The September crime review
Discover the crime books that have been read and reviewed by our excellent booksellers this month – all in one place!
The Death of Dora Black: A Petticoat Police Mystery by Lainie Anderson
Reviewed by Kate McIntosh, manager of Readings Emporium
In 1915, Australia’s first female police officers were appointed. In Adelaide, Kate Cocks became the first policewoman in the entire British empire to be paid the same as her male counterparts. Before this, women had worked for the police, but didn’t have the same rights or responsibilities as the men. And while it would be another 30 years before policewomen in South Australia were given proper training, and they patrolled their beat in long skirts and worked at least six days a week, having these indominable women on the force was a huge step towards providing genuine help to those in need. And I simply cannot believe I had never heard of this particular Kate until now. She should be on every school syllabus in the country!
Fortunately, historian Lainie Anderson has brought Kate to life in her new novel, The Death of Dora Black, so we can all read of her heroic exploits. And while the story may be fiction, you won’t forget that this woman really did exist, and that her devotion to others was lifelong and an inspiration.
In this first instalment of the ‘Petticoat Police’ mysteries, Dora Black, a young employee of a large department store in Adelaide, is found dead in the water at Glenelg. At first, Miss Cocks and her junior constable, Ethel Bromley, are not permitted to investigate the death. Instead, they use their connections within the local community, they ask the right questions, and when another woman goes missing, they are already on the case. As Kate and Ethel put their own lives in danger tracking down kidnappers and drug lords, they save many more simply by being there for the women and children let down by society and struggling to survive. Full of warmth and humour, this is a cracking crime novel that will intrigue and impress.
The Chilling by Riley James
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr, from Readings Kids
Kit, fleeing from the crumbling ruins of her marriage, joins a team of Australian researchers travelling to Antarctica to study the behaviour of seals. But on their way, they receive a distress signal from another team of researchers nearby. They discover a vessel on fire and its entire crew missing except for one man, Nick. Left on board with no memory of what happened or who he is, Nick is strange, yet curiously hypnotic. Taking him into their care, Kit and the crew suspect that something is not quite right with Nick, and the inconsistencies in his stories lead them to believe something sinister has happened to the crew. Where are they? What is Nick hiding? And how long before their crew will start to turn on each other, each person desperate for the truth?
Bearing some resemblance to the 1982 film The Thing, Riley James’s debut is a chilling insight into how fragile our sense of trust in other people is when it’s put to the test in an isolated scenario. Many people fear the unknown horrors potentially contained within infinite outer space or the depths of the ocean, but perhaps too few fear the cold emptiness of the icy tundra; the quietness, the endless expanse of white, and the distance from all civilisation. When there’s no place to run and no one to turn to, how long before you can no longer stop your fears from consuming you?
The Chilling is a nerve-racking, fingernail-biting thriller that tests not only person vs nature, but also person vs person in a place where human interaction and mutual trust are the only things that can save any of the characters, or any person, but also possibly the things that will kill them. With a languid pace that builds into a roaring crescendo, James feeds our fears of the unknown, and of who we might become in order to survive it.
The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt by Mark Mupotsa-Russell
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr, from Readings Kids
Olivia Hodges is not religious, but she is superstitious, and she does believe in divine intervention; she hopes the universe will forgive her for her past actions. In Olivia’s past, before she was a loving wife and a mother to two young daughters, before she occupied her days with pilates and brunches with other mums in the Dandenong Ranges, she was a hitwoman. Olivia was once, in fact, an assassin for the Spanish mafia. She used the stereotype of the trusting, friendly Australian tourist to her advantage as she carried out the murders of whomever she was assigned to kill, whether they deserved it or not. But when she’d had enough of that bloody lifestyle, Olivia escaped and started a new life in Australia, and now she prays every day that karma will not bite her where it would hurt the most.
But when one of Olivia’s daughters is tragically killed by a gang of thugs, Olivia swears she’ll have bloody revenge. However, not wishing to anger the universe anymore, she plans to orchestrate situations whereby each man responsible for killing her daughter mysteriously gets themselves killed. And, naturally, the plan is to continue to evade the police – and her own past.
The Hitwoman’s Guide to Reducing Household Debt is set in the heart of Melbourne, with many familiar places brought to life on the page, and Olivia is a formidable force to be reckoned with. With nods to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill (Olivia is referred to as ‘The Mother’ by the thugs), Mark Mupotsa-Russell’s debut tells of the powerful, primal nature of a mother’s love for her children, and the lengths to which some mothers, particularly this mother, would go to protect or avenge their children. Beneath the violence, intricate plans for revenge, and constant lying to her family and the police, Olivia is still a woman who is frightened of losing those she loves most, and she tries her hardest to prevent that from happening, even at the risk of losing them all.
ALSO OUT THIS MONTH ARE:
We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines. His days of adventure are over. Daughter-in-law Amy thinks adrenaline is good for the soul. As a private security officer, she’s currently on a remote island keeping a world-famous author alive.
Then a dead body, a bag of money and a killer with their sights on Amy have her sending an SOS to the only person she trusts. Can Amy and Steve stay one step ahead of a deadly enemy?
Jasper Cliff by Josh Kemp
When Toby Bowman vanishes, his brother Lachlan retraces a road trip to the last place Toby phoned from – a remote northern town called Jasper Cliff. There, Lachlan finds himself marooned at the dying town’s pub, and soon learns that his brother is just one of many to have gone missing in recent years.
Like Toby, his brother becomes obsessed with finding the Rift, a deep hole in a ravine somewhere in the hills. But what will Lachlan learn, and what will he see, if he stares into the Rift, too?
Death at the Sanatorium by Ragnar Jónasson
Once a hospital dedicated to treating tuberculosis, The Akureyri Sanatorium now sits haunted by the ghosts of its past. But a single wing remains open, housing six employees. When one of the hospital’s nurses, Yrsa, is found brutally murdered, it sets in motion a series of terrifying events.
Despite just six suspects, the case remains unsolved two decades later, until young criminologist Helgi Reykdal attempts to put the mysteries of the past to rest.
