30 June 2020

Review: GREENWOOD, Michael Christie

  • this edition an e-book on Libby
  • Length:512pp
  • ISBN (13):9781925713855
  • Pub date:4 Feb 2020
  • source: my local library
  • 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize - Long-listed
Synopsis

‘The truth is that all family lines, from the highest to the lowest, originate somewhere, on some particular day. Even the grandest trees must’ve once been seeds spun helpless on the wind, and then just meek saplings nosing up from the soil.’

2038. On a remote island off the Pacific coast of British Columbia stands the Greenwood Arboreal Cathedral, one of the world’s last forests. Wealthy tourists flock from all corners of the dust-choked globe to see the spectacle and remember what once was. But even as they breathe in the fresh air and pose for photographs amidst the greenery, guide Jake knows that the forest is dying, though her bosses won’t admit it.

1908. Two passenger locomotives meet head-on. The only survivors are two young boys, who take refuge in a trapper’s cabin in a forest on the edge of town. In twenty-six years, one of them, now a recluse, will find an abandoned baby — another child of Greenwood — setting off a series of events that will change the course of his life, and the lives of those around him.

Structured like the rings of a tree, this remarkable novel moves from the future to the present to the past, and back again, to tell the story of one family and their enduring connection to the place that brought them together.

My Take

First of all, blog-followers, this is not crime fiction, although there are mysteries to be untangled.

In four generations, a family moves from tree fellers to tree preservers, and around their family the world begins to show the effects of this long term destruction of the world's resources.  Dust that results from the baring of the earth brings first great dust storms, then the Withering, and then finally a fungus that will destroy the last forests.

The story begins in 2038, on the outer ring, as it were, when planet Earth appears to be almost in its death throes, at an exclusive arboreal resort, a remote forested island in British Columbia where Pilgrims come to reconnect with an almost forgotten past.  From there the story jumps back 30 years, then back another 40, until we reach the centre of the family "tree", when the name Greenwood is born. Eventually story comes out through the rings and we come "full circle" and back to where we started. Little mysteries are solved, and the family saga takes on an almost linear aspect.

The novel is challenging to read, in that there is so much we are told, and so much we need to remember. The dystopian part, our future, is not pleasant to behold.

Rating: 4.5

About the author
Michael Christie is the author of the novel If I Fall, If I Die, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, the Kirkus Prize, was selected as a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and was on numerous best of 2015 lists. His linked collection of stories, The Beggar's Garden, was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, and won the Vancouver Book Award. His essays and book reviews have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Globe and Mail. A former carpenter and homeless shelter worker, he divides his time between Victoria, British Columbia, and Galiano Island, where he lives with his wife and two sons in a timber-frame house that he built himself.

25 June 2020

Review: THE PERFECT ROOMMATE, Minka Kent

  • this edition published in 2018
  • ISBN 9-781983-487644
  • 197 pages
  • source: my local library
Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

She’s my roommate.

I know how she takes her tea, how she organizes her closet.

I know when she goes to bed each night, what she eats for breakfast, the passcode on her phone.

I know she calls her mother on Mondays, takes barre on Thursdays, and meets her friends for drinks on Fridays.

But more important than any of that … I know what she did.

My take

Meadow is a literature student looking for a cheap room to rent and when she moves in with Lauren Wiedenfeld she gets a lot more than she expects. Lauren is generous with her clothes, her friends and her money and Meadow feels unexpectedly welcome.

What she doesn't know is that Lauren and her friends have just been waiting for someone like her.

This is a pretty quick read, but an interesting plot. I'll be reading another by Minka Kent.

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Minka Kent has been crafting stories since before she could scribble her name. With a love of the literary dark and twisted, Minka cut her teeth on Goosebumps and Fear Street, graduated to Stephen King as a teenager, and now counts Gillian Flynn, Chevy Stevens, and Caroline Kepnes amongst her favorite authors and biggest influences. Minka has always been curious about good people who do bad things and loves to explore what happens when larger-than-life characters are placed in fascinating situations.

