Deep Water by Peter Corris

The 34th book in Peter Corris' Cliff Hardy private detective series titled Deep Water was released a couple of weeks ago on 30 March by Allen & Unwin. Here is a series that has stood the test of time developing consistently from the first book (The Dying Trade).

My review, containing some of my thoughts about the book can be found on the Deep Water page at Crime Down Under.

Meanwhile, here is the Media Release that will give you the incentive to go out and get yourself a copy of Deep Water.

In a case of art mirroring life, the latest instalment in Peter Corris' Cliff Hardy series, Deep Water, sees the beloved Hardy undergo a quadruple heart bypass after suffering a life threatening heart attack.

Author, Peter Corris, underwent the same heart operation last year, obviously influencing the direction of the Cliff Hardy series.

However, the similarities stop there as Cliff Hardy gets drawn into a missing person's investigation, after the father of his nurse, Margaret McKinley, goes missing.

The search for renowned geologist, Dr Henry McKinley, takes Hardy behind the scenes at one of Sydney's biggest basin aquifers and ignites the wrath of local big buisness that stand to lose even bigger money if Hardy's discoveries are revealed.

Ignoring the threat to his life from both his health and his enemies, Hardy is determined to uncover the truth no matter how deep the water he finds himself in.

Except from the book.

The following excerpt from Deep Water gives a little bit of an insight into Cliff Hardy and what has made him so popular for so long.

A few days later, installed back in my house and with outstanding correspondence and obligations, mostly financial but also social and medical, dealt with, I called on Hank in his Newtown office to talk over the Henry McKinley matter. I climbed the familiar stairs from King Street bu tnow a fluorescent light made them more negotiable. As I was making my way up a man coming down fast bumped into me and almost knocked me off balance.

'Terribly sorry,' he said. 'Are you all right, sir?'

I was until you called me sir, I thought. I nodded and he went down, turning at the bottom of the stairs to look back. I signalled to him and went on.

If you want to find out more about Deep Water by Peter Corris you can also visit Inside Story where Shane Maloney has written an outstanding article about Deep Water, Cliff Hardy and Peter Corris.

Reading Notes : A Beautiful Place To Die by Malla Nunn

There have been a number of high quality debut Australian book releases in the last couple of months that have come my way. I’m gradually getting to each one and have been impressed by all of them.

A particularly strong novel is A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn (Pan Macmillan Australia), a murder mystery set in South Africa in the 1950s. The time and setting are significant because of the Racial Segregation laws that were in place at the time. The story explores these laws throughout the book and the attitudes of characters play a major role in the tone of the book and in the story’s outcome.

A Beautiful Place To Die introduces police detective Emmanuel Cooper who is called to a small town to investigate the murder of the town’s police captain. What he has walked into, though is a dangerously poised tinderbox of emotions as the sons of the dead man deal with their rage and grief by looking for someone to blame. Their attention sits squarely on the black community and Cooper is forced to act as the voice of reason, unsure of the authority he might be able to exert in such a remote town.

Moving in to take over are the police Security Branch, the feared enforcers of the racial laws that rule the land. Their intention is to find the kind of suspect that suits their needs, which leaves it up to Cooper to work surreptitiously to find the true murderer, regardless of the colour of his skin.

The story builds quickly in intensity as pressure is placed on Emmanuel - and not from the direction you would expect it to come. This is obviously a heartfelt subject for the author and it is told with great style.

Reading Notes : As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry

Another new voice in Australian literature has just been heard with the release of As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry. The book is published by Hachette Australia. This novel combines the pulse-racing thriller story with a country Australia setting that is rarely experienced by city-dwellers.

It is the kind of story that allows you to comfortably fall into, losing yourself in the smooth, flowing story told by a gifted storyteller.

As Darkness Falls is a romantic suspense novel set in the north-west corner of New South Wales in the tiny town of Dungirri. The setup is that Isabelle O'Connell is asked to return to her home town a year after she is nearly killed by an angry mob while trying to protect a suspected murderer. The man she was trying to protect was implicated in a child abduction and murder case.

Now, a year later, Isabelle is living alone on a remote property on extended leave from the police force and only a week out from retirement. The call to duty comes from DCI Alex Goddard who has come to tell her that another child has gone missing in Dungirri. She instinctively agrees to help.

