Review: THE GAMBLER

THE GAMBLER by JP Pomare (Hachette, 2026)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

PI Vince Reid is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse: Why did a respected local woman open fire at a political rally, killing a promising young university graduate? It's easy money, he's told. A sure thing.

But as Reid delves further into the case, the stakes are higher than he imagined. There are invisible players pulling the strings. Will he walk away a winner or pay for the ultimate gamble with his life?

Any new novel from JP Pomare needs to be approached with caution. You're going to have to make sure that you've cleared your calendar, stacked up the pre-made meals, and maybe set some alarms to remind you of the animal medication schedules and feeding rounds, because I can just about guarantee that the "well I don't know what's going on here" is rapidly going to suck you in and hang onto you until the final page.

He's a deceptive writer, this man. Setting up a story in THE GAMBLER that started out almost gently, creating a few doubts that the planning mentioned above would be required (luckily I've been here before), it's a slow builder. Private Investigator, Vince Reid, is visiting an old friend when he's offered a case he can't refuse, and his friend can't do. Maybe therein lies the reason for the gentle deceptive start, Reid also thinks this one is going to be a bit of a doddle - find out why a young woman was shot at a political rally. Why she was targeted by a seemingly respectable older local woman who drove into that rally and fired, seemingly directly, at a young woman she didn't know or have any connection to whatsoever. The gunwoman herself was killed almost immediately afterwards by a young man who did actually have a connection to the victim, but he's elusive, hard to track down, hard to understand, increasingly hard to explain who or exactly what he is to do with the whole thing. It's as Reid tries to understand his part in the main that the connections get even more murky, and the layers in this deceptively chilling tale of manipulation, control, money, power and cruelty start to emerge. 

From small towns, to online communities, the Amish and working class families who just want to know what the hell happened, Reid starts out on an investigation that seems like it would be easy money, only to find it's anything but. In fact, it gets more and more dangerous as it gets more and more complicated, and it gets less and less clear who he can trust, and just how high the stakes are.

THE GAMBLER is the second novel in the PI Vince Reid series, the first being THE WRONG WOMAN. Both these novels are set in the US, in small towns dealing with what seems unimaginable, and turns out to be anything but. As is also often the way with his novels, victims are complicated, motivations are messy, and outcomes are always beset by edge cases and questions unanswered. Reid is a perfect character around which to centre such a complicated world, as is his friend and mentor - both of whom are either hiding, dodging or dealing with a lot of personal stuff. 

Clever and fascinating, utterly unputdownable, THE GAMBLER is standalone in story, but readers would benefit from reading the first novel simply because Reid is a character in whose company time is not wasted.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: OKIWI BROWN

OKIWI BROWN by Cristina Sanders (The Cuba Press, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

The Burke and Hare anatomy murders of 1828 terrify Edinburgh, until Burke is hanged and Hare disappears. Over a decade later, in the early days of New Zealand colonial settlement, a whaler washes up on the eastern shores of Port Nicholson. He calls himself Ōkiwi Brown, sets up a pub with an evil reputation and takes in a woman abandoned on his beach. Nearby, children sing dark nursery rhymes of murder.

One afternoon, Õkiwi is visited by a pair of ex-soldiers, a bosun looking for a fight, and itinerant worker William Leckie with his young daughter, Mary. When a body is discovered on the beach, it could be that a drunken man has drowned. But perhaps the gathered witnesses know something more.

Cristina Sanders is a new to me author who has written a number of books in the past along the same lines of ŌKIWI BROWN - a fictionalised version of historical events that incorporate early tales (tall and true) of Aotearoa. 

This story is told in a series of anecdotes, incorporating the story of a man, a waler who washed up on the eastern shores of Port Nicholson many years ago, in the early days of colonial settlement. He sets himself up with a pub and makes a home with a woman found abandoned on the nearby beach, quickly developing a reputation for evil and nasty going's on. 

The set up to this is an unusual one, perhaps not so out of the ordinary for Cristina Sanders if the blurbs for her other books (MRS JEWELL AND THE WRECK OF THE GENERAL GRANT, JERNINGHAM and DISPLACED) are anything to go by, although this one appears to be the only novel that so directly connects the possibility of past and present murders, and a potential character from history. 

Told with incredible strength, and a profound sense of place, ŌKIWI BROWN never shies away from the intrinsic evil of that unknown waler, or the difficulties of life in the new colony, whilst weaving in enough of the story of Burke and Hare to give the assumption of identity some credence. 

Overall it's well depicted, although populated by a lot of characters and some very disparate stories. All in all, it was increasingly disconcerting to think about the possibility of who else washed up on what shores in the days of very limited communications.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: THE MIRES

THE DEEPER THE DEAD by Catherine Lea (Bateman Books, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Three women give birth in different countries and different decades. In the near future, they become neighbours in a coastal town in Aotearoa New Zealand. Single parent Keri has her hands full with four-year-old tearaway Walty and teen Wairere, a strange and gifted child, who always picks up on things that aren't hers to worry about. They live next door to Janet, a white woman with an opinion about everything, and new arrival Sera, whose family are refugees from ecological devastation in Europe.

 

When Janet’s son Conor arrives home without warning, sporting a fresh buzzcut and a new tattoo, the quiet tension between the neighbours grows, but no one suspects just how extreme Conor has become. No one except Wairere, who can feel the danger in their midst, and the swamp beneath their street, watching and waiting.

Hopefully more and more of us are looking for answers to the state of the world in the right directions, but then again you look at the state of world politics and the rise of the nationalistic mobs, environmental degradation and climate change denial, and it's getting hard to see any light at the end of an increasingly long, dark tunnel. Tina Makereti has chosen to take this situation, and the hopelessness generated hyper-local, with THE MIRES. Into a small community, living on top of a swamp in Kapiti, on the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand which is trying to coexist, and it's in their interactions and responses to threats that we have been given the opportunity to learn something,

The story is centred around three women - all from different countries and different decades, all of whom with children and life experience that vary dramatically. First up is Keri, a Māori woman who lives with the aftermath of domestic violence, struggling to feed her two children - a lively four year old called Walty and her reserved teenage daughter Wairere, who hears the voices of her ancestors and has the gift of sight.

She lives between, on the one side, refugees from ecological breakdown in Europe - Sera, her husband Adam and baby Aliana. On the other Janet, another survivor of domestic violence, she's a white New Zealander woman with very fixed ideas about how everybody else should live. Meanwhile her son, Conor, is becoming increasing radicalised, behaving very secretly and strangely.