23 June 2020

Review: RULES FOR PERFECT MURDERS, Peter Swanson

  • format: e-book (Libby)
  • ISBN: 9780571342358
  • Publisher: Faber
  • Pub Date: March 2020
  • Page Extent: 320
  • Source: my local library
Synopsis (publisher)

Eight classic murders.
A single crime obsessive.
Countless thrilling twists.

A series of unsolved murders with one thing in common: each of the deaths bears an eerie similarity to the crimes depicted in classic mystery novels.

The deaths lead FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey to mystery bookshop Old Devils. Owner Malcolm Kershaw had once posted online an article titled 'My Eight Favourite Murders,' and there seems to be a deadly link between the deaths and his list - which includes Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders, Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train and Donna Tartt's The Secret History.

Can the killer be stopped before all eight of these perfect murders have been re-enacted?

My Take

This novel is presented as a memoir by the narrator, a record of things that have happened, but with names and identifying "characteristics ... changed to protect the innocent."

In the opening scene FBI Agent Gwen Mulvey enters the Old Devils Bookstore in Boston. She has rung to ensure that owner Malcolm Kershaw will be there as she wants to discuss with him. Some murders she is investigating remind her of the plot of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders. She has found Mal Kershaw through a blog post he wrote some years earlier, a list titles "Eight Perfect Murders".
The books he listed were
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Malice Aforethought by Anthony Berkeley Cox
The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain
Strangers on a Train By Patricia Highsmith
The Drowner by John D. MacDonald
Deathtrap by Ira Levin
The Secret History by Donna Tarrt

Now it appears that someone may be trying to reproduce the methodology that the list is based on.
Mulvey questions him about why each book was chosen, and they agree between them to re-read the books.
She leaves, saying she will be in touch.

A cleverly written book, in which we are not at all sure about Kershaw's reliability as the narrator.

My rating: 4.7

Author bio:

Peter Swanson's novels include The Girl With a Clock for a Heart, nominated for an LA Times book award, The Kind Worth Killing, a Richard and Judy pick and the iBooks store's thriller of the year in 2015, and, most recently, Before She Knew Him. He lives with his wife and cat in Somerville, Massachusetts.

22 June 2020

Review: CALL ME EVIE, J. P. Pomare

  • this large print edition published by Hachette Australia 2018
  • ISBN 9-781525-299040
  • 467 pages
  • source: my local library
  • WINNER OF THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD BEST FIRST NOVEL 2019
    SHORTLISTED FOR THE ABIA MATT RICHELL AWARD 2020
    SHORTLISTED FOR THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD BEST NOVEL 2019
    LONGLISTED FOR THE NED KELLY AWARD BEST FIRST FICTION 2019
    LONGLISTED FOR THE ABIA GENERAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2020
Synopsis (publisher)

DON'T TRUST HIM. IT WASN'T ME. IT COULDN'T HAVE BEEN ME.

Meet Evie, a young woman held captive by a man named Jim in the isolated New Zealand beach town of Maketu. Jim says he's hiding Evie to protect her, that she did something terrible back home in Melbourne.

In a house that creaks against the wind, Evie begins to piece together her fractured memories of the events that led her here.

Jim says he's keeping her safe. Evie's not sure she can trust Jim, but can she trust her own memories?

My Take

This novel is written in two time frames, before and after. There are also two narrators. Which is the reliable one? We see things mainly from Evie's eyes and tend to trust her, but is that right? Is Jim really the untrustworthy, unreliable one?

Evie is not her real name, Jim is her uncle. or is he?

Early on, we piece together that they have come from Melbourne as a result of a traumatic event, that they are "on the run", that people are looking for them, that it is possibly her fault.

This was an incredible debut novel, one that will keep you trying to piece together what has really happened.

