Review: Billie King by Shannon Kelly-White

Synopsis: A blisteringly fast, fresh, funny and hugely entertaining novel of mothers, daughters and one gutsy wild colonial girl who gets caught up in Australia's last female bushranger's quest for revenge. Think Leah Purcell's The Drover's Wife meets Trent Dalton.1918: Australia's last bushranger, Dulcie James, holds up Anna King's falling-down farmhouse. There's a scrawny unloved infant on the floor, Anna seems more furious than frightened, and it's the bushranger who's left shaken. And the next day, Anna disappears.

Twelve years later, Anna's daughter, Billie King, is a girl ready to explode. With a missing mother, the rent in arrears and her alcoholic father's gambling debts to cover, she has no time for school. But when child services threaten to remove Billie from her father, she must decide between continuing her search for her missing mother and keeping what's left of her family together. If she fails to hold onto her father, she'll be taken away and placed in a children's home, but if she doesn't find her missing mother, who will?

~ ~ ~

To use an Aussie colloquialism - this is a ripper of a debut novel!

The story is told from the point of view of three women - Dulcie, Anna & Billie - as their stories are told and finally converge. This has everything a reader could want - the human element, triumph over adversity, strong female characters, spirit - courage - endurance - all set in post WWI Australia.

I read this in one sitting - the gut wrenching action played out across the pages, drawing me ever deeper into the narrative, until I was so invested in both characters and story, I could see no way but forward till the final pages played their last ace.

If you have read Leah Purcell's "The Drover's Wife" or even watched the film, you will adore this.

One of my top reads for the year! And one I am eager to revisit!

Review: Dogboy V Catfish by Luke Gracias

Synopsis: On the day of her second wedding, Katherine Fisher, aka 'Catfish' set the date for her divorce. In precisely 18 months, she would be entitled to half of their combined assets and receive maintenance payments until her five- year-old daughter, Emma, turns 18. Just as Catfish was about to take her husband, Lindsay 'Dogboy' Kramer (a successful businessman and dog whisperer) to the cleaners, he goes missing.

The police investigation into Dogboy's disappearance leads them into the dark world of counterfeit designer goods, money laundering, and drug smuggling. With Dogboy's assets frozen and the mob protecting their interests, the missing persons case escalates to homicide. Catfish is in a race against time to get hold of Dogboy's assets before the police get hold of her.

One question remains - is Dogboy dead or alive?

~ ~ ~

This is my "read" of the year!

Gracias' excellent narrative provides for an engaging and thrilling "whodunnit" when a former beauty queen marries a loner for his money and begins divorce proceedings before the ink has even dried on the marriage certificate. Unfortunately, said bride soon finds that everything she thought she was getting, quickly turns to dust and slips through her fingers as her sordid past comes back to bite her in the arse.

This is a departure from Gracias' other two books - but it is a strong stand-alone. I read this in one sitting - driven by the compulsion to keep reading and wanting to know the fate Dogboy. For someone to win, someone must lose - would it be Dogboy or Catfish?.

Review: Catch Us The Foxes by Nicola West

Synopsis: Some secrets you try to hide. Others you don’t dare let out … Twin Peaks meets The Dry in a deliciously dark and twisted tale that unravels a small town.

Ambitious young journalist Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson would do anything to escape the suffocating confines of her small home town. While begrudgingly covering the annual show for the local paper, Lo is horrified to discover the mutilated corpse of Lily Williams, the reigning showgirl and Lo’s best friend. Seven strange symbols have been ruthlessly carved into Lily’s back. But when Lo reports her grisly find to the town’s police chief, he makes her promise not to tell anyone about the symbols. Lo obliges, though it’s not like she has much of a choice – after all, he is also her father.

When Lily’s murder makes headlines around the country and the town is invaded by the media, Lo seizes the opportunity to track down the killer and make a name for herself by breaking the biggest story of her life.

What Lo uncovers is that her sleepy home town has been harbouring a deadly secret, one so shocking that it will captivate the entire nation. Lo’s story will change the course of her life forever, but in a way she could never have dreamed of.

I don't tend to wax lyrical about a book but in this case I will make a rare exception.

I am going to put this forward as one of my must read psychological thrillers for the year - right up there with two of my past favourites - Killing The Girl and The Creak on the Stairs.

I - and probably much to the angst of the publisher - recommend having a physical copy of this book as you will often find yourself moving backwards and forwards, thinking you have missed some little clue, as the author dangles much before you, only to snatch it away at the last moment.

This book is - to use a colloquialism - an onion. There are so many layers that the reader really does need to pay attention. The synopsis really does give the reader a slight inkling as to what to expect - but you are being deceived. And don't think that by skipping to the end you have the whole story - you don't! You will find yourself sucker punched a number of times before the ending is revealed.

In the words of our protagonist: " ...... I know better than anyone just how alluring a conspiracy theory could be ..... I had fallen for it's allure ... it was a better story than the truth ..." - but what is truth, what is conspiracy and what is delusion ....... well, I for one won't be revealing that!

