Review: ALL THAT'S LEFT UNSAID, Tracey Lien

• 
  This edition made available as an e-book by my local library on Libby
  
• Published by Harper Collins 2022
• ISBN: 9780008547080
• ISBN 10: 0008547084
• Pages: 352
• Reading guide
  

Synopsis (publisher)

There were a dozen witnesses to Denny Tran’s brutal murder in a busy Sydney restaurant. So how come no one saw anything?

‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation. That night in 1996, Denny – optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history.

Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case: several people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing.

As an antidote to grief and guilt, Ky is determined to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels away another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny,exposing the trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam,and by the choices they’ve all made to survive.

Tracey Lien's extraordinary debut pulls apart the intricate bonds of friendship, family, culture and community that produced a devastating crime. All That's Left Unsaid is both a study of the effects of inherited trauma and social discrimination, and a compulsively readable literary thriller that expertly holds the reader in its grip until the final page.

My Take

When Ky Tran finds that her parents have no idea how or why her baby brother Denny was killed, that they had refused an autopsy, and that all of those present at the time claim to have seen nothing, she is determined to conduct her own investigation.

Ky is a journalist, and her profession and her own guilt about the way she has left her brother to his own devices, push her to track down those present at Denny's death, convinced that she must be able to work out what actually happened even if the police can't. 

At the same time we are filled in on how Ky and her brother were raised, the cultural values important to them and their parents, and the effects of living in Cabramatta. 

The result is an unusual crime fiction debut novel, raising issues that most Australian readers have never thought about.

My rating: 4.8

About the author
Tracey Lien was born and raised in southwestern Sydney, Australia. She earned her MFA at the University of Kansas and was previously a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. All That’s Left Unsaid is her first novel. 

Review: CUTTER'S END, Margaret Hickey

• 
  This edition made available by my local library as an e-book on Libby
• e-book published 3 August 2021
• ISBN: 9781761044168
• Imprint: Penguin
• Pages: 384
• WINNER OF THE DANGER PRIZE 2022
• SHORTLISTED FOR THE NED KELLY AWARD FOR FIRST FICTION 2022. 

Synopsis (publisher)

An award-winning crime thriller, set in the South Australian outback town of Cutters End. A mysterious death on New Year’s Eve 1989 leads to a shocking murder investigation 32 years later . . .

A desert highway. A remote town. A murder that won’t stay hidden.

New Year’s Eve, 1989. Eighteen-year-old Ingrid Mathers is hitchhiking her way to Alice Springs. Bored, hungover and separated from her friend Joanne, she accepts a lift to the remote town of Cutters End.

July 2021. Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti is seconded to a recently reopened case, one in which he has a personal connection. Three decades ago, a burnt and broken body was discovered in scrub off the Stuart Highway, 300km south of Cutters End. Though ultimately ruled an accidental death, many people - including a high-profile celebrity - are convinced it was murder.

When Mark’s interviews with the witnesses in the old case files go nowhere, he has no choice but to make the long journey up the highway to Cutters End.

And with the help of local Senior Constable Jagdeep Kaur, he soon learns that this death isn’t the only unsolved case that hangs over the town... 

My Take

There is always something fascinating about reading crime fiction set in a geographic area which you know well, in this case, the Australian state in which I live.

Back in the days when we thought hitching rides was relatively safe, Ingrid Mathers took a ride she will remember for the rest of her life.

32 years on Mark Ariti, an Adelaide Detective Sergeant, temporarily promoted to Acting Inspector, is asked to investigate what appears to be a cold case. A television personality has insisted that the police should thoroughly investigate a death death 30 years earlier which she is convinced was murder.  Mark is the perfect choice because he knows one of the people who gave evidence back then when the case was fresh.

Mark Ariti agrees to take the case as he feels it may get him out of the career slump he is currently in. It take him north to Port York (fictitious town) and then up the Stuart Highway to Cutter's End, a fictitious ex-opal mining town.

What chance does Mark have of finding new evidence? None you would think, but that is not quite true.

An excellent read. Certainly an author to watch.

There is an extra bonus of Reading Group Questions at the end of the book, as well as some Author Q & A.

Rating: 4.7

About the author

Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is deeply interested in rural lives and communities. She is the author of Cutters End and Stone Town.

Review: THE KILLING CODE, Ellie Marney

•  this book made available by my local library through Libby
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (September 20, 2022)
• Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 384 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 031633958X
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0316339582
• Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 years and up
• Grade level ‏ : ‎ 9 and up

Synopsis (Amazon)

A historical mystery about a girl who risks everything to track down a vicious serial killer, for fans of The Enigma Game and Last Night at the Telegraph Club.

Virginia, 1943: World War II is raging in Europe and on the Pacific front when Kit Sutherland is recruited to help the war effort as a codebreaker at Arlington Hall, a former girls’ college now serving as the site of a secret US Signal Intelligence facility. But Kit is soon involved in another kind of fight: government girls are being brutally murdered in Washington DC, and when Kit stumbles onto a bloody homicide scene, she is drawn into the hunt for the killer.
 