At the end of the novel interesting questions are provided for discussion in book groups.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read
4.6, IN THE CLEARING 

19 June 2020

Review: BRING UP THE BODIES, Hilary Mantel - audio book

  • format: an audible book 
  • Narrated by: Simon Vance
  • Series: Wolf Hall Trilogy, Book 2
  • Length: 14 hrs and 33 mins
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Release date: 05-21-12
  • Publisher: Whole Story Audiobooks 
  • Costa Book of the Year, 2012
  • UK Author of the Year - Specsavers National Book Awards, 2012
  • Man Booker Prize, Fiction, 2012
Synopsis (publisher)

By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry’s second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church.

In Bring Up the Bodies, Hilary Mantel explores one of the most mystifying and frightening episodes in English history: the destruction of Anne Boleyn. This new novel is an audacious vision of Tudor England that sheds its light on the modern world.

My Take

This really is one of those books you could read again and again (as I have done) because there is always something "new" to absorb.

Henry VIII has an almost insurmountable problem: he is aging, and he does not have a legitimate male heir. Most of us know this story well but probably haven't realised that it played out over such a long period of time. Henry ruled England from 1509 to 1547. He was married to Katherine of Aragon for 20 years and Mary was their only legitimate child. By 1533, after 24 years of marriage, Katherine was unlikely to produce any more surviving children, so Henry had their marriage annulled, so he could marry Anne Boleyn. He married Anne in 1533 and had her beheaded for adultery and treason in 1536 after she had produced just one surviving child, a female, Elizabeth.

This book is the story of Anne's struggle for survival and the steps Henry took to secure a male heir.

My rating: 4.7

 I had reviewed this previously: 4.7, BRING UP THE BODIES

Thomas Cromwell Trilogy
   1. Wolf Hall (2009)
   2. Bring up the Bodies (2012)
   3. The Mirror And The Light (2020)

18 June 2020

Review: LONG WAY HOME, Eva Dolan

  • Published: 15 July 2014
  • ISBN: 9780099584391
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • #1  Zigic & Ferreira series
  • 400 pages
  • source: my local library as an e-book - Libby
Synopsis (publisher)

SILENCE HIDES THE WORST CRIMES

A man is burnt alive in a shed.
No witnesses, no fingerprints - only a positive ID of the victim as an immigrant with a long list of enemies.

Detectives Zigic and Ferreira are called in from the Hate Crimes Unit to track the killer, and are met with silence in a Fenland community ruled by slum racketeers, people-trafficking gangs and fear.

Tensions rise.
The clock is ticking.
But nobody wants to talk.

My Take:

This story is set in the Fenlands city of Peterborough where migrant workers have flooded into jobs in the town, in the factories, the building industry, the factories, and the pubs.

The newly created Hate Crimes Unit is called when a body is found to have been burnt in a garden shed doubling as accommodation. DI Zigic has a Serbian background, and DS Ferreira has Portuguese background.

Then the body is identified and is found to be related to another body discovered near some railway tracks, cut into pieces by a suburban train.

The investigative net gets wider and branches out into the migrant community where workers, some legal, some illegal, are being treated like slaves, and at the mercy racketeers, among simmering racial tension.

There are several authentic voices in the narration: the police, the owners of the shed, building site workers, and local petty criminals.

The final truth comes as a surprise.

This is the first title in a series that now has 5 titles:
   1. Long Way Home (2014)
   2. Tell No Tales (2015)
   3. After You Die (2016)
   4. Watch Her Disappear (2017)
   5. Between Two Evils (2020)

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Eva Dolan is an Essex-based copywriter and intermittently successful poker player. Shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger for unpublished authors when she was just a teenager, the first novels in her series starring two detectives from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit, Long Way Home and Tell No Tales were published to widespread critical acclaim. Tell No Tales was shortlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year and the third in the series, After You Die, was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger.

14 June 2020

Review: YOU DON'T KNOW ME, Sara Foster

Synopsis (publisher)

Who killed Lizzie Burdett?

