Review: THE LAST DAYS OF KIRA MULLAN, Nicci French

• 
   this edition published in 2025 by Simon & Schuster
  
• ISBN 978-1-3965-2414-9
• 438 pages 

 Synopsis (publisher)

She thinks it was murder.
But if she can’t trust herself, can anyone else?

Nancy North and her boyfriend Felix are making the move across London to Harlesden. A new flat, a new area, a new start. Because while Nancy is fine now, she wasn’t fine before. But settling into the new flat and meeting the new neighbours isn’t helped by Felix’s hovering concern. She is all right. She is sticking to her breathing exercises and doctor-prescribed help.

So, when their new neighbour Kira Mullan is found dead by suicide, Felix is understandably worried about Nancy’s frame of mind. But Nancy saw Kira the day before she died and she didn’t strike her as someone who was suicidal – she was upset and angry, yes, but was she upset and angry enough to take her own life?

Nancy is the only one convinced that there’s more to Kira’s death than has been discovered. But all the police and the neighbours see is a vulnerable woman who isn’t sure of what she saw, and might even be imagining things . . .

Is Nancy imagining things, or are there more questions that should be asked about the last days of Kira Mullan?  

My Take

Once you've started this book, it just sort of grabs you and you have to know how it finishes.  Nancy North is the only one in the flats who rejects the idea that Kira Mullan's death is suicide. And what would she know? She only met Kira for a few minutes, and her own mental health is fragile.

Nancy insists on telling the police about her suspicions, but those around her including her boyfriend Felix are  worried about her state of mind and take steps to ensure she is "safe".

Now, I am not going to tell you any more, but believe me the middle part of the story left me gasping over the injustice of what happened to Nancy.

There are always unexpected twists and red herrings with this superb British author, and I wasn't disappointed. 

My rating: 5.0

I've also read

4.3, BLUE MONDAY

4.5, TUESDAY'S GONE

4.7, WAITING FOR WEDNESDAY

4.7, FRIDAY ON MY MIND

4.7, THE LYING ROOM

4.5, DAY OF THE DEAD

4.7, SECRET SMILE

4.6, THE UNHEARD 

4.8, THE FAVOUR

5..0, HAS ANYONE SEEN CHARLOTTE SALTER?

Review: BLACK LIES, Mercedes Mercier

• 
  This edition read on my Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BNSBKM8H
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 1, 2023 

Synopsis (Amazon)

Longlisted for the 2024 Davitt Best Adult Novel Prize

Only a handful of inmates in Westmead Prison have committed crimes so atrocious that they've been locked away for life, and for fifteen years, convicted murderer Tomas Kovak has refused to disclose where he hid the body of his victim, a vulnerable young woman.

When Kovak is diagnosed with terminal cancer, intense pressure is put on Dr Laura Fleming, criminal psychologist, to find the location of Kovak's victim so her grieving family can find some sort of closure.

Laura has to use all of her training, skills and instinct to form a connection with the cold, remorseless killer, a man who has refused any psychological assessment since the day he confessed to the murder.

With every session, Laura becomes more and more convinced that something about Kovak's story doesn't ring true, and as his health rapidly deteriorates, the pressure on Laura ramps up. She becomes increasingly desperate, resorting to unconventional methods to find out what she can from the secretive man.

As she inches closer to the truth, she discovers some people will stop at nothing to keep the past hidden ... and the people Laura cares most about are fair game.

Love can make you do terrible things.

My Take

An unusual setting and plot.  Dr Laura Fleming, criminal psychologist working in an Australian prison with convicted criminals is asked to see if she can get convicted murderer Tomas Kovak to talk to her. For 15 years Kovak has refused to talk but now he has terminal cancer and only weeks to live. 

A well thought out scenario. Laura manages to get Kovak to see her and she wheedles some information from him but then he clams up again. Through another of her clients she finds people who knew Kovaks before the murder but his confession makes even less sense to her.

An excellent read.

My rating: 4.6

About the author

Mercedes Mercier writes 'just-one-more-page' crime with twisting plots and relatable characters. As well as writing books, Mercedes works in the criminal justice system, providing her unique insight into the world of prisons, crime and offenders.
After a brush with death, Mercedes decided to throw herself into life. She lived overseas, became a black belt in Karate, skydived, and volunteered with animals. When she doesn't have her nose in her laptop and her mind in a story, she loves to read, travel, try new restaurants, and listen to podcasts (true crime of course).

Mercedes lives in Adelaide, in a tree-top home surrounded by nature and animals, with her partner and beloved dog.

Review: NO TRACE, Michael Trant

• 
  this edition from my local library
  
• published by Penguin Random House Australia 2023
• ISBN 978-1-76104-693-3
• 344 pages 
• #2 in series featuring Gabe Ahern
  

Synopsis (publisher)

From the author of WILD DOGS comes an electrifying combination of outback action thriller and the classic locked room mystery.