These three women - Keri, Sera and Janet - form the core of this novel, but it's Conor who becomes the catalyst, returning home without warning, sporting tattoos and a buzzcut, his behaviour really causing the tension to ramp up. Whilst the older women may not immediately realise just how warped Conor's beliefs have become, Wairere immediately senses the danger.

As with the outstanding and very moving KATARAINA, central to the core of the Māori people is their connection to vital areas of the landscape - in this case, again, a swamp that forms both part of the community and their sensibility for want of a better description. The novel starts out quite deceptively, with the feel of a gentle, domestic styled story about women, families and living in small communities or suburbs. As friendships are formed, and the younger children in particular form initial bridges between them, the novel itself starts to build through the gathering of strangers and the perceived threat of difference to a very particular threat within. Conor and his extremist right-wing connections, isolation, and targeting of women and migrants in particular becomes something that could break this small, almost insulated world apart.

Informed strongly by indigenous sensibilities, beliefs and spiritual connections to Country, and ancestors, THE MIRES also isn't afraid to use the examples of the horror of white supremacy, the massacres that are all too often performed in its name, and attempt to shine a light on that darkest of human behaviour whilst more importantly, providing examples of how the best of humanity can rise above. 

Whilst parts of THE MIRES were devastating, and very discomforting to read, it's message of hope and connection shone through. It has a particularly indigenous sensibility - the things that matter - people / community / connection to those and to place, always to place, feels very much like an answer we could all be looking towards. .

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

“Unique, enthralling mystery" - review of THE NANCYS AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING NECKLACE

THE NANCYS AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING NECKLACE by RWR McDonald (Orenda Books, Nov 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Eleven-year-old Tippy’s uncle and his boyfriend turn up in her small New Zealand town to look after her when his mother is away over Christmas, but when her schoolteacher is found dead and her best friend has a near-fatal accident, the trio turns detective, dubbing themselves The Nancys, and launching a chaotic, hilarious investigation.

I don't know if I've grinned as much reading a crime novel for quite a long time. There's such a lovely sense of exuberance to Melbourne-based Kiwi author RWR McDonald's debut mystery, which is set in a fictional small town in the deep south of New Zealand.

Delightful, charming, heartfelt, exuberant; they're not usually the words that come top of mind when musing on a crime novel, but they absolutely fit for The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace, which has an adolescent heroine but is very much an adult mystery novel (not a young adult or juvenile mystery).

I can certainly see why the then-unpublished manuscript was highly commended in the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards (a pipeline that has highlighted the likes of The Dry by Jane Harper, The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, and The Nowhere Child by Christian White).

There's just something, well, je ne sais quoi, about The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace that makes it quite different to much of the great rural and small-town crime writing coming out of Australia and New Zealand in recent years. While it has some of the quirky local characters and secrets-behind-closed-doors you'd expect with 'rural noir', there's a different energy and tone, delightfully so.

At its heart, and the book has a big one, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace centres on the misadventures of an unlikely investigating trio and the colourful South Otago townsfolk they encounter. along the way.

Tippy Chan is an eleven-year-old Riverstone local delighted by a visit from her beloved Uncle Pike, a Sydney hairdresser who could body double for Santa Claus. Pike has returned to the riverside town he fled years before - "the town that style forgot", as the blurb aptly describes - with his fashionista boyfriend Devon in tow, to look after Tippy while her mother goes on a cruise.

It's been a tough time for the Chan family, with Tippy's father passing away in the past year and even more stress heaped on her mother, Pike's sister, who could do with a good break away. Tippy loves her uncle’s old Nancy Drew books, and when her best friend falls off a bridge and then her teacher’s body is found near the town's only traffic light, the trio see a chance to solve a mystery for real. At the same time they're juggling other local adventures, including a surprising makeover of a glum teenage neighbour for a local show, and Pike dealing with his past history in the town.

Overall The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace is a real delight, a charming mystery that is much more than charm, packed with lovably unruly characters and chaotic events and perfectly seasoned with humour and heart. First-time novelist McDonald has opened his account with a real belter, a unique and enthralling tale.

[I originally reviewed this book for the New Zealand Listener and this blog on its original Australian and New Zealand release a few years ago. Today a newly edited and updated version, The Nancys and the Case of the Missing Necklace has been published for the first time for UK, USA & global market] 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND

A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND by Tina Shaw (Text Publishing, 2024)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Maxine has been losing things lately. Her car in the shopping centre carpark. Important work files—and her job as a result. Her marbles? ‘Mild cognitive impairment’, according to the doctor. Time for a nursing home, according to her daughter, Rose.

Rose has her own troubles with a recurring vision of a locked cupboard, claustrophobic panic. Something in the shadows. Something to do with the old family house in Kutarere.

Back in that house by the beach, Maxine and Rose try to find their bearings. But they can’t move forward without dealing with the past—and the past has a few more surprises in store.

The idea of losing things being a precursor to something more sinister is one of those noises lurking at the back of many minds of a "certain age". On the one hand we're always told that forgetting names, losing your keys, forgetting where the car was parked - it's all part of life busy noise. You get it when you're juggling too many things in too small a space of time with not enough sleep because along with that forgetfulness come the aches, pains and niggles. Did I mention dropping things? Am I projecting here? Quite possibly, but A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND was a memorable reading experience because of so many things it's hard to know where to start.

When Maxine's doctor diagnosed 'mild cognitive impairment', he probably should have included a diagnosis for her daughter Rose, who is on edge and suffering some form of PTSD right from the start of this novel. Which means, despite her doctor's explicit instructions not to drive, when Maxine heads out to drive from Auckland to the family bach at Kutarere, she causes panic and resentment. She's hoping that whatever it is that's really important about going there will come to her when she arrives, but a near miss with a truck and a crash into a ditch mean that Rose is called and she could really. Live. Without. The four-hour-drive to collect Maxine. This is not the first drop everything and run episode with Maxine and Rose is annoyed, Rose's husband is tetchy and Maxine doesn't seem to care.

Once Rose gets there though, the idea of an extra night at the house, where there are so many happy memories, seems like a good idea. And then the reader starts to discover just what a car crash Rose's own life has become, even without her mother's dramas. Infertility challenges and a less than invested partner, a job as an early childhood educator adding to the sense of personal failure, to say nothing of the strain of working with other people's children in general. Claustrophobia, and a therapist that can treat her over the phone, at the location of the worst of her childhood triggering memories seems like a good plan, as does the chance to find some way of reconnection with her mother. But Maxine is dealing with her own stirred memories - not all of them good, and there's something, in particular that's worrying her, making her feel guilty and stressed. 