Lizzie Burdett was eighteen when she vanished, and Noah Carruso has never forgotten her. She was his first crush, his unrequited love. She was also his brother’s girlfriend.

Tom Carruso hasn’t been home in over a decade. He left soon after Lizzie disappeared under a darkening cloud of suspicion, and now he’s back for the inquest into Lizzie’s death – intent on telling his side of the story. As the inquest looms, Noah meets Alice Pryce on  holiday. They fall for each other fast and hard, but Noah can’t bear to tell Alice his deepest fears. And Alice is equally stricken – she carries a terrible secret of her own. Is the truth worth telling if it will destroy everything?

A stunning new thriller about the burden of shame from blockbuster author Sara Foster.

My Take

Alice Pryce reminds Noah Carruso of his brother's girlfriend Lizzie Burdett who vanished one night twelve years before. Alice is in Thailand teaching English and Noah is having a holiday before attending an inquest back in Australia called to finally resolve what happened to Lizzie.
They fall in love as if their lives depend on it. Both have secrets about what has happened to them in Australia, and Alice is planning never to return.

Noah puts off his return to Australia as long as he can, but eventually he must return to Australia for the inquest and to face his brother Tom. After Noah has left for home Alice gets a visit from the Australian High Commission which means she has to return too.

I kept wondering if this is really crime fiction, but in reality at least one crime needs to be resolved. But on another level it is a romance, but also an attempt to by the main characters to come to terms with shame and guilt.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.3, ALL THAT IS LOST BETWEEN US

About the author
Sara Foster has written five critically acclaimed novels: Come Back to Me, Beneath the Shadows, Shallow Breath, All That is Lost Between Us and The Hidden Hours. She was born and raised in England, and moved to Australia in 2004. She lives in Perth with her husband and two children.

Find out more at:
www.sarafoster.com.au
www.facebook.com/sarafosterauthor
www.instagram.com/sarafosterauthor
www.twitter.com/sarajfoster


11 June 2020

Review: THE WEEKEND, Charlotte Wood

  • this edition sourced through my local library on Libby
  • published by Allen & Unwin, 2019
  • 272 pages
  • ISBN  9781760292010
  • Shortlisted ALS Gold Medal 2020 AU;
    Longlisted Miles Franklin Award 2020 AU;
    Shortlisted Stella Prize 2020 AU;
    Winner Literary Fiction Book of the Year, ABIA Awards 2020 AU;
    Shortlisted Best Fiction, Indie Book Awards 2020 AU
Synopsis (publisher)

People went on about death bringing friends together, but it wasn't true. The graveyard, the stony dirt - that's what it was like now . . . Despite the three women knowing each other better than their own siblings, Sylvie's death had opened up strange caverns of distance between them.

Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. Can they survive together without her?

They are Jude, a once-famous restaurateur, Wendy, an acclaimed public intellectual, and Adele, a renowned actress now mostly out of work. Struggling to recall exactly why they've remained close all these years, the grieving women gather for Christmas at Sylvie's old beach house - not for festivities, but to clean the place out before it is sold.

Without Sylvie to maintain the group's delicate equilibrium, frustrations build and painful memories press in. Fraying tempers, an elderly dog, unwelcome guests and too much wine collide in a storm that brings long-buried hurts to the surface - and threatens to sweep away their friendship for good.

The Weekend explores growing old and growing up, and what happens when we're forced to uncover the lies we tell ourselves. Sharply observed and excruciatingly funny, this is a jewel of a book: a celebration of tenderness and friendship that is nothing short of a masterpiece.

My Take

First of all, this is NOT crime fiction (for those who follow my blog).

Four friends, now in their seventies, have met for years at Christmas at a beach house on the New South Wales coast. Now there are just three of them, and they are meeting to clean out the beach house in preparation for sale.
It becomes obvious that the glue that has held them together over the years is the owner of the beach house, the friend who has recently died.  And perhaps the things that separate them are bigger than the things that bind.
We find out rather a lot about their current situations, and also a lot about what has happened in their lives over the years.