To find the man responsible for the gruesome murders and bring him to justice, Kit joins forces with other female codebreakers at Arlington Hall—gossip queen Dottie Crockford, sharp-tongued intelligence maven Moya Kershaw, and cleverly resourceful Violet DuLac from the segregated codebreaking unit. But as the girls begin to work together and develop friendships—and romance—that they never expected, two things begin to come clear: the murderer they’re hunting is closing in on them…and Kit is hiding a dangerous secret. 

My Take

Aimed at a young adult audience, this story combines historical detail with a thriller/mystery. At times the fact that it has a YA audience peeks through, but in general the story is plausible and well-told. 

Two girls employed by the government have recently been murdered and group of four decide to try to track down the murderer. They use their skills as code breakers working in a secret US facility to develop a profile of the murderer and liaise with a journalist from the Washington Post to entrap him.

Running in the background are a couple of other strands: Kit Sutherland's hidden background, the role of girls in codebreaking, and the treatment of black girls despite the role they are playing.

Rating: 4.4 

About the Author
Ellie Marney is an New York Times bestselling author of crime thrillers. Her titles include the Aurealis-winning None Shall Sleep, White Night, the Every series and the companion novel No Limits, and the Circus Hearts series. Her books are published in ten countries, and have been optioned for television. She’s spent a lifetime researching in mortuaries, talking to autopsy specialists, and asking former spies about how to make explosives from household items, and now she lives quite sedately in southeastern Australia with her family. Her latest book is The Killing Code, an intense mystery about female codebreakers hunting a serial killer against a backdrop of 1940s wartime Washington DC. You can find out more about Ellie and her books at www.elliemarney.com or online @elliemarney.

Review: EXILES, Jane Harper

• 
  this edition published Pan Macmillan Australia 2022
  
• ISBN 978-1-76078-395-2
• 410 pages
• #3 in the Aaron Falk series
  

Synopsis (publisher)

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds.

A year on, Kim Gillespie's absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

Joining the celebrations is federal investigator Aaron Falk. But as he soaks up life in the lush valley, he begins to suspect this tight-knit group may be more fractured than it seems. Between Falk's closest friend, a missing mother, and a woman he's drawn to, dark questions linger as long-ago truths begin to emerge. 

My Take

Kim Gillespie disappeared a year earlier, on the opening night of the wine festival, and so the investigation now has a cold case feel about. However her daughter Zara is convinced her mother is still alive.

There has been some talk of whether Kim committed suicide, jumping into a local dam, an effect of some mental health issues. But those who know her best think that would be unlikely, although everybody agrees that they haven't actually seen Kim to talk to since her baby was born.

Pamphlets are distributed at the wine festival asking people to think about when they last saw Kim on the night that she disappeared. 

A second element is the death of a popular local accountant in a hit and run case six years earlier. Aaron Falk finds himself drawn into both cases.

This novel has a surprisingly gentle feel to it, and events seem to move very slowly, yet we know we will have the answer at the end. The setting is "South Australian wine country" and that has caused discussion in our group about exactly where. 

A good one for "overseas" readers. It has a truly Australian flavour about it.

My rating: 4.8

I've also read

4.7, THE DRY- Falk #1
5.0, FORCE OF NATURE- Falk #2
5.0, THE LOST MAN 
4.8, THE SURVIVORS

Review: ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES, Charlotte McConaghy

This edition made available via my local library through Libby

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin eBooks (3 August 2021)

Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages

Book club questions

 
Synopsis (publisher)

From the author of the international bestseller Migrations comes a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands

Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team tasked with reintroducing fourteen grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but a broken Aggie, too. However, Inti is not the woman she once was, and may be in need of rewilding herself.

Despite fierce opposition from the locals, Inti's wolves surprise everyone by thriving, and she begins to let her guard down, even opening up to the possibility of love. But when a local farmer is found dead, Inti knows where the town will lay blame. Unable to accept her wolves could be responsible, she makes a reckless decision to protect them, testing every instinct she has.

But if her wolves didn't make the kill, then who did? And what will she do when the man she's been seeing becomes the main suspect?

Propulsive and spellbinding, Once There Were Wolves is the unforgettable tale of a woman desperate to save the creatures she loves. Part thriller, part redemptive love story, Charlotte McConaghy's profoundly affecting novel will stay with you forever. 

My Take

In places where there were once trees, the forests are gone. The world has lost countless species of wildlife, largely in our lifetimes. In places where there were once wolves, there are now none. In hunting down or chopping one down, the world's population has often destroyed the entire ecosystem that it was part of. Re-wilding projects believe that if you can re-instate one part of the system, sometimes the main predator, then you stand a chance of restoring the ecosystem.

But often the land was cleared, or the predators killed in order to grow another economic enterprise. In Scotland for example the land was cleared and the wolves hunted down to make way for sheep. But destroying that ecosystem has often turned the land barren. The promise is that if we can re-introduce wolves then other things will be restored and nature's balance will be restored.

But those whose livelihood depends on the sheep fear the re-introduction of wolves, believing that they will not only attack the sheep but also humans.

