Review: Drowning by T.J. Newman

 

Title: Drowning

Author: T.J. Newman

Published: 1st June 2023, Simon & Schuster UK

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster AU

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My Thoughts:

Ladies and gentlemen, please be seated, fasten your seatbelt, and be ready to brace for T.J. Newman’s exhilarating sophomore novel, Drowning.

Just minutes after takeoff from a Hawaiian airport, Flight 1421 suffers catastrophic failure and plunges towards the Pacific Ocean. Those that survive the ditching frantically exit the bobbing plane, but twelve people are still onboard when it begins sinking beneath the waves.

From the opening line the reader is thrust into the emergency as the pilots battle for control of the failing plane. This initiates an urgent pace that rarely lets up as Drowning unfolds (except for a short flashback) over a roughly five hour timeline. As the souls on board fight to survive, and the Navy strives to rescue them, each time salvation seems near, it slips away, ratcheting the tension exponentially.

The third person narrative shifts between that of the trapped survivors, and the rescue contingent. Among those on the downed plane which includes the Captain, two airflight attendants, an elderly couple, four unrelated passengers, and an unaccompanied minor, is Will, an engineer, and his eleven year old daughter, Shannon, who have a central role in the story. And it is Chris, Shannon’s mother and Will’s estranged wife, who as an industrial diver, becomes a key player in the rescue effort. There’s plenty of emotion as characters confront fear, loss, regret, and their own mortality.

As a former flight attendant, Newman writes with authority in regards to aviation operations, and though I can’t attest to the accuracy of the technical elements of the novel, it presents as authentic. I found the scenes easy to visualise, and much like her debut novel, Falling, I imagine Drowning will also be optioned for the big screen.

With its well executed, high stakes premise, Drowning is a thrilling read that will leave you breathless.

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Review: The Rush by Michelle Prak

 

Title: The Rush

Author: Michelle Prak

Published: 3rd May 2023, Simon & Schuster AU

Status: Read May 2023 courtesy Simon & Schuster

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My Thoughts:

The Rush is an exciting and gripping debut thriller from Michelle Prak set in the outback of South Australia.

Quinn is late returning to the isolated Pindarry Hotel on the Stuart Highway, where she works and lives, when, through the rain, she spies a badly injured man on the roadside, and unable to leave him there, drags him into her car.

Andrea is anxious when her husband leaves her at the Pindarry Hotel to help an elderly farmer whose property is flooding. With the pub sandbagged and their employee, Quinn, due to arrive any minute, Andrea resolves to stay calm for the sake of her sleeping two year old son, until the power goes out, and a stranger comes to the door demanding to be let in.

Hayley, traveling from Adelaide to Darwin on the Stuart Highway with her boyfriend Scott and backpackers Livia and Joost, is only concerned for her carefully planned itinerary when the rain starts on their second day of travel. But then the roads begin to flood, and as tensions among the foursome grow, Hayley finds herself in a desperate rush for sanctuary.

The Rush is a fast-paced read as it largely unfolds from the perspectives of Quinn, Andrea, Hayley and Livia over a period of about two days. Suspense is introduced early, and built on effortlessly. The threats are recognisable and engender empathy for the characters at risk. Red herrings belie a breathtaking climactic reveal, that provides a unique twist on the story’s themes.

Prak somehow renders the vast landscape of outback South Australia claustrophobic  as the characters converge on Pindarry. The violence of the storm, as it strips away modernity, releases a feral energy that enhances the oppressive atmosphere.

A well crafted addition to the oeuvre of rural Australian crime fiction, The Rush is an immersive and riveting read.

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Review: Home Before Night by J.P. Pomare

 

Title: Home Before Night

Author: J.P. Pomare

Published: 26th April 2023,  Hachette Australia 

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Hachette

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My Thoughts:

J.P. Pomare’s latest thriller, Home Before Night, begins just as Melbourne residents are ordered into another pandemic lockdown. Single mother Lou tries to contact her 19 year old son Samuel to ensure he’s heard the news and comes home in time, but he doesn’t return her calls or text messages.

Pomare builds the tension well as Lou, unable to reach her son as the lockdown comes into effect, begins to panic. Her ex-husband is dismissive when she phones him, accusing her of being overbearing, among other things, but Lou is certain there is something wrong. She should be relieved when Sam finally video calls her late the next day claiming to be staying with his girlfriend, but there is something about his demeanour, and the video’s background, that bothers her.

It’s not clear, however, if Lou’s instincts can be trusted. She’s a heavy drinker, and presents as perhaps a little paranoid, in part troubled by a secret from her past that Pomare teases out. Deft plotting suggests several possible reasons for Sam’s absence, ensuring the reveal will likely come as a surprise.

