Category Archives: Helen Fitzgerald (Aus)

Aussie Authors Update #4

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My reviews of Aussie crime fiction are published exclusively at my other blog, Fair Dinkum Crime, which I co-host with fellow Australian blogger and crime fiction fan Kerrie of Mysteries in Paradise. But I like to do an occasional wrap-up of my Aussie crime fiction reads here at Reactions to Reading

THE DIGGERS REST HOTEL by Geoffrey McGeachin

Synopsis: It’s two years since the end of the second World War and Charlie Berlin has returned to Australia, having been a bomber pilot in Europe then a POW in Poland, and is still haunted by things he saw and did. Upon returning to work as a Detective Constable in Melbourne he is sent to rural Victoria, on the border with New South Wales, to investigate a spate of armed robberies, the latest of which resulted in a paymaster being badly injured. He arrives in town to be greeted by a young constable, Rob Roberts, who will drive him around (and report back to the local Sergeant who is not entirely happy to have someone from the city on his turf) and the two form a complementary team of investigators with Charlie supplying the experience and Roberts providing the local knowledge.

Review summary: The historical aspects of the novel are extremely well done; feeling authentic through the use of interesting details but not overblown with evidence of the author’s research. McGeachin has done a first rate job in the crowded space of fiction dealing with the horrors of returning from war, capturing both the universal truths that are associated with the experiences and the peculiarly Australian, somewhat laconic way of dealing with the nightmares and other repercussions. The characters are nicely drawn and the crime solving is subtle but believable, hinging on Charlie’s methods of getting to know the place and its people so that the culprit will virtually reveal themselves.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime, My rating 4/5 Since I posted this review The Diggers Rest Hotel was awarded the 2011 Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction

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THE WONDER OF SELDOM SEEN by J D Cregan

Synopsis: Tells the story of Miles Jordan, a Melbourne-based author who wrote an award-winning book some years earlier but has been unable to recreate his success. Now his marriage is over and he’s broke so Miles is leaving Melbourne, in his beat-up old car and with his trusty dog Roley by his side, for a new life. He doesn’t get too far before he is offered a job and a roof over his head at a Lakes Entrance caravan park. There he enters into an ill-advised affair with the park owner’s wife and when that scenario looks like it could be dangerous for both of them Miles again moves on, this time ending up in the tiny village of Seldom Seen in Victoria’s high country. While Miles starts to settle in his new surroundings he doesn’t know that he has become a suspect in a murder that took place back in Lakes Entrance but his past does end up catching up with him.

Review Summary: The book mixes up the sub genres and is not a slave to the conventions of any. It has a very strong sense of place, a collection of local characters believably drawn and I enjoyed the book’s mixture of light hearted whimsy and dramatic moments.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime 3/5 stars.

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RIP OFF by Kel Robertson

Synopsis: The third book to feature fifth generation Chinese-Australian policeman Brad Chen. As the novel opens Chen is due to return to his job with the Australian Federal Police (AFP) after being on extended leave but he is called into service a few days early when a bizarre series of killings occurs across the country. In Perth then Adelaide several people are murdered in a similar fashion and their connection seems to be the fact that they had something to do with a large-scale financial fraud which left many ‘mum and dad’ investors penniless.

Review Summary:  I now know just enough about Brad Chen to want to go back and learn about his earlier cases. As well as being a wholly believable character he’s also an interesting mix of traits, having played footy at the highest level and now completing his PhD thesis and being one of the most dedicated house cleaners I’ve ever read about. I love the way Robertson depicts Chen dealing with the racism he encounters too. I recommend RIP OFF widely, especially if you’re after a ripper tale, like a laugh or love to revel in the joy of a beautifully constructed sentence.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime. 4/5 stars

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THE OTTOMAN MOTEL by Christopher Currie

Synopsis: Simon Sawyer is 11 years old when he and his parents travel to Reception, a small town on the east coast of Australia, to visit Simon’s grandmother who the family have been estranged from for some years. On the advice of one of the locals Simon’s parents decide to do some sightseeing before their visit to grandma and Simon stays at their motel by himself. He dozes off when he wakes at 10:00pm that night he realises his parents have not returned and he soon learns that no one has seen them since the afternoon. He is taken in by a widowed B&B owner who has an odd collection of family and guests.