I found the scale of this novel breath taking. Only part of it was concerned crime fiction, with murder, and violence. Much of it was about how humans treat each other. The characters were very real and the scenarios credible. Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.7

About the author

Charlotte McConaghy is the author of the international bestseller Migrations, a TIME Magazine Best Book of the Year and the Amazon.com Best Fiction Book of the Year for 2020, which is being translated into over twenty languages. She has both a Graduate Degree in Screenwriting and a Masters Degree in Screen Arts, and lives in Sydney, Australia. Her forthcoming novel Once There Were Wolves will be published by Flatiron Books in August 2021 in the US and around the world.

Review: THE WHISPERING, Veronica Lando

• 
  this edition published by Harper Collins Australia 2022
  
• 353 pages
• ISBN 9-781460-762158
• debut title
• winner 2021 Banjo Prize for Fiction.

Synopsis (publisher)

The whispering wild will take your child if you dare to look away ...

The stunning Aussie crime debut from the winner of the 2021 Banjo Prize for Fiction.

Callum Haffenden swore he'd never return to Granite Creek. But, thirty years after a life-shattering accident, he's thrust back into the clutches of Far North Queensland and a local legend he worked hard to forget.

When a man goes missing in the rainforest, the past begins to resurface, breathing new life into memories of previous tragedies - two girls lost, seventeen years apart. In a town where it's easiest to turn a blind eye, the guilt runs deep and everyone in Granite Creek has something to hide.

In his search for answers, Callum fights to keep his feet firmly on the trail as he battles the deafening call of the rainforest burrowing into his ears. After all, everyone knows that the worst things in the rainforest are those unseen.

My Take

There are plenty of mysteries for the reader to unwrap in this very recently published debut title.

Callum Haffenden is a journalist from Tasmania but that is not why he has returned to Granite Creek in the Far North Queensland rainforest. It is where he grew up, his mother a town doctor, and his father a policeman. Thirty years ago he left, taken south by an air ambulance and he swore never to return. But a man has gone missing at a dangerous place in the rainforest and Callum comes north to uncover the truth.

So we have the mystery of what happened to Callum thirty years before, who the girls were who have been lost in the forest seventeen years apart, who the latest missing person is, and why there is such antipathy between Callum and at least one of the town's residents.

Woven through the story is the rhyme which is meant to keep children out of the forest especially when the wind whistles through the boulders and the tree tops.

The mysteries keep you reading until the very end, and uncovering even more mysteries.

My rating: 4.5

About the author

Veronica Lando is an Australian crime author who won the 2021 Banjo Prize for her then-unpublished manuscript The Whispering.

As a child, she grew up above her parents' Melbourne bookstore, surrounded by other people's stories. Now, as an adult, she lives in Queensland and enjoys using the uniquely wild and sometimes dangerous landscapes of the far north to shape her writing.

In 2020, she placed in the Scarlet Stiletto awards and has since had short stories published in anthologies with both Sisters in Crime Australia and the Queensland Writers' Centre.

Veronica currently lives in Townsville with her husband and three children.

Review: THE MURDER RULE, Dervla McTiernan

• 
  This edition in paperback from my local library
  
• Harper Collins Publishers 2022
• ISBN 978-1-4607-6012-3
• 292 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

For fans of the compulsive psychological suspense of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a mother daughter story—one running from a horrible truth, and the other fighting to reveal it—that twists and turns in shocking ways, from the internationally bestselling author of The Scholar and The Ruin.

First Rule: Make them like you.

Second Rule: Make them need you.

Third Rule: Make them pay.

They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system.

They think I’m working hard to impress them.

They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row.

They're wrong. I’m going to bury him.

My Take

Hannah Rokeby finds a way to blackmail her way into the Innocence Project being conducted by the Law faculty of the University of Virginia despite the fact that the official application period has concluded and candidates have already been chosen. The Innocence Project works with death row prisoners and others who appear to have been wrongfully convicted. Initially the Associate Professor in charge of the Innocence Project tells her that applications are closed but then Hannah reminds him of some "personal mentoring" that he gave to a female student, and he agrees to meet with her.

Hannah's determination wins her a place on the project, but unlike most other students who are there to prove a convicted criminal's innocence, Hannah is there to prove someone's guilt and to impede the project. Hannah has been primed for this role by her mother's diary which she believes proves that this particular criminal killed her father. This is not the crime for which he is on death row.

Normally students new to the Innocence Project would work only on entry level cases until they were able to prove their abilities at research, but Hannah is able to put the project director into a position where he can't ignore her.

This new stand-alone thriller by McTiernan takes us into an area of US law that most of us would not be familiar with. I wasn't entirely convinced that the sequence of events in the latter pages of the story were credible, but certainly the plot held together, and the characters were believable.   A clever piece of writing.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.8, THE RUIN
4.8, THE SCHOLAR
4.8, THE GOOD TURN  

Review: BEFORE YOU KNEW MY NAME, Jacqueline Bublitz

• 
  This edition made available through my local library as an e-book on Libby
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Allen & Unwin (4 May 2021) 
• 336 pages
• WINNER OF THE ABIA AWARD FOR GENERAL FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
• Longlisted CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year 2022 AU; Longlisted Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year, ABIA Awards 2022 AU; Longlisted General Fiction Book of the Year, ABIA Awards 2022 AU; Shortlisted MUD Literary Prize 2022 AU; Longlisted Dublin Literary Award 2022 IR
  
• Read the Opening Chapter
  

Synopsis (publisher)

This is not just another novel about a dead girl.