A HOUSE BUILT ON SAND is a interesting approach to what is a very convincing portrayal of somebody's slip into dementia. Giving that the twist of a mystery to be solved seems to reflect the way that life goes - for the sufferer and their families, little mysteries of what / why and when being solved on a regular basis, but this time, with something bigger behind it. It seems that the author of this work has some personal experience of parts of this scenario and the narrative reads as both convincing and sympathetic but realistic, warts and all with humour and sadness, and past and present, leading inexorably to a future that needs some getting used to.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL

SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL by Chris Blake (Echo Publishing, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Things are going well for Matt Buchanan. After some hard times, life is peaceful as sole-charge constable for the small, isolated settlement of Haast on New Zealand's wild West Coast. He's made friends among the locals, won their trust. He keeps their little world safe. And he's working in spectacular surroundings - the fierce Tasman Sea, the dense beech forest, the dark, cold swamps, the snowy Southern Alps.

But then his much-loved predecessor, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet through his head. He'd been looking into a disturbing murder-suicide from 1978: the parents' bodies were found, but not their daughter's. Suspecting a darker truth, Matt is certain the answers can't be too far away in this close-knit community. How does former forest service ranger Liam, with his gang links, fit into the story? What about Joe, the alcoholic hermit whose knowledge and intelligence seem so at odds with his appearance and lifestyle?

In 2018 a novel barnstormed its way into the Ngaio Marsh Awards with THE SOUND OF HER VOICE making it to double finalist in both the Best First and Best Novel categories. At the time I remember thinking this is an author with such potential, and knowing it was a pseudonym, stood by patiently waiting to see if the author would be able to emerge, or would continue to write under that name. Chris Blake is that author, and his second novel, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is as good as that debut, continuing on with the intense, unsparing, and oh so realistic stylings of the first offering.

Following on with Matt Buchanan's career and personal story, for some context, from my review of the first book:

Every year the Ngaio Marsh awards for New Zealand crime fiction throw up an unexpected perspective, something brave and unusual that will set you back on your heels and make you think. For this reviewer, this year, that book was THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. In what's a combination of police procedural, and tragic police perspective, Detective Matt Buchanan has been in the job too long, and he's had a gut full of the nastiness of human nature. Unsolved murder cases haunt him, people being bastards haunt him, everything haunts him. He's bitter and he's well on the way to being twisted, and the murder of 14 year old Samantha Coates puts him on the trail of something big, and even nastier than he had even thought possible.

This second outing for Buchanan sees him back in uniform, in a small town, doing typical small town policing. And he's more settled, seemingly happier in himself, and what might seem like a demotion to some, is a chance to regroup, and rethink life and career, although the quieter world of traffic offences, kids behaving badly and the odd drug dealer, suddenly gets blown apart when his much admired predecessor in the job, Gus, is discovered beside a river with a bullet in his head. Gus had been doing a bit of digging around in an old murder-suicide in the local area, the parent's bodies discovered but their daughter never found. For all the world it looked like a violent and controlling father had inevitably flipped, and the missing daughter had always been assumed dead, as there had never been a trace of her. Matt's detective spider senses are tweaked though, and as much as he doesn't want to think it, it seems that there's been some rifts in this seemingly close-knit community, until more murders push him firmly back into his old detecting ways.

Refreshingly this novel doesn't make out that all the higher-ups and/or colleagues are idiots, and Buchanan isn't set up to be a lone wolf that saves the day. Rather the effects of his own trauma, and loss, are incorporated into the story of a decent bloke, trying to do the right thing, by a community of people he feels responsible for. He's also able to make some forward movement in his personal life, which very nearly doesn't work out, something that was surprisingly moving. 

SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL is one of those crime novels that, on the face of it, is a standard police procedural, written by somebody who knows that world back to front (Blake runs the Behavioural Science unit of the NZ Police in Wellington). He's also incredibly skilled at making it all about the story, not the process, and at no stage does this read like a training manual, or a self-help treatise.

Instead, this is a fast paced, nicely twisty mystery with a particularly nasty killer at the centre of it - killing to protect themselves from their past, as is so often the way. There is also something very real about the way this story addresses the complications and trauma of an ongoing policing career, and how the connections with other serving officers who understand, and a community that supports and sympathises can be the difference between burn out and thriving.

Told in a brisk, no nonsense tone that is richly interlaced with laconic humour, and compelling observation, SOFTLY CALLS THE DEVIL delivers and then some on the promise of THE SOUND OF HER VOICE. Bring on the third novel please.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

"Deftly draws readers into character and place" - review of LUCKY THING

LUCKY THING by Tom Baragwanath (Text Publishing, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When brilliant young student Jessica Mowbrie is left in a coma after being abandoned in a remote patch of New Zealand bush, the local Masterton police don't have a clue what happened. Isolated and under-resourced, the detectives struggle even to begin piecing it together.

Police records clerk Lorraine Henry will not accept that Jessie simply had a lucky escape. She thinks whoever hurt her needs to be hunted down, and worries that her employers are a bit hopeless.

As Jessie's life hangs in the balance, it looks as if Lorraine will do the hunting. She's not getting any younger, of course. But she has all the police records at her fingertips - and as much information about who hates who as anyone in their small town. Plus, she's used to being under-estimated. And you should never under-estimate a middle-aged woman with justice in her sights...

A Barry Award nominee earlier this year for his excellent mystery debut Paper Cage – which was also shortlisted for awards in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand - fresh storytelling talent Tom Baragwanath may live among the urban buzz of Paris, but he ‘returns home’ once again to the rural landscapes of the Wairarapa region of New Zealand’s north island with Lucky Thing. And to intrepid smalltown police station records clerk Lorraine Henry, an unlikely yet highly engaging sleuth.

Lorraine is still feeling the effects of the events in Paper Cage, as are others in Masterton and surrounds, but her days are brightened by regular horse rides, and her niece Sheena expecting baby #2. 

Then some visiting hikers stumble across badly beaten local girl Jessica Mowbrie in a remote patch of the Tararua mountain range. She’s lucky to be alive, a very lucky thing indeed. But how did she get way up there, and with who? The victim can’t tell the police anything; she’s in a coma.

As the under-resourced local police struggle to make any semblance of what happened, whispers fuel long-simmering tensions between locals whose families have lived and worked the fertile region for decades. Loraine knows many of the players, several who are entwined in her own potted family history, and tries to uncover threads that’ll lead to a culprit. Then another teenager goes missing…

Baragwanath deftly draws readers into the lives, connections, and divisions of Lorraine’s neighbours.

