Allen & Unwin Archives

Book review: Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern

June 21, 20263 min read

I was a bit worried going into Every Time She Wakes by Petronella McGovern because it features a Groundhog Day scenario… so I made some assumptions about how it would play out. But… wow, McGovern throws that trope on its head as the world in which Suzanna (Suze) wakes each time is very different. Eventually she reflects on her daughter’s philosophy studies about timelines and dimensions, not in a woo-woo way, rather trying to make sense of her same-but-different adventures (and I’ve written before about my fascination with the parallel lives concept). In each though, Suze’s family is abducted, which ends in a tragic accident… at which point she wakes up. Again. In the past.

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Book review: The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton

May 18, 20262 min read

The Bookshop of Buried Pasts by Sarah Clutton is the Australian author’s second book and I very much enjoyed her first The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains , giving it a rare 4.5 star rating. I confess I didn’t love this quite as much as her debut (I’m a sucker for a child narrator – ie. Alfie) but I enjoyed it a lot. She delivers the perfect measure of bittersweet sadness and hope. It’s themed around families – those you’re born into and those you find along the way and it offers a reminder of the lengths we go to, in order to protect those we love and hold dear.

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Book review: Click by Sarah Bailey

March 29, 20263 min read

Click by Sarah Bailey is a sequel to her 2021 book The Housemate where we first met Olive (Oli) Groves. Apparently I wasn’t alone in wanting to see more of the tenacious but likeable journalist as Bailey has resurrected that character in her new thriller.

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Book review: Kill Your Boss by Jack Heath

November 14, 20252 min read

Kill Your Boss by Jack Heath is the third in the ‘Kill your….’ series featuring DS Kiara Lui. I jokingly tried to guess what the next one would be in my review of Kill Your Husbands… one of my guesses was ‘colleagues’.

I was close but no banana. Though many will relate to this as I’m fairly sure most of us have had a horrendous boss at some point in their life. In a letter by Heath (in the review copy I received) he talks about unlikeable characters and it has to be said the victim here—Neville—is certainly that. In fact I love that no one (other than the victim’s parents) even pretends to have a good word to say about the victim… so the suspects are many!

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Book review: Whisky Valley by Joan Sauers

June 6, 20253 min read

Whisky Valley by Joan Sauers is the second in the enjoyable series featuring semi-retired historian Rose McHugh. In my review of the first book in the series, Echo Lake, I commented that—as an historian and a background in research—she’s a feasible amateur (citizen) detective. Sauers also reintroduces characters from the first book, including Rose’s son Sam and her sister Kim, and local friends George and Detective Inspector Joe Blackmore and his wife Grace. I also commented on [Echo Lake] being an atmospheric read, based in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, and again here the song sense of ‘place’ resonates.

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Book review: The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains by Sarah Clutton

May 5, 20253 min read

The upcoming release listing for The Remarkable Truths of Alfie Bains by Sarah Clutton compared it to Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and so I BEGGED for a copy. Well, I politely requested one and my wish was granted. But, it offered even more than Eleanor because a significant part of the book is written from the point-of-view of almost ten-year old Alfie and I ADORE books written from a kid’s pov. This reverence kicked off with Room, then almost everything by Favel Parrett and Trent Dalton, not to mention Eye of the Sheep, Be Frank With Me, Allegra in Three Parts, The Family String, Lost & Found, and the list goes on. In fact I have a half-written post about books written from children’s povs and I should resurrect it.

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Book review: Broke Road by Matthew Spencer

April 3, 20252 min read

I very much enjoyed Broke Road by Matthew Spencer though must confess I remembered little detail from the first book of the series, Black River, published in 2022. I really liked our lead, Rose Riley—a detective who seems to be a roaming homicide squad detective—here partnered with Priya Patel and on the trail of a killer. I did remember Adam Bowman quite well, who described himself [in the first book] as a mediocre journalist whose career was going nowhere fast. The case in Black River was quite personal as it took him back to his hometown where his brother had died and family fallen apart years earlier. When he reappears here he’s found some fame and fortune from a true crime book based on Riley’s investigation.

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Book review: The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins

March 6, 20252 min read

The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins is the first book I’ve read by the Aussie author as I missed her 2023 book, How to Kill a Client. It looks like it’s similarly themed… featuring lawyers and some rather unlikeable (and misogynistic) characters. And I really enjoyed this, racing through it – forced to keep guessing until the very end. Jenkins throws a lot of threads in here, but does it brilliantly so it’s not overly complicated, but sufficiently complex to keep readers* on their toes. (*Cannot think of book-themed metaphor!)

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