When she arrived in New York on her 18th birthday carrying nothing but $600 cash and a stolen camera, Alice Lee was looking for a fresh start. Now, just one month later, she is the city's latest Jane Doe, an unidentified murder victim.

Ruby Jones is also trying to start over; she travelled halfway around the world only to find herself lonelier than ever. Until she finds Alice's body by the Hudson River.

From this first, devastating encounter, the two women form an unbreakable bond. Alice is sure that Ruby is the key to solving the mystery of her life - and death. And Ruby - struggling to forget what she saw that morning - finds herself unable to let Alice go. Not until she is given the ending she deserves.

Before You Knew My Name doesn't ask whodunnit. Instead, this powerful, hopeful novel asks: Who was she? And what did she leave behind? The answers might surprise you.

My Take

We know from the first page of this novel that the narrator will die in this city, New York. Alice Lee arrives on a bus on her 18th birthday. She has an address to go to, Noah whom she found online, and with whom she has booked two weeks accommodation. So the first mystery is to find out the circumstances in which she dies. It is fairly clear that she is murdered. 

The second character we meet is Ruby Jones, 36 year old Australian from Melbourne, trying to re-establish her life. So the first half of the book is spent in fleshing out these characters, and exploring what they are making of their lives.

It is a little over 30% of the way through the book that Ruby discovers Alice's body and her life is changed forever. Ruby feels that she cannot rest until she discovers who killed Alice. Without her knowledge, Alice is helping her.

There! I am not going to tell you anymore! I hope I haven't spoilt the story for you, but I don't think I have told you any more than the publisher's blurb did. Along the way we think a lot about the vulnerability of women and girls.

This novel reminded me strongly of THE LOVELY BONES by Alice Seebold. That was published in 2002.

From Wikipedia:
It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. The novel received critical praise and became an instant bestseller. A film adaptation, directed by Peter Jackson, who personally purchased the rights, was released in 2009. The novel was also later adapted as a play of the same name, which premiered in England in 2018.

My rating: 4.6

About the author
Kiwi. Melburnian. Aunt. Lover of rain, red wine, key changes and New York. Writer of books that explore love, loss, and connection. Book Two coming soon!
Jacqueline 'Rock' Bublitz is a writer, feminist, and arachnophobe, who lives between Melbourne, Australia and her hometown on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. She wrote her debut novel Before You Knew My Name after spending a summer in New York, where she hung around morgues and the dark corners of city parks (and the human psyche) far too often. She is now working on her second novel, where she continues to explore the grand themes of love, loss and connection.

Review: THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY, Sulari Gentill

• 
  This edition an e-book from Amazon on Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09R41JFYN
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ultimo Press (1 June 2022)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 266 pages

Synopsis (Amazon) 

‘And then there is a scream. Ragged and terrified. A beat of silence even after it stops, until we all seem to realise that the Reading Room Rules no longer apply.’
 
Hannah Tigone, bestselling Australian crime author, is crafting a new novel that begins in the Boston Public Library (BPL): four strangers; Winifred, Cain, Marigold and Whit are sitting at the same table when a bloodcurdling scream breaks the silence. A woman has been murdered. They are all suspects, and, as it turns out, each character has their own secrets and motivations – and one of them is a murderer.
 
While crafting this new thriller, Hannah shares each chapter with her biggest fan and aspirational novelist, Leo. But Leo seems to know a lot about violence, motive, and how exactly to kill someone. Perhaps he is not all that he seems…
 
The Woman in the Library is an unexpectedly twisty literary adventure that examines the complicated nature of friendship – and shows that words can be the most treacherous weapons of all.

My Take

I have found this novel very difficult to review without revealing too much of the plot. I would rather leave it so the reader can travel on the same journey that I have.

So we have a cleverly constructed plot within a plot, a novel within a novel, a mystery within a mystery. I suspect that most readers, like me, will find this a challenging read.

So I have written my thoughts in a section below, rather than here, with an appropriate spoiler warning, and still trying not to reveal too much of the novel.

My rating: 4.5

 

About the Author
After setting out to study astrophysics, graduating in law and then abandoning her legal career to write books, SULARI GENTILL now grows French black truffles on her farm in the foothills of the Snowy Mountains of Australia.
Gentill's Rowland Sinclair mysteries have won and/or been shortlisted for the Davitt Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and her stand-alone metafiction thriller, After She Wrote Him won the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Novel in 2018. Her tenth Sinclair novel, A Testament of Character, was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Best Crime Novel in 2021. --This text refers to the paperback edition. 

