Book Reviews

Book Review: Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight by Riku Onda

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight  by Riku Onda is a radically bewildering but completely mesmeric and refreshingly original psychological thriller that is full of unpredictable twists and surprises.

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight is the first book I’ve read by Japanese author Riku Onda. I received a copy of the book for review in my latest shipment from Bitter Lemon Press. Since I very much enjoyed the only other crime novel by a Japanese author I’ve read, I was eager to read this one. Onda is certainly a talented and emotive writer, but I wasn’t as enamoured with the substance of the book as much as with the brilliantly elusive and bewildering and definitely unconventional form. This may not be the best book I’ve read this year, but it is certainly the most fascinating. Onda’s writing is stunning with strong character development and a story arc perfectly paced to produce suspense.

Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight

by Riku Onda

Translated by Alison Watts

Published by Bitter Lemon Press

on July 26, 2022

Source: Publisher

Genre(s) Psychological Thriller

ISBN 978-1-913394-592

204 pages

Set in Tokyo over the course of one night, Aki and Hiro have decided to be together one last time in their shared flat before parting. Their relationship has broken down after a mountain trek during which their guide died inexplicably. Now each believes the other to be a murderer and is determined to extract a confession before the night is over. Who is the murderer and what really happened on the mountain?

In the battle of wills between them, the chain of events leading up to this night is gradually revealed in a gripping psychological thriller that keeps the reader in suspense to the very end.

As the book unfolds, we meet its two narrators, Hiro and Aki, who are spending one last night together in the Tokyo apartment they have long shared. They are now set to move on with their lives separately. The movers have already taken nearly everything away, and the pair are using a suitcase as a table for their last meal and drinks shared together. Onda switches back and forth between the two narrators with each chapter, which permits us to see things from their respective points of view.

The initial impression we get is that the two were romantically involved, but have now drifted apart. But when we discover the bond between them that has been challenged as more past secrets come to light, we realize this isn’t a former couple spending one last night together hoping to gain closure over a failed romance. Hiro and Aki have something to talk over, one specific thing that they both want to understand. A year earlier, a man died, and each of them suspects the other killed him. During this last night spent together in the apartment they have shared, both now hope to persuade the other to admit to a murder. Onda uses a very effective set-up for a story as it provides attention-gripping tension from the very start.

As the story plays out, we realize the true nature of Aki and Hiro’s relationship and its history isn’t what we first assumed. Indeed, it’s far more complicated than a failed romance. Like peeling back the layers of an onion, Onda slowly reveals the hidden parts, leading us from one surprising discovery to the next. For example, we learn the dead man was a mountain tour guide that Aki and Hiro had hired for a hiking trip. On the hike, the guide suggested making an unplanned rest stop and had then fallen from a cliff edge to his death. While the authorities had ruled it an accident, Aki and Hiro were not together when the man fell, and each has reason to believe the other was responsible for the guide’s death. Things grow increasingly complicated as we learn the identity of the guide, and that Aki and Hiro booked the tour under assumed names, hoping to get this particular guide assigned to them.

The truth about Aki and Hiro and a death that may or may not have been a murder slowly emerges, step by step. The nature of the story shifts as each additional detail emerges. But it is soon clear that Aki and Hiro can’t escape from the past. At best, they can only hope to figure it out, both what happened to the guide a year earlier and some other things from much longer ago. In working it all out, they both discover considerably more than they bargained for.

This is a solid, suspenseful tale with plenty of clever twists and many unpredictable turns along the way. The imaginative presentation has almost a labyrinth-like quality, continually tempting us to believe we have worked out what’s really going on, only to learn we are wrong when we stand again and again before a blank wall after taking the wrong path.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

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Book Review: Outback by Patricia Wolf

Absorbing, affecting, and stark Australian noir at its best describes Outback by Patricia Wolf, her debut novel.

I’ve felt a powerful attraction to Australian noir since first discovering the outstanding Australian television crime series Mystery Road, a spin-off from Ivan Sen’s feature films Mystery Road and Goldstone. So, when I read the summary of Outback by Patricia Wolf, I was keen to read it and discovering it was available for review, I immediately requested the book.

While Wolf’s character, DS Lucas Walker, isn’t an Australian Aboriginal copper like the Jay Swan character of Mystery Road, Walker is a former bushie. He’s back in outback Queensland, where he grew up, on compassionate leave from his undercover assignment with the Australian Federal Police in Canberra to care for and spend time with his terminally ill grandma, who raised him.

I saw much similarity between this book’s story line and those of the Mystery Road television series episodes in the sense of how Wolf’s brilliantly descriptive prose introduces us to the hot semi-arid climate, red dirt environment, and people inhabiting rural north western Queensland in a comparably powerful way to how the television series does it visually. She captures it perfectly, illustrating for the reader how the vast, stark, and often environmentally inhospitable Australian outback is at once both foreboding and breathtakingly beautiful simultaneously. That comes as no surprise once we learn the author grew up in the area she chose as the setting for her debut crime novel.

Outback

by Patricia Wolf

Published by Embla Books and imprint of Bonnier Books UK

on November 28, 2022

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Genre(s) Thrillers & Suspense, Australian Noir

ISBN 9781471411700

Two missing backpackers. One vast outback.

DS Lucas Walker is on leave in his hometown of Caloodie, taking care of his dying grandmother. When two young German backpackers, Berndt and Rita, vanish from the area, he finds himself unofficially on the case. But why all the interest from the Federal Police when they have probably just ditched the heat and dust of the outback for the coast?

As the number of days since the couple’s disappearance climbs, DS Walker is joined by Rita’s older sister. A detective herself with Berlin CID, she has flown to Australia – desperate to find her sister before it’s too late.