At just under 200 pages long, Home Before Night is a fast paced and entertaining read, but also much shorter than I expected, with the paperback padded with a 100 page preview of Pomare’s forthcoming novel, Seventeen Years Later, to be published in 2024.

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Review: The Woman Who Knew Too Little by Olivia Wearne

 

Title: The Woman Who Knew Too Little

Author: Olivia Wearne

Published: 1st February 2023, HQ Fiction

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy HQ Fiction/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

It’s late at night in December of 1948 when 29 year old policewoman Kitty Wheeler, nearing the end of her shift. spies a man in a suit slumped against the breakwall on Somerton Beach. Assuming he is sleeping off a few too many drinks and noting nothing amiss, she and her partner decide not to roust him. It’s a decision Kitty regrets when she learns the next morning that the man has been found dead.

As a policewoman, Kitty’s role is quite narrowly defined by her gender. She and her fellow female officers mainly deal with offences involving women and juveniles including domestic violence, prostitution, and runaways; patrolling to remind to uphold standards of public decency; and paperwork. Kitty wants to do more, and  volunteers to help the detectives investigate the case that becomes one of Australia’s most famous real-life unsolved cases*.

What I enjoyed most about The Woman Who Knew Too Little was learning about the role of women police officers in post WWII Australia. Their experience of misogyny was not unexpected given the time period, but I was surprised to learn they patrolled the streets late into the night, and that they wore no uniform, instead having just a pin worn discretely to identify them as police.

I thought centering the plot around the real-life Somerton Man investigation was an unusual choice. The broad details of the case are generally well known so there isn’t really any opportunity for Wearne to surprise the reader, or to provide a resolution to the mystery. However there were elements of Kitty’s perspective on the crime, the evidence, the investigation, and the public response that I found interesting. The glimpses of other cases Kitty was involved in, from the fake psychic to the tragedy of a missing toddler, added interest too.

Unfortunately I didn’t find Kitty to be a particularly compelling character, which is problematic since the story is related from the first person point of view. I also found the dynamics of her personal life to be a bit strange. Her relationship with her fiancé, Peter, was obviously doomed, and the introduction of Alec as a romantic rival of sorts didn’t really appeal to me.

While I found the historical elements of The Woman Who Knew Too Little, and the novel’s subject, of interest, I didn’t find the novel as engaging as I hoped.

*The Somerton Man was finally identified in 2022 through DNA but an explanation for the circumstances of his death is still elusive.

 

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Review: Homecoming by Kate Morton

 

Title: Homecoming

Author: Kate Morton

Published: 5th April 2023, Mariner Books

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Mariner/Edelweiss

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My Thoughts:

“Home, she’d realised, wasn’t a place or a time or a person, though it could be any and all of those things: home was a feeling, a sense of being complete. The opposite of ‘home’ wasn’t ‘away’, it was ‘lonely’. When someone said, ‘I want to go home’, what they really meant was that they didn’t want to feel lonely anymore.”

Homecoming is a captivating novel, the seventh from bestselling author Kate Morton.

When London-based journalist Jess Turner-Bridges learns the beloved, indomitable grandmother who raised her, Nora, has been hospitalised after a fall from the attic stairs, she returns home to Sydney after a twenty year absence. Jess is distressed to find Nora in a frail and confused state, and desperate to learn what precipitated the accident.

Jess is stunned when her search leads her to uncover a family tragedy that had been kept from her. Hidden beneath her grandmother’s pillow is a true crime book, titled ‘As If They Were Asleep’, that documents an investigation into the shocking deaths of Nora’s sister-in-law and four young children on Christmas Eve some sixty years earlier in the small South Australian town of Tambilla.

While the narrative shifts back and forth in time, it does so in a unique way. In the present much of the story is related through Jess, and occasionally her estranged mother, Polly, while the events of past unfold from several perspectives, and through excerpts from the book, as Jess reads it.

Impressively, Morton sustains the intriguing mystery of what really happened to the Turner family at ‘Haylcon’ until the very end, slowly teasing out the secrets, deceptions and betrayals that reverberate among three generations. I was genuinely surprised by several of the plot reveals, and though Homecoming is a fairly hefty length it’s well paced.

The meaning of home is one of the central themes Morton explores in her story, along with motherhood, family, and identity. Nora, Polly and Jess are complex characters, whose lives, and relationships with each other, are each shaped by the events in Tambilla in both direct and indirect ways. The author also touches on the issue of mental health, and the joys of literature.

With vivid description and evocative prose, Morton brings her settings to life. I felt as if I could find my way around Darling House, on the cliff-edged of one of Sydney’s most exclusive suburbs, Vaucluse, where Nora raised both Polly, and Jess; and through the grounds and rooms of the grand stone hall of ‘Halcyon’ in rural Tambilla where the Turner family lived.