I've also read

5.0, A FEW RIGHT THINKING MEN
4.8, A DECLINE IN PROPHETS
4.8, MILES OFF COURSE
4.7, PAVING THE NEW ROAD

Warning: Might contain spoilers 

Celebrated Australian author Hanna Tigone is in Sydney writing in her latest novel which she sets in the Boston Public Library. Winfred (Freddie) is an Australian writer who has won a Sinclair writer in residence scholarship to live and write in Boston and is living with other scholarship winners in an apartment house at Carrington Square. Among the others living there is another writer in residence named Leo Johnson. 

So we have a cleverly constructed plot within a plot, a novel within a novel, a mystery within a mystery. I suspect that most readers, like me, will find this a challenging read. The story that Freddie is writing is based on a group of people united by a scream. Freddie reveals her story to the others she has met at the BPL and they react enthusiastically, seemingly not realising she will be basing her story on them.

Hannah's novel also begins with the scream. As she completes her written segments she emails her novel off to a fan Leo, who, rather confusingly, is in Boston. Leo provides advice to Hannah about American customs and terminology. Leo talks about the need to give the novel a time frame, to say what colour/race the characters are and so on. He also keeps saying that he intends to come to Sydney to meet Hannah in person. The emails with Leo provide a third plot.

At the end of the novel the author has provided a Reading Group Guide, a set of questions readers might discuss. In the next section A CONVERSATION WITH THE AUTHOR Sulari Gentill reveals some uncanny parallels with the plots of the novel and what was happening in her own life.

I found the discussion between Freddie and the other characters about how she writes her story interesting: she likens the construction to a bus picking up passengers who then determine the direction the action takes. Whereas Cain plots his novel more conventionally, rather like a spider web. 

So after you've read the THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY come back and tell me how you reconciled  its construction.

Review: THE WATERHOLE, Lily Malone

• 
  this edition from Amazon on Kindle
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09K6C8DZF
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lily Malone Publishing (21 November 2021)
  
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 322 pages

Synopsis (Amazon)

Australian author Lily Malone debuts in a darker genre with this small-town mystery/suspense novel. Perfect for readers who love Jane Harper's The Dry.

When a backyard dare to discover the source of a fabled waterhole uncovers human bones, small town detective, Marley West, leaps at the chance to kickstart his stalled career. But it’s more than two decades since developers filled the Cowaramup creek. The woman who owned the land—the Ross family matriarch—has passed away. Relations between her sons, Jack and Bill, are colder than the case.

Then the Ross family learn Marley is the grandson of notorious police sergeant, Alan West, the corrupt cop who once ruled the town with an iron fist.
To solve the case, Marley must gain the trust of three people with no reason to trust each other and less reason to trust him: Bill, who left the love of his life to fight in Vietnam; charismatic Jack, who could always catch the eye of a pretty girl; and city school teacher, Annette, whose move to Cowaramup in 1966 would change the Ross brothers’ lives forever.
As he navigates a tangled web of lies and betrayals, jealousies and murder, Marley has to ask himself: are these bones better left buried? 

My Take

The narrative skilfully shifts between several time frames which I found challenging at first, eventually managed to get it sorted. It begins with the discovery of some bones in an area being established as a new housing subdivision. We meet the police Constable Brigit Winger and Detective Marley West from Busselton Police Station as they travel to the site to view the bones. Marley takes one look and he knows they have a problem.

Eventually they work out that they have two skeletons, one probably much older than the other. The bodies lie where there was once a waterhole, covered in over 20 years before. Some of the story goes back almost 50 years.

The author has done an excellent job of creating characters, developing credible plot lines, and finally revealing the story on several levels. A very engrossing read.

My rating: 4.7

About the Author
Lily Malone might have been a painter, except her year-old son put a golf club through her canvas. So she wrote her first book instead. Lily is the author of the best-selling Australian rural romance series, The Chalk Hill Series, set in the great southern wine region of Western Australia. In 2018 she took the coveted No.1 place in the Amazon Australia Kindle store with her best-selling romance, The Vineyard in the Hills. When she isn't writing, Lily likes gardening, bushwalking, wine, and walking in gardens (sometimes with wine). She loves playing cards and fishing by boat or on the beach. She lives in the Margaret River region of Western Australia with her husband and two handsome sons who take after their father. Lily is a member of Australian and New Zealand Rural Fiction and Australian Fiction Authors. She loves to hear from readers and you can find her on Facebook, and on Twitter: @lily_lilymalone. To contact Lily, email lilymalone@mail.com or visit www.lilymalone.blog

Review: THE WAY FROM HERE, Jane Cockram

• this edition made available as an e-book on Libby by my local library
  
• ISBN: 9780062939326
• ISBN 10: 0062939327
• Imprint: Harper Collins
• On Sale: March 1, 2022
• Pages: 320 pages 

Synopsis (publisher)

Three generations of women. Three generations worth of secrets. Will a cache of letters from beyond the grave hold the key to unravelling them all? The answer to that question lies at the heart of this addictive and atmospheric novel from the author of THE HOUSE OF BRIDES

Growing up, the Anderson sisters could not have been more different. Susie, the wild one, had an adventurous life while Camilla —Mills— followed a safer path. When Susie suddenly dies, Mills falls apart. Until she receives a bundle of mysterious letters from her estranged sister to be read in the case of her death. Each letter instructs her to visit a place special to Susie, both to spread her ashes but also to uncover some truths Susie has long kept hidden from her family.

