Category Archives: Book Review

The Chain by Antony Millen – 2015

Posted on May 7, 2016 by alysonebaker

The Chain takes us into the privacy / security debate, it is set in 2043 where the democratising power of the Internet has gone ballistic – with no national borders or jingoistic-causing historical place names, and where all information exchange … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | 4 Comments

Love as a Stranger by Owen Marshall – 2016

Posted on April 30, 2016 by alysonebaker

What a terribly human book!  Sarah meets Hartley when she is temporarily living in Auckland while her husband Robert undergoes Cancer treatment.  Hartley is a lawyer whose wife has died a couple of years before and who is despairing at … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Leave a comment

The Murder Trail by Leonie Mateer – 2015

Posted on March 24, 2016 by alysonebaker

This third romp in the Audrey Murders Series is as wacky as the previous two. Audrey is still running her cabins up North in native bush by the beach – and the operation, although improved from the time of The … Continue reading →

Posted in #yeahnoir, Book Review | Leave a comment

American Blood by Ben Sanders – 2015

Posted on March 10, 2016 by alysonebaker

Want a good old American thriller with cops and killers with ice in their veins and a confusing line between right and wrong? – American Blood is for you, and it is written by Kiwi author Ben Sanders.  Sanders’ new … Continue reading →

Posted in #yeahnoir, Book Review | Leave a comment

The Invisible Mile by David Coventry – 2015

Posted on March 6, 2016 by alysonebaker

What a breath-taking book!  Coventry has seamlessly inserted a rider into the historical Australia / New Zealand Ravat-Wonder-Dunlop cycling team that took part in the 1928 Tour de France.  The first English-speaking team to take part, they rode in one … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Historical | Leave a comment

How to Grow an Addict by J.A. Wright – 2015

Posted on February 15, 2016 by alysonebaker

How to grow an addict is quite an addictive read!  It is written in a naïve tone from the point of view of the ‘addict’, Randall Grange.  Randall is in rehab and the novel tells the story of how she … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | 1 Comment

Coming Rain by Stephen Daisley – 2015

Posted on February 2, 2016 by alysonebaker

What a dismal tale!  Set in the outback of Australia in the 1950’s Coming Rain is the intertwined stories of two itinerant workers, Lew and Painter, and of the trials of a pregnant dingo.  The structure of the novel is … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Leave a comment

The Back of His Head by Patrick Evans – 2015

Posted on December 25, 2015 by alysonebaker

The Back of His Head is a novel about writers and writing – about the role and power of fiction and the seduction of fame.  The subject of the novel is Raymond Thomas Lawrence – early adventurer, at the height … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Leave a comment

Bad Seed by Alan Carter – 2015

Posted on December 16, 2015 by alysonebaker

I can review this book here – as Alan Carter now lives in New Zealand!  Bad Seed is the third in Carter’s Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong series.  Cato is a Chinese cop in Western Australia who solves crimes and cryptic crossword … Continue reading →

Posted in #yeahnoir, Book Review | Leave a comment

Breaking connections by Albert Wendt – 2015

Posted on December 5, 2015 by alysonebaker

I so wanted to like this novel, and when I started it I thought I would love it – but by the end I had mixed feelings.  Daniel is a poet and novelist working as a University lecturer in Hawaii, … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review | Leave a comment