Discover the new crime books our booksellers are excited about this month!
Click
Sarah Bailey
Set in Melbourne at the start of 2020, this new offering from accomplished crime novelist Sarah Bailey deals with a killer on the loose, but also elucidates in a gripping story how modern technology has become both a help and a hindrance to law enforcers.
Three women bring this story of a possible serial killer to life: Pen, the copper; Oli, the journo; and Clarissa Dunkley, the Premier. Through them, the uneasy, interdependent and complicated relationships between police, media outlets and politicians are deftly laid out. All are under pressure: Pen, to solve crimes in a timely fashion; Oli, to be first to break the news and get those much-needed paid subscriptions to keep the whole show rolling; and Clarissa to respond to the unfolding crime wave to keep the public on side and to ensure re-election prospects.
In this hotbed environment, there is social media, where everyone is a commentator or influencer, there are the relentless demands of the news cycle, and the impatience of the public for perpetrators to be caught. The lines between news, entertainment, and PR are often blurred.
With advancements such as image altering and the ability to disguise digital footprints, the grip on what is true and what has been doctored can be slippery; nothing can be taken at face value. As police scramble to catch the killer, the city is on edge, the media is on alert, and the premier is on notice.
Click is a narrative of men’s violence towards women, and is full of scenarios with which we are all too familiar. But it is also the story of strong women and of those who, when faced with ethical dilemmas, are determined to do their jobs the right way, rather than the easy way.
Reviewed by Pauline Hopkins.
The Ending Writes Itself
Evelyn Clarke
What would a publishing house do when their most famous (and reclusive) author, Arthur Fletch, dies while writing the final book of his award-winning crime series? Easy – they would get another author to finish the book and keep his death a secret until it’s published.
Six struggling ‘midlist’ authors are invited to stay in Arthur Fletch’s mansion on his private island in a competition to write the best ending. Whoever wins will receive two million dollars and the publishing deal of their dreams, including the marketing and support they never received for the books they’ve already had published. So, 72 hours on a secluded island, all contact with the outside world cut, and every author hungry for the success they think they’re owed – what could possibly go wrong?
This book is a great insight into the machinations of an international publishing house, the hostilities between genres, and the creative process. These writers all have secrets, but who is truly willing to kill for theirs? With the story told from multiple perspectives, the reader is speculating from the very start, and the twists keep coming to the very end. This is a tale for lovers of Knives Out, The Traitors franchise and Benjamin Stevenson’s closed-room mysteries.
Another twist, which some readers may already know, is that Evelyn Clarke is a combined pseudonym for screenwriter Cat Clarke and author V.E. Schwab. Drawing from their own experiences in publishing, this book is both a love and hate letter to the publishing industry!
Reviewed by Erica Rist.
The Keeper
Tana French
There’s a handful of authors whose books are so consistently excellent that for me they’re in the instantly-buy-without-even-reading-the-blurb-first category. Tana French is one of them. Her most recent novel is the third book to feature Cal Hooper, and by this point the retired detective from Chicago is a familiar and generally well-liked figure in the remote Irish village of Ardnakelty. He’s engaged to a local woman, Lena; is a surrogate father figure to a local girl, Trey; and is widely accepted by the local men who buy each other pints at the town pub.
But Cal’s peaceful existence is shattered when he pulls the body of a local girl, Rachel, from the cold waters of the river. Rachel is the long-term girlfriend of Eugene, the odious son of Ardnakelty’s richest – and likely most corrupt – resident, Tommy Moynihan. Tommy, recognising Cal’s unique reputation in the town, attempts to enlist his services to prove that Eugene had nothing to do with Rachel’s apparent suicide, and Cal’s refusal sets into motion an explosive series of events that peel back the thin veneer of civility to reveal the hungry rage at the heart of the village. In the face of small-town justice and the unspoken rules and generations-old local understandings, is Cal’s sense of fairness stronger than his belief in the law? Is his love for Trey and Lena deeper than his need to belong to the very community they’ve spent their lifetimes trying to escape?
Wry, with an undercurrent of dry humour, French perfectly captures the wild surrounds of the Irish landscape and the distinct cadence of its residents’ dialogue. This is an outstanding and thought-provoking crime novel perfect for readers who relish nuanced characters and twisty mysteries.
Reviewed by Lian Hingee.
Dove
Georgia Harper
With her new book Dove as lyrical and evocative as her debut, Georgia Harper continues to dazzle and enthrall. The story follows the lives of three characters living in a conservative and patriarchal rural Queensland town: Dove, a self-sufficient woman considered an outsider by most of the town; Noah, a young husband and father who feels trapped in his life; and Bella, Noah’s teenage daughter. One day, after a row with her neighbour turns violent, Dove writes a provocative question on the wall of her property, ‘What would you do if you had a whole day on Earth free of men?’
