Simon & Schuster Australia Archives

Book review: The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis

September 17, 20262 min read

I received The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis for review a while ago and dived on in shortly after it arrived. It was only then I realised I’d not read the second in the series featuring Detective Antigone Pollard and the opening pages made it seem like I’d missed some juicy stuff. So I put it aside with the intention of getting hold of book two. I’d enjoyed book one and was reminded how much I liked Antigone the first time I was introduced… but then time passed and life happened (my mum broke her hip!) and all of my writing and reading disappeared into the ether. When I finally found time nothing else on my reading list tempted me, so I returned to Deception Bay despite having missed some of the more recent happenings.

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Book review: Find Me by Holly Craig

June 20, 20263 min read

Find Me by Holly Craig is a well-paced and action-packed read that goes beyond the thriller genre, digging into family relationships and roles we fall into… even into adulthood. Craig gives us three voices here: that of estranged sisters Hallie and Gertie who team up following their mother’s death for a last-ditch effort to find their brother Pete who disappeared in Tasmania three years earlier. We also offered another storyteller, one whose identity remains shut-off to us for much of the novel. We also hear from Pete through emails he sent home and (eventually) his journal.

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Book review: The Damned by Matt Rogers

June 17, 20262 min read

The Damned by Matt Rogers is the second in the series featuring former CIA assassin Logan Booth and I just need to say I bloody loved this book. Rogers again gives us a complex and fully formed (albeit slightly flawed) character in Logan along with ex-crack addict Alice (thankfully with new teeth, her old ones ruined by her habit)*. Here Logan travels to Columbia where a former lover has been (briefly) kidnapped. Unfortunately for him, her new boyfriend is connected to a cartel family which now has multiple reasons to hunt him down.

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Book review: Barren Cape by Michelle Prak

May 24, 20263 min read

I missed getting Barren Cape by Michelle Prak for review last year so am a latecomer to this, picking it up at my local second-hand bookstore. I read and enjoyed Prak’s 2023 novel The Rush and her second book sustains the sense of foreboding she instilled in her debut. This unfolds from several points of view and again Prak takes this in an unexpected and somewhat shocking direction. Prak also reflects on housing security and homelessness here and our female narrators also experience a sense of menace thanks to several men featured in the novel.

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Book review: The Forsaken by Matt Rogers

July 13, 20252 min read

I first heard of The Forsaken by Matt Rogers at BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival late last year when Rogers spoke on a panel. He’s not exactly a debut author as he’s had a successful self-published career before getting picked up by Simon and Schuster. I LOVE Gregg Hurwitz’s Orphan X series and I believe Rogers gives him a shout-out or hat-tip here by referencing his creation – the black ops government program using orphaned children. And Rogers’s lead Logan Booth is reminiscent of Orphan X (Evan Smoak) himself. There’s the brawn and fancy weaponry but also cunning street smarts.

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Book review: One Dark Night by Hannah Richell

January 5, 20252 min read

One Dark Night by Hannah Richell is the third book I’ve read by the UK-born (on-occasions Aussie-dwelling) author. I raved about her writing in her first book, The River Home, almost giving that a (rare, for me) 4.5 stars but felt some of the plot was a tad implausible. I said something similar in my review of The Search Party, Richell’s second book. Though in that book I’d struggled more with the sheer number of players involved. Anyone who regularly reads my reviews knows – for reasons unknown – I’m not great at retaining details of too many characters, unless I’ve spent quite a bit of time getting to know them. It’s not an issue in this book however. Although we’re introduced to a number of students, teachers and parents, I felt comfortable in the capable hands of our three key narrators (separated couple Rachel and Ben and and their teenage daughter Ellie).

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Book review: The Fog by Brooke Hardwick

September 16, 20243 min read

The Fog by Brooke Hardwick is cleverly-written and paced novel of intrigue and malice. When we meet Kate she’s enroute to her writers’ retreat – billed to unblock creativity and uncover buried secrets. Her husband’s not there with her she tells us, relaying the health of their marriage, relieved the pair aren’t forced to make excuses for the other – secure in their relationship. Things start to unravel very quickly however when Kate arrives at Rathlin Island and we learn her life isn’t as she’s told us. But more importantly not even as she remembers it. And that’s why she’s there. To unlock memories, no matter how distressing they may be.

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Book review: The Wrong Man by Tim Ayliffe

August 22, 20242 min read

The Wrong Man by Tim Ayliffe is the first book I’ve read by the Aussie author though I’ve followed him online for years and am well aware of his work. Though I used to be a fan of Len Deighton, John LeCarre, Robert Ludlam and David Morrell (whose books still grace my bookshelves even though I’ve not touched them in about 30 years) I find myself struggling with books about espionage, spies or warfare nowadays. My eyes tend to glaze over if I’m forced to read about political game-playing Eastern Europe, the Middle East or Eastern Asia (and now it seems we’re just cycling between them). However, when this arrived it sounded sufficiently crime-like so I dove on in.

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