There is no let up from the emotional turmoil that surround everyone the moment our attention turns to the small town. Pressure comes from the urgency that is put into finding the small girl. Added pressure comes from attacks on Isabelle herself. And finally, caught up in the midst of all this is the desperate romance hopelessly complicating it all.

This is a fine debut novel from go to whoa, a desperate thriller that also works as a moving love story.

Bronwyn Parry was awarded the 2007 Golden Heart Award by the Romance Writers of America for As Darkness Falls.

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September '08 - New Releases

So far, I have had word of 4 new crime novels that I would class as Australian crime fiction, even though 2 of the authors are now based overseas. They are a diverse bunch of books with a small town thriller, a Scottish noir, Russian noir and Sydney-based corruption novel providing a little bit of something from everywhere. Definitely some fascinating reading for the month of September.

As Darkness Falls by Bronwyn Parry (pub. Hachette Australia) The manuscript titled “Falling Into Darkness” was awarded the 2007 Golden Heart Award by the Romance Writers of America as well as the Romance Writers of Australia Single and Loving It! (STALI) Contest in 2005. This is a romance / thriller of undoubted quality set in outback New South Wales.

You can find out more about her by visiting the official website of Bronwyn Parry.







Paying For It by Tony Black (pub. Preface Publishing) This is a Scottish Noir thriller set in Edinburgh featuring Gus Dury, an alcoholic former journalist who is cajoled into investigating the death of his boss’ son. This is tough, dingy, well-written and admirably paced novel that skates the edges of despair as Gus goes head to head with one of the city’s most formidable mobsters. Tony Black has already made his presence felt with a short story that has been published here at The Outpost titled Crate-Load of Grief.







Crooked by Camilla Nelson (pub. Random House) This book looks as though it’s a real hell-raiser with the publisher blurb promising corruption, crooked politicians and honest crims. It also mentions that some of Sydney’s most notorious gangland identities have been used as the backdrop to the story. It looks tough and it looks mean and this has got me intrigued.




Stray Dog Winter by David Francis (pub. Allen & Unwin) Speaking of intrigued, Stray Dog Winter came with a media release that bills it as a Soviet noir “sexpionage” novel set in 1980s Moscow reveals dangerous secrets between siblings. I have this one sitting waiting to be read and if the praise of Debra Adelaide is to be heeded we can expect the story to be: “Permeated with a brooding unease, powerfully matched by the palpable cold of winter in Moscow…sinister, suspenseful and beautifully written.”

Reading : The Build Up by Phillip Gwynne

I have just finished one of the most enjoyable books I've read this year. The Build Up by Phillip Gwynne is set in Darwin, Australia and features homicide detective Frances "Dusty" Buchanon, a female cop in a male-dominated part of the world.

Hidden amid the easy, knockabout tone of the book lies a nicely crafted murder mystery. The story is based around the discovery of a body...which then goes missing, closely followed by Dusty's position as a homicide detective. Somehow, Dusty has to convince her colleagues that there was a body in the first place, but there's a reason it has disappeared.

The strength of The Build Up lies in the colourful characters dotted throughout, from Dusty herself to Senior Sergeant Dave Kirk who still prefers to call Dusty a frontbum and on to former Australian Rules football star Rob 'Trigger' Tregenza (and his use of a certain Hawthorn footy jumper). Each and every Northern Territorian is given an easy, relaxed attitude that seems to epitomise the land itself.

Gwynne's Darwin is an isolated city that is stolidly casual in attitude with a laid back style that is underlined by every broken rule and politically incorrect comment that is embraced with glee throughout the book. Brothels, Long Grassers, an oppressive heat, an ocean you can't swim in because of the box jellyfish and an endless forbidding landscape in every direction. It's a setting that is different from just about every murder mystery I have ever read and I loved every page of it.

This is a story that works on many levels. From the first page to the last it is engaging with injections of humour softening you up for the serious business of solving a murder and dealing with some shady, extremely dangerous characters.

From what I've heard there is another Dusty Buchanon novel in the works which is great news because one book is simply not enough.

