Kiss Me First, by Lottie Moggach (Macmillan, RRP $38): The internet is an easy place to hide, to lie and to be completely absorbed by. It can be a place where you trust someone so completely that you can…
Category: Mysteries & Thrillers
A good read, if you ignore the annoyances
The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins (Doubleday, RRP $37): Every morning, Rachel catches the same train to the same destination, to her same job, and passes the same houses on her journey. And every morning that train stops…
Patterson gets Alex Cross back on track
Hope to Die (Alex Cross 22), by James Patterson (Century, RRP $37): While Cross My Heart, the previous book in the Alex Cross crime series, was a wee bit disappointing, this latest offering manages to pull things back on track a…
Old adversary returns in latest Bones book
Bones Never Lie, by Kathy Reichs (William Heinemann, RRP $37) In this new Temperance “Tempe” Brennan novel from world-class forensic anthropologist and No 1 best-selling author Kathy Reichs, it appears that the blood-thirsty killer who escaped justice in 2004’s Monday Mourning…
Gruesome but worth the effort
Alex, by Pierre Lamaitre (MacLehose, RRP $38): If you are in any way squeamish, you might just struggle to get past the first few pages of this gruesome but compelling thriller by French author Pierre Lamaitre. However, it’s worth the…
Kiwi angle helps lift tone of novel
Unearthed, by Steve Hodgkinson (Orb Publishing, RRP $33): This is a New Zealand environmental thriller with a message or two. Set in the Waikato, Sam Miro is a young, highly regarded researcher working on environment monitoring. When some of his study farms…
Plot a little out there at times – but it’s Bond
Solo, by William Boyd (Random House, RRP $38): For the James Bond fans out there, the news that William Boyd was planning to pen a followup Bond novel was probably pretty exciting and, for the most part, he has delivered…
Surprisingly fresh murder mystery
The Girl Next Door, by Ruth Rendell (Hutchinson, RRP $37): As is probably obvious from this blog, I read a lot, and a lot of the books I read are crime novels. It seems like Ruth Rendell has been around…
Heroine out for revenge in edge-of-seat series finale
Assassin, by Tara Moss (HarperCollins, RRP $27): In the final thriller in the Mak Vanderwall series by former model Tara Moss, the focus is on revenge and survival. When ex-model turned private investigator and forensic psychologist Mak Vanderwall goes missing…
Short preview to a character’s farewell
An Event in Autumn, by Henning Mankell (Harvill Secker, RRP $27): Here’s a treat for fans: new novella featuring the now world-famous (but, sadly, now retired literary character) of Scandinavian detective Kurt Wallander. After three decades of solving crime, Wallander is…