Nothing is neat or easy. Investigations, questions; all carry weight and consequences in a place like this. Secrets, desires, half-truths, and lies. Lucky Thing is very well-written crime fiction that goes beyond procedure or standard plotlines. In a growing sea of rural noir, it still stands out. 

I’m really looking forward to more from Baragwanath.

[This review was first published in the Fall 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Fun characters among the dark deeds" - review of FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT

FRIGHT ON STAGE RIGHT by GB Ralph (Sept 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s opening night at the theatre and Addison Harper has front-row seats with Sergeant Jake Murphy. This might just be his perfect date.

The variety show promises spooky Halloween fun, ghoulish drag queens, frightening musical numbers, and the scariest thing of audience participation. Of course, the unlucky victim dragged from the safety of his seat is a mortified Addison. In a production full of twists and turns, he has no idea what’s coming next but nobody could have anticipated witnessing a sudden, absolutely unscripted, and very real death.

A dreadful accident? Or was it foul play? As the curtain falls before a horror-struck audience, Addison Harper finds himself once again in the spotlight at centre stage....

Like Cabot Cove with Jessica Fletcher, or St Mary Mead with Miss Marple, the fictional small town of Milverton in the Manawatū region of New Zealand’s North Island is a bucolic place with a quirky array of locals that on the surface seems like a great place to live or visit. Other than having far more than its fair share of murders, thanks to cosy mystery writer GB Ralph.

This fourth novel in Ralph’s charming Milverton Mysteries series sees Wellington city slicker, marketing man, and accidental amateur sleuth Addison Harper back again in Milverton, dealing with the creaking house inherited from his uncle, as well as a romantic entanglement with local police Sergeant Jake Murphy. In Fright on Stage Right, Addison has made the move to Milverton more permanent; he’s about to begin a new job with the mayor, promoting the town to tourists.

But first, date night with Jake, front row at a local Halloween variety show packed with spooky fun, ghoulish drag queens, and audience participation. Then Addison is dragged onstage with the mayor to judge the contestants, only to witness a very sudden, very unscripted onstage death.

Accident, negligence, or something far more sinister

Ralph creates a lovely tone in an intriguing cosy mystery laced with plenty of fun characters and grin-inducing elements among the dark deeds, suspects, and red herrings. A lighter read, really enjoyable; those who love TV shows like Murder, She Wrote or The Brokenwood Mysteries may also fall in love with the Milverton mysteries. Even as someone who more often reads darker, grittier crime fiction, I’m certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

[This review was first published in the Fall 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: THE DEEPER THE DEAD

THE DEEPER THE DEAD by Catherine Lea (Bateman Books, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

On the morning of her granddaughter’s first day of school, DI Nyree Bradshaw receives a chilling call: there’s been a double homicide on a private island in the Far North. One victim is the woman who inherited the island over her two brothers. The other victim is unknown.

As Nyree and her team begin their investigation into the murky labyrinth of greed, betrayal and bitter disputes that surround the ownership of the island, they make a shocking discovery: a search of the vicinity unearths the remains of a child who vanished twenty years before.

Old resentments and long-held secrets boil to the surface of the close-knit town, leaving Nyree to ask: Is the child’s killer on the loose again?.

THE DEEPER THE DEAD is the third book in the New Zealand based police procedural series feature DI Nyree Bradshaw at the centre of a personal and professional storm. This is definitely one of those sets of books that would be worth reading in order, Bradshaw has a backstory which will allow readers to see the full picture behind the storm that is going on in her personal life, although you can definitely see the impact.

In the last book in the series Bradshaw found herself sort of guilted / sort of keen to accept custody of her very young granddaughter, whose mother had recently died. Her father, Bradshaw's son, is in jail but even before that she had a fractured relationship with him, and would be the first to admit that motherhood wasn't her thing, but police work, and solving crimes most definitely is. So taking on a young girl's care and welfare right now is quite the thing, especially as she's still flat out with cases, and the social workers are hovering. Not a great combination for Bradshaw's often tetchy temperament, especially as the current case is a double homicide on a private island in the Far North. An island that can only be reached by boat, which is wet going. And the weather's generally wet, and somebody's taking liberties with her crime scenes, and paying very fast and loose with the truth.

Victim number one of this double homicide is the young woman who owns this island, courtesy of the contentious will of her recently deceased father. Ownership which annoys the hell out of her two brothers, and continues to be a cause of considerable grief for the local Māori people, who hold the island sacred not least of all because of the ancient burial grounds. Burial grounds which reveal a much more recent body - that of a young child who vanished twenty years earlier. The second victim, also brutally shot and left where he fell, is initially an unknown, slightly mysterious young man who doesn't seem to have had a reason to be there, or much by way of connection to the island or the family at the heart of all this.

How Bradshaw handles this messy, complicated case, which has lots of aspects of a locked room about it, and then not, as movements to and from the island start to look very complicated, and way too suspicious for her liking, is a bit of a masterclass in juggling. Juggling all the leads and non-leads, juggling the information that is and is not forthcoming, juggling her granddaughter's needs and, it has to be said, demands as they both adjust to this new life. And juggling the expectations of everybody who has an opinion about her, her life, her family and the job.

She's a prime example of a woman who is forced into biting off more than she can chew and then chewing like hell. I really like the way this character is always vaguely chaotic but in control, just. Always aware of the things that are a bit off, a bit wrong, and more than a bit on the nose. Be it old or recent murders, crime scenes that turn to ash, locked rooms that aren't, past and present tensions, and people sending strange signals.

What she does from here - on the personal side is anybody's guess, as at one point I did think there was a glimmer of something on the horizon in terms of family and support, but then it moved away again. It will be interesting to see if Bradshaw decides to take to family problems as firmly, decisively and sheer doggedly as she does the professional ones.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: BLACK SILK AND BURIED SECRETS

BLACK SILK AND BURIED SECRETS by Deborah Challinor (HarperCollins, 2025)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Sydney, 1871. Twenty-five-year-old widow Tatty Crowe is the owner of busy undertaking firm Crowe Funerals. Life and business are good until Tatty notices how many women are dying after illicit abortions and after a terrible tragedy close to home, she vows to expose the culprit.

And then there are the dead babies abandoned around the city. Once again Tatty sets out to investigate the crisis and finds herself immersed in the dark and heartless world of baby farming. Along the way she encounters an old foe, and clashes with a new adversary who, it transpires, is far more dangerous.

