Today I had a horrid morning but eventually made it back from drop off determined to sit and get my round up done, on the scheduled date and without having to rush. Unfortunately the techno gods still hate me. I couldn’t log into the site and I couldn’t get to my usual spot to check out what’s been reviewed. The best laid plans….. but we are great at improvising and so the show will go on.
Two and a half hours later and I managed to log in, and check out the reviews that have been logged. What a day….
So, we have 63 reviews logged of 48 books by 41 authors. A quick glance down the list shows that we have a range of new entries and some we have seen before.
Our oldest releases are from 2012, and there’s a couple of them.
Carolyn Scott reviewed Miles off Course by Sulari Gentill on Goodreads. She says: What makes these novels so enjoyable is the author’s sense of time and place. She describes in detail all the places and scenery that Rowly and his friends stay in the Blue Mountains and on their way to the Snowy Mountains, as well as the types of activities that visitors to these regions would have enjoyed.
Brenda reviewed Heller by J.D. Nixon, also on Goodreads. Brenda says: Heller is the 1st in the Heller series by Aussie author J.D. Nixon and I quite enjoyed it. Plenty of action, some very nasty people and an intriguing plot kept me entertained to the end, and I’ll be looking at the second in the series. Recommended.
We have lots of books published this year so I can’t tell you with certainty which is the newest. I do know that there is a debut release due out early next month that has it’s first review in this roundup.
I reviewed Every Time He Dies by Tara East at Mic Loves Books and here’s a snippet of what I thought: My hope for this one is that it is actually the beginning of a series because I think there is a fantastic foundation for a long running series featuring the main character, and I almost think the ending sets it up for a sequel… I live in hope anyway. The heroine is certainly a character I would follow.
Every Time He Dies is part police procedural, part outlaw bikie gang and part paranormal. It was an intriguing premise and I definitely think that East has pulled it off.
In the past when I have looked at the number of reviews for our most popular books there have been a couple of standout new releases with lots of reviews, this round-up it’s a lot more spread out. Our most popular books have 3 and 4 reviews, so let’s take a look at them. I think they are mainly debuts to the round-up.
Six Minutes by Petronella McGovern has 4 reviews on Goodreads, by Jennifer, Cloggie Downunder, Sharon and Brenda. They were 4 and 5 star reviews and I have heard great things about this one.
Brenda says: Six Minutes is the debut novel by Aussie author Petronella McGovern and it packs a punch! Set in Canberra, the fast pace and gripping tension takes your breath away. With plenty of twists and turns, Six Minutes is an excellent psychological thriller which I recommend.
Fake by Stephanie Wood has 3 reviews, by Jennifer on Goodreads, Kim Forrester @ Reading Matters and Kate @ Booksaremyfavouriteandbest. Fake is a non-fiction account of a journalist taken in by a con-man.
Kim Forrester @ Reading Matters says: Fake is not just an account of Wood’s unwitting involvement in a sham relationship, it’s a riveting exposé of con men across the world who use their narcissistic powers to take advantage of others for their own end.
Also with three reviews is Where The Dead Go by Sarah Bailey, the third in a series I swear I will get to one day. It was reviewed by Carolyn and Cloggie Downunder on Goodreads and Theresa Smith Writes.
Theresa Smith Writes says: Where the Dead Go is compelling reading. Gritty, realistic, atmospheric and chilling. An absolute cracker of a read that I can’t even begin to recommend highly enough.
Cloggie Downunder says: Bailey’s depiction of the coastal small town is quite authentic. Fairhaven is filled with secrets and lies and there are a lot of red herrings and distractions in the story resulting in rather too many instances of theorising about who did what to whom and why, some of which might have been condensed for a tighter plot. Despite this, Bailey’s third novel is an excellent piece of Australian crime fiction.
The last of our 3 review books is Meet Me At Lennon’s by Melanie Myers. Goodreads has reviews logged by Cass Moriarty and Kali Napier, and Theresa Smith Writes also reviewed.
Cass says: This is a book founded on extensive historical research of a particular time and place, and the emotions that flourished due to the circumstances. It is also a story about family, and friendship, and ancestry and our search for belonging. And of course it is a compelling mystery about one unsolved murder of one nameless girl, an act that has been lost to the archives of time and largely forgotten. But as the narrative progresses, and the disparate threads begin to knit together into some form of cohesive shape, we begin to see the pattern emerge, and pieces of the story that may have seemed unrelated begin to coalesce into a surprising – but somehow inevitable – conclusion, with a timely comment on the role and rights of women, then and now – both the hard-won achievements, and the aspects that seem little changed.
That’s probably enough for today but there are so many other great crime novels reviewed and if you want to check out all of the crime novels that have been reviewed you can head to the AWW Books Reviewed page and search by Genre. It will put all of the reviews at your fingertips.
We would love to hear about the great crime reads you have enjoyed recently.