A thought provoking read.

My rating:4.6

About the author
Charlotte Wood has been described as 'one of our most original and provocative writers'. She is the author of six novels and two books of non-fiction. Her bestselling novel, The Natural Way of Things, won the 2016 Stella Prize, the Indie Book of the Year and Indie Book Award for Fiction, was joint winner of the Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, and was published throughout Europe, the United Kingdom and North America. She has been twice shortlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award, as well as many others for this and previous works. Her non-fiction books include The Writer's Room, a collection of interviews with authors about the creative process, and Love & Hunger, a book about cooking. She lives in Sydney with her husband.

8 June 2020

Review: UNDER THE MIDNIGHT SKY, Anna Romer

  • this large print edition published by Read How You Want
  • first published in Australia by Simon and Schuster 2019
  • 485 pages
  • ISBN 978-0-36932-454-2
  • source: my local library
Synopsis (publisher)

Chilling secrets buried deep in wild bushland drive this thrilling new novel from bestseller Anna Romer

When an injured teenager goes missing at a remote bushland campground, local journalist Abby Bardot is determined to expose the area’s dark history. The girl bears a striking resemblance to the victims of three brutal murders that occurred twenty years ago and Abby fears the killer is still on the loose.

But the newspaper Abby works for wants to suppress the story for fear it will scare off tourists to the struggling township. Haunted by her own turbulent memories, Abby is desperate to learn the truth and enlists the help of Tom Gabriel, a reclusive crime writer. At first resentful of Abby’s intrusion, Tom’s reluctance vanishes when they discover a hidden attic room in his house that shows evidence of imprisonment from half a century before.

As Abby and Tom sift through the attic room and discover its tragic history, they become convinced it holds the key to solving the bushland murders and finding the missing girl alive.

But their quest has drawn out a killer, someone with a shocking secret who will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

My Take

There are many mysteries to be solved in this novel with several story lines and the stories coming from several time frames. There are secrets to be uncovered. Abby Bardot has a history that she doesn't talk about, and there are several people who have hidden pasts. There is a man in jail for a murder he says he didn't commit. It all makes for a great tangle.

Underneath it all Abby the journalist wants to write about the secrets of Deep Water, about the girls who've disappeared, those who've died, and those who survived.

This book makes the reader work hard as the author changes the voice of the narrator almost at whim. There is little warning that this is going to happen and the narration can swap from third person to first person between paragraphs. There are at least four main narrators and several minor ones. I guess the intent is to make the reader aware of what particular characters are thinking, but it is not a device that I particularly like. In the earlier parts of the book I found it confusing.

Despite all that, an intriguing story, and one that kept me guessing.

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Anna Romer was born in Australia to a family of booklovers. She led a nomadic life for many years, travelling around Europe and Britain in an ancient Kombi van where she discovered a passion for history.

These days she lives in a little old cottage surrounded by bushland, writing stories about dark family secrets, rambling houses, characters haunted by the past, and settings that feature the uniquely beautiful Australian landscape. Anna’s debut bestselling novel was Thornwood House, followed by Lyrebird Hill and Beyond the Orchard. See AnnaRomer.com.au

5 June 2020

Review: THE DARKNESS GATHERS, Lisa Unger

  • Release Date: 2003
  • Series: Lydia Strong #2
  • source my local library via Libby
  • author web site
Synopsis (author web site)

Fresh from a tour promoting her last case, reclusive true crime writer Lydia Strong receives an anonymous cry for help, begging her to find and protect Tatiana Quinn, "and all the other girls in need of rescue." Maybe the plea strikes close to her heart; maybe her investigator's intuition starts buzzing. She takes it on.

