Book Mutterings - 4 - 10 January 08

There's been some reading, some reviewing, some rating and some discussing going on about the odd Australian crime book. here's what they've been saying over the last week or so.

• Paula Weston at Great Stories has read Golden Serpent by Mark Abernethy and has classed it as one of the best spy thrillers she has read. She gives a big thumbs up to the main character Alan 'Mac' McQueen, approving of his tough-guy fallability.


• In The Australian, Graeme Blundell casts his eye over three recently released books. First he looks at Maelstrom by Michael MacConnell with mixed feelings before turning his attention to Dorothy Johnston's latest, Eden which is the 3rd book in her series featuring Sandra Mahoney which he finds is part of a series that is improving as it goes along. Finally he, too, looks at Golden Serpent by Mark Abernethy, a book which he devotes many more inches of space to in his column and he manages to make comparisons to Ian Fleming, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy and Lee Child.
  
• Karen at Aust Crime Fiction has finished her list of Favourites for 2007 breaking them up into her favourite local (Australian) books and favourites from other locations.


• Kerrie at Mysteries in paradise reports that the fair folk at the Oz Mystery Readers forum have put their heads together to compile a list of their best reads for 2007 with Diamond Dove by Adrian Hyland heading the list. It should be noted that the books in the list are books that were read in 2007, not necessarily books that were published in 2007. She has followed that post up with her review of Diamond Dove. By the way, there has been a lot of discussion about this book here in Australia and it will be released by Soho Press in the US in February under the name Moonlight Downs.


• Rod Lott at Bookgasm has gotten his hands on a copy of The 6 Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly and has revelled in its over-the-toppedness correctly pointing out that the extreme unbelievability factor is exactly what Reilly is aiming for.