Melvin Mars sits in a cell, awaiting execution for the brutal murder of his parents two decades. However, just hours before he is scheduled to die, he is granted an unexpected reprieve when someone else confesses to the crime. In…
Category: Mysteries & Thrillers
REVIEW Close to the Bone
DI Logan McRae has a lot on his plate. His girlfriend is lying in hospital, he is living in a caravan park because his flat has blown up, a local criminal godfather type is wanting his help and, to top…
Murder mystery unravels in letters
Letters to my Daughter’s Killer, by Cath Staincliffe (Murdoch Books, RRP $37): When Ruth Sutton receives a text from her daughter Lizzie asking her to babysit the following weekend, she takes a moment to reflect on the happiness she finds in…
A bit saggy but still a good read
Innocence, by Dean Koontz (HarperCollins, RRP $35): Addison Goodheart lives below the city, out of sight of people whose first impulse if they see his face is to try to commit violence. Addison reads, and lives quietly, and goes up…
Beckett thriller hits the ground running
Stone Bruises, by Simon Beckett (Bantam Press, RRP $38): With the mystery and intrigue kicking off from the very first page, we meet the book’s main character Sean as he is on the run, but with no indication of why…
No surprises policy not so good in book
Before We Met, by Lucie Whitehouse (Bloomsbury, RRP $35): With the short but not-so- sweet blurb on the back of this book telling us that Hannah Reilly had a perfectly happy life until the day her husband failed to come…
Another goodie from Patterson
Mistress, by James Patterson and David Ellis (Century, RRP $37): Here’s another decent read from the prolific James Patterson, this time in a standalone novel with David Ellis. Ben Casper sees his best friend fall to her death from the balcony of her apartment…
Gory, dark but compelling
A Song for the Dying, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins, RRP $35): Scottish author Stuart MacBride has delivered yet another gritty, gruesome and somewhat uncomfortable murder mystery in A Song for the Dying. Detective Inspector Ash Henderson was on the trail…
Mystery that will keep you guessing
The Stranger You Know, by Jane Casey (Ebury Press, RRP $38): Three women have been murdered in their own homes, all have been strangled with no sign of a break-in. For Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan, it looks like the victims…
Thriller with the good, the bad and the ugly
Bad Blood, by Arne Dahl (Harvill Secker, RRP $37): For years the “Kentucky Killer” managed to elude the FBI, leaving a trail of victims with terrible injuries that haunted the agents looking for him. With a method of highly specialised…