Reading Notes : Splinter by Michael MacConnell

Splinter by Michael MacConnell is the sequel to his outstanding debut thriller, Maelstrom and continues on with the same intensity from where that book left off. FBI agent Sarah Reilly, the protagonist in the first book, is back as unpredictable as ever. She is an intriguing character who plays the emotionally challenged loose cannon to perfection.

The book is set in LA, dealing with the kidnapping and murder of the son of a Hollywood couple. It’s about as high profile a case as it’s possible to get and Sarah attacks it with complete dedication.

The killer proves to be a master manipulator, however, and the murder of the little boy is by no means the last murder in the book. As Sarah progresses through her investigation, key witnesses and people crucial to her case are taken out leading her to believe that the person she’s after is actually working from the inside. Or at least, they have access to information only those close to the case should have.

Splinter is a thriller that is constantly redefining itself as the investigation raises more questions than were originally considered. It’s this complexity, along with a slew of plot twists and direction changes that makes Michael MacConnell’s second novel a memorable book to read.

I'm actually writing a full review of the book at the moment and it will appear on the Australian Crime Fiction Database very shortly. Suffice to say that it is a very satisfying thriller that manages to draw you in and get you involved with apparent ease.

August '08 - New Releases

What a month August promises to be with a couple of first crime novels published this month as well as a second action thriller by one of the short-list nominees for this year's Ned Kelly Awards. Australian books that crime readers should be looking forward to getting their hands on all three of these books.

The Build Up by Phillip Gwynne - (Pan Macmillan Australia) - I am reading this book at the moment and am enjoying it immensely, both for the setting and the engaging style in which it is written. Set in Darwin with occasional trips into the desert The Build Up is as much a biting commentary on the cultural viewpoint of a Northern Territorian as it is a murder mystery. A prostitute is murdered in a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans but her body does a disappearing act causing Detective Dusty Buchanon no end of problems. Most people already know that Territorians live by different rules to the rest of the country and Phillip Gwynne drives this point home in emphatic fashion in this classy mystery.

Second Strike by Mark Abernethy - (Allen & Unwin) - This is the second Alan McQueen thriller with the first, Golden Serpent recently short-listed for a Ned Kelly Award. This book fits directly into the post-911 terrorist fiction sub-genre with this threat coming out of Indonesia. Alan McQueen is an Australian spy, an ASIS agent with all the toughness and resourcefulness that makes these kinds of action/thrillers a wild ride from start to finish.

Ghostlines by Nick Gadd - (Scribe Publications) - For the third book to be published in August you're going to have to wait until the end of the month, August 30 in fact. Ghostlines won the 2007 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript. According to the media release the story is about a washed up former investigative journalist who stumbles onto a story that grows from tragic accident into a major political intrigue and murder. They don't give literary awards to just anyone so you can be sure that this debut novel will be special.

Review of Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano

I have recently finished reading Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano. This is the second novel to feature Detective Sergeant Jill Jackson, picking up where Vodka Doesn't Freeze leaves off. It's a psychological thriller of the highest order starting with a violent home invasion before exploring the dark mind of a killer who is dangerously out of control.

Leah Giarratano has done an outstanding job of taking us inside the minds of her characters, into a nightmare world of destruction and despair. With so many of the minds damaged or healing it is ensured that the unexpected is to be expected.

Voodoo Doll is one of the 50 books that has been chosen for the 2008 Books Alive initiative.

I have written a full review of the book over on the Australian Crime Fiction Database so to avoid duplicating it I will instead invite you to pop over and read my review of Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano.

Bright Air by Barry Maitland - The Follow Up

A few days ago I mentioned that I was halfway through Barry Maitland's new novel Bright Air with a suggestion that I had an inkling about where he was heading in the second half.


I've long since finished the book and found it a very enjoyable read indeed. I thought, though, that it would be prudent of me to follow up the first post to admit that just about all of the preconceptions I'd made were wrong. Barry Maitland did an outsanding job in developing the story and in the direction he eventually took it.


You can read my full review of Bright Air by Barry Maitland at the Crime Down Under website.

July '08 - New Releases

July heralds the release of 4 much anticipated Australian books. When I say “much anticipated” I am naturally referring to my own eagerness to read these new books. The 4 books I have details of are by authors who have already established themselves as fine storytellers (my opinion). To categorise the books I would put them down as 1 action thriller, 1 mystery and 2 psychological thrillers.