Working in the organised crime unit has opened Walker’s eyes to the growing drug trade in Australia’s remote interior, and he remains convinced there is more at play.

As temperatures soar, the search for Berndt and Rita becomes ever more urgent. Even if Walker does find the young couple, will it be too late?

Outback does not disappoint. The shocking and tense prologue effortlessly pulls us into the story and sets the scene for what’s coming. Wolf cinematically captures the dichotomy of life in rural Australia, the harshness of the unremitting dry heat and drought, and the close camaraderie between neighbors and townsfolk.

DS Lucas Walker is at his grandmother’s place in northwest Queensland where he grew up taking a few months of compassionate leave to spend with his grandma, who suffers from terminal cancer. But his boss, Chief Inspector Rutherford, at the organized crime unit of the Australian Federal Police telephones Walker with an assignment. Rutherford tells him to assist the local police with the investigation of the disappearance of two young German backpackers, Berndt Meyer and Rita Guerra. The pair went missing in Walker’s vicinity while on their way to jobs at a remote cattle station. At first Walker is dubious his supervisor only wants him to help with a routine missing persons case while on leave, but then decides he’s happy to take on the job since it’s something productive to do and he doesn’t expect it to amount too much.

But once Walker looks into the investigation, he wonders what is really going on and what he’s got himself into. He finds the local police officer in charge, Chief Constable Grogan, strangely suspicious and less than fully cooperative. Walker concludes there is much more to the story than Rutherford led him to believe.

Some might consider Wolf’s use of the unwelcoming local copper with a chip on his shoulder something of a cliché, since it seems it has become an overused staple of the genre. Yet I don’t take issue with it. Local coppers who are uncooperative with outside investigators from the big city, even bent ones, I think are a trope for Australian noir, something fans of the genre expect. And in this case, the questionable character of Chief Constable Grogan is an integral part of the plot.

After first working side by side with Grogan on the case, Walker becomes as suspicious of the man as Grogan seems of him. To Walker, Grogan’s unfriendly behavior seems like more than only resentment over an unwelcome outsider intruding on his home turf. But at first, Walker doesn’t work out just how sinister the circumstances motivating Grogan’s behavior truly are.

Although Walker’s undercover story is that his role with the Federal Police focuses on financial crimes, he’s a seasoned narcotics investigator. Knowing that every rural town has its secrets, Walker can’t help but wonder if the disappearance of the two backpackers is linked to the local narcotic trade. In time, he uncovers information that strengthens his theory.

The sister of one of the missing backpackers, Barbara Guerra, arrives in Australia and contacts Walker. Guerra is not only a deeply concerned family member, but also a Berlin police detective sergeant who wants to take an active role in the investigation. Walker tries to discourage her, but she persists, so he gives in and allows her to assist. I liked the addition of Barbara Guerra as his unofficial colleague and think the book is stronger for having her to act as Walker’s foil. Also, despite Guerra’s unswerving focus on finding her little sister before it’s too late, unquestionable mutually felt sexual tension develops between the two detectives. Although they never act on it, this contributes to adding interest and pushing the plot forward.

Wolf does an impressive job with her characters, with Walker and Guerra, as well as the extended supporting cast. All are well-developed and realistic and none dissolve into stereotypical cliches. There is enough backstory offered for the principal characters without being overdone. I really liked Lucas Walker. Wolf draws him wonderfully, a man affected by his past but not in the cliched “flawed protagonist” way so prevalent in crime fiction today. His relationship with mother is fractured, which is why his grandma raised him after his mother moved to Boston to pursue her career, but Wolf presents the story in an understated way which is achingly touching.

There isn’t really a whodunit part in this novel, as we learn straightaway why the backpackers went missing and who is responsible, but that takes nothing away from the well-developed plot since Wolf adds plenty of twists to the plot to continue ratcheting the suspense little by little until it becomes most intense. And despite what is revealed early in the novel, we’re interested in how it will all play out. The unexpected revelations as the book moved toward the final climax also intrigued me.

I would enjoy meeting DS Lucas Walker again, and the ending seemed to leave plenty of room for Outback to become the first in a series. I hope that’s the case, since Patricia Wolf is an excellent storyteller and I’m keen to read more of her work. This book is perfect for fans of Australian crime fiction and authors like Jane Harper.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley used for this review, which represents my own honest opinions.

Patricia Wolf has been a journalist for more than 15 years. She is a regular contributor to titles, including The Guardian, The Financial Times, The New York Times and The Telegraph, among others. Formerly a design columnist at The Independent and the Lisbon correspondent for Monocle magazine, she covers subjects ranging from design, art and culture to travel, politics and human interest pieces from around the world. In 2021, Patricia was announced as the winner of the $100,000 Nine Dots Prize and a book deal with Cambridge University Press. Outback is Patricia’s first work of fiction.

Author Patricia Wolf

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Book Reviews

Book Review: .45-Caliber Perfume by Leo W. Banks

Greed, sex, and murder combine in .45-Caliber Perfume by Leo W. Banks, a gritty, face-paced, and entertaining contemporary noir tale.

One thing Leo W. Banks does exceptionally well is the way he uses a well-chosen word or phrase that does so much to paint a scene or create a mood, a hallmark of the best noir fiction writers.

Most of us rise above our baser instincts, but not so for the main characters in .45-Caliber Perfume. It’s a story about a shady politician and two women in his life, all who act on their baser instincts, so we can’t help but be fascinated. We learn all three have secrets and hidden agendas which set them on a collision course. This, along with the terse, snappy dialogue and suspenseful plotting, gives the reader no chance to get bored.

