in his Philomena McCarthy series, following on from the internationally bestselling When You Are Mine.

Arlo's story, at the centre of Michael Robotham's 20th novel, Tell Me Something True, has held a special place in his heart since he first dreamt of becoming a writer. Four decades later, he's ready to share it with readers for the first time.

Michael lives in Sydney. 

I've also read

BOMBPROOF

SHATTER #3

SHATTER (audio)

BLEED FOR ME #4

5.0, THE WRECKAGE #5

4.8, SAY YOU'RE SORRY #6

5.0, WATCHING YOU #7

4.8, IF I TELL YOU... I'LL HAVE TO KILL YOU (edit)

5.0, LIFE OR DEATH Shortlisted for the 2015 CWA Gold Dagger

4.8, CLOSE YOUR EYES #8

5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS

5.0, THE SUSPECT #1 (audio)

4.8, LOST #2 (audio)

5.0, THE OTHER WIFE #9

4.8, GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL -Cyrus Haven #1

4.8, WHEN SHE WAS GOOD -Cyrus Haven #2

5.0, WHEN YOU ARE MINE - Philomena #1

5.0, LYING BESIDE YOU - Cyrus Haven #3

5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS

5.0, STORM CHILD - Cyrus Haven #4

5.0, THE SECRETS SHE KEEPS

5.0, WHITE CROW - Philomena #2 

Review: THE PEAK, Sam Guthrie

• 
  This edition read as an e-book on Borrow Box through my local library
  
• Imprint: HarperCollins
• ISBN: 9781460718384
• Pages: 352
• Publication Date: 2nd July 2025
• Shortlisted for the John Creasey First Novel Dagger 2026
• Shortlisted for Best Debut Fiction, Ned Kelly Awards 2026  

Synopsis (publisher)

A nailbiting and unputdownable read, The Peak is a powerfully taut, gripping and fast-moving international thriller that weaves a story of friendship, love and betrayal together with the ruthless geopolitics of China's rise, set in the last 24 hours of the world as we know it.

'Now I'll tell you what happened, as best I can. No spin. No agenda. If I get something wrong, it's not because I'm being evasive. It's simply because I'm still trying to understand what happened today ... It's to explain, as best I can, what Sebastian has done, and why tomorrow when you wake up, it will be the end of the world.'

Political hatchet man Charlie will do anything to protect Sebastian, government minister and his best friend since their brutal private school days. Rising to power and prominence through international diplomatic postings and then the rough and tumble of Australian politics, they are as close as brothers - or so Charlie thinks - while both keep the secret that lies at the very heart of their relationship - a secret that in one way or another will change the world.

But then a single phrase in Mandarin is spoken in Sebastian's ear and he does the unthinkable. As Charlie tries to piece it all together - from their youth spent in Hong Kong to the recent past in Beijing and Washington - things in the outside world start to fall apart too. Planes can't land, the phone lines go down and the power is out. Then the secret intelligence services comes knocking. Charlie wonders, what the hell did Sebastian do?

From the jostling streets of Hong Kong to Beijing's shadowy halls of power and the backstabbing Machiavellian workings of Parliament House in Canberra, The Peak is a powerful, propulsive and nailbitingly tense international thriller. Written with an extraordinary insider knowledge of China, the realities of global power and the inner dealings of the Australian Government, The Peak has the authenticity and moral complexity of a Le Carre novel and the narrative power of an Australian Robert Harris.

My Take

A political thriller, not really my genre of choice, but nevertheless an impressive and thought provoking piece of work. It uses a background of Australian/Chinese relationships, in particular those between a Chinese operative and Sebastian, who over a period of years holds a range of consular positions, and is manipulated through his love for a Chinese woman.

A bit of a slap in the face for those who think that on the world stage Australia does not matter. 

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Sam Guthrie writes international political thrillers based on his experience working at the nexus of business, politics, and international diplomacy. His character-driven fiction explores the human desires and frailties that shape world-altering events, drawing on an insider's knowledge of the machinations of power, political intrigue, and the geostrategic challenges confronting the global order.

Prior to publishing his first novel, The Peak, Sam had a twenty-five-year career in international relations serving as a trade envoy to China, an Asia Pacific corporate affairs adviser and political lobbyist and a senior government official. He has worked extensively across Europe, the US and Asia, and has spent close to a decade living and working in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Prague. He has a master's degree in international relations. He splits his time between Canberra and Sydney.  

