Crime
The best new crime reads in November
After 12 years, this is my final dead write column.
It’s grown in size to take over an entire page (which worked for me, since I always have far too much to say about every book), and I’ve worked with so many amazing Readings Monthly editors over the years (Ed. note: we think you’re amazing too). I’ve also been tremendously lucky to read so many incredible books! Australian crime fiction, especially, continues to impress me every time. Now…
The best new crime reads in October
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
Exiles by Jane Harper
Much to the delight of just about every crime reader in Australia and overseas, The Dry’s Aaron Falk returns in Jane Harper’s latest small-town investigation. Falk’s not in his hometown this time, he’s in the South Australian wine town of Marralee, attending a christening at the same time as the famed local food and wine festival. It’s also the anniversary of the disappearance of Kim Gillespie: the woman who left…
The Davitt Award winners 2022
Congratulations to this year’s winners of the Davitt Awards for the best crime books by Australian women.
ADULT CRIME NOVEL
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Inti Flynn arrives in Scotland with her twin sister, Aggie, to lead a team tasked with reintroducing fourteen grey wolves into the remote Highlands. She hopes to heal not only the dying landscape, but a broken Aggie, too. However, Inti is not the woman she once was, and may be in need of…
Gift ideas for Fathers who enjoy crime fiction
If you are anything like me your father probably spent at least half of your teenage years trying to solve the mystery of the missing second work sock. Which may or may not have been gathering dust (and friends) behind your bedroom door, under your bed or in your sports bag. As dad ran out the door with one sock on, hoping his trousers were long enough, I looked on bewildered (fully socked) – how did he not know? Now…
The best new crime reads in August
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
Better the Blood by Michael Bennett
More than 150 years ago, on the top of Maunga Whakairoiro – or as the colonisers called it, Mount Suffolk – a picture is taken of a Māori chief, hanging from a tree, six victorious soldiers in the foreground. Despite all the inconsistent efforts of reconciliation in the intervening decades, there’s still injustice all over…
The best new crime reads in July
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
Stone Town by Margaret Hickey
A teenage boy takes a girl and her sister to Stone Town’s eerie bushland in the dark of night, in the hopes of impressing her with the alarming shrieks of a Barking Owl – but they find the dead body of local developer Aidan Sleeth instead. Sleeth’s death by gunshot sees local Senior Sergeant Mark Ariti…
The best new crime reads in June
by Fiona Hardy & Julia JacksonOur crime specialists shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Woman in the Library by Sulari Gentill
Under the soaring dome of the Boston Public Library, four people meet. Whit, studying to become a lawyer and doing his best to fail; handsome novelist Cain; tattooed Harvard student Marigold; and our protagonist, Freddie, who has arrived in America from Australia on a writing fellowship. Their connection is still tentative and new…
The best new crime reads in May
Our crime specialist shares 11 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
Wake by Shelley Burr
It has been nearly 20 years since Evelyn McCreery went missing. She went to sleep one night, in the bed next to her twin sister Mina’s; the next morning she was gone, her bed neatly made, no fingerprints on the windowsill, the only tyre tracks around their desolate farm property belonging to the farm cars. All these…
What we're reading: Briggs, Caro & Clarke
Each week we bring you a sample of the books we’re reading, the films we’re watching, the television shows we’re hooked on, or the music we’re loving.
Mike Shuttleworth is reading Fungus the Bogeyman by Raymond Briggs
A recent episode of the Backlisted Podcast prompted me to dig into the shelves for a copy of Fungus the Bogeyman, the Raymond Briggs graphic novel of 1977. Briggs, a graduate of the Slade School of Fine Art, takes the reader on…
Our top 10 bestsellers of the week
The Competition by Katherine Collette
The Shortest History of the Soviet Union by Sheila Fitzpatrick
Give Unto Others by Donna Leon
First Astronomers by Duane Hamacher
Love Stories by Trent Dalton
When We Fall by Aoife Clifford
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Bob Hawke by Troy Bramston
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr
The Cane by Maryrose Cuskelly
Our best-seller from the past week is Katherine Collette’s novel, The Competition. The story follows Frances who is drawn…
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