.45 Caliber Perfume

by Leo W. Banks

Published by Brash Books

on August 29, 2022

Source: Publisher (via author)

ISBN 9781954841499

Genre(s) Thriller & Suspense, Noir Crime Fiction

226 pages

Arizona businessman Henry Belmont’s senate campaign is looking good. The cash contributions are rolling in and Mary Rose Cleary, his sexy, young campaign manager and mistress, is happy to handle the flow, as long as she can secretly pocket her cut. Complicating the picture is Henry’s conniving wife Barbara, a fading beauty with a secret criminal past and a deadly agenda. But Mary and Barbara share more than a bed with handsome Henry. They both love guns, money and sex…and know how to use them to get what they want. Now, in the brutal heat of a Phoenix summer, the lives of this scheming trio will collide in a violent explosion of betrayal, greed and murder.

Henry Vincent Belmont (Vin the Chin), we learn, was once an all-conference college football star with his sights set on the NFL until a knee injury crushed the dream. Now he is a self-made Phoenix businessman running for the United States Senate, motivated by the same things as most politicians, profiting from influence peddling and the thirst for fame and power. The two principal women in his life are his wife Barbara and his campaign manager Mary Rose Cleary. As might be expected, Mary is the common denominator in the story between Henry Belmont and his wife, Barbara. Mary manages not only Henry’s campaign fundraising, she is also his mistress, dreaming that once Henry gets elected, he’ll dump Barbara, marry her and take her to Washington with him. But no one knows her husband as well as Barbara does. She knows all about his philandering ways and Barbara has ambitions of her own that don’t include Henry.

Banks alternates between Mary and Barbara as narrators, so we hear from both the women and he produces believable and individual “voices” for each which I found compelling. It allows us to see the events and situations unfold from their individual points of view. We learn what they think about Henry, each other, and gain insight into their specific characters (or lack thereof), motivations, and agendas.

Ostensibly, Mary Rose Cleary at the beginning, despite her selfish motivations, is committed to Henry and helping him succeed. But once she discovers Henry’s secrets and that she won’t realize her dreams, that facade falls away quickly. Mary isn’t quite the nice girl and dedicated assistant we first believed she was, but a rather shady, conniving, and vengeful person who intends to get what she believes she deserves. As secrets get revealed and the lies uncovered amidst alcohol-fueled and illicit sexual trysts, we learn the unvarnished truths about two women with troubled pasts and hidden agendas. I’m uncertain we can find a single likeable character in this book, someone to feel sympathy for or root for. But understanding they are all on the edge of moral breakdown (or have already completed it), their actions are understandable.

There’s a sense of predictability here and I think readers will clearly see where this book is going. After all, the reason most of us strive to rise above our baser instincts is because we know we would get burned in the end if we didn’t. But not so for the main characters here. This is a story about all three acting on their baser instincts, so we can’t help but be fascinated despite knowing things probably won’t end well for them. And Banks throws in enough surprises, it’s good fun for all.

Our verdict is .45-Caliber Perfume is a safe bet if you’re in the market for a gritty, suspenseful, noir fiction read where the combination of sex, greed, and murder moves the plot along masterfully. Just don’t expect light to triumph over darkness or good to win out in the end.

I received a copy of the book used for this review from the publisher via the author, which represents my own honest opinions.

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Book Reviews

Book Review: Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb

Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb is an exceptionally entertaining read that is mostly cozy, yet a solid whodunit.

Death at Paradise Palms by Steph Broadribb is the second book in the Retired Detectives Club, featuring four retired residents of The Homestead Retirement Community in Florida. It’s an exceptionally entertaining read that is mostly cozy, yet a solid whodunit. The premise is probably a little far-fetched, but the novel is pure escapism, so I tried not to overthink the practicality of retired folks (albeit all former law enforcement) gallivanting about after armed, murderous kidnappers.

Death at Paradise Palms (The Retired Detectives Club Book 2)

by Steph Broadribb

Published by Thomas & Mercer

on October 11, 2022

Source: Thomas & Mercer via NetGalley

Genres: Crime Fiction

ISBN: 9781542027526

Pages: 316

It looks like an open-and-shut case―until one of the Retired Detectives disappears…

When movie producer Cody Ziegler goes missing from The Homestead’s Millionaires’ Row, his wife, retired actress Olivia, immediately claims there’s foul play afoot. A million-dollar ransom demand soon follows, with clear instructions not to involve the cops. In desperation she enlists the help of Moira, Rick, Philip and Lizzie, aka the Retired Detectives Club.

Racing against the clock, the four retirees set to work. Sure, Cody had enemies―there’s a disgruntled employee, a jilted film-maker and a hundred other people who know how much he’s worth. But when it emerges that Cody’s apparently perfect marriage isn’t what it seems, even Olivia isn’t above suspicion.

When Cody’s car turns up in a nearby lake with a shocking surprise inside, the case becomes even more complicated. But with Philip and Lizzie’s marriage on the rocks, and threatening notes sending Moira into a spin, the Retired Detectives Club risks falling apart before getting any closer to the truth.

Can Moira and the gang find Cody before it’s too late? Or will this case see them lose in more ways than one?

Broadribb introduces us to a primary cast of four – a former DEA agent (Rick), a British ex-DCI (Moira), and a married British couple (Philip and Lizzie), an ex-DCI and ex-CSI, respectively. I haven’t read the first bestselling book in the series, Death in the Sunshine, but references in this one suggest here we have the same group of retired detectives investigating crimes that the local cops either can’t or are unwilling to investigate. While I don’t think it matters if you’ve not read the first book in the series, that one might give the reader more context since authors often spend significant time in first books building the backstories and personalities of the regular characters. Still, Broadribb gives us ample information about the characters, so we never feel lost entering the series with the second book.

