Author Archives: alysonebaker

Blue Hotel by Chad Taylor – 2022

Posted on July 5, 2023 by alysonebaker

If you want to cruise through a tale of classic noir, Blue Hotel is the book for you. The late 1980s, a busted up “old fashioned reporter”, an underbelly of sex-traps and blackmail, characters being hidden away in a mysterious … Continue reading →

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The Words for Her by Thomasin Sleigh – 2023

Posted on July 1, 2023 by alysonebaker

The words are pouring out of Jodie Pascoe, she is desperate to get them down, to tell her story. She needs to describe her daughter Jade. The words are for her blind father, who always wanted her to “to tell … Continue reading →

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You Are My Sunshine by Octavia Cade – 2023

Posted on June 24, 2023 by alysonebaker

You are my sunshine is an anthology set in a completely recognisable world of ecological and environmental collapse, brought about by corporate greed and general apathy. But as brutal as the descriptions are, it is a hopeful collection, even if … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Science Fiction, Short Stories | 1 Comment

Pet by Catherine Chidgey – 2023

Posted on June 21, 2023 by alysonebaker

“We would have done anything for her”: Mrs Price, a glamorous teacher in a Catholic primary school in the 1980s, who has her students in thrall. They yearn to be her pet – a position bestowed randomly on a chosen … Continue reading →

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Home Before Night by J.P. Pomare – 2023

Posted on May 21, 2023 by alysonebaker

Lou is a good judge of character – she was a Customs Officer at the airport before yet another wave of “the virus” sent Melbourne back into lockdown, and she was made redundant. Her life now revolves around her nineteen-year-old … Continue reading →

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I, Object by Stella Chrysostomou – 2023

Posted on April 24, 2023 by alysonebaker

A mechanic in one of Eliot Pattison’s Inspector Shan novels, set in Tibet, sees his job as facilitating the reincarnation of motor vehicles, patching them into their next incarnations. Stella Chrysostomou similarly gives life to jewellery objects in I, Object, … Continue reading →

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Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent – 2023

Posted on March 15, 2023 by alysonebaker

Sally Diamond lives on the outskirts of the village of Carricksheedy, Ireland. Peter Geary is living in Rotorua, Aotearoa New Zealand. Sally is in her 40s, she has been living with her father since her mother died when Sally was … Continue reading →

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A Respectable Veneer by Rachel Doré – 2023

Posted on March 11, 2023 by alysonebaker

“When she and Edie had stepped out of the railway station, she’d stepped into a different country. Palmerston North seemed an innocent, shallow place.” Ruby has fled Auckland with her ten-year-old daughter, hoping to start afresh. But with little money … Continue reading →

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Expectant by Vanda Symon – 2023

Posted on March 2, 2023 by alysonebaker

When an atrocious murder of a pregnant woman is committed in Dunedin, Detective Sam Shephard’s boss wants her off the investigation – he doesn’t believe “because of your own advanced state of pregnancy, that you would be able to remain … Continue reading →

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Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton – 2023

Posted on February 24, 2023 by alysonebaker

Birnam Wood starts with mellifluous prose revealing the motivations, attitudes, and self-doubts of three characters who started the gardening co-op that gives the novel its name. Birnam Wood was Mira Bunting’s idea, using unused land to grow vegetables, sometimes without … Continue reading →

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