Review: THE BODY IN SEVEN DIALS, H. L. Marsay

• 
  This title read as an e-book on my Kindle (AmazonAU)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0C5BTXTN9
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Tule Publishing, Publication date ‏ : ‎ 11 October 2023
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1959988984
• Book 1 of 4 ‏ : ‎ The Lady in Blue Mysteries 

Synopsis (AmazonAU) 

Inspired by the remarkable life of Dorothy Peto, the Metropolitan Police’s first female superintendent.

In 1914, the idea of a female police officer is dismissed as absurd, but to a small group of determined women, not impossible.

With men departing to fight for king and country, women have new opportunities at home. Dorothy Peto and her fellow suffragettes propose forming the Women’s Police Volunteers to assist police keep order. At first, the suggestion is derided, yet the force is stretched thin. As Dorothy and her friends train and organise to help refugees fleeing the war and guide terrorised Londoners to shelter during the Zeppelin raids, the ‘ladies in blue’ gain a grudging acceptance.

During one nightly bombing raid, Dorothy discovers the body of a beautiful, Belgian refugee in Seven Dials. Convinced the woman was murdered before the bombs fell, Dorothy’s determined to investigate even though the battle-scarred Scotland Yard Inspector remains skeptical of her ideas and enthusiasm. As the list of suspects grows—a British aristocrat, a Belgian gangster and a wealthy German industrialist—Dorothy must outwit the killer, and even some within the WPV.

My Take

An obvious point of comparison for me with this series is  

4.4, THE DEATH OF DORA BLACK - #1

4.5, MURDER ON NORTH TERRACE - #2

These are books by Australian author Lainie Anderson based on stories about Kate Cocks, South Australia's first policewoman. Those books are also available as e-books. As with Dorothy Peto, World War One gave Kate Cocks and other women a chance to do meaningful work within the existing police force as more and more policemen enlisted and went to war.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read

4.4, A LONG SHADOW -#1

4.4, A VIKING SHADOW - #2 

4.4, A GHOSTLY SHADOW -#3

4.4, A ROMAN SHADOW -#4

4.5, A FORGOTTEN SHADOW #5

4.5, A CHRISTMAS SHADOW #6

4.4, THE MYSTERY OF THE MISSING FRENCHMAN

Review: THE BLUFF, Joanna Jenkins

• 
  This edition made available to me by my local library as an e-book on Libby
• ISBN 9781761470646
  
• Publisher Allen & Unwin, 4 March 2025
• #2 in Ruth Dawson series

Synopsis (publisher) 

From the bestselling author of How to Kill a Client comes a page-turning rural thriller of loyalties and lies, murder and greed.

People like Dash didn't die. He was only what? Mid-thirties? Well off. Adored. By some anyway. World at his feet. Well, Myddle at his feet, which was his world.

Ruth Dawson has taken a break from big city law to fill in for a few months for an old mate in Myddle. How hard can it be? she thinks. Turns out, very hard.

So when Ruth hears the front door of her office open, she's expecting a weird demand, or a question she doesn't know the answer to... but it's Bea Baulderstone's mum, worried that she hasn't seen her seventeen-year-old daughter for five days, and Constable Gazza Parker is refusing to report the girl missing. Easily fixed, thinks Ruth, and heads off down Myddle's main street to charm Gazza into action.

But Victoria Baulderstone was right: Gazza doesn't care. That is until Dash Rogers is found at his farm gate, dead from a gunshot wound, and suddenly the town is very interested in Bea's whereabouts.

And it's not just Bea who can't be found. Dash's wife Evie is AWOL too.

Then Troy, Evie's protégé and Bea's only friend, also smoke-bombs.

An unputdownable thriller of deception and greed, The Bluff reveals an enmeshed web of family and community loyalties, set in the lush rural hinterland of east coast Australia. 

My Take

This story presents in a challenging fashion with multiple points of View (labelled) and a carefully structured timeline (also labelled), revealing the chronology of events in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle.

The second in the Ruth Dawson series, and Ruth is required to protect vulnerable young people against a charge of murder. She is holding fort for a colleague on sabbatical in the rural town of Myddle. His practice encompasses all aspects of the law rather than the corporate law that Ruth is accustomed to. Myddle is the town that Roscoe, her former boss and partner has retreated to after the collapse of their law firm in the first novel in this series.