While here we seem to have a protagonist by committee since all four main characters seem to have equal weight, the book unfolds in third person from the point of view of Moira Flynn, but we get the points of view of the others and Broadribb spends plenty of time developing them all. We learn not only the roles they play in the investigation, but get personal side stories for all four that help give us clearer perspectives of them that help us see them as real people we come to care about. Still, I found Moira the most interesting character in the group because I found her side story more compelling and sympathy provoking. Rick Denver is also a likeable, realistic character and his budding romantic interest in Moira adds much to the story. I didn’t really like Philip and Lizzie Sweetman much at the start. Philip seems to have an inflated idea of his own importance. His wife Lizzie, holding onto an old grudge bitterly and tenaciously, uses it as an excuse to treat her husband harshly. I felt little sympathy for either until near the end of the book when circumstances forced them both to finally became more likeable.

The retired detectives are in fine form and there are a few laugh-out-loud moments interspersed among the more serious issues Broadribb touches deftly on, such as ageing, life after retirement, and relationships.

We’re offered a simple missing person case at the start when a former Hollywood star, Olivia Hamilton Zeigler, hires the retired detectives to find her missing husband Cory. But when Olivia receives a ransom demand, the case turns into a kidnapping case. Still, the team stays on the case since Olivia doesn’t trust the police and refuses to involve the authorities. Broadribb’s writing and characterization are incredibly engaging and the reader feels as if they are as involved in the case as the cast.

As mentioned, a team of amateur sleuths, even retired law enforcement types, probably wouldn’t take on an active kidnapping case, but it’s certainly good fun and an enjoyable page-turning read. If you’re a fan of Miss Marple or Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series, you’re sure to enjoy this book.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley for review purposes.

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Book Tour: Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Adroit storytelling, vivid relatable characters, and a twisty plot makes Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir a winner for mystery and detective fans.

A book tour organizer friend (who knows my love for Nordic crime fiction) suggested I’d like Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir and she certainly wasn’t wrong. Usually, I wait about a week before my spot on a book tour to read the book so the details are still fresh in my memory when I write the review. But I was so eager to dive into this one after reading the blurb, I read it early in the month of September. This is the first book I’ve read by the Icelandic author, and it won’t be my last because I loved everything about it. The twisty plot was worthy of an Agatha Christie novel and it was a pleasure to meet the vivid, relatable characters.

Harm

by Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Translated by Quentin Bates

Published by Corylus Books

From August 27, 2022

ISBN 978-1-9163797-8-7

Genre(s) Mystery & Detective, Nordic noir

240 pages

From the publisher

When wealthy doctor Ríkarður Magnússon goes to sleep in his luxurious caravan and doesn’t wake up, detectives Guðgeir Fransson and Elsa Guðrún are called to the Westman Islands to investigate what looks like murder.

Suspicion immediately falls on Ríkharður’s young, beautiful and deeply troubled girlfriend – but there are no easy answers in this case as they are drawn into family feuds, disgruntled friends and colleagues, and the presence of a group of fitness-obsessed over-achievers with secrets of their own.

As their investigation makes progress, Guðgeir and Elsa Guðrún are forced to confront their own preconceptions and prejudices as they uncover the sinister side of Ríkharður’s past.

Imagine a young woman’s shock when she wakes to discover her boyfriend, wealthy doctor Ríkarður Magnússon, a man twenty years her senior, is lying in bed beside her in their caravan dead. Complicating the situation are two things. First, the young woman, Diljá had given him something at bedtime to make certain he slept soundly so that she could slip away to spend the night in the company of another man. And she has a troubled past including diagnosed mental illness. All she can think of is no one will believe she intended Ríkarður no harm and considers fleeing before his death gets discovered. And that’s what she does, which puts her at the top of the suspect list once the police begin investigating the death of Ríkarður Magnússon as a possible homicide. Detectives Guðgeir Fransson and Elsa Guðrún arrive at the scene on the Westman Islands from Reykjavik to investigate. After interviewing two other couples that Ríkarður and Diljá had come to the Westman Islands to spend time with and discovering the victim’s girlfriend Diljá has disappeared and taken the ferry back that morning, they find her behavior suspicious. The police eventually find Diljá and remand her into custody in Reykjavik. But after interviewing her and some fresh developments come to light, Guðgeir and his team begin to doubt Diljá’s guilt. Masterful storytelling, vivid relatable characters, and a twisty plot makes Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir a winner for mystery and detective fans. My verdict, get it.

Corylus Books published Harm by Sólveig Pálsdóttir in English in the United Kingdom on August 27, 2022.

I received a copy of the book from the publisher for review.

Sólveig Pálsdóttir

Sólveig Pálsdóttir trained as an actor and has a background in the theatre, television and radio. In a second career she studied for degrees in literature and education, and has taught literature and linguistics, drama and public speaking. She has also produced both radio programming and managed cultural events. Her first novel appeared in Iceland in 2012 and went straight to the country’s bestseller list. She has written six novels featuring Reykjavík detective Guðgeir Fransson, and a memoir Klettaborgin which was a 2020 hit in Iceland. Silenced (Fjötrar) received the 2020 Drop of Blood award for the best Icelandic novel of the year and was Iceland’s nomination for the 2021 Glass key award for the best Nordic crime novel of the year. Harm (Skaði), published in October 2021 in Iceland, made it to the bestseller list just like the previous books, and is her third novel to appear in English, following The Fox and Silenced. She took part in several crime fiction and literary festivals such as Bristol’s CrimeFest, Newcastle Noir, Aberdeen’s Granite Noir and Iceland Noir. Sólveig lives in Reykjavík.