From the grim slums of Chippendale and Newtown to the grand houses of Woolloomooloo to Sydney's rowdy Criminal Court, comes the next chapter in the story of compassionate and clever - but headstrong - Tatty Crowe..

The author of this series of now two novels, is a bestselling historical fiction writer, and you can tell just how impeccable her research is, even without reading the author's notes at the end of both novels, expanding on the thinking, and investigations that went into the construction of these stories.

Featuring the now twenty-five-year old, and widowed, Tatty (Tatiana) Crowe, the first female undertaker in Sydney, her life now, post the death of her awful husband, is going well. The business, originally her husband's family's, is doing well under her guidance, they are providing a sensitive service to paying customers, and plenty of free services where required. The household is functioning smoothly and there is much that you'd think Tatty would be well within her rights to rest on the laurels of. But there's something happening to women and babies in Sydney, with an increasing number of dead babies being found, and an increasing number of women dying from botched abortions. 

In the process of identifying the worst of the backyard butcher abortionists, Tatty does her absolute best to refute the shame that women and their families feel (with some well adjudged asides at the men involved - most of whom seem to be happy to ignore their marriages, families, responsibilities, and just walk away), although when the consequences get very close to home, she struggles with grief as well as deep anger.

The thing I really like about the character of Tatty Crowe is her determination, and her anger. In a time when it's easy to think that women just put up with, made the best, and carried on in quiet suffering, she's one of those women that fights back. Albeit quietly, often underhandedly, but she's not afraid to right some wrongs and kick some heads along the way. New readers to this series would be well served to start out with the first book Black Silk and Sympathy for a very big indication of just how far she's prepared to go, although there are plenty of references to that in this book as well.

Supported by a great cast of female and male characters, this is historical crime fiction which takes on societal attitudes and expectations from a female perspective, without getting strident. Instead there's that quiet, steely determination, something I was reminded needs to nurtured in the armoury for now and the future.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

History-makers and historical crimes: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award winners revealed

History-makers and historical crimes: 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award winners revealed in Dame Ngaios’ hometown 

A quartet of talented Kiwi writers were honoured at a special WORD Christchurch event on Thursday night as they scooped the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards for books meshing compelling narratives with important issues

In the sixteenth instalment of Aotearoa’s annual awards celebrating excellence in crime, mystery, thriller, and suspense writing, journalist Kirsty Johnston and academic James Hollings won Best Non-Fiction for their in-depth re-examination of our nation’s most notorious cold case in The Crewe Murders (Massey University Press), while Otago-based academic turned author Wendy Parkins scooped Best First Novel for her historical tale of gaslighting, abuse, and one woman's fight in the 19th century in The Defiance of Francis Dickinson (Affirm Press), and Auckland filmmaker and author Michael Bennett  (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue) made Ngaios history by winning Best Novel for his second Hana Westerman tale Return to Blood (Simon & Schuster).

“It was a great night to cap an outstanding season for the Ngaio Marsh Awards, thanks to a terrifically strong and varied group of finalists,” says awards founder Craig Sisterson. “We were particularly stoked to have the marvellous Court Jesters involved, delivering a wonderful improv murder mystery we’re sure would have tickled theatre-loving Dame Ngaio; a full circle moment back to our original plans in 2010.”

Wendy Parkins (right) with modern 
Queen of NZ crime Vanda Symon

Last night, following the interactive improv murder mystery, the 2025 Ngaios winners were revealed in among readings from the attending finalists. Parkins was stunned to find herself onstage accepting the 2025 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best First Novel, joining a roll of honour for that debut prize that includes past winners like JP Pomare (Call Me Evie), RWR McDonald (The Nancys), Jacqueline Bublitz (Before You Knew My Name), Michael Bennett (Better the Blood) and last year’s winner Claire Baylis (Dice).

The judges praised Parkins’ novel, which was inspired by a sensational Edwardian trial, as a “skilfully written historical tale that soaks readers in an era and attitudes which have some scary echoes today”.

Hollings, an Associate Professor at Massey University in Wellington, was thrilled to receive the trophy for Best Non-Fiction for The Crewe Murders, on behalf of himself and Kirsty Johnston, one of Aotearoa’s leading investigative journalists. The non-fiction judging panel praised the duo for centring the Crewes in their scrupulously researched book, layered with forensic and legal detail, and went on to say: “Among a small library of writing about the Crewes and Arthur Allan Thomas, this should be regarded as the definitive record of one of New Zealand’s most infamous and troubling crimes”. 

The Ngaios evening closed with more history, as acclaimed filmmaker and author Bennett became the first-ever Best First Novel winner to then go on to win the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel with a later book. He also joined Paul Cleave, the modern King of Kiwi Crime, as the only three-time Ngaios winner, having previously won the Best Non-Fiction category in 2017 for In Dark Places, his stunning account of Teina Pora’s wrongful conviction and long fight to clear his name. 

The Best Novel international judging panel, which included several leading critics from Australia, the UK, and New Zealand, praised Return to Blood for its "Excellent characters that populate a nuanced and telling plot that tackles a juxtaposition of ideas of what constitutes justice”, noting Bennett’s second novel featuring Māori sleuth Hana Westerman heralds “what’s already looking like superb crime series”. 

Bennett’s Hana Westerman novels have been into several languages, become the only detective series shortlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, won or been shortlisted for several other prestigious awards in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, United States, and Japan, and are in development for a screen series. 

For more information on any of our 2025 Ngaio Marsh Awards winners or finalists, or the Ngaios in general, please contact ngaiomarshaward@gmail.com.

"A superb crime debut" - review of WHEN THE DEEP, DARK BUSH SWALLOWS YOU WHOLE

WHEN THE DEEP DARK BUSH SWALLOWS YOU WHOLE by Geoff Parkes

 (Penguin, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

It’s January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand’s rugged King Country.

It’s a bittersweet he’s working long, punishing hours as a woolpresser, he needs to sell his late mother’s house, and he’s increasingly feeling like an outcast in his childhood town.

But mostly he’s haunted by memories of Sanna Sovernen, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before - then vanished without trace.

Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers - and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Because Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveller in the area to disappear...

Stolen nights on a pile of jute sacks in the corner of a creaky woolshed may not be the epitome of romance, but for law student Ryan and Finnish backpacker Sanna, they’re highlights of a 1980s summer of tough labour on a shearing gang in the rugged King Country of rural New Zealand.