Review summary: There’s a real sinister mood to the novel as readers are introduced to a succession of gloomy characters such as the ageing and secretive crab fisherman, the guilt-ridden policewoman, the widowed B&B owner and his peculiar children. Simon is believably drawn, capturing the mixture of burgeoning independence and fear at possibly being all alone in the world quite beautifully. A solid debut novel and will be keen to read more from its young author.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime 3.5/5 stars

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THE DONOR by Helen Fitzgerald

Synopsis: The Donor has a simple, though hideous, premise. Will Marion’s twin teenage daughters, Georgie and Kay, both develop a rare genetically inherited kidney disease. They will die without each having a transplant and Will is desperate for a solution but what is the right one? Should he find their mother? Try his parents? Donate one of his own kidneys? But to which daughter? How far would a man go to save his children?

Review Summary: I read the book in a single afternoon which is due in equal parts to its short (at least these days) length of around 60,000 words and the compelling nature of the story. The very ordinariness of the people and their situation is easy (and therefore terrifying) to identify with and you can’t help but turn one more page to find out what will happen.  The presence of a vaguely surreal sense of humour throughout saves the book from being anywhere near the maudlin, ‘misery-lit’ category so popular in some literary circles.

The full review is at Fair Dinkum Crime 4/5 stars

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Aussie Authors Update #1
Aussie Authors Update #2
Aussie Authors Update #3

Books of the Month – September 2011

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After a bit of a slump during August I seemed to find my reading mojo again in September, getting through a reasonable number of books and, more importantly, finding many of them to be outstanding.

In the end I gave my book of the month award to a haunting African tale that I read at the start of September because I simply cannot get its story of the evil motivation for the death of a young girl out of my mind. Unity Dow‘s The Screaming of the Innocent  is set in the author’s native Botswana and tells a harrowing tale about a young girl who goes missing, the men who are responsible and the ease with which they engineer a cover up of their actions. It is emotionally harrowing (the ending particularly so) but not gratuitously so and it has flashes of beauty, bravery and humour amongst the sadness.

Other recommended reads from the month are:

Gianrico Carofiglio‘s A Walk in the Dark which tells the tale of an Italian lawyer who takes on the case of a battered woman who no one else will help because her ex-boyfriend is the son of a judge is a marvellous read. It makes me happy to think that my delay in finding this wonderful author means there are already several more books by him ready and waiting just for me. 4.5 stars

Detective Inspector Huss by Helen Tursten was one of the great Swedish novels I read in the month. Göteburg police investigate the death of a wealthy businessman in a superb example of the socially aware police procedural. Some of the story tangents and dead ends were as interesting as the main event and the characters are excellent. 4.5 stars.

Fool’s Republic by Gordon W. Dale tells the story of a man incarcerated and tortured as part of the ‘war on terror’. I was impressed with the understated way the author tackled this difficult subject, eschewing the temptation for overt preaching or simplification of the issues. I didn’t think the first person narrative was quite as successful but overall an entertaining and thought-provoking novel. 3 stars.

Misterioso by Arne Dahl is one of 3 books set in Sweden I read this month and while I found it a bit awkward to get into I did enjoy it overall. Having read them so close together I couldn’t help but compare this debut police procedural with Tursten’s (above) and I did not think this one quite as well plotted but still a very engaging story about a series of murders of high-profile business men. 3.5 stars

Sister by Rosamund Lupton would probably have been better off if it hadn’t been shoe-horned into the whodunnit genre as the parts of the book that work superbly are the depictions of two fragile familial relationships (two sisters and a mother and daughter) and a delicately painted portrait of grief. Frankly the crime-y bits of the story were clunky. 3.5 stars.