An enthralling and atmospheric tale, beautifully told, Homecoming is a stellar read, I recommend.

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Review: Into the Night by Fleur McDonald

 

Title: Into the Night {Detective Dave Burrows}

Author: Fleur McDonald

Published: 4th April 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

Into the Night is Fleur McDonald’s seventh novel to feature Detective Dave Burrows though the twelfth in which he appears, chronologically it takes place in 2002, just a few months after the events in Rising Dust.

No one has seen nor heard from Leo Perry, or his dog Coffee, since he placed a frantic call for help when fire broke out on his farm on the outskirts of Yorkenup. After a search determines there is no body among the ashes of the devastated property, Dave and his partner Detective Bob Holden are called in to investigate Leo’s puzzling disappearance.

The mystery element of this novel is really well-crafted, Leo’s wife, family, and friends all insist he is a good man who wouldn’t simply vanish so Dave and Bob start by examining alternative possibilities, but nothing really makes sense. The complicated case suits Dave’s methodical investigative skills and it takes a lot of digging before they make some headway. Though there’s not a great deal of action in Into the

Night, there are some surprising twists leading to a dramatic conclusion.

Dave is almost relieved to have something to focus on other than how difficult his ex-wife, Melinda, and her father, are making it to see his kids. Readers familiar with the series will understand the tense relations and how deeply it hurts him. Unfortunately it’s not the only upset Dave is facing when Bob delivers some bad news.

I’m a genuine fan of the Detective Dave Burrows series, each book offers intriguing suspense, thoughtful character development, and an authenticity in detail and setting. Into the Night is another terrific read from Fleur McDonald.

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Review: No Life for a Lady by Hannah Dolby

 

Title: No Life for a Lady

Author: Hannah Dolby

Published: 2nd March 2023, Aria

Status: Read March 2023 courtesy Aria/Penguin

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My Thoughts:

No Life for a Lady is light-hearted, cosy historical mystery with a touch of romance from Hannah Dolby.

‘There are ladies who don’t like what they are made for, the cleaning and the domestic business, the caring and the mothering. We might think badly of them for it, but it does happen.’

Violet Hamilton would prefer a profession to a husband, at twenty-seven she continues to fend off the latter, much to her father’s disapproval, but is yet to find the former. In part this state of affairs stems from the sudden disappearance of her mother in 1886 when she was eighteen, and as the ten year anniversary approaches, Violet is determined to find out what happened to her.

Discretely hiring a private detective is the first step but there is something about Frank Knight and his interest in her mother that Violet finds disturbing. An advertisement discovered by chance leads her to an another private eye, and though Benjamin Blackthorn initially turns her down, Violet eventually convinces him to help.

Violet is a likeable lead character. She chafes at society’s expectations but with the naivety of a well-raised lady. This means she is caught unawares more than once, but to her credit she is rarely discouraged and persists regardless.

There are several amusing scenes, including Violet’s efforts to turn away unwanted suitors, discretely tail a gentleman with her chaperone in tow, and a picnic with unexpected nature views. I also enjoyed the banter between Violet and Benjamin. Their low key romance is a sweet feature of the novel.

The mystery surrounding Violet’s mother’s disappearance plays out well, though I felt there were some small issues with the plotting, and the pacing was a little even. I enjoyed the reveal of the villain, and the drama of the conclusion.

No Life For a Lady is an engaging read with the potential to become a series.

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Review: How To Kill a Client by Joanna Jenkins

 

Title: How to Kill a Client

Author: Joanna Jenkins

Published: 31st January 2023, Allen & Unwin

Status: Read February 2023 courtesy Allen & Unwin

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My Thoughts:

“‘If every prick in or near a law firm was a target for murder, there would be a blood bath, ….Ours is a profession known for attracting greedy, manipulative people. But they seem to stay alive. Regrettably, in some cases.’”

How To Kill a Client is an engaging debut mystery novel from Joanna Jenkins.

As a new partner in the Brisbane law firm at Howard Greene, Viv is worried when talk of lay offs begin. The only woman in the Brisbane office she feels particularly vulnerable, though a good relationship with the company’s biggest client offers her some protection, until Minerallic hire a new head for their legal department. Gavin Jones has no intention of working with a woman and, though Viv believes she has has the support of her boss, she finds herself slowly being sidelined. When Gavin, just thirty-nine, collapses at home, his sudden death raises suspicion. Viv seems an obvious suspect, but it soon becomes clear that she was just one among many who wished him dead.

Unfolding primarily from the perspectives of Viv; a visiting senior partner from Sydney, Ruth; and Gavin Jones’ wife, Anne, Jenkins exposes a corporate culture rife with corruption, manipulation, betrayal, and misogyny.

Viv panics as her career comes under threat. In an effort to save herself she befriends Gavin’s wife, Anne.