Their mother Margaret has secrets of her own. When living in Swinging Sixties London, she too made a decision about her life that not only haunts her, but will reverberate through the generations.

One family, three very different women. What choices and secrets connect them? In this novel of truth and lies, concealment and regret, Jane Cockram flips the looking glass to expose our true face, revealing the deep lines of deception that can run through families and how the people we love the most often have the most to hide.

My Take

This novel is a mystery rather than crime fiction. 

The story is told by 3 main characters but also in several time frames - Susie, Camilla and their mother Margaret over a period of 30 years. The story begins with letters that Susie has left for her sister Camilla, in the form of a request that Camilla will go overseas, deliver the letters, and scatter Susie's ashes in various places.

Susie originally went overseas twenty years earlier, in 1998, on a gap year after she had finished school. Her grandmother Nellie had given her various places to visit. She herself had come to Australia as "ten-pound" Pom nearly 40 years earlier. When Susie returned to Australia she had changed, but she seemed unable to talk about what had happened to her. Susie died falling off a ladder just before her 40th birthday, so the year is 2018.

The novel tells us the history of the 3 generations of women and the secrets they have kept between them for almost 60 years.

The weaving of the story is very cleverly done, with several interlinked and twisted strands of mystery. Highly recommended and memorable.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Jane Cockram was born and educated in Australia, where she studied Journalism at RMIT, majoring in Literature. After earning a post-graduate diploma in Publishing and Communication at Melbourne University, she worked in sales for Pan Macmillan Publishers and then as fiction buyer at Borders, fulfilling a childhood dream of reading for a living. Cockram spent a year living in the West Country of England, where The House of Brides is set, and still daydreams about returning.  In the meantime, she resides in Melbourne with her husband and two children. The House of Brides is her debut novel.  

Review: THE TEA LADIES OF ST JUDE'S HOSPITAL, Joanna Nell

• 
  this edition made available from my local library
  
• published by Hachette Australia 2021
• ISBN 978-0-7336-4290-6
• 342 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The heartwarming and hilarious bestseller by the author of treasured novels, The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village and The Great Escape from Woodlands Nursing Home

The Marjorie Marshall Memorial Cafeteria has been serving refreshments and raising money at the hospital for over fifty years, long after anybody can remember who Marjorie Marshall actually was. Staffed by successive generations of dedicated volunteers, the beloved cafeteria is known as much for offering a kind word and sympathetic ear (and often unsolicited life advice) as for its tea and buns.

Stalwart Hilary has worked her way up through the ranks to Manageress; Joy has been late every day since she started as the cafeteria's newest recruit. She doesn't take her role as 'the intern' quite as seriously as Hilary would like but there's no doubt she brings a welcome pop of personality. Seventeen-year-old Chloe, the daughter of two successful surgeons, is volunteering during the school holidays because her mother thinks it will look good on her CV.

Chloe is at first bewildered by the two older women but soon realises they have a lot in common, not least that each bears a secret pain. When they discover the cafeteria is under threat of closure, this unlikely trio must band together to save it. 

My Take

An entertaining read, and some very believable characters. 

Hilary is the volunteer manager of the cafeteria, 76 years old, recently separated from her husband, and now living with her older sister. She runs the cafeteria on an exceedingly tight budget.

Her assistant is Joy, 74 years old, always a smile on her face. Her husband of 53 years, Len, has recently had cancer and is now at home on remission (?). Joy tries to feed new ideas to Hilary, trying to make her think the ideas are hers.

Chloe, 17 years old, is the third volunteer in the trio, still at school, and destined to follow her parents into medicine. Chloe has a few problems of her own, and is not really looking forward to working with the two "oldies".

This was a lovely read, and covered a number of issues including what happens when progress at the hospital challenges the very existence of the cafeteria.

Highly recommended.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.7, THE SINGLE LADIES OF THE JACARANDAH RETIREMENT VILLAGE

Review: SISTERS OF MERCY, Carol Overington

• 
  This edition made available through Libby by my local library
  
• Published: 1 November 2012
• ISBN: 9781742750446
• Imprint: Random House Australia
• Format: EBook
• Pages: 320

Synopsis (publisher)

Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington is the haunting crime novel story of two sisters - one has vanished, the other is behind bars...

Snow Delaney was born a generation and a world away from her sister, Agnes.

Until recently, neither even knew of the other's existence. They came together only for the reading of their father's will - when Snow discovered, to her horror, that she was not the sole beneficiary of his large estate.

Now Snow is in prison and Agnes is missing, disappeared in the eerie red dust that blanketed Sydney from dawn on September 23, 2009.

With no other family left, Snow turns to crime journalist Jack Fawcett, protesting her innocence in a series of defiant letters from prison. Has she been unfairly judged? Or will Jack's own research reveal a story even more shocking than the one Snow wants to tell?

With Sisters of Mercy Caroline Overington once again proves she is one of the most exciting new novelists of recent years.