The Donor by Helen Fitzgerald tackles the hideous premise of a father with twin daughters both needing life-saving kidney transplants with deliciously dark humour to ensure the book doesn’t fall into the misery-lit category that one-line synopsis could otherwise suggest. 4 stars.

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney is a novel about a gypsy family and the man hired to find out what happened to one of their members. One of two narrators is a 14 year old gypsy lad known as JJ and he the star of this thoughtful novel (though mainstream reviews would suggest I am in the minority as someone who liked the book). 4 stars.

The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn wasn’t quite as good as O’Flynn’s first novel which I fell in love with earlier this year but only because that book was something extra special. I still thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a melancholic English newsreader who starts to worry about the death of an old friend. A treatise on the downside of valuing looks over substance if ever there was one. 4.5 stars.

The Ottoman Hotel is a debut novel by Christopher Currie and is set in a small Australian town. It tells the story of a young boy whose parents disappear while they are all on holidays and its evocative writing style made for a quick, engaging and nicely unpredictable read. 3.5 stars.

Until Thy Wrath Be Past is the latest instalment of the Rebecka Martinsson series by Asa Larsson. Rebecka becomes involved in the investigation of the death of a young girl whose body is found a long way from where she died and the case turns out to be connected to events from many years earlier. 4.5 stars.

Whispering Death by Garry Disher is one of the most cleverly constructed novels I’ve read in a very long time and has well developed characters and a gentle undertone of social commentary to book. There are far too many story threads to them justice in a brief summary; you’ll just have to read the book. 4.5 stars.

The meh reads for this month were:

Ian Rankin‘s The Complaints (I know, I know I’m the only one who doesn’t ‘get’ Rankin) and Nigel McCrery‘s Scream (gratuitous gore).

I also listened to Dick Francis‘ Second Wind narrated by the always brilliant Tony Britton and while not a meh book in the sense I usually mean it, I do find it hard to come up with something new to say about the 40+ Francis novels which are all, essentially, the same.

Other happenings at the blog

I celebrated a year of eBook reading which has been a mostly positive experience aside from the appalling customer service received from the Sony corporation and the fact that the ever-present geographic restrictions are more of a problem in the eBook world than with physical books. I am however still hopeful of having virtually no physical books at all to read (and worry about finding homes for afterwards) within four years.

I continued to celebrate women crime writers for #SinC25, this time focusing on those who write historical crime fiction which features strong female characters. I propose it’s easy to understand the temptation to write such books given that in much factual history the role of women is often ignored.

a last word…

I’m going to pick up a couple of physical books next week, both new titles by Australian authors. One is the sixth novel in Kerry Greenwood’s fun Corrina Chapman series and the other is the debut novel by Y A Erskine. Australian publishers generally charge the same for eBooks as they do for the equivalent physical books which in one of these cases is $33...an amount I simply refuse to pay for something I don’t really own. I do wish these people would wake up but until they do I’ll borrow most of my Aussie reads from the library (think of the lost sales) and pick up a handful on special or using vouchers.

What about you…was September a good reading month? Did you have a favourite book? Or did you acquire anything you’re itching to read? Any issue you need to get off your chest?

Sunday Salon: What to read first (a revised Dartmoor Dozen)

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Last week I wrote about being unable to meet Uriah Robinson’s challenge of putting together a list of books in these categories as a reading list for someone new to this genre. I was told by more than one person that I was missing out on a golden opportunity to recruit new people to the crime fiction cult fold and, when Uriah created a new, more varied list, I decided I’d give it a go in the interests of spreading the word to the uninitiated. And so, my recommendations to you, the novice crime reader.

1] The Origins:

Naturally enough it’s all my mother’s fault. My obsession with crime fiction that is. She has admitted to reading her favourite writer, Edgar Allan Poe, to her children as babies. She started with the poetry but soon moved on to the darker prose. She could be forgiven for thinking that 6 month old me wouldn’t understand anything but her tone of voice but something must have seeped into my teeny developing brain because as soon as I could choose my own books I was reading mysteries. And I’ve never stopped. In honour of my mum then I would have to recommend you pick up a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination and read the two stories featuring the adventures of Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin, probably the world’s first detective and definitely a direct ancestor of Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Or, as it’s freely (and legally) available on the web you could get started on The Murders at the Rue Morgue right now.