But that’s a secret Ryan kept from police when Sanna vanished from the side of the road, while he was in a bar fight in the local Nashville pub. Then Sanna’s abrupt sister Emilia comes to their small town the following summer, unafraid to stir things up by digging into local secrets and suspects the police wrote off; because it must have been an outsider, right?

Geoff Parkes, a Kiwi sports columnist in Melbourne, crafts a rich sense of time and place in When the Deep Dark Bush Swallows You Whole, a superb crime debut that’s deftly written and built on a shuffling lineup of character perspectives, rather than a singular investigator or protagonist.

From Emilia and Ryan to various locals, and Sanna herself, readers get a growing sense of the King Country town, those who work and live there, and what really happened on that tragic night.

Suspects, red herrings, and strong writing aplenty; a very good first bow.

[This review was first published in the Spring 2025 issue of Deadly Pleasures magazine in the USA]

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"Impressive debut full of secrets" - review of SEE HOW THEY FALL

SEE HOW THEY FALL by Rachel Paris (Moa Press, 2025)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

When Skye married into the wealthy Campbell family, she thought she was entering paradise. But lately, she’s been unhappy in her marriage to Duncan and hiding a few secrets of her own as she tries to maintain a normal, happy life for their six-year-old daughter, Tilly.

Now the family patriarch, Sir Campbell Turner, has died and his three sons are set to inherit the luxury goods empire upon which he built their fortune. But plans for a seamless handover are complicated when a fourth, hitherto unknown, heir named Cody comes forward. The Turners gather for an intimate weekend retreat at an opulent seaside estate in order to meet this newcomer and figure out their next steps. 

With so much at stake, tempers flare and egos clash within their first few hours together. But even as the tensions rise no one could predict that their very first night would end with a shocking poisoning that leaves one family member dead and another fighting for her life.

A billionaire family’s gated homes including a showpiece coastal estate on the Mid North Coast may seem among the safest and most secure places in Australia, but that’s doesn’t prove the case in New Zealand lawyer turned author Rachel Paris’s impressive debut thriller.

“Succession meets Sharp Objects” was how Paris described her tale in late 2023 when her unpublished tale won the Phoenix Prize for a high-quality manuscript with commercial potential.

See How They Fall certainly ticks those boxes: it’s a riveting, pacy thriller kick-started by a twin poisoning among heirs to the Turner family fortune that then pleasingly goes beyond over-saturated domestic noir tropes by melding internecine family drama, secrets, and threat with police-centred crime thriller and some larger real-life issues.

Paris lures readers into an unpredictable journey via the alternating perspectives of two fascinating women dealing with past secrets and reeling from recent events: Skye, a bohemian artist who married into the Turner dynasty; and Mei O’Connor, a Detective Senior Sergeant in Sydney’s Homicide Squad who’s been near-shattered by her own recent emotional 1-2 gut-punch, and must navigate various pressures and powerful interests during a tough investigation involving the powerful Turner clan

While the wider cast isn’t as nuanced, and even sometimes stereotyped, overall See How They Fall is an impressive debut from Paris, overflowing with hidden truths and hidden evils and the damage they cause. A one or two sitting read that shows plenty of promise. I’m looking forward to what’s next.

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

"A feminist thriller that's an intriguing sophomore novel" - review of LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND by Jacqueline Bublitz (Emily Bestler Books, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender—and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime.

Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women—one of whom might just hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.

Kiwi author Jacqueline Bublitz, who’s split her life between Taranaki in New Zealand and Melbourne in Australia, garnered wide acclaim for her trope-busting debut, Before You Knew My Name, a feminist literary thriller that explored the all-too-typical ‘murdered women found in a NYC park’ story we’ve often seen, especially on TV dramas, from a fresh perspective. 

That of the victim herself, and the bystander who finds the body. 

Critics and reader praise, sales, and awards flowed, including Fiction Book of the Year at the Australian Book Industry Awards, and double-ups at the crime-loving Davitt Awards in Australia and Ngaio Marsh Awards in New Zealand. Also a shortlisting for the prestigious CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel in the English language that year; Bublitz was the only female author, and only debut author, to make the shortlist. How do you follow that as a first-time effort? 

Well, now Bublitz is back with another fascinating standalone that rakes over some similar ground – true crime obsession and the wider impact of misogynistic murders – while being its own story. In Leave the Girls Behind, New York bartender Ruth-Ann Baker is on high alert after a young girl goes missing from her hometown in Connecticut. Awful memories stir of Ruth-Ann’s best friend Beth being abducted and murdered by popular music teacher Ethan Oswald almost twenty years before. Ruth-Ann always felt Oswald had more victims, but Oswald died in prison, so he couldn’t have committed this new horror. But still, it stirs Ruth-Ann’s past trauma. 

She always felt Oswald had many more victims, and perhaps an accomplice. The local police in Connecticut, along with counsellors and her parents, didn’t believe her. Especially when she told them she was certain of her beliefs because of Beth’s ghost, and the ghosts of other murdered girls who visited Ruth-Ann; looking for help, looking for justice. Could Oswald have had help? Is the current perp somehow linked to what happened many years ago? Or is it just geographic chance, compounded by voices in Ruth-Ann’s head? 

Bublitz takes readers on an at-times bewildering ride into Ruth-Ann’s life, obsessions, and trauma, as well as across the globe as Ruth-Ann decides to take action and follows tenuous leads to New Zealand and Norway, looking for links to Oswald and her ghostly girls. But is our unreliable narrator trying to help a missing girl in the present, ones from the past, or herself?

Bublitz has conjured another fascinating tale that is likely to stick with readers long after the final page. A story about the messy ripples that are cast by violence, and fear. Ongoing trauma and how that manifests. Leave the Girls Behind is not the easiest read, though Bublitz writes well and the text flows smoothly even as the story is murky. Like Australia’s famed breakfast spread, Vegemite, it may divide readers, while leaving a strong aftertaste either way. An intriguing, impressive sophomore novel. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.

Review: TUGGA'S MOB

TUGGA'S MOB by Stephen Johnson (Clan Destine Press, 2019)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

What happens on tour stays on tour was the mantra for the southern hemisphere backpackers who swarmed Europe in the 1980s. Foreign countries had to be explored and devoured in every way possible. Waikato-born Judy Williams worked hard for her big OE: London, Paris, Rome, Gallipoli; and her adventures were dutifully recorded in her diary.

A diary that also recorded how the obsessive Tugga Tancred and his Kiwi mates turned Judy's trip of a lifetime into a nightmare of sly sexual harassment. Their bad behaviour went unnoticed, or was ignored by fellow passengers like Australian Andrew Hackett who chose to party hard with Tugga's Mob. After all, they were in Europe for a good time, not a long time.