My Take

I was amazed to find, when I began structuring this review, that I had actually read this book 10 years ago (see my original review here) but I honestly had no recollection of it.

The main story is told by two main narrators. One is Snow Delaney who is in jail for cruelty to disabled children, and is suspected of having somehow disposed of her missing sister. Snow denies knowing anything about that, but in the the light of what we learn about what she has done to children in her foster care, how reliable is she as a narrator? The other narrator is Jack "Tap" Fawcett, a journalist who has been following the disappearance of Agnes Moore, and with whom Snow begins a correspondence when she is in jail. In the letters to Fawcett Snow fills in her back story and tries to convince him of her innocence. Fawcett is unequivocal in his belief that Snow has had something to with her sister's disappearance, but how reliable a narrator is he?

(Date discrepancy

Text in the novel says John Moore went to Oxford in 1930 at age of 20, and that he was picked for the Melbourne Olympics in athletics in 1956. That would make him 46 then. Surely he must have been at Oxford later than that? Something like 1954? 

Agnes Moore met her husband John in Western Australia in 1958 when she was 17, and she was born in 1940. When she disappeared in 2009 she was 69.)

This was an interesting read, particularly the details of how Snow "managed" the "care" of 19 disabled children. It makes you wonder how much based on fact those details are.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

4.4, SISTERS OF MERCY
4.5, NO PLACE LIKE HOME
4.7, I CAME TO SAY GOODBYE
4.5, CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET?
4.5, THE ONE THAT GOT AWAY
4.7, THE ONES YOU TRUST

Review: ASH ISLAND, Barry Maitland

• 
   this edition made available on Libby through SA Libraries
• Text publication date: 3 October 2016
• ISBN: 9781925355444
• #2 Belltree Trilogy

Synopsis (publisher)

Detective Sergeant Harry Belltree has a new posting. Away from Sydney, where he was nearly killed by a corrupt colleague and is now an embarrassment. Off to a quiet life in Newcastle.

Or maybe not so quiet. A body’s been dug up on Ash Island. It may not be the only one.

Harry’s got unfinished business in the area, too. The car crash that killed his parents and blinded his wife Jenny happened not far from Newcastle – and Harry knows it was no accident.

But the other unfinished business is Jenny’s longed-for pregnancy. Which means that now, when Harry’s investigation starts to get dangerous, the stakes are higher than ever.

My Take

It took some time for Harry to recover from the injuries he received at the end of  CRUCIFIXION CREEK and now there is unfinished business. The other person who has taken some time to recover is Kelly Pool, the journalist now working at the Times.  

Harry has been posted to Newcastle doing ordinary police work rather than Homicide. But his reputation has preceded him and the underworld from Sydney knows where he has gone. Also Newcastle Police suspect Harry has been sent there to see if they handled the death of his parents properly, and treat him cautiously.

And so in many ways the action of ASH ISLAND connects seamlessly with the earlier novel, and Harry finds himself investigating some of the same people as before. There are new people and new cases too as well as the connecting threads. That is why you, dear reader, need to read these novels in order.

And at the end of this novel, there is a hook to get you into the third in the trilogy.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

BRIGHT AIR
mini reviews

• 4.7, ALL MY ENEMIES  -#3 Brock & Kolla
• 5.0, NO TRACE - #8
• 4.7, SPIDER TRAP  - #9

4.7, DARK MIRROR - #10
4.8, CHELSEA MANSIONS - #11
4.7, THE RAVEN'S EYE -  #12
4.7, CRUCIFIXION CREEK

4.6, CRUCIFIXION CREEK
5.0, THE PROMISED LAND 

 

Review: REMEMBER ME, Liz Byrski

• 
  This edition on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00LZ5OYJC
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Fremantle Press; 2nd edition (August 1, 2010)
• Originally published 2000
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 329 pages
  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Separated from her true love at the age of 18, Liz dreamt of the day he would return to marry her, but fate had other plans. 

Thirty-seven years later, Liz answers the telephone to hear a voice from the past that still has the power to stop her in her tracks. A true story of love lost and found, this personal memoir journeys across continents and decades to relate the details of the couple's original love affair and their reunion years later. Poignant and romantic, this story is a testament to the extraordinary powers of the heart. 

My Take

You will have realised from the above descriptor that this is a departure from my usual crime fiction,

I did not realise until I had nearly finished the book that this is a memoir, written hot on the heels of the author's reunion with Karl Heinz 37 years after they first met. By this time they had both been in other marriages, and the book ends just after their reunion.

Plenty of discussion points in the book. Was their original separation on the grounds that Liz was too young for marriage a valid one? What chance did their reunion have after they had spent so long apart, and had so many experiences that were not shared?

My rating: 4.4

Ive also read

4.5, MONTH OF SUNDAYS
5.0, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR 

Review: THE RIVER MOUTH, Karen Herbert

• 
  This edition an e-book on Libby made available through my local library
  
• ISBN: 9781760990466
• Pages: 256
• Publication year: 2021
• Publisher: Fremantle Press

Synopsis (publisher) 

Fifteen-year-old Darren Davies is found facedown in the Weymouth River with a gunshot wound to his chest. The killer is never found.

