Review: THE CURSED ROAD, Laura McCluskey

• 
  This edition, a paperback by QBD books
• ISBN 9781460765593 
  
• Published 24 / 02 / 2026
• Book 2 of 2: George Lennox and Richie Stewart 
• 352 pages 

Synopsis (publisher) 

The hauntingly atmospheric and gripping new novel from the author of The Wolf Tree

In a mountainous region of the Scottish Highlands, a young woman's body has been found on a remote stretch of road. Though the manner of her death suggests a terrible accident, a name carved into her arm hints at something more sinister. And when a personal connection to the name is revealed, DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate. As George and Richie question locals, they discover that the road has a bloody history. 

Fearing that more women will be harmed, they track the killer through a rugged wilderness where ancient feuds, generational curses and the unforgiving elements fight for supremacy. But there are more secrets to the road than just its history - and the people living along it will do whatever it takes to stop those secrets from coming out.

My Take

Recently I came across a review which described a book as a "chiller" and that strikes me as an apt adjective for this one too.

George and Richie have not been in touch much recently, both in fact trying in their own ways get over the impact of their recent case together. George regards Richie as her mentor but is not sure that she can work with him again. After their last case she became drug dependent and, although she is now clean, she is sure he will be disapproving. 

Their boss is keen to get them working together again, she can't afford to have her two best detectives sidelined. 

There is a lot of pressure on them to solve this case quickly but it is difficult to identify the victim and something is not quite right with the information locals are giving. This book hooks you, and you have to keep reading! 

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.8, THE WOLF TREE  

Review: PHEASANTS NEST, Louise Milligan

• 
  this large print edition provided by my local library
• published by Allen & Unwin 2024
• ISBN 978-1-03876-825-4
  
• 317 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

She wonders if they have discovered her missing yet. Has it broken in the news? Who has been assigned to cover her story? Have they started spooling through her social media and pulling out photographs? Constructing a narrative about who she is and what possible reason any person has to kidnap or (let's be frank) kill her? She tries not to let out the whimper that's building in her sternum, at the thought that he might. Kill her, that is. He might kill her.

Kate Delaney has made the biggest mistake of her life. She picked the wrong guy to humiliate on a girls' night out and now she is living every woman's worst nightmare. Kate finds herself brutalised, bound and gagged in the back of a car being driven god knows where by a man whose name she doesn't know, and she is petrified about what's in store for her.

As a journalist who is haunted by the crimes she's had to report over her career, Kate is terrifyingly familiar with the statistics about women who go missing—and the fear and trauma behind the headlines. She knows only too well how those stories usually end.

Kate can only hope the police will find her before it's too late, but she's aware a random crime is hardest to solve. As the clock ticks down, she tries to keep herself sane by thinking about her beloved boyfriend and friends, escaping into memories of love and happy times together. She knows she cannot give way to despair.

As the suspense escalates, Kate's boyfriend Liam is left behind, struggling with his shock, fear and desperation as the police establish a major investigation. The detectives face their own feelings of anguish and futility as they reflect on the cases they didn't solve in time and the victims they couldn't save. They know Kate's chances of survival diminish with every passing hour.

Acclaimed and award-winning writer and journalist Louise Milligan has written a stunning and surprising thriller with a gigantic heart: a gripping, propulsive and brilliantly original debut. 

My Take

Kate Delaney is snatched on her way home from a night out with the girls. At first no-one knows that she has been taken, and then where she is and who she is with: essential clues for solving an abduction.

So tension builds for we the readers know what has happened to her and the question is whether she will be found in time. Where is his abductor taking her, and how will he resolve this situation? Meanwhile her boyfriend, and then the police are looking for her. How much time will they waste in following false leads, before they get to what needs to be done?.

I had some of the puzzle solved by over half way through,and had in mind who would be instrumental in solving the puzzle. Even so, there was some doubt about whether Kate's rescue would come in time.

For my liking the blurb on the back of this book told the reader a little too much of the story.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Louise Milligan is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist for ABC TV's Four Corners, the Australian national broadcaster's flagship current affairs documentary program. She is the author of two bestselling non-fiction books: Cardinal, The Rise and Fall of George Pell and Witness, An Investigation into the Brutal Cost of Seeking Justice. Her books have been awarded multiple prizes, including the Walkley Book Award, the Davitt Awards Best Non-Fiction Crime Book, the Melbourne Prize for Literature People's Choice Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award's People's Choice prize, the Sir Owen Dixon Chambers Law Reporter of the Year Award, a Press Freedom Medal and a shortlisting for the Stella Prize. Louise's journalism, particularly her coverage of historical institutional child abuse and the experience of women in the criminal justice system and parliament, has broken national and international news, sparked government inquiries and led to profound cultural change and law reform. She started her career in newspapers and is a former High Court correspondent and political reporter. Born in Ireland to an Irish mother and Scottish father, Louise moved to Australia as a child. She lives in Melbourne with her husband and two children. Pheasants Nest is Louise's first novel.