‘Did you have to kill them all?’
It’s the question Gabe Ahern has been running from since he bust open a major criminal operation – and left a dozen men dead. He knows that one day the ‘bad guys’ will come for revenge.

A skilled dog-trapper, Gabe has one rule: leave no sign, leave no trace. And for the last year he’s been successfully hiding out on a friend’s remote cattle property in the Pilbara.

But when Goldmont Station opens its gates to a bunch of city folk eager for an authentic outback experience, Gabe can feel eyes on his back. Are all these visitors really tourists?

In the space of 24 hours, the station’s helicopter falls from the sky . . . the phones and internet go down . . . and one of the guests turns up dead . . .

With major flooding suddenly cutting off all exit roads, Gabe fears he’s as trapped as the dogs he hunts. And that his bloody past has finally caught up with him. 

My Take

When we last saw Gabe Ahern in WILD DOGS we were not sure he was going to survive, but he obviously did. Quite a bit of time has passed and there has been a trial at which he was acquitted. But the Afghan whom Gabe rescued in that book and his family are now in immigrant detention, and Gabe has been threatened by the brother of one of the men he killed.

So Gabe is in hiding from the gang who were involved in the people smuggling, in the remotest part of Australia he could think of, working as a dogger and a general station hand, hoping he doesn't bring trouble to the family he is working for. He has been there for a year with no problems, but everything is about to change. 

This story has a terrific atmosphere, great tension, as Gabe helps fight both Australian weather, and someone at the station who seems determined to wreak havoc.

A great read.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

4.4, RIDGEVIEW STATION

4.7, WILD DOGS

Review: THE VICARAGE MURDER, Faith Martin

• 
  This edition read on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DFQ67QTQ
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Joffe Books crime thriller, mystery and suspense (August 29, 2024)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 263 pages 
• Please note this book was first published in 2015 as An Unholy Mess under Faith Martin’s pen name Joyce Cato.  

Synopsis  (Amazon)

Meet Monica Noble: the vicar’s wife with a taste for solving crimes.

IN A QUIET COTSWOLD VILLAGE ALL HELL IS ABOUT TO BREAK LOOSE.

Monica Noble is throwing a party to welcome the village’s new residents. The guests include celebrity chef Sean and his wife Margaret. Also on the list are an Oxford university professor, a 40-something divorcée, and the owner of a chain of gyms.

Then as the drinks are flowing, a shotgun blast rings out. One of the guests is found dead.

DCI Dury and Sergeant Jim Greer are soon on the scene and discover that the victim had many enemies. Almost all the guests harbour secrets and motives for murder. Even Monica’s daughter comes under suspicion.

When another villager is strangled to death nearly a week later, the stakes are raised.

Can Monica help the local detectives save her daughter and solve the murders before anyone else pays the ultimate price?

This is the first of a series of enjoyable murder mysteries with great characters and baffling crimes which will keep you gripped till the final page.

MEET THE AMATEUR SLEUTH
Monica Noble was widowed young, leaving her to raise her feisty daughter on her own. That is, until she met and fell in love with Graham Noble, a country vicar (pastor), who enticed her to leave her high-flying job in advertising in the city and move to the Cotswold countryside. There she found bucolic life very pleasant indeed — until murder started to rear its ugly head. And she discovered, to everyone's surprise, that she had a flair for solving the most unholy of crimes.

My Take

There is quite a bit of  "introduction to the series and main characters" stuff in this first novel, to the point where I got wishing the author would just get on with the story. There were a couple of red herrings that led me to thinking the plot lines would turn out a little differently. Anyhow in the long run it all came together quite nicely. I'm not sure if I will continue reading the series though, although there are only 3 of them.

My rating: 4.4

I've also read some of the Hillary Greene series

• 4.5, MURDER ON THE OXFORD CANAL #1
• 4.5, MURDER OF THE BRIDE #2
• 4.5,  MURDER AT THE UNIVERSITY #3
• 4.5, MURDER IN THE VILLAGE #4
  
• 4.6, MURDER IN THE FAMILY #5
• 4.5, MURDER AT HOME #6

Review: THE THRILL OF IT, Mandy Beaumont

• 
  This edition an e-book on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DHHJJSTX
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Hachette Australia (February 26, 2025)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 216 pages 

Synopsis (Amazon)

That afternoon, when the police and then my mother finally arrived, they found me sitting beside Marlowe holding her hand and talking to her: about a boy I had a crush on, about the buttery yellow jumpsuit I had seen in a shop window that would look perfect on her; about those two cups of half-drunk coffee sitting on the table. Who was with you, Marlowe?

In March of 1989, Emmerson Kerr is alone.

