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 her baby parked in the pram bay for hours at the festival, and then vanished, presumed drowned, in the town’s vast reservoir. But Kim’s teenage daughter doesn’t believe that’s what happened and a witness at the only plausible exit maintains Kim never left the festival grounds; Falk senses there’s too much unknown about that last day of Kim’s life. All signs point to Kim taking her own life, but without a body, there’s no closure, and those who loved Kim can’t move on.

As the warm beauty of Marralee beckons to Falk, he begins to reflect on his own life and career, one that looks successful and vibrant on the outside, but is in fact lonely and exhausting, with no time for anything – or anyone – else. Trouble is, when you embrace a town like this, you’re also embracing the history of the people within, and not all of it is so sunny. As Falk moves closer to what really happened that day, he realises that the truth can be right in front of you – and so can the lies. Harper is a natural at her craft, and this is another masterful rural crime that makes you want to go on a country holiday and never leave your house at the same time.

OTHER NEW CRIME FICTION

After You Were Gone by Vikki Wakefield

Have you ever lost something precious? A favourite book or a family heirloom? Has the cat ever gone missing for a day? Now imagine how you’d feel losing your six-year-old daughter at the local market. This is what

happens to Abbie during a trip she and her daughter Sarah have made many times before. Even though Abbie barely takes her eyes off her child for a minute, suddenly she’s gone. Six years later, Abbie has pieced her life back together. She has learnt to live with the guilt, suppressing the terror she still feels every day, wondering what might have happened to her daughter. Now someone has called her, adamant they know the truth. Vikki Wakefield delivers a terrifying premise and a well-executed plot with ease, but be warned, once you start this book you will not be able to stop until you find out what really did happen after Sarah was gone.*

*reviewed by Kate mcIntosh, manager of Readings Doncaster

Double Lives by Kate McCaffrey

Amy Rhinehart is a West Australian radio journalist in need of something big and distracting in her life – and then she hits on an idea: a true crime podcast that’s not recorded in advance, but uses listener feedback every week to make the story. She’s got a case in mind, too: the death of beautiful teenage girl Casey Williams, killed by Jonah Scott, a man who said he was guilty on the stand and was therefore imprisoned with no investigation or court case. Amy’s convinced Jonah is innocent, and that the religious cult he grew up in had something to do with the death of Casey. When Amy loses control of the story, however, she realises there’s no way to know how it will end – or what she will discover about herself along the way. This is an investigation into gender, crime, love and religion – and who pays the price of truth.

The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger

First published in 1966 and now rediscovered more than 50 years later, The Glass Pearls is an unnerving, gripping thriller that seeps paranoia like ink from every page. Emeric Pressburger – writer of such classic mid-century movies as Black Narcissus and The Red Shoes – tells the story of Karl Braun, a German piano tuner recently moved to London. He is happy enough in his job and with his home, and he begins a gentle courtship of an attractive woman who works at the real estate office. He is also always watching over his shoulder, and his nightmares are relentless. As the pages unfold Braun’s story, Pressburger sends readers into increasingly uncomfortable emotional terrain, gripped with conflict and suspense. This re-release is noir – always a genre willing to scratch at the underbelly – at its most thorny.

A Heart Full of Headstones (Rebus, Book 24) by Ian Rankin

Rebus has been in court before of course – this is, after all, Ian Rankin’s 24th book on the Edinburgh detective – but this time, he’s the defendant. If he’s found guilty, he may never be a free man again. What crime is so heinous that Edinburgh’s most famous retired detective would chance capture – and why? Rankin is as well-equipped to answer this question as ever, spinning two separate threads – Rebus tracking down a man for one-time enemy Cafferty, and DI Siobhan Clarke tracking down an abusive police officer – each as enthralling as the other. Rankin never fails to surprise, and the ending here may be his most shocking yet.

The Tilt by Chris Hammer

After the events of Chris Hammer’s Treasure and Dirt, Detective Constable Nell Buchanan finds herself promoted to homicide detective, specialising in complicated cases set within the expanse of NSW’s western regions. With her old colleague Ivan Lucic, Nell is sent to investigate the case of a decades-old skeleton recently unearthed from a muddy branch of the Murray River after the explosive sabotage of a dam. Pleased with her new job, but reluctant to return to her hometown, Nell knuckles down to investigate – but given her extensive family history in the area, it’s not long before the case connects back to her own lineage. Historical murder is one thing, but can Nell stay safe now, all these years later?

This Wild, Wild Country by Inga Vesper

Inga Vesper’s The Long, Long Afternoon was one of my favourite books of 2021, and with This Wild, Wild Country, she stays in America’s richly described past: this time in both 1933 and 1970, in small-town Boldville, New Mexico. Boldville is not a town looking to be progressive. It frowns upon Nellie Stover early in the century for running a hotel and hunting for gold in the hills to alleviate her financial situation. Four decades later, it frowns upon her hippy granddaughter Glitter, who is trying to start a commune. In 1970 Joanna ends up unwillingly in Boldville, fleeing her abusive husband and her previous life as a cop. Her instincts are still strong however, and when Glitter’s cousin dies, Joanna suspects that things aren’t right. The disappearance of Nellie all those years ago is still a mystery, and what simmers in this small town is about to boil over. This is another deeply atmospheric lambast of America’s turbulent past from an expert storyteller.

The Boys from Biloxi by John Grisham

John Grisham’s latest legal thriller is the history of a city told through two families: those of Hugh Malco and Keith Rudy. The Rudys are lawyers, desperate to clean up a town known for its vices and mobsters – mobsters that include the Malcos. Hugh and Keith’s story traverses childhood friendship, through to following in their fathers’ respective footsteps, all the way to the courtroom. Grisham’s latest is a story where what’s right and wrong is murky, where friendship and hatred walk a fine line, and where the only one who benefits in a situation like this is the reader, gripped, as always, to the end.

The Enigma of Room 622 by Joël Dicker & Robert Bononno (trans.)

Joël Dicker has long been one of Europe’s most fiendish plotters, with wild meta- plotlines that leave readers with whiplash from the double takes. In The Enigma of Room 622, a dead body is found in a hotel room in the Swiss Alps, the murder left unsolved. Years afterwards, novelist Joël Dicker is staying at the same hotel, writing his next book, and thinking he just might be the one to solve the mystery. Every page of this (and there are a lot of pages!) will wrongfoot readers as they have a blast figuring out what’s going on with all the love affairs, corporate conspiracies, the chronology of events and old-fashioned French farce.

TRUE CRIME

Suburban Noir: Crime and Mishap in 1950s and 1960s Sydney by Peter Doyle

When Peter Doyle came across a decades-old trove of casefiles, notes and photographs belonging to his uncle Brian Doyle – one of NSW’s most highly regarded police officers – he realised this wealth of information painted a very clear portrait of everyday life and uncommon crime in Sydney and surrounds from the 1940s to the 1960s. Suburban Noir revisits some of these crimes – some remain notorious to this day, others anonymised, all devastating in their own ways. This is a riveting, well-told look at a slice of Australian policing and judicial history.