Hard Rain by David Rollins (pub. Pan Macmillan) This is the 3rd book in the Vin Cooper series and is set in Istanbul, Turkey. Cooper is a US Air Force OSI Special Agent and he and his partner Anna Masters have been called in to investigate the murder of the Air Force Attache in Turkey. This story fires straight out of the blocks, features all of Vin Cooper’s acerbic wit and is blessed with a consistently high action level. Find out more at David's website.

Bright Air by Barry Maitland (pub. Allen & Unwin) Maitland is most well known as the author of the superb Brock and Kolla police procedural series. Bright Air is a departure from the series, his first stand-alone mystery set in Australia – Sydney and Lord Howe Island. The death of Lucy Corcoran, at first thought to be a tragic rock-climbing accident could be something more sinister. Friends of Lucy, Josh and Anna are compelled by their personal feelings of guilt to seek out the truth. Excellent character-based mystery. Find out more at Barry's website.

Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano (pub. Random House) Sydney police detective Jill Jackson is back after the harrowing events of Vodka Doesn’t Freeze. She has been promoted and moved to Liverpool in Sydney’s south-west to be part of a taskforce charged with tracking down a gang of violent home invaders. Jill Jackson would have to be one of the most complex, troubled protagonists I have come across and her personality gives this book even greater interest.

Splinter by Michael MacConnell (pub. Hachette Australia) FBI agent Sarah Reilly is working on a child homicide case. It’s high profile and harrowing but it’s also a case that turns nasty. As with Michael MacConnell’s first thriller, Maelstrom, Sarah is facing a case that is far bigger than it first appears. She also has to face memories of events from her own past which are brought back in the course of the investigation.

Currently Reading Bright Air by Barry Maitland

Barry Maitland’s new novel, Bright Air (pub. Allen & Unwin) has been released today, an event certainly worth noting. It’s even more noteworthy when you learn that this is a stand-alone novel, not part of the immensely popular Brock and Kolla series. On top of that, the story is set in Sydney as opposed to the series books which are set in England.

I am almost exactly halfway through reading Bright Air at the moment and would classify it as one of those mystery novels that is very careful in the build up. Maitland has put a lot of effort into setting the scene for us. It feels as though the reader is being prepared for a shocking revelation – just my own impression, mind you.

Here’s a brief overview to give you an idea of what the plot’s about. The opening finds us at the home of Josh Ambler. Josh has recently returned from London where he worked for a few years as a merchant banker. He is visited by a friend from his past. Anna was one of a group of friends he knew from his university days, all with a passion for rock-climbing. Josh took up the sport as a way of meeting Anna’s friend, Lucy or Luce as she was known to all. They wound up dating and became very close until Josh broke it off and moved to London.

While Josh was in London Luce died in a climbing accident on Lord Howe Island while doing a field study for her university degree. With her at the time were some of the members of their circle of friends: Owen, Curtis, Damien and Marcus. The coroner’s report found that her death was an accident but her body was never recovered.

The reason that Anna has come to see Josh is because two more members of the party, Owen and Curtis, have also died, also in a climbing accident. Before he died Owen revealed to Anna that there was more to Luce’s death than what the coroner concluded. What he actually said to Anna was, “We killed her.”

Now Anna has come to enlist Josh in finding out what really happened on Lord Howe Island.

The story switches from the present day and Josh and Anna’s progress to the early days of their relationship and their rock-climbing experiences together. The personalities of all of the members of the group are gradually revealed, as are the details of what happened between Josh and Luce.

Barry Maitland writes with a strong, fulfilling style that commands your attention. The rock-climbing sequences provide an added interest but it’s the depth of the character portraits where the real strength to the story lies. There are also some moving instances of self-awareness that creeps into Josh’s narrative as he looks back on his time with Luce.

When I thought about it, I was amazed to realise how totally insulated my life had been from this world until I’d started climbing with Luce. Nature to me had been no more than a marginal risk of hurricanes or floods that could be managed with a range of financial instruments. I had only ever seen true wilderness through the filter of a TV screen or an aeroplane window. And now I was about as fully exposed to it as one could be, suspended in a gossamer net high up a mountain face in bright air.

