Reviewed by Cels Jansink

“Russian spies are on the streets of London- and they are prepared to kill….”

MI5 intelligence officer Liz Carlyle finds herself in a race against the clock after learning of a plot to assassinate a  super-rich Russian ex-pat now residing in London. Nikita Brunovsky is one of the high profile critics of the Putin regime and although the details of how he is to be silenced is unclear, the Foreign Office is determined no incident shall happen on British soil and Liz is tasked with his protection. After going undercover, Liz learns that an “illegal” Russian agent has arrived. Could this be the assassin she seeks or is the plot thicker than first imagined?  Embroiled in the high-octane world of the oligarchs, Liz soon finds herself in deep danger……………

There is something refreshing about delving into the world of cloak and daggers with all the thrills and spills reminiscent of a James Bond adventure and being gifted with an incredible smart and sassy female lead. Liz is engaging right from the very beginning and it was on her strength of character alone that I made my way through the often confusing first few chapters to truly find my feet in the story.  That has to be my only gripe about the whole novel.  We enter a complex and finely tuned world that if it is your first foray into the author’s imagination as it was for me, you can be left a little lost until the main players and strategies are firmly implanted into your mind.  That being said though this did grip me from the very beginning and I was determined to find out just what was going on and who was behind it and I’m so glad I persevered through the initial confusion. This was my first time reading a spy adventure and I will definitely be back.

Stella Rimington certainly knows her stuff and it shows.  Not only is she highly gifted at her craft, her background as the former Director General of MI5 (and the first female DG) certainly cements her world with an authentic ring. The intrigue is thick and entwined in so many engrossing layers; it will keep you guessing right to the very end. The characterisation is superb on both sides and the quick stepping and double dealings will leave you wondering just what side you want to remain on. This certainly reminds us that a woman can run with the big boys and often leave them lagging a circle or too behind.

So if you’re ready to test your wits against the biggest players in the spy game, tag a ride-along with Liz.  This is one heck of a journey you won’t forget and will leave even the most die-hard spy fan wondering, Bond who?

Illegal Action- Stella Rimington

Arrow Books

ISBN:978-0-0995-0213-5

394 Pages

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Reviewed by Cels Jansink

Tony Cavanaugh has lent his talent for words to some of the biggest shows to grace our screens over the last thirty years. Now he has crossed mediums and transferred his gift to the world of novels with his debut “Promise”.

Darian Richards earned a name for himself as one of the best homicide detectives the Victorian Police force had produced, spending sixteen years at the department’s helm.  He’s chased down one too many monsters and made one too many empty promises to victims’ families and has reached his breaking point. Hanging up his badge and his gun, Darian retires to Noosa hoping that a paradise setting could see him leave his nightmares far behind. But paradise has its own monsters lurking in the brilliant sunshine. A serial killer has made the Sunshine Coast his playground and young girls are disappearing. Darian knows the girls are all dead, even if the local cops keep listing them as missing. This killer knows how to hunt and hide in plain sight.  Darian is also well-versed on the game of cat and mouse and determined to see the killer get his just desserts- that’s a promise.

“Promise” is a gritty and a strong offering to the Australian crime scene. The author’s voice is strong and undeniably unique and the crime crafted with careful planning to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat most of the way. The plot flows like liquid and there are just enough “shades of grey” to stretch your convictions without the central case becoming derailed.

As much as I enjoyed the thrill ride of the chase, the glimpses into our mad man’s head and the detailed yet-not-overly-gruesome look at his misdeeds –  I had a fairly major disconnect with our lead. He is an ex-copper trying to lay low and shake the darkness that has clung to him, and kudos to the author for delivering a realistic “anti-hero”. I just couldn’t invest in him. Darian is aloof and cold and there is never a moment where you feel like the character lets you in.

Personally, to truly engage in a story I need a connection with the main character/s, especially in the early pages before the action and intrigue heat up.  In saying that though, the cast of secondaries did go some way to alleviating my frustration with Darian. In particular the character of Maria was a standout for me.

Overall, Cavanaugh has an obvious gift for the macabre and could become a strong voice in the genre; I’d certainly give Darian and team another go.

Promise- Tony Cavanaugh

327 Pages

Hachette

ISBN:978-0-7336-2847-4

26^th April 2012

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Reviewed by Belinda Hamilton

I have to admit, when I saw the quote on the cover from the Australian Women’s Weekly, talking about how Bronwyn Parry’s books are ‘thriller romance vividly set in the NSW outback’, I rolled my eyes. (Picnic at Hanging Rock anyone?) So my expectations were to have colonial tunes and square dance sequences frequenting the pages, because that is the limit of my knowledge of the NSW outback.

I’m also not afraid to admit when I’ve been stupidly selling someone short.

Jo, the new park ranger in an outback community, finds the gruesome remains of and unknown man whilst cleaning up a trashed a camp site. Nick is the new detective, and when the case turns into something bigger than the small town can handle, all hell breaks loose. Can Nick crack the case before anyone else turns up dead, and who is the mystery man on the motorcycle?

Bronwyn writes an intelligent mystery, with high levels of intrigue to keep you towing the line until there is no more line to follow and you’re left looking for the next chapter. Her research (in my layman mind) has been thorough, and she has done her sources proud in the way she uses their information to enhance and build suspense, rather than writing a dry tasteless research paper with a pretty cover.