Quentin Bates has professional and personal roots in Iceland that run very deep. He worked as a seaman before turning to maritime journalism. He is an author of a series of nine crime novels and novellas, the Reykjavik detective featuring Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. In addition to writing his own fiction, he has translated books by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, Óskar Guðmundsson and Ragnar Jónasson. Quentin was instrumental in launching IcelandNoir, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.

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Book Reviews

Book review: To the Sea by Nikki Crutchley

To the Sea is another entertaining thriller and worthy page-turner from 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted New Zealand author Nikki Crutchley.

I loved Nikki Crutchley’s first three books, Nothing Bad Happens Here, No One Can Hear You, and The Murder Club. I’ve had a copy of this one, To the Sea, for months and months after going to a good bit of trouble to buy a copy after the publisher released it in Australia and New Zealand. But since I’ve had a constant flow of read for review books this year and feel an obligation to give those the priority, I’ve only just got to Crutchley’s latest release. It’s such a brilliantly written book, it feels a bit confronting and challenging to review it since I wonder if I can even do justice to it. It’s a thriller, but one with almost a literary feel. I read this easily in a sitting and it’s certainly the kind of story that induces you to do so. Crutchley builds steadily to the action-packed climax, but she paces it so perfectly it never drags. This book and the events within feel so real that it’s as if we readers are glimpsing real life struggles, hidden secrets, pain, and anger.

To the Sea

by Nikki Crutchley

Published by: Harper Collins

on December 01, 2021

Source: Purchased

ISBN 978-1-4607-6043-7 (Paperback)

Genre(s) Thrillers and Suspense

312 pages

A compulsively readable suspense thriller from Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted author, Nikki Crutchley, which will keep you guessing and reading up until late into the night.

Iluka has been the only home that 18-year-old Ana has ever known. The beautiful wild pine plantation overlooking the Pacific Ocean where her grandfather builds furniture, her aunt runs an artists’ retreat and her uncle tends the land, is paradise, a private idyll safe from the outside world.

But the place holds a violent secret and when a stranger arrives, Ana will need to make a choice: to protect everything – and everyone – she holds dear or tell the truth and destroy it all.

An atmospheric, suspenseful, dark and twisty thriller in the tradition of Daphne du Maurier, Paula Hawkins, Anna Downes and JP Pomare.

The book opens with a flashback to twenty-three years before the present day. A man named Hurley survives a near fatal boating accident at sea that claimed the life of his best friend. Hurley emerges from the experience believing the sea took his friend but spared him to give him a second chance at life, and he undergoes a marked personality change. Much to his wife’s chagrin, he sells his business and the family home and moves his wife, daughter, and son to a secluded seafront, pine covered property he names Iluka. Hurley also changes the names of his wife and children, giving them names associated with the sea. The family subsists on sales of the furniture Hurley builds from the pine trees on the property, the operation of an artist’s retreat bed-and-breakfast, and by tending the land. While Hurley and his thirteen-year-old daughter believe Iluka and the near hermit-like existence of the family idyllic, his wife never adjusts to it and eventually makes plans to leave with their young son. But thanks to Hurley, Iluka is a bit like the Hotel California. You can check in anytime you like, but can never leave. Not alive. When he discovers his wife had packed to leave, he murders her, but arranges it to look like a suicide and the local authorities accept that was what happened. The story continues to switch back and forth between the past and present, teasing out the family secrets that help us soon understand that there is nothing idyllic about Iluka at all. The sinister place inhabited by a troubled family with shocking secrets would be right at home in a Stephen King horror novel. More murders happen and as the macabre family secrets get revealed to the reader, the suspense builds and builds until the end. Ana, Hurley’s eighteen-year-old granddaughter is the main character. I enjoyed the complexity of her relationship with her grandfather and mother. Crutchley does a fabulous job of giving readers insight into the life of someone who loses her innocence once she discovers the family secrets about gruesome events that occurred before her birth, and how she struggles to make sense of it all against the backdrop of the home her family raised her to love and protect at any cost. This is another great read from Crutchley. Her writing seems effortless, or at least reading it makes it seem so. There are some deeper themes on offer, including the right versus wrong and good versus evil. Crutchley throws in a few surprises on cue for good measure, teases out the secrets along the way, and gives readers a splendid climax.

To the Sea is another entertaining thriller and worthy page-turner from 2021 Ngaio Marsh Award shortlisted New Zealand author Nikki Crutchley.

Book Reviews

Book review: Faceless by Vanda Symon

Faceless by Vanda Symon, a fast-paced edge-of-the-seat thriller where an unlikely hero must face one near impossible situation after another to save a young woman. Best started early in the day because you won’t want to put it down.

Faceless is a stand-alone thriller by New Zealand author Vanda Symon, best known for her excellent Sam Shephard series is quite a departure from her usual crime fiction writing. But in all honesty, as much as I adore the Sam Shephard character and the series, this is my favorite Vanda Symon book because it truly shows her versatile and strong story-telling abilities and illustrates her impressive attention to detail. Here, Symon’s writing is stunning, though this one is not for the squeamish, and her character development and story arc are perfectly paced. With short impactful chapters that shift back and forth between the points of view of all the major characters, she creates in the reader a powerful sense of dread and urgency that feels almost unbearable at times, in this story about the search for a missing eighteen-year-old street girl.

Faceless

by Vanda Symon

Published by: Orenda Books

on August 01, 2022

Source: Purchased

ISBN 9781914585043 (Paperback)

Genre(s) Thrillers & Suspense

276 pages

Worn down by a job he hates, and a stressful family life, middle-aged, middle-class Bradley picks up a teenage escort and commits an unspeakable crime. Now she’s tied up in his warehouse, and he doesn’t know what to do.