What started as a simple expression of frustration quickly becomes a lightning rod for the town. The words the women of Mablethorpe write on the wall tell a familiar story: overworked, undervalued, objectified, and blamed. As their voices rise, the attitude of the men in the town ticks over from discomforted to dangerous. In the background, secrets are uncovered about the long-ago disappearance of local 16-year-old Amanda.
As Dove, Noah and Bella all try to navigate their emotions about the wall, as well as the reality of what its message means for their lives and their relationships, a heartbreaking depiction of toxic masculinity emerges and the damage wrought by a culture of silence becomes clear. The way Harper slowly reveals information is masterful. Realistically, not a lot happens for the majority of this book, but the way the story is written makes it just as gripping as a thriller. It will keep you reading late into the night.
Content notes for domestic violence, abortion, and medical malpractice.
Reviewed by Alicia Guiney.
Sound Mind Dead Body
Dave Warner
The wealthy Sir Thomas Pedhurst is dead. The Pedhurst and de Reve families arrive at Harcroft Manor in Devon for the reading of the will. Alongside them is Fred Willets, an Australian Second World War aviator, police officer, and old friend of Thomas’s from the war, who has also come as a beneficiary of the will. Old feuds and secrecy make this family less loving than most, setting an anxious scene full of foreboding in the lead up to the reading.
First, a shocking burglary sets the families on edge. Then, Thomas’s widow, Julia, is found mysteriously dead, with no signs of foul play, sowing distrust and suspicion. As another murder takes place, more brutal than the last, it’s up to Detective Willets and local pharmacist Prudence Meadows to unmask the killer.
Unlike most of Dave Warner’s previous gritty crime noirs set in Perth, Sound Mind Dead Body takes place in the serenity of the English countryside, in stark contrast against the violence and hatred brewing in this family. As is fitting for this new scenery, and drawing on his personal love for Agatha Christie novels, Warner has written a classic, cosy whodunnit, with a cast of suspicious characters and an atmospheric crime scene set in 1929, between the two World Wars, reflecting the tension and increasing rivalry that divides this family.
However, it wouldn’t be a Dave Warner novel without a connection to Australia, which manifests in our protagonist Fred, a police officer from the Gold Stealing Detection Squad, based in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Fred is someone we can connect with and relate to, somebody familiar among the eclectic cast of suspects. Sound Mind Dead Body is a clever and entertaining murder mystery with Fred as our trustworthy detective upon whom we can rely to solve the murder – a true-blue Poirot, if you will!
Reviewed by Aurelia Orr.
Also recommended are:
The Secret Lives of Murderers’ Wives
Elizabeth Arnott
It's a baking hot summer in 1960s California and three women have formed an unlikely friendship. Beverley, Elsie and Margot may look like they lead idyllic lives, but behind the false smiles and glittering pools lies the truth: their husbands are some of the country's most notorious serial killers.
Amidst neighbourhood gossip and pointed fingers, the women are fighting to forge new paths for themselves. Wide-eyed Beverley is raising two young children under the long shadow of their father's crimes. Bookish Elsie is determined to make a name for herself in the patriarchal newsroom, while Hollywood party-girl Margot has a penchant for an early morning margarita – anything to quieten the shame of her ex-husband's deceit.
But when a string of local killings hits the news, the women – underestimated and overlooked – are hurled into an investigation of their own. After all, who better to catch a killer than those who have shared their lives with one?
The Writers Retreat
Victoria Brownlee
Welcome to The Writers Retreat – a creative haven for writers to hone their plotlines and sharpen their characters while soaking up the Provençal atmosphere. But this year’s retreat offers something different, as real-life blurs with fiction, and suspense isn't contained to the page.
Kat Hale is a bestselling Australian author crumbling under the pressure of writing her second novel. On a whim, she has fled to a writers retreat in the South of France run by internationally acclaimed author Helen Thorne. What Kat hopes will be two blissfully uninterrupted weeks to focus on her writing in anonymity quickly turns into something more sinister, when Kat begins to suspect that Helen isn't quite as perfect as everyone seems to believe.
Will Kat’s drive to uncover the truth about Helen be any match for Helen’s desire to hold onto her career, her reputation and her writing retreat, or is Kat at risk of falling victim to a more dangerous climax?
Guilt
Keigo Higashino, translated by Giles Murray
A body has been found on a Central Tokyo riverbank, and Homicide Detective Godai of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is assigned to investigate. The victim is identified as a lawyer, Kensuke Shiraishi, and Godai's investigations lead him to one Tatsuro Kuraki, who ends up confessing to not only to the lawyer's murder, but also another one from thirty years ago – for which another man was arrested and died in custody before trial. Kuraki's confession neatly resolves two cases, but there is just one problem: Detective Godai doesn't believe him.
What's more, there are two other people who can't accept Kuraki's confession. One is the son of Kuraki, the professed murderer; the other is the daughter of Shiraishi, the victim. As they get closer to the truth it becomes clear that the link between the two murders is murkier and more complicated than they could possibly have imagined – and so is the line between innocence and guilt.
