6/24/26 • 2 min read
I so wanted to ‘like’ EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE by Peter May but, in the end, this one was a little too staged, with sluggish pacing. Moments that could have and should have been tense, and dramatic, were lost amid the travelogue descriptions that sucked up more than their fair share of page length. It’s all very well to set the scene, but quite another to go on and on with too much incidental detail, that it becomes tedious.
6/8/26 • 3 min read
This debut novel from the imaginative and decidedly twisted mind of S J Bennett is one of the best reads I’ve had this year, and that’s saying something given the quality of reads I’ve had of late. But what Bennett has done is capture the essence of Her Majesty, QEII, and turned her into a veritable royal Miss Marple in this lovely homage to Agatha Christie. Our much beloved sovereign is on top form in THE WIDSOR KNOT, sleuthing her way quietly through her ninetieth birthday celebrations, at Windsor Castle, during the spring of 2016.
6/7/26 • 2 min read
Inspector Ashwin Chopra (Retd) a former member of the Mumbai police, is now one of my favourite characters. In this second installment of the Baby Ganesh series, we find Chopra settling into retirement as a private investigator, working out of an office in his new digs, a restaurant named after his wife, Poppy. This wonderful gem of a story fairly zips along at a motorised rickshaw pace, combining a number of threads that both delight and amused.
6/6/26 • 2 min read
There are, I am sure, plenty of well written books that I have yet to read, but until I discover them THE SILENCED by Anders de la Motte has to be one of the best plotted novels I’ve ever read. Certainly up there with the best of them. Showing a depth and skill mastered by few, de la Motte has woven together a deeply compelling story as seen from a handful of characters.
6/5/26 • 3 min read
I can’t go on. I mean it, I simply cannot go on … reading this book. This is one long monotonous boring read. It’s the equivalent of a long straight driveway covered in grey chippings. This endless ribbon of uniform grey that stretches off into the distance, hard and uneven under foot, unyielding in form or feature. That’s how reading THE SILENT GIRLS feels. There’s a total lack of any emotional depth to the characters, and while the author tells us a great deal about the main protagonists past, we know nothing about him.
6/4/26 • 2 min read
The one thing you can be certain of when reading a Steve Cavanagh, Eddie Flynn novel, is great plotting. Always cleverly twisted with plenty of red herrings, mis-directs, and side-bars to make you wonder where the plot’s heading next. And so it is with THE LIAR the third in the Eddie Flynn series of legal thrillers. Throw in a great, well delineated set of characters with their own idiosyncratic tics, and you have the perfect delivery vehicles for said twisted plot.
6/1/26 • 3 min read
The central focus of this novel is the character of Flavia de Luce, the 11 year-old phenom who narrates and carries the entire weight of this suspense-mystery novel. And she does it admirably, or, I should say, the author has created a character so well defined, so well fleshed out, with an array of quirks and foibles that, as a character, gives her such great depth. Quite something for a middle-aged male author to achieve.
5/31/26 • 3 min read
Jane Harper has done it again. She has captured lightning in a bottle not once, but twice. With FORCE OF NATURE she has crafted a second beguiling novel, with a tapestry of threads that crisscross throughout the story weaving a masterpiece of misdirection till the final reveal. A surprise, I for one, never saw coming. The clever red herrings, the subtle misdirects, she does it all to perfection. You think you know what’s going on?
5/30/26 • 2 min read
Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto is an absolute blast of fun-filled, darkly twisted humour. And don’t get me started on the complicated family dynamics, which adds not only more humour but also a great deal of depth to this over-the-top family caper that’s worthy of it’s own sitcom. Truly, Sutanto nails the archetypes of Ah Mas and Ah Yis perfectly, so much so I was nodding my head knowingly and grinning like an idiot.
5/29/26 • 3 min read
This is the second book in the Caleb Zelic series and, like Resurrection Bay, is relentless in its pacing as Caleb once again is trust into the centre of a murder mystery. Continuing a few months on from the aftermath of events that took place in book one, Caleb, beset by nightmares, is barely making a go of it and struggling physically and mentally. When, out for a run, he’s approached by a homeless man and given a cryptic note asking for help.
5/23/26 • 3 min read
First of all, let me just begin by saying this debut novel by Aussie author, Emma Viskic, is outstanding. Truly a remarkable novel on just about every level. It’s not long, at just 280 pages, so I read this in one frantic, page-turning day! Let’s start with the well crafted, well delineated characters. I love Caleb Zelic who narrates the story. He’s such a great down-to-earth character, feisty and oh so different from the usual MC in that he just happens to be deaf.
5/16/26 • 3 min read
Steve Cavanagh has done an outstanding job of writing a riveting thriller that grabs you from the opening line, right on through to last page. Setting a pace that makes you feel you can smell the burnt rubber from the Ninja road bikes in one chase scene that would give Steve McQueen a run for his money. THE DEFENCE is no ordinary, pedestrian courtroom drama, far from it. With a taut tight time frame mixing high-tension action with nail-biting moments where Eddie Flynn, our erstwhile hero, has to figure out his next move, or face the prospect that he might be the reason his daughter dies.