Her characters are genuine gold. You can see Jo in the eyes of every woman who knows the land, and you’d want Nick to help save your life any day of the week. They feel real; practically sprinting out of the pages at you as you read.

The New South Wales outback is somewhere I have never been, so the description helped bring to life the beauty and the danger involved with such a harsh unforgiving environment. Knowing the land can save your life, and living in remote communities is really unlike living anywhere else.  Being self-reliant is key. Only the strongest and the smartest survive.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go look for Bronwyn’s other books,  As Darkness Falls and Dark Country, so I can devour them as thoroughly as I did Dead Heat.

Oh, and here’s links to the Queensland and New South Wales Rural Fire Service. They can always use some support.

http://www.ruralfire.qld.gov.au/

http://www.rfs.nsw.gov.au/

Paperback, 352 pages

Published March 27th 2012 by Hachette Australia

ISBN139780733625497

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Reviewed by Krista Mckeeth

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters. While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo.

Royal Street (Sentinels of New Orleans #1)

Paperback, 336 pages Expected publication: April 10th 2012 by Tor Books ISBN 0765327791 (ISBN13: 9780765327796)

I love the fact that this story had everything I was looking for in it. From the description and the cover I knew what to expect and it lived up to every bit of the hype. The author does a great job informing the readers about the events that occurred during Hurricane Katrina, and the characters have to work around this catastrophe to solve their own mystery. Hurricane Katrina and the resulting events could be considered a character in itself. A well-handled  way of introducing a real-life event into a great urban fantasy storyline.

After our MC Drusilla has left the New Orleans area because of the hurricane warning, she finds out that her boss and father figure Gerry has gone missing. She is asked by the Elders to return to the area and investigate, upon her return she discovers that the Hurricane has not only opened the levees around the city, flooding the city, but the doors to the otherworld have also opened and released the preternatural beings that have been banished there. As DJ is just getting started in her investigation and trying yet again to get out of the groping hands of the 200  year old undead pirate Jean Lafitte, her newly appointed partner shows up. A partner she had no idea was coming, or felt she needed.
Their investigation takes them around the city finding clues that may lead to what happened to Gerry. A combination of entertaining and dangerous characters that reveal clues that this could be a mystery beyond finding Gerry, but some of the beings that were released just may be planning something bigger.

With a combination of otherworldly characters (like famous ghosts finding their way back home) to the soldiers and the every day people trying to clean up after the storm. To the run-in with some very powerful voodoo magic. I’m not sure what else I could have asked for, humor, with light romance and a mystery that goes beyond just a missing persons case with entertaining and humorous situations and a twist ending.

I love stories that involve a combination of different characters and possibilities of which direction the story can go. This opens up the series to have a variety of directions it can go in the future in both the magical world and the mundane. DJ is just touching on some of her magical powers and has a potential in becoming a beloved heroine in today’s  Urban Fantasy world. She is strong, determined, and loyal.

Royal Street is a must read debut novel, it can only get better from here.

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Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute- Maggie Groff
Reviewed by: Cecilia Jansink

A secretive American cult has opened up operations on the Gold Coast and freelance journalist Scout Davis is determined to shine a light on their lunatic beliefs and criminal behaviour. While unearthing the skeletons hiding in the cult leader’s closet, Scout uncovers the identity of one of the recent recruits which soon adds a personal and far more dangerous aspect to her investigations. Of course like all those who can’t help but step into the action once the investigate antennae starts receiving; this isn’t the only case Scout finds herself embroiled in. Someone has been cutting up girls’ underwear at the exclusive school her sister Harper teaches at and a new male teacher is the prime suspect. The true sinister secret behind the vandalism may just blow even Scout’s mind. Throw in a hot new love interest, absentee boyfriend, family capers and her own less than law-abiding nocturnal activities and Scout’s life just got a little bit livelier.

For those of you who love to settle in with a crime novel a little lighter and a whole lot of fun, Scout could soon be your new best friend. Fast paced and full of a cast of delightfully colourful characters and bizarre secrets to have you holding an investigation all of your own- this debut work of fiction from Maggie Groff is just pure gold.

You will find yourself alternating between giggling like a schoolgirl, drooling at the luscious new squeeze in her life and sitting on the edge of your seat as Scout sweeps you up in a case that is often so twisted you won’t believe your eyes.  All of us at one time or another have read or seen something about the often devilish dealings of cults and the fictional one we enter here rings with an authenticity that shows the authors obvious research and compassion for those who have been impacted by those in control. Our main baddie in this case for me was a delight of character development and sinister motives and although Scout certainly shines as the star of the show and makes me want to be just like her when I finally grow up, he will perhaps continue to haunt me for a time to come.

Groff has managed to combine both lightness and a seedier side with astounding results that contains enough high drama to get the adrenaline pumping yet has the giggles bubbling just below the surface.  This will appeal to fans of Evanovich, Delacourt and Strohmeyer but could also hold the magic formula to entice hard core crime fans over to the “lighter” side. An astounding fun read and I certainly can’t wait to see what capers Scout finds herself in next.

Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute-Maggie Groff

Pan Macmillan

357 Pages

ISBN:9781742610795

Publication date: March 1^st 2012

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