All I will add, is someone had better snap up the film rights to this one rather quickly!

Kiama Visitor Guide 

Review: Dr Pimms, Intermillennial Sleuth Series by LJM owen

Canberra author LJM Owen says that after an itinerant childhood, 

She attended university in Canberra, then went on to work in several public service departments before landing a job as a librarian with the National Library of Australia. It was in the map room at the library Owen imagined the Dr Elizabeth Pimms character.

Owen discusses her books and her heroine, Dr Elizabeth Pimms in the Canberra Times:

The hero of Owen's Intermillennial Sleuth novels is Dr Elizabeth Pimms, a skilled archaeologist, knowledgeable Egyptologist and reluctant librarian at Canberra's fictional Mahony Griffin Library. Elizabeth's best friend describes her as curious, intellectual, tenacious and secretive.

From the age of four Elizabeth dedicated herself to the discovery of lost civilisations and ancient treasures. Young and a touch naïve, Elizabeth is aided in her investigations by the machinations of her phrenic library - and a growing sense that something is awry in the world.

Asked to reference the Dr Pimms series, Owen suggests it is a hybrid of Bones, the US TV crime procedural based on Kathy Reichs' Temperance Brennan novels, and the rural potboiler Midsomer Murders. 

"My PhD involved comparing the genetics of past human populations through the examination of dental remains. This expertise fed directly into my first novel, Olmec Obituary. The forensic science in all three Dr Pimms novels is based on firsthand experience or significant research."

Brief synopsis of the series so far:

Part one of the planned nine-book series is Olmec Obituary ...... is set in Canberra where Dr Elizabeth Pimms works while she unpicks the cause of mysterious deaths in ancient civilisations, and more contemporary crimes. The second book, Mayan Mendacity, sees Dr Pimms exploring the ancient world of Mayan politics, scribes and female rulers. Part three, Egyptian Enigma sees Dr Pimms on the hunt for the identity of a cache of mummies hidden in a Golden Tomb. There are female pharaohs, ancient grave robbers, modern cannibals, loads of skeletons, cats and cups of tea, she says.

So to my thoughts on each of the books in turn.

The Olmec Obituary

This is where it all begins - Elizabeth is forced to return home from an archaeological dig in Egypt due to a family crisis - and to say she's not happy about that would be an understatement. Here is where we get more of a sense of the character of Elizabeth - indulged, spoilt, emotional, petulant, sulky. Forced to take a job in a library (courtesy of family connections) does not help - she really wants to be out in the field. Then ... a chance to return to archaeology when the skeletal remains form a newly discovered Olmec burial are brought to Canberra. 

I liked the narrative between modern day Elizabeth and the Olmec Kingdom. I admit to knowing next to nothing about Olmec Civilization - and for readers like myself, here is a brief synopsis:

The mysterious Olmec civilization, located in ancient Mexico, prospered in Pre-Classical (Formative) Mesoamerica from c. 1200 BCE to c. 400 BCE and is generally considered the forerunner of all subsequent Mesoamerican cultures including the Maya and Aztecs. 

But one thing really stood out for me - I found it curious that Elizabeth, a self confessed Egyptologist, should be requested to work on Mesoamerican remains. I guess I naively assumed that most archaeologists would have a specialty field - and thus someone with more than a passing interest (and more qualified) would have been brought in. Anyway, Elizabeth soon comes into conflict with those around her.

Mayan Mendacity

The sub-setting for this mystery is the Mayan Empire during what is called the "classical period" 250-950 CE. This period was the height of the Maya civilization in which they perfected mathematics, astronomy, architecture and the visual arts and also refined and perfected the calendar. In Mayan belief, however, one did not die and go to a `heaven’ or a `hell’ but, rather, embarked on a journey toward Tamoanchan. This journey began in the dark and treacherous underworld of Xibalba and if one could navigate through Xibalba, then one could then find the way to ascend through the nine levels of the underworld, and the thirteen levels of the higher world, to paradise. The only ways in which a soul could by-pass Xibalba and travel instantly to Tamoanchan were through death in childbirth, as a sacrificial victim, in warfare, on the ball court, or by suicide.

Elizabeth is approached to do some research on the newly discovered skeletal remains from a newly discovered Mayan site in Guatemala by her boyfriend Luke, whom she has seen (in person) for nearly two years. Hang on a minute - what's he doing in Guatemala when he was supposed to be in Mexico, and why is he interviewing for jobs in America and not here closer to home? But that's not the only mystery that will confront Elizabeth - long hidden family secrets are about to be revealed (publicly).

I still find Elizabeth annoying with her constant need for approval and validation for everything she does; other than that, I am enjoying the mysteries.

Egyptian Enigma

On holiday in Cairo with New York chum Henry, Elizabeth is robbed of the journal she has been keeping of their visit - what possible value could it be to anyone?