Review: EDENHOPE, Louise Le Nay

• this edition available as an e-book on Kindle at Amazon
• 
  ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CTGMCF1H
  
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Text Publishing (4 June 2024)
• 320 pages 

Synopsis (Amazon)

The warm, heroic story of a grandmother's determination to save her family from themselves.

Marnie is sixty-three and downwardly mobile. Her middle-class marriage is long gone, her only child more or less estranged. She's living in a granny flat behind a stranger's house.

Still, things could be worse. She likes her new boss, Trinh, and her flat has a leadlight window depicting a galleon in full sail. Also, her daughter Lenny has just brought Marnie's adored grandchildren to stay.

She's also brought her repellent boyfriend and raging drug habit, so nothing new there. But this time it's different. This time Marnie can see with absolute clarity the danger the children are in.
And this time-she's going to do something about it.

This is the revelatory story of an ordinary woman who will let nothing, not even the law, stand in the way of her grandchildren's safety. Simply, elegantly told and utterly compelling, Edenhope is an adventure for those who believe adventure can come from anywhere. And it is a love story for those who understand that love can be found everywhere.

My Take

I should say at the start that this is not my usual crime fiction. It is in part a comment on the effects of petty crime on children and families, and about people who decide to do something about it, to make a difference.

Very readable and thought provoking. 

My rating: 4.5

About the author

 Louise Le Nay is an Australian actress and writer, known for her role as Sandy Edwards in Prisoner, and Stella Stinson, Kim's adoptive mother in Lift Off. Her novel, THE HERO, was published in 1996.

Review: STONE TOWN, Margaret Hickey

• 
  Published: 1 July 2022
• ISBN: 9780143777274
• Imprint: Bantam Australia
• Format: Trade Paperback
• Pages: 416
• #2 Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti

Synopsis (publisher)

STONE TOWN is captivating new rural crime drama from the author of the bestselling Cutters End.

With its gold-rush history long in the past, Stone Town has seen better days. And it’s now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons . . .

When three teenagers stumble upon a body in dense bushland one rainy Friday night, Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti’s hopes for a quiet posting in his old home town are shattered. The victim is Aidan Sleeth, a property developer, whose controversial plan to buy up local land means few are surprised he ended up dead.

However, his gruesome murder is overshadowed by a mystery consuming the entire nation: the disappearance of Detective Sergeant Natalie Whitsed.

Natalie had been investigating the celebrity wife of crime boss Tony ‘The Hook’ Scopelliti when she vanished. What did she uncover? Has it cost her her life? And why are the two Homicide detectives, sent from the city to run the Sleeth case, so obsessed with Natalie’s fate?

Following a late-night call from his former boss, Mark is sure of one thing: he’s now in the middle of a deadly game . . .

My Take

The sequel to CUTTER'S END. Mark Ariti has been appointed to his home town of Stone Town, in South Australia's mid north. His quiet life is disrupted by the discovery of a body in the bush, and then the arrival of reinforcements from Adelaide, with an additional interest in locating a missing CID detective.

The main narrator is Mark Ariti, but a second narrative thread hints ta what has happened to Natalie Whitsed. 

A cleverly constructed story. 

My rating: 4.6 

I've also read

4.7, CUTTER'S END 

Review: GONE BY MIDNIGHT, Candice Fox

• format: Kindle (Amazon)
• File Size: 925 KB
• Print Length: 353 pages
• Publisher: Random House Australia (January 22, 2019)
• Publication Date: January 22, 2019
• Sold by: RH AU
• Language: English
• ASIN: B07GVNBG51
• #3 in the Crimson Lake series

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Crimson Lake is where bad people come to disappear – and where eight-year-old boys vanish into thin air . . .

On the fifth floor of the White Caps Hotel, four young friends are left alone while their parents dine downstairs. But when Sara Farrow checks on the children at midnight, her son is missing. The boys swear they stayed in their room, and CCTV confirms Richie has not left the building. Despite a thorough search, no trace of the child is found.

Distrustful of the police, Sara turns to Crimson Lake's unlikeliest private investigators: disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell. This case just the sort of twisted puzzle that gets Amanda's blood pumping.

For Ted, the case couldn’t have come at a worse time. Two years ago a false accusation robbed him of his career, his reputation and most importantly his family. But now Lillian, the daughter he barely knows, is coming to stay in his ramshackle cottage by the lake.

Ted must dredge up the area's worst characters to find a missing boy. And the kind of danger he uncovers could well put his own child in deadly peril .