And what a time it was, until Tugga's fixation ultimately led to murder: a crime that went unpunished for 30 years. But few things remain hidden forever. The rediscovery of Judy's hand-written diary sparks a trail of revenge that the original perpetrators never see coming..

Set across two timelines, this is a story that starts out in the 1980's, on one of those young people, mad house type tours of foreign climes that were particularly popular back then. Many of us will remember tales of people (or were those people) who went on the slightly madcap charge around Europe, normally in a bus, camping out at various locations or in the cheapest possible accommodation, with a heap of other young people around the same age. There were stories of tour romances, much fun, huge drinking sessions, and less well known maybe, some seriously appalling behaviour.

In TUGGA'S MOB we have the story of Waikato-born Judy Williams, a quiet, hard-working young woman who saved for her trip of a lifetime, and ended up on one of these tours. Unfortunately on the same tour as Tugga Tancred and a bunch of his yobbo Kiwi mates. Tugga developed quite an obsession with Judy, and he and his friends turned her trip of a lifetime into a nightmare, with sexual harassment and controlling and abusive behaviour. Which everyone else on the tour appeared happy to ignore, even when obsession turned to murder.

Thirty years later and Tugga's last trip down the Great Ocean Road could have something to do with those events all those years ago. Does the same fate await Andrew Hackett, an Australian on the same tour, happy to party hard with Tugga's Mob, now a hatchet man in the news business? One of his own news rooms might be about to find out.

The investigative aspects of TUGGA'S MOB are set within the world of news gathering - a cutthroat, time-pressured, manic environment well portrayed in this novel, with journo Curly Rogers in a clear cut search for the truth contrasted sharply with the self-serving nature of party boy turned boss Hackett. The discovery of Judy's hand-written diary provides the spark for revenge, and the full story of what happened back then. There are plenty of red herrings along the way to keep the reader working hard, and the ending, whilst predictable is apt, and nicely closed off, although there is a bit of a tendency to over explain when things start to get complicated.

The use of the investigative journalist as the central protagonist is a nice touch, and TUGGA'S MOB overall is an entertaining romp styled novel.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: THE SHADOW BROKER

THE SHADOW BROKER by Tina Clough (2022)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

It is 2026 and individual freedoms are severely curtailed, and state surveillance is everywhere. State Security has a Watch List, and being on it means that nothing you do or say escapes the authorities, but does the Kill List really exist? And if it does, how would you know if you were on it?

Coded messages on a found burner phone, top-level government corruption and a shadowy mastermind who calls himself The Broker. In this climate of state control, three unlikely friends start quietly looking for connections and set in motion a deadly game of hide and seek that will change their lives forever. Trying to uncover the truth means risking your life, and nothing is more dangerous than searching for evidence of government corruption.

A thriller in style, THE SHADOW BROKER is a standalone novel from New Zealand-based author Tina Clough, set in the future, where individual freedoms have been severely curtailed and state surveillance is omnipresent. When coded messages are found on a burner phone, they reveal a shadowy mastermind, who refers to himself as "The Broker", government corruption, and ruthless politics.

Based around a group of three friends, who in an unlikely twist of circumstances, discover the messages on a burner phone, which sends them off on a dangerous game of cat and mouse, setting them against powerful, and determined opponents. Obviously there are a lot of observations being made here about the surveillance state, corrupt governments and the ruthless pursuit of power. All of which might have felt a bit off just a few years ago, but are increasingly becoming almost unsurprising these days.

It's an interesting plot idea, and the character set here works really well - particularly the three friends at the centre of the attempts to out the truth. Unfortunately there is a bit of a tendency for repetition and belabouring which slow down the pace too much at some points.

Clough always comes up with interesting plot points though - and SHADOW BROKER (which was released in 2022) is an example of that.

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders and Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

Review: DEVIL'S BREATH

DEVIL'S BREATH by Jill Johnson (Black & White Publishing, 2023)

Reviewed by Karen Chisholm

Eustacia Rose is a Professor of Botanical Toxicology who lives alone in London with only her extensive collection of poisonous plants for company. She tends to her garden with meticulous care. Her life is quiet. Her schedule never changes. Until the day she hears a scream and the temptation to investigate proves irresistible.

Through her telescope, Professor Rose is drawn into the life of an extraordinarily beautiful neighbour, Simone, and nicknames the men who visit her after poisonous plants according to the toxic effect they have on Simone. But who are these four men? And why does Eustacia Rose recognize one of them?

Just as she preserves her secret garden, she feels inexplicably compelled to protect her neighbour. But when her precious garden is vandalized and someone close to Simone is murdered with a toxin derived from a rare poisonous plant, Eustacia finds herself implicated in the crime and decides to take matters into her own hands . . .

Eustacia Rose is currently ‘separated’ from her position at a university, disgraced after an incident in her laboratory. She lives alone in London with a hidden rooftop garden of poisonous plants.

There is a flat roof in north-west London that can’t be seen from the road, or from the windows of neighbouring houses, because it’s on top of a tall block of flats in a quiet residential street. On this roof is a garden of rare and unusual plants: tropical and arid, prostrate and fastigiate, exotic and exclusive, the needs of each catered for with meticulous care. It’s an oasis and a sanctuary in an unkind and unforgiving city. Only one person has access to the garden, via a hatch in their kitchen ceiling.

Professor Rose (as she prefers to be addressed) is a very contained person, even in the way she tells this, her own story: ‘I’m not one for exaggeration or self-aggrandisement.’

She keeps her hair precisely parted and held in place with Brylcreem, wears the clothes of her much loved, now deceased father, and is a woman of painstaking habits and routine. She is content to live a quiet life, yet has one vice, diverging slightly from her father’s love of celestial phenomena. Her telescope, hidden from view within the garden, is a device she also uses to covertly watch her neighbours. She is always hidden, never interacting with any of them.

Until the day she hears a scream, and finds herself drawn to help the extraordinarily beautiful Simone. Simone has a myriad of male callers, and Rose gives each of them a nickname based on her knowledge of poisonous plants and their toxic effects. Each interaction is carefully noted in Rose’s extensive set of notebooks.

However, on the nights when the cloud cover is too thick to see the stars, and memories of my lost love threaten to overwhelm me, I put the telescope to different use. Please be assured, I do this with no ill intent. It began purely as a distraction but soon became a form of social observation. A scientific pursuit, if you will. And as time has passed, my observations have grown into something quite significant. In fact, one day I plan to publish my findings, which is why I’ve always kept detailed accounts of the activities in a notebook. So far, I’ve filled twenty.