But this simple case of a missing teenager soon becomes much more. Someone wants Lydia to drop the case, someone powerful, someone anxious enough to engineer the re-appearance of one of Lydia's first--and most dangerous--adversaries. Now, in addition to tracing the roots of Tatiana's disappearance on a trail across the country and eventually overseas, Lydia must find the man who wants her dead, his unfinished business from years ago.

Excerpt

"The voice on the tape was thin and quavering. Lydia Strong had to rewind the tape and turn up the volume. In the background, she could hear the wet whisper of cars passing on rain-slicked roads and, once, the loud sharp blast of a semi's air horn. "It's Tatiana," the message began, followed by a nervous little noise that was somewhere between a giggle and a sob. "Are you there...please? I can't believe she's doing this to me." She went on in another language, something throaty and harsh, Eastern European-sounding. Then she switched back to English. "I'm not supposed to call anyone. I don't have much time. I'm somewhere in—" The connection was broken."

My Take

Tatiana Quinn, rebellious teenager, has disappeared from Miami and her billionaire father Nathan Quinn is anxious to get her back. So far attempts to find her have been unsuccessful. Crime writer Lydia Strong is contacted first of all by a message on her phone and then by a Florida detective who says he has something for her. Lydia doesn't usually take this sort of case on but this one appeals to her.

Once in Miami Lydia becomes convinced that the appeal and the subsequent tape recording have been sent to her by the Quinn's home help. Lydia is about to quiz her when a black Mercedes mows her down and kills her. Actions like this tend to make Lydia all the more convinced to continue her investigation. One of the police investigators disappears and then is found dead. Then the remaining investigator becomes unwilling to talk and advises Lydia and her partner Jeffrey Mark to drop the investigation and return to New York. It is obvious that there is much more to this case and to top it all Lydia becomes convinced that one or both of Tatiana's parents are involved.

Quite a long read, with a number of twisted plot strands.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read
4.3, BLACKOUT
4.7, BEAUTIFUL LIES

2 June 2020

Review: COLD CASE, Quintin Jardine

  • this edition published by Headline Publishing Group 2018
  • ISBN 978-1-4722-3893-1
  • 370 pages
  • #30 in the Bob Skinner series
Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Is a killer still on the loose?

The thirtieth gritty mystery in Quintin Jardine's bestselling Bob Skinner series, not to be missed by readers of Ian Rankin and Peter May. Praise for Quintin Jardine's gripping novels: 'Well constructed, fast-paced, Jardine's narrative has many an ingenious twist and turn' Observer

When a murder investigation that's been closed for thirty years is suddenly re-opened, former Chief Constable Bob Skinner is quickly drawn into the action.

The story of the Body in the Quarry was well-known around Edinburgh all those years ago: a popular priest found dead in a frozen quarry; a suspect with a clear motive charged; a guilty verdict. But with a journalist uncovering new evidence, the cold case has come back to haunt Skinner's old mentor Jimmy Proud - and only one man can help him.

Skinner is long out of the police force, but he can't say no. With the clock ticking, and his friend's reputation at stake, he must uncover the truth to find out if an innocent man was convicted for murder. And if a killer is still on the loose . . .

My Take

I think I paid the penalty here of starting with #30 in a series. I was new to the characters and the relationships between them, and I had a hard time in particular with building a picture of ex-Chief Constable (Sir) Robert Skinner. He has started a new career as the director of a media company, has a family of varying ages, a wife who is the local pathologist, and still has a finger in many pies. He is held in high regard by the community and is immediately recognisable by members of the public.

The Bob Skinner series has produced 32 books since 1993 so I can only imagine the amount of background material that I have missed out on. The cold case in this book pre-dates Skinner's own career and new implicates the two men whom he regarded in high esteem and who were in fact his mentors. The man charged with killing the priest Matthew Ampersand actually took his own life in gaol but his family always regarded him as guilty. Skinner comes into the case as an investigator and tracks down both members of the dead man's family and members of the family of the convicted man. When the journalist who initiates the investigation first of all goes missing and then is found dead, the cold case coincides with the new one, and more resources are thrown at it, Skinner becomes the mentor of the senior policemen involved, and at the same time tries to protect the reputations of his own former members.