My Take

Set in Cairns. An 8 year old boy goes missing from the fifth floor of a hotel. He has been in the company of friends while his mother dines with their parents downstairs.

The mother asks Ted Conkaffey to investigate her son's disappearance. The local police are opposed as his partner Amanda Pharrel was responsible for the death of one of their colleagues in their last case.

Days pass and the boy is not found until Ted and Amanada uncover the shocking truth.

Good reading but it would probably help if you had read the two previous books in the series.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
5.0, HADES 
4.3, EDEN
4.6, CRIMSON LAKE  (#1)
4.7 REDEMPTION POINT (#2)

Review: NINE PERFECT STRANGERS, Liane Moriarty

• Originally published: 18 September 2018
• Source: Libby e-book App, through my local library

Synopsis

The retreat at health and wellness resort Tranquillum House promises total transformation. Nine stressed city dwellers are keen to drop their literal and mental baggage, and absorb the meditative ambience while enjoying their hot stone massages.

Watching over them is the resort's director, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies.

These nine perfect strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.

With her wit, compassion and uncanny understanding of human behaviour, Liane Moriarty explores the depth of connection that can be formed when people are thrown together in... unconventional circumstances.

My take

My first Libby book - I read it on my android phone (the screen is a bit small) and my iPad (the screen is a bit big. Borrowing and returning were painless, and the app "synced" on the two devices. But you are at the mercy of the battery life of your devices and my iPad is not good. I may have to buy a smaller one just for ebooks, but then I can get the books free as against buying them for my Kindle.

Nine strangers embark on a retreat at Tranquillam House, in the Australian countryside, about 2 hours from Sydney.

In the first half of the book we learn why the various individuals are there and what they hope to get out of the 10 day retreat. We learn also about the people who are running the business.
All seems to be going well until we learn that Masha, who is the CEO of the retreat has been lacing their smoothies with LSD and ecstasy and then it appears that she is just a little mad and even dangerous.

My rating: 4.5

I've also read
4.6, THE HUSBAND'S SECRET
4.8, BIG LITTLE LIES
4.5, TRULY, MADLY GUILTY

Review: DEAD MAN SWITCH, Tara Moss

• this edition published by Harper Collins Publishers 2019
• ISBN 978-0-7322-9063-8
• 361 pages
• source: my local library
• author website
• Booktopia Best Books of 2019 – Crime Fiction and Thriller

Synopsis (publisher)

She's a woman in a man's world ...

Sydney, 1946. Billie Walker is living life on her own terms. World War II has left her bereaved, her photojournalist husband missing and presumed dead. Determined not to rely on any man for her future, she re-opens her late father's detective agency.

Billie's bread and butter is tailing cheating spouses - it's easy, pays the bills and she has a knack for it. But her latest case, the disappearance of a young man, is not proving straightforward ...

Soon Billie is up to her stylish collar in bad men, and not just the unfaithful kind - these are the murdering kind. Smugglers. Players. Gangsters. Billie and her loyal assistant must pit their wits against Sydney's ruthless underworld and find the young man before it's too late.

My take


Here we have what appears to be the beginning of a new series, a female investigator in Sydney, and ex-soldier as her associate, and a historical setting to boot.

Billie is asked to look for a young 17 year old man, who disappears after visiting a Sydney night club to talk to a well known wealthy auctioneer.

The novel opens with a Prologue which appears to be an account of what has happened to the young man.

As befits the first novel in a series readers are given a lot of background about Billie and Sam, her associate, and the background material continues throughout the novel. The year is 1946 and Australia is beginning to recover from the aftermath of World War II, but there is a lot of opposition to Billie taking on what is seen as men's work.

A well told tale with strong adherence to historical setting if not strictly factual.

My rating: 4.5


About the author

She is a mother, a wife and a dual Canadian/Australian citizen, and currently resides with her family in Vancouver, BC.
Moss is an outspoken advocate for human rights and the rights of women and children, has been a UNICEF Australia Goodwill Ambassador since 2007 and since 2013 has been UNICEF Australia’s National Ambassador for Child Survival, and has visited Australian hospitals, maternity wards, refuges and schools as well as Syrian refugee camps in her UNICEF role. In 2014 she was recognised for Outstanding Advocacy for her blog Manus Island: An insider’s report, which helped to break information to the public about the events surrounding the alleged murder of Reza Barati inside the Australian-run Manus Island Immigration Detention Centre.

In 2015 Moss received an Edna Ryan Award for her significant contribution to feminist debate, speaking out for women and children and inspiring others to challenge the status quo, and in 2017 she was recognised as one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life, for using her position in public life to make a positive impact in diversity, alongside Malala Yousufzai, Angelina Jolie, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet and more.