2] The Age of Sherlock Holmes:

I’d just turned 20 when I moved to Sydney to take up my first ‘real’ job after leaving Uni with a fascinating but almost useless politics degree and the clothes on my back. The place I moved to had a pretty woeful library (countless rotating stands full of Mills & Boon books and two shelves of mechanical manuals for Holden cars) and my budget didn’t run to buying a lot of books. I scoured second hand shops though and discovered a set of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and I read the lot, cover to cover, several times over that year. The Adventure of the Final Problem is my favourite Holmesian adventure though only by a bee’s whisker from almost everything else. It’s quite fascinating to trace back many of the character traits today’s fictional detectives display, including arrogance (albeit justified), above average intelligence and a predilection for self-destructive behaviour, to Holmes.

ngaio-marsh3] The Golden Age:

In Australia it’s fairly common practice to appropriate all the good things that come out of New Zealand as ‘ours’ so here I will recommend a novel by New Zealand author (Edith) Ngaio Marsh. First published in 1935 The Nursing Home Murder was the third of 32 novels featuring British police detective Roderick Alleyn and on the surface it’s a standard police procedural about the death threats being made against a leading British politician. Like much of Marsh’s work though it has a serious undercurrent and tackles the weightiest political issue of the time namely the rule of what was then called Palestine by Britain. Even today it is illuminating and as a bonus Marsh wrote superbly.

4] Hardboiled:

Without question this is my least favourite of the sub-genres. I’ve read a few over the years but can’t recall being engaged by a single one. All the things that define the genre: the sex and violence, the focus on plot over character development, the kind of first person narrative many of them use, leave me cold. To top it off I generally find them pretty misogynistic and although I can accept they were a product of a different time there’s not enough incentive for me to forgive that. If forced at gunpoint I’d recommend Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon as the ultimate example of the genre but I find it difficult to recommend something I didn’t enjoy.

5] The Police Procedural:

In contrast to the previous category this is one I adore. I have read avidly and compared techniques of fictional police investigators all across the US, the UK, Europe, and parts of Africa. Of late I’ve been discovering my own country’s rich offerings in this arena too and therefore will recommend Peter Temple’s The Broken Shore. It’s a dark, sometimes funny, tale of the investigation into the death of a local businessman in a rural Victorian town. It’s a very Australian story and although when I first read it I lamented its grimness it has stuck with me long after many other books have been forgotten. It also features some of the clearest, most concise writing you’ll see in the genre.

6] Detectives [police, forensic and private]:kathryn-fox1

Another category where I am spoiled for choice. However I’ll continue to highlight Australian talent and recommend Kathryn Fox‘s Without Consent which features forensic doctor Anya Crichton who helps police investigate a series of brutal rapes which may, or may not, have been committed by a man recently released from prison after serving 20 years for rape and murder. I was delighted when I first read this book because it reminded me of the early Patricia Cornwell novels (the ones that actually made sense and had a credible plot). Crichton is a fabulously believable character with no super human powers and the book has a real humanity too in the way it tackles the issue of rape and its affect on its victims.

7] Psychological suspense:

Don’t tell anyone but I’m not much of a fan of Barbara Vine novels. I know it’ll probably get me thrown out of the crime fiction fan club (or at least earn myself a few demerit points) but of those I’ve read I’ve found most of them dull and ponderous. For that reason I have tended not to read other novels in this genre but one I can happily recommend is Dead Lovely by Helen Fitzgerald (another Australian author although she lives in Scotland now). On the very first page of Dead Lovely we’re told that Krissie has killed Sarah, her best friend since they were four. The book then looks retrospectively at how the friends’ relationship deteriorates from ‘best friends’ status and also at the aftermath of the killing. The book’s chapters are short and sharp and Fitzgerald does a great job of differentiating between the voices of her very believable characters, especially Krissie who is struggling with the responsibilities and feelings she experiences as a new mum.