Half the book to go and I am fully engaged, as I find I often am while reading a Barry Maitland novel. Sure, I’ve made some guesses about which way I think the story’s going to go – good stories compel you to do just that, I reckon. But I’ll keep those guesses to myself.

Genre Flash 2

The start of the year introduced Australia to Genre Flash, a publication showcasing some of the latest hot new release crime novels and true crime books. It's six months down the track and the second Genre Flash has just been released.

This issue is 14 pages strong and highlights books such as Fan Mail by P.D. Martin, The Mystery of the Missing Masterpiece by Robin Bowles, Alibi by Sydney Bauer, Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry and Harum Scarum by Felicity Young to name just a few.

Genre Flash is filled to the brim with quality Australian books to track down and come complete with story overviews, added author information, details on where to find the books and a list of upcoming novels from the featured authors.

Take a look at Genre Flash 2 to help satisfy the longing to read an Austalian book today.

May '08 New Releases

Crime fiction in Australia has been given another healthy injection in May with 4 new book releases and each of them looks to be well worth tracking down. This month I've been able to get a bit of a head start on the books, having read 2 of them and currently partway through reading a 3rd, so I can safely attest to the quality of crime fiction produced. The 4th book looks as though it could be a very interesting serial killer suitable for readers who don't mind the brutal fast-paced action thriller.

The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell (pub. Macmillan Australia) - this is the second thriller by Katherine Howell and is the much anticipated follow up to Frantic. (Some places on the 'net still refer to this book as Panic which was the title that was originally proposed). The book features homicide detective Ella Marconi and follows a murder investigation dripping with complications. Some of those complications stem from the second strong female lead in the book, paramedic Lauren Yates who becomes crucial to the investigation. Howell works plenty of paramedic procedure into the book giving it a more interesting and unique aspect compared with other crime thrillers.

Blood Sunset by Jarad Henry (pub. Allen & Unwin) - another "2nd in a series" book. This is Jarad Henry's follow up to Head Shot which introduced Melbourne police detective Rubens McCauley. Blood Sunset takes us into the seamy St Kilda backstreets where we rub shoulders with the drug addicts, dealers and prostitutes who call the place home. Rubens is back at work after recovering from a gunshot wound but a mistake he makes when investigating a drug overdose death turns his life upside down. This is a strong hardboiled crime novel set in a searing summer heat in Melbourne. Bushfires surround the city which helps to add a menacing tone to the story.

A Deadly Business by Lenny Bartulin (pub. Scribe Publications) - this debut crime novel introduces Sydney second-hand bookseller Jack Susko in what looks to be the first book of a new series. I am reading this book at the moment and have been immediately drawn into Jack’s world thanks to Bartulin’s rich descriptive flair. Jack Susko is hired to find every copy of a certain obscure poet’s published books. It’s an unusual request that immediately flags all sorts of questions. The client is rich, the family has issues of some sort and Jack is going to get himself into bog trouble. This is shaping up as a very interesting debut crime novel.

The Silver Dagger by Jame McLean (pub. Longueville Books) - this is a serial killer novel that is set on Queensland’s Gold Coast, so immediately you know that all manner of lowlife criminals are going to be involved. Joseph Crowley is a detective whose job it is to track down a ruthless killer who appears to have only just begun. Reports are that the book is fast-paced and confronting and everything I’ve heard about it is positive. I’ll be reading The Silver Dagger soon and am looking forward to a brutal thriller. I’ll be posting my reading notes here when I’ve read it.

All up, not a bad month for reading Australian crime fiction books with the array centring largely on the police procedural sub-genre. There's a good mix of Australian locations involved here with a couple set in Sydney, one in Melbourne and one in Queensland.

April '08 New Releases

April is another quiet month as far as new Australian crime fiction is concerned. But where the quantity is low, the quality is sky high. Two books make their way into bookstores across the country this month, one a legal thriller, the other is a police procedural / psychological thriller and both are the latest books in ongoing series.

Alibi by Sydney Bauer (pub. Pan Macmillan) – This is the 3rd book in the David Cavanaugh series. It’s a legal thriller set in Boston and starts off with the murder of Deane University student Jessica Nagoshi. Charged with her murder is her secret boyfriend and fellow student James Matheson. David Cavanaugh provides the defense in a case that is complicated by both the number of possible suspects and the great wealth of those involved.