One morning listening to her Walkman, a newsreader's words stop her dead. 'A warning to our listeners that this story is graphic in nature. The body of an 84-year-old woman has been found in the foyer of her apartment building on Sydney's lower North Shore ... '

Emmerson stood, held in place like an anchor, like a nail in wood, like the breath of a frightened woman alone in her home. She listened to the details and remembered back to that day, twelve years before, in her grandmother's Paddington studio. The 1977 murder of Marlowe Kerr - Sydney's art darling and socialite, a woman known for her lavish parties and her world-famous designs, but known to Emmerson as her colourful, loving grandmother - never solved.

And now, years later, a terrifying string of crimes against older women will begin, will force ageing female residents to lock themselves inside their homes. They will be in a state of constant fear. And, as the killer's reign of terror escalates, and Emmerson starts to unearth her beloved grandmother's shady past, she becomes increasingly convinced that the same person who killed Marlowe is also responsible for the depravity that is now unfolding in the city she has always called home.

Could Emmerson be the link to solving Marlowe's murder and help catch the killer before they kill again?

Taut, chilling and unforgettable, The Thrill of It explores the mind of a killer and the power of a granddaughter's love. A masterful and explosive crime novel by Stella Prize longlisted and critically acclaimed author Mandy Beaumont. 

My Take

The author notes

"THE THRILL OF IT is a work of fiction. It is inspired and informed by the real-life brutal slayings of six older women on Sydney's North Shore between 1989 and 1990.."

While the auhor has attempted to fictionalise the story with the creation of the central character Emmerson, the granddaughter of an earlier victim of the same killer, it doesn't feel really successful. It feels as if it is really a thinly disguised "real-crime" account, a little too close to the bare bones of the original story. Nevertheless there is an attempt to analyse the motives of the killer and a feeling of suspense as he approaches his final victim.

My rating: 4.4

About the author

Mandy is an award-winning writer, academic and book reviewer living in Melbourne, Australia. Her critically acclaimed debut novel The Furies is out now (Hachette), and her collection of short stories, Wild, Fearless Chests (Hachette), was shortlisted for many awards, notably the Richell Prize and the Dorothy Hewett Award, and a story from the collection won the MOTH International Short Story Award. She teaches at Griffith University in Creative Writing and a creative writing researcher at RMIT who is concerned with the reading and writing philosophically engaged fiction through both a creative and critical discourse with existential phenomenologist and feminist Simone de Beauvoir.

Review: WILD DARK SHORE, Charlotte McConaghy

• 
  This edition read on Kindle (Amazon)
  
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0DHCXZ7CK
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin eBooks (March 4, 2025)
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 359 pages  

Synopsis (Amazon)

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back towards the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.

Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

A novel of heartstopping twists, dizzying beauty and ferocious love, Wild Dark Shore is a story about the impossible choices we make to protect the people we love, even as the world around us is ending.

 My Take

At the same time as we know that, we hope that, this story is fiction, there is a dreadful feeling of authenticity about it. It certainly raises the severity of the plight that our world is in. And the setting is so close to home. You must come away from the novel feeling that you have learnt something about the tragedy and ferocity of a disappearing world.

My rating: 4.7

About the Author
Charlotte McConaghy is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Wild Dark Shore, Once There Were Wolves, and Migrations, which are being translated into more than twenty languages. She is based in Sydney, Australia.

Review: THE PEACOCK SUMMER, Hannah Richell

• 
  this edition supplied by my local library
  
• published by Hachette Australia 2018
• ISBN 978-0-7336-4043-8
• 392 pages

Synopsis (publisher)

From internationally bestselling author Hannah Richell comes a compelling story of hidden secrets, forbidden love, and a mysterious old house.

Two women who long for more, and a house that holds the key to their freedom...

1955: At twenty-six-years old, Lillian Oberon is young, beautiful, and married to the wealthy and handsome Charles Oberon. She is also the mistress of Cloudesley, a lavish estate. But not long after her nuptials, she begins to feel her marriage is a sham. Like the exquisite objets d'art, curiosities, and treasures her husband collects, she is just another possession captured within the walls of the grand countryside manor. With a sister and young stepson in her care, Lillian has made peace with her unfulfilling marriage and fate--until a charismatic artist visits for the summer and makes Lillian re-examine the choices she's made.

The present day: Having abruptly broken off her engagement, Maggie Oberon escapes to Australia, hoping that the distance will make her forget the mess she's made of her life. But when her beloved grandmother, Lillian, becomes ill, she must return to England and confront the past she ran away from. When she arrives at Cloudesley, she is dismayed to find the once opulent estate crumbling into decay. As Maggie scrambles to find a way to save the old property, she is unprepared to learn the dark secrets that have remained hidden behind the dark halls of Cloudesley. But within these walls also lies the key that could change its legacy--and Maggie's life--forever. .  

My Take:

This book certainly recounts a number of mysteries, blending them together almost seamlessly. The main story spans over six decades, focussing in particular on Lillian and her granddaughter Maggie, and the life choices they have made, and the elements they have had little control over.

Very thought provoking.

My rating: 4.6

I've also read

5.0, THE SEARCH PARTY

4.5, THE RIVER HOME