My rating probably reflects my lack of knowledge of the series rather than any shortcomings in the plot, but I was left wondering about the credibility of the scenario.

My rating: 4.3

I've also read
4.2, INHUMAN REMAINS Primavera Blackstone #2

1 June 2020

What I read in April and May 2020

Like many people I have spent the isolation time of the Covid-19 virus catching up with my reading.
There are lots of good crime fiction reads around, and even when access to the library was restricted, I had some good reads from books already on my shelves or already on my Kindle.

April 2020
My pick of the month for April was
PEACE by Australian author Garry Disher along with
SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME by Craig Sisterson.
  1. 5.0, PEACE, Garry Disher  - Australian author & setting
  2. 4.7, RIGHT BEHIND YOU, Rachel Abbott  
  3. 4.5, THE PORTRAIT OF MOLLY DEAN, Katherine Kovacic - Australian author & setting
  4. 4.8, THE GOOD TURN, Dervla McTiernan - Australian author
  5. 4.5, BOXED, Richard Anderson - Australian author & setting 
  6. 4.6, IN THE CLEARING, J. P. Pomare - Australian author & setting
  7. 4.3, THE BEEKEEPER, Stewart Giles
  8. 4.3, RETRIBUTION, Richard Anderson - Australian author & setting 
  9. 5.0, SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, Craig Sisterson - Australian and New Zealand crime fiction
  10. 4.5, THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPE, Katherine Kovacic - Australian author & setting 
  11. 4.4, TRUE WEST, David Whish-Wilson -  Australian author & setting,
  12. 4.8, WHAT LIES BETWEEN US, John Marrs 
May 2020
The good reads continued, with my pick going to MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci
 ( audio book was THE REMORSEFUL DAY by Colin Dexter, the last book in the Morse series)
  1. 4.1, GREY MASK, Patricia Wentworth
  2. 4.3, ELLY, Maike Wetzel
  3. 4.4, THE CASE IS CLOSED, Patricia Wentworth  
  4. 4.6, PAINTING IN THE SHADOWS, Katherine Kovacic
  5. 4.5, LONESOME ROAD, Patricia Wentworth 
  6. 4.4, THE GREAT DIVIDE, L. J. M. Owen - Australian author & setting
  7. 5.0, THE REMORSEFUL DAY, Colin Dexter - audio book 
  8. 4.4, THE APARTMENT, K.L. Slater
  9. 4.8, MEMORY MAN, David Baldacci  
  10. 4.4, DEATH IN OSLO, Anne Holt  - translated from Norwegian
  11. 4.4, LYCKE, Mikaela Bley - translated from Norwegian
  12. 4.4, HERCULE POIROT AND THE GREENSHORE FOLLY, Agatha Christie
See what others have read in these two months.

Pick of the Month April/May 2020

Some how I never got around to running this meme for April, so here it is for April and May.
I have been considering not doing it any more, mainly because so few people are contributing.
But here it is for another month.

Crime Fiction Pick of the Month
April & May 2020
Many crime fiction bloggers write a summary post at the end of each month listing what they've read, and some, like me, even go as far as naming their pick of the month.

This meme is an attempt to aggregate those summary posts.
It is an invitation to you to write your own summary post for April and May 2020, identify your crime fiction best read of the month, and add your post's URL to the Mr Linky below.
If Mr Linky does not appear for you, leave the URL in a comment and I will add it myself.

You can list all the books you've read in the past month on your post, even if some of them are not crime fiction, but I'd like you to nominate your crime fiction pick of the month.

That will be what you will list in Mr Linky too -
e.g.
ROSEANNA, Maj Sjowall & Per Wahloo - MiP (or Kerrie)

You are welcome to use the image on your post and it would be great if you could link your post back to this post on MYSTERIES in PARADISE.



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