Crime
The best new crime reads in March
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
When We Fall by Aoife Clifford
As she walks along the beach with her mother, discouraged barrister Alex Tillerson wishes she wasn’t back in her childhood town of Merritt. Alex is going through a painful divorce, her mother’s health is deteriorating due to younger onset dementia, and Merritt holds no good memories. She wants to leave, but there’s nobody to go…
Our books of the month, February 2022
OUR FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Reviewed by
This highly anticipated follow-up to 2015’s A Little Life is an epic tour de force. In fact, it’s impossible for me to praise To Paradise enough. Set in an alternative America, this is a novel of three parts, its narratives traversing a slew of human experience and emotion.
Locational echoes and characters’ names recur from one story to the next, as if they are reincarnated or reimagined…
The best new crime reads in February
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Cane by Maryrose Cuskelly
The northern Queensland town of Quala is reeling: oneof its own is missing. Young Janet McClymont walked through the cane fields early one evening to go babysit her neighbours’ kids, but never arrived. Her bag was found, and nothing else. Now her parents trawl through the vast expanse of cane, begging their neighbours not to light…
The best of crime 2021
It’s honestly been such a strong year in Australian crime fiction that I could have easily made this entire list up of local writers—Australia just has some of the best talent out there. From debut authors like Jacqueline Bublitz’s devastating, interior Before You Knew My Name and Karen Manton’s heavy, atmospheric The Curlew’s Eye, to sequels like the hilarious romp Nancy Business by RWR McDonald, or the latest book in a series so epic we’ve all lost count, like…
The best new crime reads in November
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
Canticle Creek Adrian Hyland
Leading Senior Constable Jesse Redpath thinks she has the lie of the land about right in the Northern Territory town of Kulara by now. After replacing the useless-to-actively harmful last cop in town, she’s more open to what’s important so when local larrikin Adam Lawson commits something a bit more illegal than usual, she tries to offer…
The best new crime reads in October
Our crime specialist shares 9 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
The Shadow House by Anna Downes
When Alex drives up to her new house with her teenage son Ollie and new baby Cara in tow, she feels a surge of relief – and panic. She’s running away from Sydney, from what she’s left behind, and the eco-village of Pine Ridge is the perfect place to start anew: a caring community, a…
The best new crime reads in September
Our crime specialist shares 10 great crime reads to look out for this month.
CRIME BOOK OF THE MONTH
I Shot the Devil by Ruth McIver
Ruth McIver’s manuscript of I Shot the Devil won Australia’s Richell Prize for Emerging Writers a few years ago, and on reading the published book, you can see why: this America-set crime novel is riveting from start to end.
Erin Sloane is a journalist who sometimes writes longform crime pieces for Long Island outlet…
The Ned Kelly Awards 2021
Congratulations to the 2021 winners of the Ned Kelly Awards for the best in Australian crime writing!
BEST CRIME FICTION
Consolation by Garry Disher
Australia’s favourite country cop, Hirsch, is back in this new edition of Consolation, the follow-up to Peace and Bitter Wash Road.
In Consolation, Tiverton’s only police officer Constable Paul Hirschhausen is dealing with a snowdropper. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows how that kind of crime can escalate. Then two calls…
The best new crime reads in August
Our crime specialist shares 9 great crime reads to look out for this month.
This month’s crime new releases are a veritable smorgasbord for lovers of the genre. Truly, it’s a feast of veterans and old favourites. Once again I’m stepping into Fiona’s big shoes, and I must say, choosing the books to review in this column was really tough. Sadly, time and editorial demands meant exciting new books from stalwarts such as Stephen King, Daniel Silva, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and…
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
The 22 Murders of Madison May by Max Barry
I like to review Australian crime books, partly because it’s always good to boost local writing – it’s something that Readings has championed since the beginning – but also because it feels like authors here are doing much more interesting things than in other countries. I saw it this month in John…
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