Kia ora koutou, writers are missing out on reviews at the moment. Reviews mean readers get to know about books they might not otherwise see. In any case, Lockdown or not, the regular places probably don’t do many crime novel reviews and as we all know a lot of them are in trouble anyway now that Bauer has pulled the plug. So I decided to write some reviews and stick them on WednesdayBusk. I’ll do two this week and one next week, then go back to my own Busks and every now and then I’ll do some more reviews…
Here we go.
I found out about the existence of these two crime novels from the Ngaio Marsh Crime and Mystery Writers FB page. The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin) & Trust Me, I’m Dead by Sherryl Clark (Verve Books).
The Secrets of Strangers by Charity Norman (pub Allen & Unwin).
Neil, a rough sleeper and his dog, Buddy, are waking up, Neil wants coffee and hallelujah someone has left some money in his mug. Abi is due at St Albans Crown Court where she’s defending a woman accused of shaking and injuring her nine–week–old baby. Abi’s also waiting on word to say if she’s pregnant (or not) but first – she has to have her early morning kick, that cup of coffee from Tuckbox Cafe. Mutesi is on her way home from a nursing shift. She’s going to meet her daughter–in–law Brigit and grandson Emmanuel at Tuckbox. Others with the same urge, must have my fix of coffee, rush into the café.
Nek minit a man walks in, shoots the proprietor and from that moment, everyone in Tuckbox is a hostage. And so is the reader.
The Secrets of Strangers swoops you along and you go willingly – this is taut, assured writing from a writer who knows what she’s doing. A weaver of words, she holds the separate strands effortlessly and winds them into a gripping read right to the last page. And she does that fabulous thing that the best writers do – she makes me care.
Highly recommended.
Trust me, I’m Dead by Sherryl Clark (Verve Books)
Judi is digging compost into her garden in the little town of Candlebark, when the local constable walks down the path. The news is bad. Her brother Andy, a drug addict she hasn’t seen for years, has been shot. The Melbourne police want to see her. Unwillingly she gets out the keys for the old pale blue Mercedes Benz which she’s inherited from her sod of a father and drives to Melbourne. There she walks into some big surprises, not least of which is that Andy has made her legal guardian of a two–year–old niece she didn’t know she had. She also comes up against Ben Heath AKA ‘Hotshot’, a Melbourne cop, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, after a visit from the very nasty and brutal Spaz and Baldy, Judi ends up in Emergency.
Just like he did when they were kids, Andy has left clues but Judi wasn’t much good at them then and she’s not much better now. She has to crack the mystery though or her little niece, Mia, not to mention herself, will be killed. These guys mean business. The nasty kind.
Trust Me, I’m Dead, is fast paced, well structured, twists and turns on almost every page – some brutal, some tender, and hallelujah, Clark follows the great rule of writing crime novels. Keep the suspense level high – make the reader wait. Halfway through I nearly flipped to the end but I restrained myself. Well done Renée.
Trust Me, I’m Dead is confident, funny, full of surprises. Clark’s hero Judi, is grumpy, resourceful, stubborn, cynical and underneath all that, carefully hidden, she has a heart. What’s not to like?
Highly recommended.
Both these novels are available as ebooks (the only kind I read now that my eyesight is failing).
Next week I’ll post my review of Southern Crime – the pocket essential guide to the Crime Fiction, Film and TV of Australia and New Zealand, written by Craig Sisterson.
ps You haven’t read Kim Hunt’s The Beautiful Dead or Vanda Symons’ Containment yet? What the hell have you been doing?
Renée