8] Caper and comic crime fiction:

I have written before about the elusive nature of comedy in fiction. I’ve lost count of the number brand new Janet Evanovich books I’ve given away unread because people keep giving them to me as gifts. They’re not funny (to me) and I wish people wouldn’t make assumptions. It’s probably not quite a match for this category but I’m nominating Ian Sansom’s The Case of the Missing Books anyway. It features the world’s most reluctant mobile librarian, Israel Armstrong, whose trials and tribulations while recovering the lost books of the Tumdrum and District Public Library (Northern Ireland) were, for me at least, genuinely laugh out loud funny. And it’s the only book on this list in which no one dies so it’ll suit the weak-stomached reader.

elizabeth-peters9] Historical crime fiction:

Here I can’t go past Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody books which combine several of my favourite things in fiction: a strong female character, humour and Egyptology (I dreamt of being an archaeologist as a child). The series is still going today but I think for this series you have to start with the first book, Crocodile on the Sandbank. It’s 1884 and our heroine, Amelia Peabody, travels to Egypt for the first time meets the man who will become her husband and solves her first archaeological mystery. It’s a rollicking, old-fashioned puzzle with loads of suspense, fantastic characters and a whole lot of heart.

10] Thrillers:

Mostly, for me, this category is my ‘summer/airplane’ reading: fast, fun and a bit forgettable. They generally don’t have the memorable characters that take a book from good to great on my scale but, on the flip-side, the genre has some of the best story tellers in all of fictiondom. To introduce a newbie to the genre I’d recommend Airframe by Michael Crichton. Actually I’d recommend almost anything by Crichton but this one in particular because it takes such a mundane subject and makes a thoroughly entertaining, edge-of-your-seat story out of it. I’m sure it takes skill to make thrilling stories out of international espionage or ancient curses but to make one out of aircraft design and maintenance demonstrates another level of genius all together. It shows, as always, his skill in turning extensive research into entertainment and my only caveat would be to suggest nervous travellers choose something else to read on their next flight.

11] Crime fiction in translation:

I’m sad that the rest of my list is entirely populated by books written originally in English but in my defence I’ve only been actively seeking out the translated stuff for about a year. Until then I relied on my local library for advice and, frankly, they stick pretty much to the mainstream. However it’s hard to pick just one of of all the marvellous translated books I’ve read in the past 12 months but I am going to choose something I only read this month. Fred Vargas’ The Three Evangelists is a truly marvellous book (here’s my review) and, I think, a particularly good pick for people new to the genre as it has a fairly literary feel to it.

12] The Wild Card category:asa-larsson

Here I’ll stick with the translated fiction and recommend Asa Larsson’s The Savage Altar (published as The Sun Storm in the US). It was the first Scandinavian crime fiction I read and I think it encapsulates the best of the standard procedural while successfully moving the genre to a modern setting. If you haven’t read translated fiction it’s an excellent place to start because it evokes a wonderful sense of its unfamiliar (to me) Swedish setting yet there are familiar plot devices such as the investigative techniques used by the police so you don’t feel completely like a fish out of water. And the characters are wonderful.

And then…?

There are many, many books I couldn’t squeeze into the above categories. Where does the amateur sleuth/cosy fit for example? It’s an enormously popular sub-genre and one I dabble with on occasion. And none of my Dick Francis favourites seemed to fit either although he’s just about written enough for a genre all of his own. And in most categories I have a lot of equally good suggestions as the book I chose. However I’ve decided not to be too concerned about the books not listed as I’m confident that once my target reader has sampled what the genre has to offer via these recommendations they’ll be in touch for the names of the several hundred other books on my shortlist for this challenge.

Other people who’ve met Uriah’s Challenge

Bibliophile at (Another) 52 Books

Feel free to leave a link if you also have met Uriah’s challenge