Harum Scarum by Felicity Young (pub. Fremantle Arts Press) – This is the sequel to An Easeful Death and features Perth police Detective Sergeant Stevie Hooper. This is a novel that takes us into the grim realms of the cyber-predator and paedophile. A young girl is murdered after she is lured to a face to face meeting with someone she thought was a boy her own age. The investigation is thrown into chaos when their suspect also turns up murdered. The police have to work out how many murderers they’re actually chasing. There’s a question of how many victims are really involved too. This is a disturbing and complex thriller with an ending that was as concerning as it was brilliantly conceived.

March '08 New Releases

The month of March finds only two new Australian crime/thriller/mystery releases, but both are from authors with terrific credentials who need little introduction. Interestingly both books have come from the same publisher, which obviously means that not a single other publisher in the land have contributed to the genre this month. Consequently...here they are:

Open File by Peter Corris (pub. Allen & Unwin) The latest Cliff Hardy detective novel is a trip back in time as Cliff recalls a case from the 1980s. I haven't picked up my copy of the book yet but, after more than 30 books, it would be safe to assume that Cliff puts himself in the middle of any number of brutal situations.

Murder on the Apricot Coast by Marion Halligan (Allen & Unwin). This is the sequel to the 2006 published The Apricot Colonel. According to the book's blurb, the 2 characters from the earlier book, Cassandra and the colonel are now married but their lives are disrupted by the spectre of murder. From memory, The Apricot Colonel tended towards the cozy end of the crime genre spectrum so it would be reasonable to assume that the sequel will be likewise in tone.

Australian Crime Releases February 08

I've only found details of two new crime releases for February so far but both of them are very high quality and I reckon mystery / thriller readers should be looking forward to getting their hands on both of them.

The Tattooed Man by Alex Palmer (pub. Harper Collins Australia) : The sequel to Blood Redemption, the winner of the 2003 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime Novel, has finally made it's way to publication. Det. Commander Paul Harrigan and Grace Riordan have returned in another extremely compelling novel that is as rich in character development as it the plot is complex. A crooked cop from Harrigan's past has just shown up dead in a high-profile multiple murder case. There's a problem for Harrigan though, the cop was hiding evidence that could incriminate him in a long covered-up murder. This is a murder mystery that takes on huge proportions and gets very ugly.


Fan Mail by P.D. Martin (pub. Macmillan Australia) : The 3rd book in the series featuring FBI profiler Sophie Anderson finds her moving out of Quantico and into the field where she thinks her talents will do the most good. Sophie is not your normal profiler, she experiences visions while working the murder and missing person cases. It's a "talent" that is beginning to be fleshed out in much greater details in Fan Mail and is starting to play a much more important, and accepted, part in her investigations. It adds a fascinating aspect to the books - think Patricia Arquette's character Alison in the television series Medium and you'll get an idea of Sophie Anderson's capabilities. In Fan Mail, someone is killing crime authors, using the details of the murders in their books as a blueprint for their own deaths. There's a pattern but Sophie has to figure out what it is. There's also a continuation of the ongoing story from the previous novel, The Murderer's Club, to add to Sophie's troubles.

January 08 New Releases

As is usual here in Australia, January is a quiet time of the year in terms of new crime / thriller releases. In fact, I have only been able to track down one.

Fivefold by Nathan Burrage (pub. Random House) : A debut novel by an author who has had quite a few speculative fiction short stories published in various science fiction and speculative fiction journals. This is billed as a mystical thriller and begins with a discovery beneath a ruined church. Five university friends uncover a secret that has far-reaching consequences. Nathan has also been nominated for an Aurealis Award and won an AntiSF Award for his short stories. You can find out a whole lot more about Nathan, his shorter works plus the opening few pages of Fivefold by visiting his website.

2008 New Releases

As we consign the year 2007 to the history books and every newspaper, literary blog and on-line forum have compiled their Best of 2007 lists (I was away that day), we now look ahead to what's in store for us in 2008.


The Age has jumped in first with their in depth look at the forthcoming releases for the year.


Paring it down to new Australian crime releases (as well as correcting an error or two) I can give you a brief run down of what we can look forward to plus a few rumours that are still to be confirmed.