Anne is all too aware that Viv’s goal to get Gavin onside is futile. Her husband is a controlling, abusive, misogynist who has only contempt for women, both professionally and personally. She desperately wants to leave him but she is terrified of the consequences for herself, and their two daughters.

Ruth is troubled by the behaviour she sees in the Brisbane firm. It’s obvious to her from the first staff meeting that the firm’s manager, Philip, has an agenda. After Gavin’s death, with the police nosing around, Ruth starts her own investigation, eventually uncovering  a slew of nefarious deeds, and the killer.

I hope that Jenkins, herself a retired lawyer, is exaggerating the culture of corporate law by quite a margin because it’s sounds pretty awful, especially if you are a woman, though I suspect that men like Philip and Gavin are all too common in the profession that still venerates the ‘old boys’ network.

There isn’t a lot of tension in the story, so the author relies on the intrigue of the murder to maintain interest. The mystery is well plotted, and with plenty of suspects in the frame I didn’t solve it before the reveal. I thought the pacing was a little slow overall though, and odd that the murder occurs so late in the book.

However, with its somewhat unique setting and interesting characters, I enjoyed How To Kill a Client.

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Review: Dying to Know by Rae Cairns

 

Title: Dying To Know

Author: Rae Cairns

Published: 5th April 2023, HarperCollins Australia

Status: Read April 2023 courtesy HarperCollins/Netgalley

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My Thoughts:

Dying To Know, Rae Cairns sophomore suspense novel, opens with a dramatic prologue. In a shocking phone call, wife and mother of two young children, Amber, reveals she is trapped in the boot of a car after being abducted while running a late night errand. Her younger sister, Geneva, can only listen helplessly as Amber makes a desperate attempt to free herself and then suddenly goes silent.

Shifting to twelve years later, Gen’s slim hope that Amber will one day return is dashed when the police reveal her sister’s remains have been found. The news is emotionally devastating not only for Gen but also her now sixteen year old niece, Lily, and twelve year old nephew, Charlie, whom she has helped their oft-absent father, Hugh, to raise. Though the police insist the discovery is a dead end, Gen is determined to find answers.

Moving at a good pace, Dying To Know is a taut mystery thriller that sees Gen, plagued by misplaced guilt, take plenty of risks in order to solve her sister’s murder. She’s quite fearless in her investigation at times, but I thought her actions were largely believable. While early information Gen uncovers suggests that Amber was not a random target, it takes her some time to piece together the motive that identifies those responsible. Savvy genre readers will probably be a step or two ahead, but this doesn’t detract from the tension as Gen gets closer to the deadly truth.

Gen’s greatest vulnerability is Lily and Charlie, and I thought the relationship between the three of them was well portrayed. Her tenuous relationship with the children’s father and his wealthy, image-conscious family, provokes additional emotion and drama. I liked the support Gen’s best friend, Toni, a broadcast journalist, and the original case officer, Sergeant Jesse Johns, offer her, as well as the touch of romance in the plot.

A satisfying, well paced Australian crime fiction novel, Dying To Know is gripping read.

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Review: Red Dirt Road by S.R. White

 

Title: Red Dirt Road {Detective Dana Russo #3}

Author: S.R. White

Published: 10th January 2023, Hachette Australia

Status: Read January 2023 courtesy Hachette Australia

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My Thoughts:

Red Dirt Road is the third police procedural to feature Detective Dana Russo from former police officer S.R. White.

In the wake of the internal political manoeuvring in Prisoner, Dana has been sent to Unamurra, a tiny outback community with a population of 82 people and given just two days to solve the murders of two locals. Discovered a month apart, the bodies of Larry Muir and Tim Ogden were found shot in the heart and strung up on mobile art installations representing angels. Dana has concerns about the original investigation which yielded no witnesses, suspects or motive, and knows she needs to try something different if she is going to get results, and save her career.

It seems to me that the author has drawn some inspiration from the true crime mystery centred on the Australian town of Larrimah for Red Dirt Town. There are definitely some similar elements, though White tells his own story.

In what is essentially a ‘locked room’ mystery, in that the murderer must be one of Unamurra’s residents, Dana has limited resources to work with. Her usual team isn’t with her, she’s wary of the assistance offered by the town’s police officer, Abel Barillo, and the community doesn’t seem invested in finding the truth.

There’s not a lot of action in Red Dirt Road, and despite the time pressure Dana is under I felt Red Dirt Road lacked a sense of urgency, though the mystery, and the motive is intriguing.

The information Dana needs to solve the case comes slowly as she takes an oblique approach to the case. With plenty of possible suspects, White develops several red herrings, but it’s deciphering the unusual dynamics of the town that will prove crucial to Russo solving the murders.

Not my favourite of the series so far, but Red Dirt Road is still an interesting read.

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