Max is homeless, eating from rubbish bins, sleeping rough and barely existing – known for cadging a cigarette from anyone passing, and occasionally even the footpath. Nobody really sees Max, but he has one friend, and she’s gone missing.

In order to find her, Max is going to have to call on some people from his past, and reopen wounds that have remained unhealed for a very long time, and the clock is ticking…

Hard-hitting, fast-paced and immensely thought-provoking, Faceless – the startling new standalone thriller from New Zealand’s ‘Queen of Crime’ – will leave you breathless.

The book opens with Billy, an eighteen-year-old girl living rough on the streets of Auckland, putting the finishing touches on her latest street art masterpiece. But she’s run out of spray paint before finishing. As has become her habit, she resigns herself to turning some tricks to get money for more paint and the other things she needs to survive. We’ll learn later the circumstances that put Billy on the streets alone, which makes her story all the more heartrending. After arriving at her usual corner, a middle-aged man named Bradley, we meet in the second chapter, picks her up. Billy doesn’t know it when she gets into the car with him, but she has just made the worst mistake of her life. For Bradley, life’s demands have become so physically and emotionally overwhelming that he is barely capable of functioning in day-to-day life. Desperate to relieve the stress he is feeling, he decided to pick up a prostitute. Billy directs him to an alley behind a closed business where she plies her trade. But once he’s picked up Billy, he doesn’t quite know how to proceed. Eventually, they agree on oral sex and Billy, in businesslike fashion, attempts to get things over with as fast as possible. But because of the stress and his nervousness, Bradley can’t quite rise to the occasion. When he sees Billy smirk at his performance anxiety, it’s one insult too many atop all those already heaped upon his fragile emotional state by his boss at work and his wife at home. He strikes out, punching Billy in the face and knocking her unconscious. Later she awakens bound to metal pipe with plastic ties inside a darkened, abandoned warehouse. And there her nightmare begins in earnest. Bradley, panicked by the assault, had abducted her and taken her captive while he tried to sort the mess that he had created for himself. Billy fears Bradley intends to kill her. Estranged from her parents and with no one else in her life that cares about her, she pins her thin hopes of rescue on another street dweller, a derelict named Max. Billy and Max have befriended each other and watch each other’s backs. He is the only person who will notice she is missing and thus the only one who might look for her. And when we meet Max, we realize just how thin Billy’s hopes are. We get a sense as we learn more about Max that something horrific occurred in his life that drove him from perhaps some respectable life to living rough on the street and living on whatever he scrounges from refuse bins. And he does indeed immediately suspect something is amiss when Billy doesn’t return to the alley one night that they both call home. And despite who he is, what he is, and how little he brings to the task, Max begins a crusade to find his friend Billy. Unfortunately, the remorse that Bradley felt when he first assaulted and confined Billy in an abandoned out of the way building he owns quickly fades. Seeing the fear in Billy’s eyes he provokes gives him a strange sense of power and control he hasn’t felt in ages. He goes on to discover that abusing the helpless young woman magnifies those feelings even more and relieves his pent-up stress. He intends to hold Billy indefinitely in his makeshift prison. But when Max’s efforts finally bear fruit and Bradley receives a visit at home from the police, he realizes he must get rid of Billy permanently before the cops find him out. As Max continues his fanatical search for Billy and Bradley grows more desperate to rid himself of the young woman who could send him to prison, the tension rises to unbearable proportions. Will our unlikely hero find Billy before it’s too late, or are we watching the proverbial slow motion car crash happening, where our greatest fears get realized? This is not a book for the squeamish, but it’s crack for thriller junkies. If you’ve never read Vanda Symon, Faceless isn’t a bad place to start. It’s a fast-paced edge-of-the-seat thriller where an unlikely hero must face one near impossible situation after another to save a young woman. Best started early in the day because you won’t want to put it down.

Book Reviews

Book review: There Are No Happy Loves by Sergio Olguin

There Are No Happy Loves by Sergio Olguín is a slow burn psychological thriller that repays the reader’s patience with an electrifying conclusion.

There Are No Happy Loves is the first book I’ve read by Argentinean author and journalist Sergio Olguín. It’s the latest example of the brilliant international thrillers I’ve received, courtesy of innovative publisher Bitter Lemon Press. It’s a slow burn, but using powerfully rendered characters and expressive prose, Olguín has crafted a richly textured, deeply suspenseful psychological thriller with a daring feminist lead that kept me turning the pages to the end.

There Are No Happy Loves

by Sergio Olguín

Series: Verónica Rosenthal #3

Translated by Miranda France

Published by Bitter Lemon Press

Source: Bitter Lemon Press

ISBN 978-1-913394-714

Genre(s) Psychological Thriller, International Crime

382 pages

The third in Olguin’s Buenos Aires thriller series starring the gutsy, raunchy investigative reporter Veronica Rosenthal.

Haunted by nightmares of her past, Veronica is soon involved in a new investigation. Dario, the sole survivor of a car accident that supposedly killed all his family, is convinced that his wife and child have in fact survived and that his wife has abducted their child. Then a truck searched in the port of Buenos Aires on suspicion that it is carrying drugs, is revealed to be transporting human body parts. These seemingly separate incidents prove to be tied in a shadowy web of complicity involving political and religious authorities. This is a dazzling thriller but also a story about the possibilities of love, in which jealousy, eroticism, humour and even elusive moments of happiness make an appearance.

