Discover the new crime books our booksellers are excited about this month!
Lyrebird
Jane Caro
Is there anything more satisfying than heading to bed with a crime novel written by a feminist? Truly, the comfort in knowing all female characters will be represented with respect and honour warms my heart. And with Jane Caro’s second crime novel, you can expect more than just a mystery to be solved.
Caro, an enthusiastic defender of women’s rights and the environment, gives the reader both a solid reprimand and a reminder of the state of our national parks and wildlife. She takes delicious swipes at the media and at our universities. Without giving away too much of the plot here, Caro highlights the woes of women working on tourist visas, and the poverty and desperation in our neighbouring countries. She writes about grief with an empathetic touch.
The premise of the book is immediately introduced: a lyrebird begins its mating call in the forest, videotaped by ornithologist Jessica Weston. The lyrebird mimics the sound of a woman dying. Detective Megan Blaxland works the case, but does not solve it. It goes into the cold case file. Twenty years later, a damaged female body is found where the lyrebird had danced. Blaxland comes out of retirement to solve the mystery. The two women reunite as they search for an answer, and a classic, thrilling story begins.
I am hoping this is not the end of Megan Blaxland; she is not unlike Ann Cleeves’ popular character Vera, and that is a particularly good thing indeed. Readers who enjoyed Caro’s The Mother will be incredibly pleased with her new novel. I certainly inhaled it and was delighted with Caro’s astute representation of everything that is going wrong in our country, as well as with her very entertaining writing.
Reviewed by Chris Gordon.
Killer Potential
Hannah Deitch
Evie’s life hasn’t quite gone to plan, in spite of her firm belief in social mobility. Though highly intelligent and academically gifted, she now finds herself adrift and in a limbo-like state with no real grasp of direction or vocation. To get by, she tutors a bored adolescent, the offspring of a wealthy Los Angeles power couple; a one-percenter family with it all. Arriving one day for her tutoring session, Evie finds the wealthy parents have been brutally murdered. While she is still in the mansion, she makes the startling discovery of a young woman tied up in a closet.
Any sense of her ‘good Samaritan’ actions in freeing the traumatised young woman are quickly shot to pieces. Spotted leaving the house rather than summoning emergency services, Evie is accused of the murders, sparking a huge manhunt. Ironically, now labelled a neo-Charles Manson, Evie has finally achieved status, albeit disastrously.
Gradually, Evie and her mute companion begin to trust each other, forming a deeper bond in their shared experiences as fugitives on the run. As is typical for the genre, all that glitters is not gold, and the depravity of Evie’s wealthy employers is exposed.
There’s quite a lot going on in this book: social inequality, sensationalist media (one quick to ignore physical evidence in a quest for truth), a queer love story, sexual and physical abuse, trafficking, murder, to say nothing of Evie’s floundering sense of identity. Admittedly though, this book is quite a lot of fun. Killer Potential succeeds in being totally serious and insightful while at the same time completely ridiculous. Read this if you enjoy gallows humour, or if you loved the antics of Thelma & Louise, but also if you read Emma Styles’ No Country for Girls.
Reviewed by Julia Jackson.
Skull River
Pip Fioretti
In this day and age, it’s hard to read a crime novel and not imagine what it would be like as a television adaptation. Pip Fioretti’s books about an ex-soldier turned bush cop in the wild west (east) that was New South Wales just after the turn of the 20th century are no exception, and they would be a splendid mix of The Man from Snowy River and Jack Reacher. (Go on, picture it, I dare you.)
Gus Hawkins moves around a lot and loves his horses (although his horsemanship might not be quite up to Banjo Paterson’s lofty standards). Against his father’s wishes, he fought for Mother England in the Boer War, and returned home a traumatised, but decorated, man. When we first meet Gus, in Bone Lands, he is the sole mounted trooper in a rural town in the middle of nowhere, trying to figure out who slaughtered three young siblings and why.
Fast forward a year or two, and Gus has been sent to a new post in the goldfields, an eight-hour ride from Bathurst and any form of aid. As soon as he arrives, all hell breaks loose, and it appears that at least one of the locals wishes anyone in uniform dead. Under attack and barely keeping his own fears in check, Gus must solve a spate of crimes with only a motley crew of junior troopers and a lost dog by his side.
