Book Mutterings - 8-14 February 2008

The Moonlight Downs train continues to roll through the US with a review in the New York Times Sunday Book Review the latest stop. Adrian Hyland's Ned Kelly Award winning book is reviewed by Marilyn Stasio who leads off with "In the Australian outback, where Adrian Hyland has set his beguiling first mystery, MOONLIGHT DOWNS (Soho, $24), all the big mineral mines are on Aboriginal lands."

David at Teleport City has reviewed Peepshow by Leigh Redhead. This is the first of the Simone Kirsch series, the stripper turned private detective working in the sleazy Melbourne inner-city. he enjoyed the book but that was due in large part to his knowledge of the local scene and has warned that other readers are unlikely to appreciate thses aspects.

At Matilda, Bernadette Gooden has read and reviewed Skin and Bone, the latest novel by Kathryn Fox and has come away lukewarm, to say the least. She begins her review with an unencouraging "The lacklustre plot was predictable as soon as all the players were introduced" and leaves it with the proclamation that "Kathryn Fox has a lot of potential but is not ready to take her place amongst the Queens of Crime just yet".