A very engaging novel. 

My rating: 4.7

I've also read

4.5, HOW TO KILL A CLIENT - #1

4.7, BAD NEIGHBOURS - #3 

Review: HENRIETTA WHO? Catherine Aird

• 
  this edition supplied in large print by my local library
  
• Published in UK by Chivers Large Print 2000
• ISBN 0-7540-4124-7
• 247 pages
• #2 Sloan and Crosby series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

After her mother is found dead on a quiet road, possibly the victim of a hit-and-run, events and revelations lead Henrietta to wonder if her mother's death was accidental or murder. 

My Take

A short novel, almost a novella, but a police procedural from a much underestimated Golden Age author.

Henrietta Jenkins lives with a widowed mother in a small village. She is approaching her 21st birthday and is at university. Her mother is killed crossing a road and the police determine it is murder. Henrietta get a rude shock when she finds out the woman she has called her mother is not, and that there is some doubt about who she actually is.

A quick and interesting read. 

My rating: 4.5  

I've also read

4.3, DEAD HEADING

4.4, HIS BURIAL TOO

4.3, A LATE PHOENIX 

Review: THE MARGARET CODE, Richard Hooton

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published 2025 by Sphere
• ISBN 978-1-4087-3103-1
• 337 pages 

Synopsis (publisher) 

In this bittersweet, hilarious, and suspenseful crime debut, a grandmother with a failing memory teams up with her grandson to solve the mysterious murder of her friend and neighbor.

Margaret Winterbottom, 89, has lived on Garnon Crescent her entire life—except for a few years she never talks about. She knows all the neighbors: their lives, their hopes, their heartbreaks. Only recently, Margaret’s memory isn’t what it used to be. She’s sure Barbara, her best friend and neighbor, told her something very important . . . but what?
       ​When Barbara is found dead in an apparent homicide, Margaret is determined to recover the missing memory. Margaret and her grandson, James, begin investigating, but soon strange things begin happening in her home—objects moving and cropping up in odd places, the television turning on by itself. Some believe her memory is worsening, but Margaret knows somebody wants her out of the way because she holds the key to solving the case—if only she could recall where she put it . . . 

My Take

In some ways an amusing cozy, and in other ways Margaret's predicament gets very close to the bone. Margaret has a hidden past that she has not told her family about and a brother who has not been around for some time. But she keeps thinking that she is glimpsing him. 

When her grandson James begins to work on a school project about his grandmother, Margaret and he begin an investigation into who killed Barbara, and also to recover Barbara's last words to Margaret.

A good read. 

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Richard Hooton has received numerous prizes for his short fiction. After a career in journalism, Richard now works in communications. The Margaret Code, his debut novel, is inspired by the author’s relationship with his grandmother, who died of Alzheimer’s when he was a teenager. Richard lives in Manchester, England. 

Review: THE WICKED SISTER, Karen Dionne

• 
   this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published by Sphere (Amazon) 2020
• ISBN 978-0-7515-6742-7
• 285 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

A startling novel of psychological suspense, as two generations of sisters try to unravel their tangled relationships between nature and nurture, guilt and betrayal, love and evil.

You have been cut off from society for fifteen years, shut away in a mental hospital as punishment for the terrible thing you did when you were a child.

But what if nothing about your past is as it seems?

For a decade and a half, Rachel Cunningham has chosen to lock herself away in a psychiatric facility, tortured by gaps in her memory and the certainty that she is responsible for her parents' deaths. But when she learns new details about their murders, Rachel returns, in a quest for answers, to the place where she once felt safest: her family's sprawling log cabin in the remote forests of Michigan.

As Rachel begins to uncover what really happened on the day her parents were murdered, she learns - as her mother did years earlier - that home can be a place of unspeakable evil, and that the bond she shares with her sister might be the most poisonous of all.. 

My Take

Several ghastly threads in this novel: at least one of the women in this story is a psychopath but which one? Other reviews have labelled it atmospheric, chilling, thrilling. It is all of those things and more. Is it credible? I hope not, but part of me suspects that is possible.

What do you do if you learn that your daughter is a psychopath? How do you protect and manage her? And others?

My rating: 4.5 

I have already read 4.4, THE MARSH KING'S DAUGHTER