Into the brutal world that was regional Australia in 1912, Fioretti has imagined a man of compassion, wit and ingenuity, the kind of police officer any town would be lucky to have. Despite his personal struggles and his occasional failures at ‘do-gooding’, Gus can see three sides to every story, and acts accordingly, and his narration of events as they unfold should endear him to every reader fortunate enough to meet him between the pages, and hopefully, one day, on our screens.
Reviewed by Kate McIntosh.
Strange Pictures
Uketsu, translated by Jim Rion
For a little while now I’ve been reading books in the puzzle-crime genre (think Janice Hallett, Emily Key, Cain’s Jawbone). So, when I read the UK reviews of this new English translation of Strange Pictures (originally published in 2022), I was very keen to read it. The Japanese crime fiction and psychological thrillers I’ve read have been inventive, chilling and wholly sophisticated. There are some wonderful exponents of the genre. Uketsu is one of them: a ‘phantom’ figure in a mask and body stocking (Google them if you don’t believe me!). He is a big deal in Japan, having written the horror/mystery novel The Strange House (also in Manga), and this new book is no exception. Strange Pictures is a thoroughly unsettling mystery.
The simple structure belies a tangled plot: four parts, preceded by a seemingly innocuous foreword set in a psychology lecture where the lecturer is explaining the merits of a drawing test to elucidate the inner state of a child patient. Pictures are utilised throughout the book, encouraging readers to try and solve the mystery as they read the text. No pen and paper, or spreadsheet, is required. Just read. The cryptic chapters are all varied in their settings and time, designed to obfuscate the truth and befuddle the reader. But, slowly, the connections between the characters and the chapters become apparent, bringing with them a creeping sense of dread.
This is a book that can be easily devoured in one sitting, like I did on a recent flight to Brisbane. By the final pages, as the concluding (re)solution crystallised, I was floored. This is quite unlike anything else I’ve read, and it’s exceptional. Uketsu has clearly found a great partner in the translator Jim Rion to maintain the taut storytelling for the English-language editions. This is the best book I’ve read this year.
Reviewed by Julia Jackson.
Also recommended are:
When She Was Gone
Sara Foster
Former London police officer Rose Campbell has been estranged from her daughter, Lou, for almost a decade. But when Lou disappears from a remote Western Australian beach, the police suspect her of kidnapping the two young children, heirs to the Fisher property empire, in her care. Rose arrives in Australia to help bring Lou home and as DSS Blackwood begins to expose the Fishers’ secrets the investigation takes a much darker turn. Shadows of the past gather around the Fishers and Rose, and soon it’s clear that every hour is critical.
The Deadly Dispute (A Tea Ladies Mystery)
Amanda Hampson
1967: Hazel’s new job at the docks quickly turns perilous when she stumbles into the criminal underworld that lurks beneath the surface. A million in gold coins has vanished from a cargo ship and a dead body washed up.
Meanwhile Betty is led astray by a charismatic new friend, and Irene gets wind of a threat that could destroy her livelihood. When one of the tea ladies disappears, they face their greatest challenge yet. It will take more than a glass of Hazel’s homemade wine to solve this one.
See How They Fall
Rachel Paris
Turner Corp, a luxury goods empire, has been rocked by the death of its founder. As his three sons gather at the family’s estate for a long weekend, an illegitimate heir is introduced – and tragedy follows. Skye, who married into the dynasty, tries to maintain a normal life for their daughter but as the weekend morphs into a parent’s worst nightmare it leaves Skye desperate to uncover the truth about the Turner family. As Mei, the detective assigned to the case, begins to unpick the web of lies and deceit she realises that pulling at these threads might just bring down an empire.
Barren Cape
Michelle Prak
Former housemates Mac and Erika are homeless. Well, Erika is fine, she just has to live with her parents until she can find another rental. Mac’s situation is much worse – family isn’t an option and she’s surfing the couches of her increasingly exasperated friends. Driving around one lonely afternoon, Mac discovers Barren Cape. Once destined to be a luxury escape, now it’s just wire fence and grey cement. It’s stark, but quiet. There’s no harm in staying a little while …