Then we head back to Egypt of the 19th Dynasty, during the reign of Seti II and his Queen Twosret (Tausret), whose story is of one woman's struggle too hold the throne of Egypt. Her short reign ended in a civil war, which is documented in the Elephantine stela of her successor Setnakhte, founder of the Twentieth dynasty. It is not known if she was overthrown by Setnakhte or whether she died peacefully in her own reign. Joyce Tyldesley's "Chronicle of the Queens of Egypt" notes "A mummy found in KV35 and known as Unknown Woman D has been identified by some scholars as possibly belonging to Twosret, but there is no other evidence for this other than the correct Nineteenth Dynasty period of mummification."

This then would appear to be the back drop of Egyptian Enigma, the curious remains of an Egyptian Prince of the Golden Tomb, which finds Elizabeth and her group of friends doing their own investigations in an attempt to solve the mystery, whilst preparing her papers on her Olmec and Mayan investigations.

Mongolian Mayhem is believed to be the next book in the series - I would be very interested to see how the next six books pan out, and if Elizabeth manages to grow up!

Review: August Falling by Les Zig

For me, this was a quick read - the story of a man recovering from a bad relationship, who becomes infatuated by a mysterious woman with a tattoo in his local cafe. But as the author states, ".. this isn't a love story, it's a story of acceptance and hope. And of finding yourself." So when August (our narrator) finally overcomes some of his social awkwardness and plucks up the courage to talk to Julie, the tale picks up speed as we are taken through the heady days of a new relationship.

It's a light easy read - a narrative of two strangers, with secrets who embark on a new relationship together - but can those secrets in the past be overcome or will they hinder.

read more @ Goodreads and @ Les Zig

Review: The Scandalous Life of Sasha Torte

A novel of "revenge, redemption ... and pastry" by author, Leslie Truffle - who could resist?

Forsaken by her parents and raised by criminals and reprobates, Sasha becomes a world-famous pastry chef at the tender age of seventeen. Entanglement with the disreputable Dasher brothers leads to love, but also to a dangerous addiction.

Sasha is at once an heiress, murderess, and patissiere extraordinaire - she is both heroine and villain - a contradiction from start to finish.  From the warmth of her cell in Wolfftown Gaol, situated in the Tasmanian hinterland, 22yo Sasha regales the reader with tales of her life, her loves, her rise and her ultimate downfall that led to this rather comfortable incarceration awaiting the hangman's noose (1912).  

A slightly off-kilter tale that throws up a cast of wonderfully absurd characters, with all the ingredients for the making of an entertaining story of a woman who refused to be shackled to life's social mores.  A sweet  and salacious read.

Canberra writer LJM Owen devises intermillennial forensic crime series

Canberra writer LJM Owen devises intermillennial forensic crime series 

Canberra replaces Somerset. There are complicated family feuds, long-buried secrets, fireside chats, purring cats and comfort food. The cases are cold – really cold – cases connected to archaeological finds from the sites of the world's greatest ancient civilisations and Owen's young sleuth, Dr Elizabeth Pimms, must use her skills as an archaeologist and working librarian to find answers. 

The first in the series, Olmec Obituary, features the discovery of a royal Olmec cemetery deep in the Mexican jungle and a 3000-year-old sculpture of a female ball player. 

The second, Mayan Mendacity, introduces readers to the court of Lady Six Sky, a long-forgotten leader of the Mayan Empire. 

Warned by friends of the long odds of finding a publisher in the sub-genre of cosy crime, she self-published, raising $10,000 by crowdfunding. Five days into last year's Kickstarter campaign she was contacted by Angela Meyer of Echo Publishing, which has now published both books back-to-back.

Read more here @ the Sydney Morning Herald.


I am currently reading the Olmec Obituary and will follow it with the Mayan Mendacity.

Review: The Celtic Dagger

I was recently honoured in receiving a copy of "The Celtic Dagger" by Jill Paterson through a Goodreads giveaway.  And am glad I entered!  My copy arrived two days before Christmas, and not only was it signed, but there was a lovely hand-written card from Jill!

The Celtic Dagger is Jill's debut work - though you would never guess.  The dagger in question is one of three artifacts linked to a murder.  In the course of investigations, family secrets are unravelled, workplace relationships are put under the microscope, and we are taken on a spellbinding journey to the very end when all is packaged up for us.

The story is set in the academic world of a noted Sydney University and its Antiquities Department.  We travel between states in Australia as clues are tantalising placed in our paths.  I enjoyed being able to read of places that I am familiar with - being home turf.

There will be no spoilers here - you will have to read all for yourself.  Suffice to say that I read this book in one sitting - I literaly could not put it down in my quest to discover all.  I am so looking forward to Jill's next book!

About the Author

Jill Paterson grew up in Adelaide, South Australia before spending 11 years in Ontario, Canada. After returning to Australia, she settled in Canberra where she now lives with her husband, John.

After doing an Arts degree at the Australian National University, she worked at the Australian National University's School of Law before spending the next 10 years with the Business Council of Australia and the University of New South Wales, ADFA Campus in the School of Electrical Engineering.

 

You can find Jill @ Goodreads or through her website.