Olguín introduces Darío Valrossa, an author of children’s books and sole survivor of a horrific car accident that supposedly killed and incinerated his entire family. But Darío is certain that his wife Cecilia and daughter Jazmín survived the crash. Because of their failing marriage, he believes Cecilia left the scene with Jazmín and went into hiding, keeping his daughter from him. When the police, bureaucrats, and lawyers refuse to listen to his story, Darío turns to Buenos Aires journalist Verónica Rosenthal for help, who he knows through a deceased cousin. Rosenthal is skeptical, but feels obligated to look into the matter because she feels she owes it to Darío’s deceased cousin Lucio, who she once had a relationship with. When Darío tells her he and his wife adopted Jazmín through an unusual arrangement, Verónica uses that as a starting point for her search to determine whether Cecilia and Jazmín are alive. Soon, she realizes the adoption process was not only unusual but probably illegal, which evolves into a larger mystery and, for Verónica, a bigger story. Unknown to Rosenthal, an investigation by her ex-boyfriend and a prosecuting attorney, Federico Córdova, into a truck that turned up full of human body parts links to the same shadowy web of powerful, corrupt political and religious authorities behind the illegal adoption ring that facilitated the adoption of Jazmín. Both Verónica and Federico must avoid running afoul of the formidable, shady police, judiciary, religious officials and some cold-blooded killers as they search for the truth independently until to their astonishment, they discover they are seeking the same answers that will expose the same crooked people. There Are No Happy Loves by Sergio Olguín is a slow burn psychological thriller that repays the reader’s patience with an electrifying conclusion.

Book Reviews

Book review: A Strange Habit of Mind by Andrew Klavan

A Strange Habit of Mind by Andrew Klavan has loads of grief for the characters, and a bounty of suspense and thrills for the reader.

I’ve been aware of Andrew Klavan for quite a while, but not in the context of Andrew Klavan the author. I only recently discovered that he is a writer of crime and suspense novels nominated for the Edgar Award five times and winning twice. I regard Klavan as a brilliant thinker and every time I listen to him speak, I literally come away feeling smarter from having had the experience. When offered the opportunity to read and review A Strange Habit of Mind, I jumped on it and candidly approached the book with high expectations. I wasn’t disappointed.

A superb novel filled with fascinating, multi-dimensional characters and a spellbinding original storytelling.

A Strange Habit of Mind

by Andrew Klavan

Series: Cameron Winter #2

Published by Mysterious Press

Source: Mysterious Press via NetGalley

ISBN 978-1-61316-351-1

Genre(s) Thrillers & Suspense

288 pages

English professor and ex-spy Cameron Winter confronts a Big Tech billionaire to solve the suspicious suicide of a former student

The world of Big Tech is full of eccentric characters, but shamanic billionaire Gerald Byrne may be the strangest of the bunch. The founder of Byrner, a global social media platform, Byrne is known for speaking with vague profundity and for dabbling in esoteric spiritual practices; he wears his hair in a long black ponytail to reveal a large flower tattooed on his neck; he’s universally admired as a visionary, a philanthropist, and a devoted husband and father. And every person who gets in the way of his good work seems to die.

When a former student commits suicide, English professor and ex-spy Cameron Winter takes it upon himself to understand why. The young man was expelled from the university in an unfortunate episode that left Winter sympathetic to his plight; after a prolonged silence, he reached out to his teacher with two words just before taking the fatal plunge from the roof of his San Francisco apartment: “Help me.”

Winter has what he calls “a strange habit of mind”—the ability to imagine himself into a crime scene, to reconstruct it mentally and play through various possible causes and outcomes to understand exactly what took place. When he applies this exercise to Adam Kemp’s desperate final moments, he discovers a troubling inconsistency. And when he learns that Kemp was in a tumultuous relationship with Gerald Byrne’s niece, he begins to suspect that the suicide was the result of a carefully-engineered plot, put in motion by the powerful businessman. 

Featuring the tough-but-learned protagonist from 2021’s When Christmas Comes, A Strange Habit of Mind is a thrilling mystery set in the cutthroat world of tech money and tech influence, where unchecked fortunes produce unstoppable power for a lawless few.

Two time Edgar Award winner Andrew Klavan’s intense sequel to When Christmas Comes (2021) finds Cameron Winter, once a spy with a secret government agency called the Division, now a literature professor at a Midwestern university. Winter receives a two word text from a former student, Adam Kemp: “Help me.” He tries to call Kemp multiple times, but gets no answer. Later he learns his former student who Winter defended against a date rape charge committed suicide by stepping off the roof of his San Francisco apartment building only minutes after texting the plea for help. Troubled by why Kemp hadn’t waited for a reply before choosing suicide, Winter flies to San Francisco to find out more. After speaking with the police detective who investigated Kemp’s death, Winter accepts the official verdict that it was suicide, but some other details the detective provides prompts Winter to dig deeper. Subsequently, he suspects the brother-in-law of Kemp’s girlfriend, an eccentric billionaire tech oligarch, engineered Kemp’s death. Winter has “a strange habit of mind.” He sometimes slips into a meditative state without warning that allows him to see clearly motives and actions that had had puzzled him previously. He has used this quirk more than once to solve problems, avert catastrophes, and even solve crimes. Thinking about the circumstances of Kemp’s death rouses the mental oddity and Winter soon knows for certain that the billionaire, Gerry Byrne, had set in motion the circumstances that provoked Kemp’s suicide. The deeper Winter digs into Byrne, the more examples he finds of individuals the billionaire has destroyed and even murdered who had opposed Byrne’s efforts to mold the world in his personal image. Since Winter’s history as a spy for a secret government intelligence agency molded him into someone who believes evil must be stopped and injustices addressed, it sets up an inevitable showdown. Winter’s special “gift” and his modus operandi sets him apart from the Jason Bourne and Jack Ryan types of thriller and suspense yore, making him so distinctive and multi-dimensional that he is instantly an unforgettable character. Klavan makes this guilt-ridden former intelligence operative turned academic imminently plausible. My verdict, get it if you’re passionate about reading riveting and suspenseful thrillers you can’t put down. I read this one in one sitting.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Blue Like Me by Aaron Philip Clark

An extra dark slice of Los Angeles describes Blue Like Me by Aaron Philip Clark. It’s a gripping and intense crime thriller, and a completely unnuanced hard-boiled parable on policing and corrupt cops.