Ten years later, his mother receives a visit from the local police. Sandra’s best friend has been found dead on a remote Pilbara road. And Barbara’s DNA matches the DNA found under Darren’s fingernails. 

When the investigation into her son’s murder is reopened, Sandra begins to question what she knew about her best friend. As she digs, she discovers that there are many secrets in her small town, and that her murdered son had secrets too.

My Take

The setting of this novel is a small coastal town on the West Australian coast at the mouth of the Weymouth River some days south of the Pilbara. There are two major timelines. The novel has several narrators including Darren, his friends Colin and Tim, and Darren's mother Sandra. The combination of the timelines and the various narrative voices give the story considerable complexity.

The narration starts with Sandra, and what she knows, ten years after her son was killed and few days after her best friend's body has been found in the Pilbara. Chapter 2 is narrated by Colin and begins a count down 25 days before Darren died. From there we flit backwards and forwards from the past to the present. The reader is often left to deduce which timeline we are on, and I did find that confusing at times, although we do know who the narrator is. There is a lot for the reader to unravel, but that is part of the pleasure of the book, so I am not going to explain everything here. At times the author attempts to see things through the eyes of the three boys, and at times reflects their lack of understanding of what is happening in the adult world around them.

Sandra thinks she has moved on since Darren's death, but there are questions she has never asked and answers she has never sought.

I thought there were hints that various of the characters may have indigenous background but perhaps I missed out on picking up on when that was more clearly stated.

The final resolution to who killed Darren, and why, seems to come out of left field, but there were hints among all the red herrings.

So here is another new author to watch!

My rating: 4.4

About the author
Karen Herbert spent her childhood in Geraldton on the midwest coast of Australia, attending local schools before moving to Perth to study at the University of Western Australia where she attained a Bachelor of Commerce with First Class Honours. She also holds a Master of Science in Applied Psychology. Karen has worked in aged care, disability services, higher education, Indigenous land management, social housing and the public sector, and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. She is a Board Member of The Intelife Group, a Board Observer at Advocare, and President of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (WA). Karen lives in Perth, Western Australia with her husband, Ross, and the occasional fledgling.

review: A QUESTION OF DEATH, Kerry Greenwood

• 
  This edition published by Allen&Unwin Australia 2007
  
• ISBN 978-1-74175-363-9
• 258 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

The Honourable Phryne Fisher--she of the Lulu bob, green eyes, Cupid's Bow lips, and diamant' garters--is the 1920s' most elegant and irrepressible sleuth. 

This sparkling collection of Phryne short stories and other Phryne miscellany--including Phryne's favourite shoes and hats, delicious cocktail recipes, and her best tips for discouraging unwanted admirers-- forms a gorgeously collectable treat for all Phryne fans. 

Lavishly illustrated with divine color illustrations by Beth Norling, A Question of Death will bring joy to the hearts of Phryne Fisher fans everywhere. 

My Take

I mainly read this for the short stories, none of which I had read elsewhere. The short glossary at the back also told me a few things that I didn't know.

Set  in 1928, this anthology was published between #16 and #17 in the Phryne Fisher series (#16 was set on Christmas Eve 1928) There are currently 22 books in the series, with #22 due to be published in May 2022. I haven't read all of them by any means (although more than I have listed below) and so I think I should look for more this year.

Kerry Greenwood has written another 35 books outside this series (see the list at Fantastic Fiction), including some historical non-fiction, and several books for young adults.

There are 13 short stories in A QUESTION OF DEATH, some better than others, but mostly entertaining.

There is an interesting prelude by the author at the front of the anthology in which she says Phryne Fisher is her favourite heroine.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read

MURDER ON A MIDSUMMER NIGHT - #17
TRICK OR TREAT
FORBIDDEN FRUIT
4.3, DEAD MAN'S CHEST -#18
4.4, COOKING THE BOOKS
4.3, TAMAM SHUD
4.8, UNNATURAL HABITS - #19
4.3, MURDER AND MENDELSSOHN - #18

Phryne Fisher series (from Fantastic Fiction)
   1. Cocaine Blues (1989)
     aka Death by Misadventure and Miss Phryne Fisher Investigates
   2. Flying Too High (1990)
   3. Murder on the Ballarat Train (1991)
   4. Death at Victoria Dock (1992)
   5. The Green Mill Murder (1993)
   6. Blood and Circuses (1994)
   7. Ruddy Gore (1995)
   8. Urn Burial (1996)
   9. Raisins and Almonds (1999)
   10. Death Before Wicket (1999)
   11. Away with the Fairies (2001)
   12. Murder in Montparnasse (2002)
   13. The Castlemaine Murders (2003)
   14. Queen of the Flowers (2004)
   15. Death By Water (2005)
   16. Murder in the Dark (2006)
   17. Murder on a Midsummer Night (2008)
   18. Dead Man's Chest (2010)
   19. Unnatural Habits (2013)
   20. Murder and Mendelssohn (2013)
   21. Death in Daylesford (2021)
   A Question of Death (2007)
   The Lady with the Gun Asks the Questions (2022)