That is Rose all over. Meticulous in her approach to everything – the notations of the goings-on at Simone’s eliciting the same eye for detail as her extensive plant collection. In the case of the plants, it makes sense: Rose of all people is aware how dangerous many of them are.

Every morning I put on my protective overalls – slightly too short so that they catch uncomfortably at the crotch – climb the ladder and go through the hatch in my kitchen ceiling. I then begin the long list of daily tasks, carrying them out with extreme diligence. My routine never wavers. I execute each action following the exact scientific method because, if I don’t, there’s a viable risk of death.

Controlled and dispassionate, Rose is most comfortable when telling her own story from a scientific viewpoint. The reader shares her confusion when Simone goes missing, seemingly bundled into a vehicle as Rose watches. She cannot help but be drawn to discover what has happened, partly because of unrequited and unspoken attraction, partly because something like this means the world isn’t ordered, and that’s something Rose cannot abide. Mildly surprised, but determined to proceed, she starts following people, interacting with others, returning to the university that she left in disgrace, all to find Simone and discover her story. Everything becomes even more complicated when the police finally consent to get involved, and the assigned DCI is somebody Rose has had a bad experience with in the past.

Detective Chief Inspector Richard Roberts, to whom, the last time we’d met, I’d given the nomenclature Ragweed. Latin name: Ambrosia artemisiifolia. A tatty specimen, which releases a highly allergenic pollen dust, causing watery eyes, scratchy throat, sinus pain and swollen, bluish-coloured skin beneath the eyes. Irritating in the extreme.

Needless to say, Professor Eustacia Rose is an eccentric sort of a character. Undoubtedly neurodivergent, she’s a fascinating study of somebody who is diligent, ordered and structured in their approach to life, yet slightly out of touch. A life lived mostly with her much loved, now deceased father, her mother having disappeared when she was young.

Father had been a professor of Classics and English at Magdalen College, Oxford. He’d retired to a small flat in Camden a decade before to be closer to what he called his charmingly eccentric daughter, who had secured a professorship of her own at University College London. He could have named me after any number of ancient Greek goddesses but chose instead Eustacia, as a nod to Thomas Hardy. I had no memories of my mother, who disappeared unexpectedly when I was young. A parting so sudden that Father was thereafter left in a constant state of shocked bewilderment.

Simone’s disappearance seems to involve all of the men who used to call on her. Her sexual relationship with one in particular – who Rose knows only too well – soon leads to even more complications. This tale of a kidnapping and disappearance then becomes one of a murder by an obscure plant poison (of course), leading to a devastating fate for a garden. Rose’s own contained, risk-free life rapidly becomes anything but as unexpected connections to her past and present bring the action too close to home.

Jill Johnson’s style of writing perfectly reflects Rose’s eccentricity and neurodivergence without apology or explanation. It makes sense that her willingness to let things happen in the past is now part of the reason she is compelled to get involved in the hunt for Simone, and there is redemption in some of the outcomes, righting past injustices. The incorporation of toxic plant information is also done elegantly, with the reader never made to feel that this is a botany class dressed up as a novel.

Professor Eustacia Rose, for all her idiosyncrasies and eccentricities, is a sympathetic, understandable and very relatable character. Her life is what it is and she is, for the most part, content, although some readers may find the implication that an introverted loner wasn’t happy to remain that way a little disconcerting. It might be that the reaching-out aspect of Professor Eustacia Rose’s personal life is exactly what’s required to develop this very deserving character’s story into a series of novels....

Karen Chisholm is one of Australia's leading crime reviewers. She created Aust Crime Fiction in 2006, a terrific resource - please check it out. Karen also reviews for Newtown Review of Books, and has been a regular judge of the Ned Kelly Awards and Ngaio Marsh Awards. This review was first published on Karen's website; she kindly shares some of her reviews of crime and thriller novels written by New Zealanders adn Australians on Crime Watch as well as on Aust Crime Fiction. 

"A cracking read that also engages emotionally" - review of NO ONE WILL KNOW

NO ONE WILL KNOW by Rose Carlyle (Text Publishing, 2024)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

Eve Sylvester is young and broke and needs a job fast. After years of foster homes, backpacking and a sailing trip across the Pacific Ocean, she has lost contact with friends and family. She is alone, desperate—and pregnant.

Then she meets Julia and Christopher Hygate, a charming and glamorous couple, who seem to have the perfect loads of money and a breathtakingly beautiful mansion on a remote Tasmanian island. They make her a lucrative offer. Eve can move into their empty summerhouse and take up a very easy job.

Eve thinks she’s fallen on her feet—she has found a home, and her child will grow up in the aptly named Paradise Bay. But some things about the job don’t add up. Why must Eve stay out of sight? Why have the Hygates employed an ex-con to run their yacht-charter business? And what about the mysterious boats sailing in and out of the Hygates’ private marina? Eve is already in far too deep.

Four years ago, adventure-loving Auckland lawyer Rose Carlyle grabbed global attention with her #1 internationally bestselling debut, The Girl in the Mirror. Now she’s back with another cracking thriller that shows no let-up or ‘difficult second novel’ wobbles.  

Fans of Carlyle’s smash hit debut and new readers alike will find plenty to enjoy in No One Will Know, a twisting, propulsive tale centred on Eve Sylvester, a young woman scrabbling to survive after her life is upturned by fate and circumstance. After a car crash rips away the future Eve was hoping for on her return to Sydney from adventures sailing across the South Pacific, the former foster kid is left broke, desperate, and pregnant. 

No living relatives, no good friends, no one to help. Acutely aware of the impact of growing up in tough circumstances, Eve can’t resist a lucrative offer to live-in nanny for glamorous couple on their mansion estate in Paradise Bay on a remote island off the southern coast. But has Eve made a deal with the devil, out of love for her unborn child? 

Carlyle shows great mastery of pace and narrative drive in No One Will Know, luring readers into Eve’s story and keeping pages whirring with harrowing events and danger. The read hurtles along like a record-breaking Sydney to Hobart maxi yacht. 

A cracking ‘beach read’ that also engages emotionally with character and underlying themes. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned writer, editor, podcast host, awards judge, and event chair. He's the founder of the Ngaio Marsh Awards, co-founder of Rotorua Noir, author of Macavity and HRF Keating Award-shortlisted non-fiction work SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, editor of the DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER anthology series, and writes about books for magazines and newspapers in several countries.