giftcrime If you're shopping for a dedicated crime lover this year then you're in luck - there's no shortage of great books out there. Indeed, the sheer number of crime fiction and true crime titles often means that narrowing it down is the hardest part. Here, Fiona Hardy sorts the wheat from the chaff, from gritty Scandinavian thrillers to finely crafted outback mysteries.

9780522858105 A Tragedy in Two Acts
Fiona Harari

For the true crime lover:
When Judge Marcus Einfeld was caught by a speed camera, he told authorities his friend Teresa Brennan was driving, and dodged the fine. But she wasn’t driving; worse still, she had been dead for years. The excellent Fiona Harari looks into what would compel him to spin that story, and the fascinating woman he blamed.

resized_9781742370217_224_297_FitSquare Cooking the Books
Kerry Greenwood

For the modern Australian crime lover: Another mystery for baker and trouble-magnet Corinna Chapman, who, despite being on holiday from her bakery, finds herself in the middle of a workplace rife with harassment when she goes to assist a friend catering for a TV show. With her investigator boyfriend also calling on her assistance, it’s an taxing break for her, but not for savvy writer Greenwood’s happy readers.

images Death and the Spanish Lady
Carolyn Moorwood

For the historical crime lover: Melbourne, 1919: the war is over, and Sister Eleanor Jones is back home after being on the front. With a new enemy in the form of the Spanish Flu, she takes up the hat again; she expects death, but not by the hand of a poisoner. Richly drawn characters populate a Melbourne we all know well – but not quite like this.

prime-cut Prime Cut
Alan Carter

For the outback Australian crime lover:
Winner of a Ned Kelly Award and a pearler of a story, we follow washed-up Senior Constable Cato Kwong dealing with a literally washed-up dead body in a West Australian mining town hours from anywhere. With a limited amount of time to make headway on the case and prove himself capable once more, Kwong throws himself into the investigation, and into the path of some unsavoury folk.

9781846555930 Headhunters
Jo Nesbo

For the lover of crime with a twist in the tail:
Norwegian Jo Nesbo is fantastic and the standalone tale Headhunters is another rollicking thriller. Recruitment agent Roger Brown is small in stature but compensates by overspending; to fund his lifestyle, he’s also an art thief. His clients are often targets, but when perfect applicant Clas Greve and his Rubens artwork turn up, the flawed but charming Roger may be out of his depth.

9780007359110 The Hypnotist
Lars Kepler

For the lover of gritty Scandinavian crime: In freezing Sweden, a family is slaughtered, a teenage boy left alive – but barely. Detective Inspector Joona Linna needs to make the boy talk to save the sister that wasn’t home, and calls on therapist and retired hypnotist Erik Maria Bark, a man with his own problems who vowed to no longer hypnotise anyone. It’s dark, heady, disturbing, and will keep you enthralled.

Read our review

More Christmas Gift Ideas:


fiona-hardy-picFiona Hardy sells books and talks too much to customers at Readings Carlton, and puts together Dead Write for the Readings Monthly. She blogs haphazardly about movies and books (and sometimes music) and you can follow her on twitter - @readwatchtweet.