Blue Like Me by Aaron Philip Clark is the second in the series featuring private investigator Trevor Finnegan, but the first I’ve read. When the publicist for Thomas & Mercer offered me an advanced copy for review, I accepted because I never turn down cop or private investigator novels set in Los Angeles. And after reading this one, I definitely plan to read the first book in the series.

BLUE LIKE ME

by Aaron Philip Clark

Series: Trevor Finnegan #2

Published by Thomas & Mercer

on November 08, 2022

Genre(s) Crime Thriller, Hard-Boiled Crime

ISBN 9781542039697

255 pages

A brutal homicide sets an ex-cop and his former partner on the hunt for an enigmatic killer in a gripping thriller by the author of Under Color of Law.

When former detective Trevor “Finn” Finnegan became a PI, he adopted a new mandate: catch the LAPD’s worst in the act. While on surveillance in Venice Beach, Finn tails two potentially dirty cops: Detective Martin Riley and Finn’s ex-partner, Detective Sally Munoz. Things take a deadly turn when an unknown assailant executes Riley and wounds Munoz. In an instant, Finn goes from private eye to eyewitness.

Munoz needs Finn to help find Riley’s killer, but doing so could blow his cover. She’s an officer shaded by rumors. Maybe she’s still a good cop―but maybe she’s not. Finn’s reluctance ends when his dear “uncle,” an ex-LAPD detective, is murdered, and it might be connected to Riley’s death.

To prevent more bloodshed and avoid becoming the next targets on the killer’s list, Finn and Munoz will have to bury their complicated past, trust each other, and come face-to-face with painful secrets that could destroy them both.

Clark’s extra dark, Training Day (2001) dark, slice of Los Angeles where the cops may be dirty, but the streets are choked with dangerous criminals leaps back a generation to connect the backstory of private investigator Trevor Finnegan to the framing of an innocent man for the murder of a police officer.

The year is 2016, based on the subtle historical references, and the setting is Los Angeles. Disgraced (possibly wrongly) ex-LAPD detective Trevor Finnegan, now a private investigator for a Los Angeles attorney, draws an assignment to surveil two LAPD narcotics detectives. But the attorney won’t tell him why. One detective was Finnegan’s former partner when he was in LAPD, Sally Munoz. The assignment ends with Finnegan witnessing someone shooting the detectives at Venice Beach, wounding Munoz and killing her partner. Finnegan pursues the shooter on foot, but the suspect gets away on a motorcycle after shooting at him. Not wanting his ex-partner to learn he was surveilling her and her partner, Finnegan leaves the scene before the cops arrive to avoid getting questioned. But later, Munoz shows up at his door demanding to know whether Finnegan saw the shooter, playing their former partnership card. “You were once blue like me.” Finnegan tells her part of the story, careful to hide the real reason he was present at Venice Beach when the shooting happened. Munoz tells him she knows who was behind the killing of her partner and asks him to go with her to Malibu to confront the person. Finnegan is reluctant, especially after realizing his ex-partner is on the ragged edge of losing control. But Munoz persuades him. Once they arrive and Munoz confronts the woman, a drug dealer, about the shooting, Finnegan realizes his former partner is keeping something from him. That, along with her erratic behavior, makes him feel even more uneasy about trying to help her. But old loyalties die hard. He can’t bring himself to turn his back on her. While Finnegan struggles with the dilemma, another murder happens. This time someone murders an old family friend who is almost a second father to Finnegan, an FBI agent who was an LAPD cop at the same time as Trevor’s father. Suspecting the person who murdered his friend is the same person who killed Munoz’s partner, Trevor becomes more motivated to help her find the killer. But when the killer calls Finnegan and warns him off, threatening to kill him if he continues with the investigation, it becomes a question of whether he will survive long enough to find the killer. Running in the background of the main plot is an intriguing subplot involving the circumstances that forced Finnegan out of the LAPD under a cloud, and the person responsible for it. When I reached that point in the novel, I regretted a little not reading Under Color of Law (2021), the first book in the series before reading this one to learn more about Finnegan’s backstory. Still, Clark gives enough details about the past in this second book that I never felt lost.

I found much to like about this book. First, it’s hard-boiled all the way in the tradition of Hammett and Chandler. It ticks all the boxes with deeply flawed characters, a detective who is emotionally involved in the investigation, the harsh realities of life in a big city setting that isn’t only a backdrop, but where these realities bleed into the case and becoming a major part of the story, and a corrupt world that allowed the crimes to happen in the first place. Clark uses his crime investigation plot as a vehicle for examining issues of racism, classism, and violence in the city, the bigger issues of corruption that can’t be solved with the end of the story.

Clark has a very direct and explicit style of writing, which I found smooth as glass and enjoyed. The plot was both imaginative and ambitious. Trevor Finnegan is an interesting and appealing main character, easy to feel empathy for. But besides Finnegan, Clark offers us a host of other true-to-life, well-drawn, interesting characters, both good and bad.

An extra dark slice of Los Angeles describes Blue Like Me by Aaron Philip Clark. It’s a gripping and intense crime thriller, and a completely unnuanced hard-boiled parable on policing and corrupt cops.

I received an advance copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley used for this review, which represents my honest opinions.