With respect to reviews posted, the weeks since the last Crime Roundup for AWW2014 have been a two-horse race between a couple of new release novels: Wendy James’ THE LOST GIRLS and P.M. Newton’s BEAMS FALLING. In the end, both books garnered 8 reviews a-piece but I feel I ought to apologise to P.M. Newton at this point because if I hadn’t knocked my copy of her book in the full kitchen sink while I was only half-way through reading it she’d have ‘won’, numerically speaking 🙂

BeamsFallingPMNewtonIn BEAMS FALLING policewoman Nhu ‘Ned’ Kelly is suffering the physical and psychological effects of the events depicted in the first novel in which she appears (THE OLD SCHOOL) and while on ‘light duties’ is assigned to an Asian crime unit in Sydney’s Cabramatta. All reviewers were positive about this book, commonly discussing the credible way various themes were depicted as well as the multi-layered feel to the storyline. Carol at Reading, Writing and Riesling wrote

Firstly I was very impressed with the authentic voice of this police procedural and the harrowing accuracy of PTSD as it is presented in this narrative; life constantly on alert, hyper vigilant, hyper alert, anxious, breathless, paranoia…panic. I could feel this disorder blossoming in my mind and chest as I read on, the descriptions so real.

Among the highlights for Yvonne Perkins was the book’s depiction of Sydney

Newton excels in writing about place. Her books are not about the bells and sparkles facade that Sydney likes to parade to the rest of the world. They are about grungy Sydney, the real Sydney that most residents have to live in. There is no glamour here, but the truth of the parked car that expels over-heated, stale air when someone opens the door; the crowded train stations; the broken people; the ugly, unloved buildings of neglected suburbs.

For Lou Murphy at Newton Review of Books the book’s layers are singled out for a mention

Beams Falling is much more than an exciting crime thriller: it works on many levels. The personal story is about coping with trauma, about the questions Nhu needs to ask herself in order to function again. The process of repair is dealt with poignantly as she attempts to heal her physical and psychological wounds

WendyJamesTheLostGirlsDemonstrating the breadth of what constitutes a crime novel these days THE LOST GIRLS is a different kind of story, though it too focuses at least as much narrative energy on the impact of a crime as it does on whodunit. It is a standalone novel of ‘domestic suspense’ in which the decades-old murder of a teenager still haunts her extended family in the present day. A common theme among the universally positive reviews of this novel is its disturbing ordinariness, as highlighted by Angela Savage

James has a special talent for depicting everyday suburban lives and adding unexpected but entirely plausible drama. The suspense is driven not only by the characters’ predicaments, but by the fear that something like this could happen to us or someone we love

Jess at The Never Ending Bookshelf was taken by the way the story explores the notion of truth

It’s the kind of story that shows us just how many shades of grey are in our seemingly black and white world. How the past is sometimes different to our memories and that circumstances are sometime unfortunate.

and at Book’d Out Shelleyrae explores this concept further

The Lost Girls is told through memories, interview transcripts, newspaper articles and the story of the present day, revealing the events that led up to, and followed, the death of Angie. As the novel unfolds, moving between time, place and perspective, the reader begins to piece together a wider view of the tragedy, and those affected, than any one character has

If you need a bit more information about either of these great novels check out fellow writer Angela Savage discussing both books on a recent episode of Radio National’s Books and Arts Daily

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AWW participants were reading other books over the past two months though and some lesser-known titles deserve particular mention here.

  • At Whispering Gums Angela Meyer’s book of mysterious short stories, THE GREAT UNKNOWN was a winner, offering “a collection of stories that vary greatly in setting, voice, subject matter – and even tone. Some are funny, some sad, most are disconcerting and some, of course, are scary.”
  • At Books and Musings from Downunder Sally reviewed Kaz Delaney’s first young adult mystery, DEAD, ACTUALLY, high praise indeed “Excellent Stuff – a real page turner and hard to put down. I carved out extra reading time just so I could finish it. This book got carted into the bathroom with me, read over meals, read at work, and/or kept me up late at night. If this author has more work, I will certainly read it
  • While she was a bit disappointed with the amount of ‘fluff’ in the writing, Cait at Aussie Owned and Read found some things to like about Lucy Christopher’s THE KILLING WOODS, saying of the plot “Seriously, it’s not everyday that a plot takes me by surprise! I’d heard everyone saying “I never guessed the killer!” so of course I thought, “Pfft, I’ll guess straight away.” I didn’t. (I suspected everyone, but that hardly counts because I was on my guard.)”. I love the format of Cait’s reviews too.

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As part of a month in which the AWW challenge celebrated diversity I wrote a post on Sleuthing and Sexuality , the research for which surprised me in that it highlighted how few crime novels feature lesbian characters, while Marisa Wikramanayake interviewed Katherine Howell and Lindy Cameron, both of whom have written crime fiction which features lesbian characters


If you’re after some ideas of more crime/mystery/thriller or true crime books to read then head over to the genre’s reviews page for this year’s challenge to see what else is being discussed or check out the previous roundups for this review category


About Me

I’m Bernadette Bean. I’ve been reading avidly for as long as I can remember, blogging about reading since late 2008 at Reactions to Reading and co-hosting Fair Dinkum Crime, a site devoted to promoting and discussing Australian crime fiction, for the past couple of years. I read and reviewed 18 books as part of my own participation in the 2012 challenge. Some of them weren’t even crime novels!