In January, The Tattooed Man by Alex Palmer (HarperCollins) will be released as will the debut novel Fivefold by Nathan Burrage (Random House).


Moving on to February, Fan Mail by P.D. Martin (Pan Macmillan) will take the number of Sophie Anderson books to 3.


In March, Murder on the Apricot Coast by Marion Halligan (Allen & Unwin) will be released. I expect this will be a follow up novel to the 2006 The Apricot Colonel.


April will see the release of Sydney Bauer's 3rd novel, Alibi (Pan Macmillan) featuring lawyer David Cavanaugh.


May gives us 3 releases at this stage. Katherine Howell's second novel The Darkest Hour (Pan Macmillan) comes out, as does Shatter by Michael Robotham (Sphere) and a debut novel A Deadly Business by Lenny Bartulin (Scribe).


In July we can look forward to Leah Giarratano's 2nd thriller titled Voodoo Doll (Random House).


In August, the 3rd book by James Phelan , Blood Oil, is due to be released.


The hints keep coming that Garry Disher's new novel will be out in November and it will be a new Wyatt novel. I'll keep my ears and eyes peeled for more word on this front. I'm still waiting for confirmation that the new novel by Peter Temple (possibly titled Truth) will be coming out at some stage during the year. There will be a new John Birmingham book out later in the year but the title is still to be finalised. I've also jotted Tony Park's name down because he keeps mentioning on his blog that work is progressing well on novel number 5.

Hook, Line and Sinker by Susan Geason

It’s a good news day today. I’ve just been told that there has been a 4th Syd Fish detective novel written. Not only that, thanks to the wonders of the Internet and, it would seem, the short-sightedness of Australia’s publishers, we have the opportunity to enjoy the 4th Syd Fish detective novel for nix.

Back in the early 1990s, author Susan Geason introduced us to the Sydney-based private detective who featured in 3 books (Shaved Fish, Dogfish and Shark Bait). It looked as though the sleuth with his sharp wit and diverse array of connections was here for a long stay, but he disappeared after the 3rd book and hasn’t been seen since.

That is, until now.

It seems that Geason wrote a 4th book titled Hook, Line and Sinker that was completed in 2001. Incredibly though, she was unable find a publisher for Syd Fish IV. Instead, the book is available for download in its entirety from Susan’s website. (Just click on the book's title above)

And if the opening paragraph is anything to go by, we're in for another lively Syd Fish adventure:

To avoid the axe murderer on the loose in Kings Cross, I kept to the main streets on my way to Victoria Street to lunch with Lizzie Darcy. It was a perfect Sydney summer’s day: the smog levels were miraculously below hazardous; there was no bushfire smoke, and the graceful plane trees were in full leaf. Only the sight of all those perfect, tanned blond backpackers doing nothing soured the experience.

I would also encourage you to go back and experience the tight plotting and lurid Kings Cross atmosphere of the earlier Syd Fish by hunting down copies of Shaved Fish, Dogfish and Shark Bait. After that, you might like to try the cracking stand-alone thriller Wildfire.

Maelstrom Released in October

Waaay back at the start of August I announced that the debut thriller by Michael MacConnell, Maelstrom, was going to be released that month. Well apparently there have been a few cover-related glitches that have caused a postponement of the publishing date. The word is though, that the book has now been finished, complete with a cover, and will be published by Hachette Livre in October.

As a refresher, here’s how the synopsis for the book reads, taken from the publisher’s website:

Sarah Riley is the daughter of FBI legend Harry Reilly. Her father made his reputation hunting down on of America’s worst serial killers. But Harry never met the violet-eyed man. Sarah has inherited her father’s impulsive intuition and is making a name for herself as a rookie FBI agent. Given the job of investigating a recent double murder, she uncovers some strange anomalies in the modus operandi of the killer… and a maelstrom of evil is unleashed as a killer finds himself hunted by more than one adversary. A chilling thriller that introduces a new heroine… someone who will give Clarice Starling a run for her money.

With the promise of a serial-killer plot, and a Silence of the Lambs comparison to boot, I'm still looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of this one.

(At some point I might get around to adding Michael's bio to his author page over at crimedownunder.com, too)