What Am I Reading?

It’s difficult to believe the complex plotting and assured voice in All You Took From Me (Transit Lounge Publishing 2024) is from debut writer, Lisa Kenway. This novel reads as a more advanced writer would present a psychological thriller, from the ease of dialogue to...

Acclaimed and award-winning author Anita Heiss has said that her latest historical novel Dirrayawadha (Simon and Schuster 2024) is ‘possibly the most important book I’ll ever write’ and I think she is correct on a number of different levels (especially its use of...

Past teacher and popular author Mark Smith is well known for his YA novels (some of which are included in the school curriculum) but Three Boys Gone (Pan Macmillan 2024) is his first adult psychological thriller, and what a fantastic debut into the crime/mystery genre...

Strap yourselves in and hold on tight for the ride of your life with Anna Downes’ third psychological novel Red River Road (Affirm Press 2024), a breathtaking, nail-biting, edge of your seat crime thriller that had me firmly gripped from the first pages, with the...

Martine Kropkowski’s debut psychological thriller Everywhere We Look (Ultimo 2024) is a triumph of canvassing female relationships, domestic violence and coercive control almost without a single violent act on the page – the entire story is hint and subjective;...

Songs for the Dead and the Living (Affirm Press 2023) is a pertinent novel for our times. Written by Sara M Saleh, the daughter of immigrants from Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon, the author combines her personal experiences, the history of her family and her skill in...

J.P. Pomare writes consistently taut, tight, pacy crime thrillers that have captured the hearts and minds of crime readers since his first novel Call Me Evie, six books ago. This novella Home Before Night (Hachette 2023) is a contemporary thriller set during one of...

Robert Skinner’s hilarious and poignant collection of essays / memoir / short stories I’D RATHER NOT (Black Inc 2023) is a wonderfully witty and self-deprecating glimpse into the author’s life as he continues his quest for the next best thing or even something a...

Fiona Stager recommended the novel JAMES (Pan Macmillan 2024) by award-winning author Percival Everett, who has written over 30 books and been a finalist for both the Booker and the Pulitzer. (I recently enjoyed the film American Fiction which was based on his novel...

I absolutely adored crime writer Hayley Scrivenor’s award-winning debut, Dirt Town. Her second novel, Girl Falling (Pan Macmillan 2024) is another tight, taut, well-plotted narrative with unexpected twists and turns, and also digs a bit deeper into societal issues....

Margaret Atwood is a superb writer and an astute observer of the human condition. She writes across genres and times, from the realistic minutia of day-to-day domestic life to fantastical supernatural stories or fables steeped in superstition. Her recent collected and...

I adore Kate Atkinson and have read everything she’s published. Her latest novel, Death at the Sign of the Rook (Penguin Random House 2024) features Jackson Brodie, the now ex-detective of her famous crime series. Atkinson also of course writes incredible literary...