Reviewed by Rod McLary Blood runs freely in this novel by J R Ward – blood in all its manifestations: lineage, killings and, most apposite for this book, feeding on blood by the Vampires. Blood Fury is set in a world [perhaps this one] where Vampires co-exist with humans but are threatened by the

Reviewed by Angela Marie The assignment – Review a children’s book. Where to start? Step One : Locate someone with a great sense of humour and an appreciation of artwork, and a voracious appetite for reading. And ensure that this person fits the target audience. Enter Rocco, a lover of the novels of Roald Dahl,

Reviewed by Rod McLary Sarah and Hannah, her grand-daughter, are travelling by cruise ship from San Diego to Sydney repeating a trip which Sarah made sixty-eight years previously but in the other direction. Sarah was a war bride and, in the last few weeks of the Second War World, married an American serviceman from Virginia. 

Reviewed by Rod McLary The title of this book is taken from a poem – The Drunken Boat – written at age 16 by the enfant terrible of French poetry Arthur Rimbaud.  The Drunken Boat believes it is freely floating but instead it is being guided by the ‘poem of the sea’ and sees splendid

Reviewed by Mike Clarke Lynda La Plante CBE is a prolific English author, screenwriter and actress. In 2009 she was inducted into the Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame. In 2013 La Plante was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Forensic Science Society (FSSoc). She was the first non-scientist to be awarded this honour for

Reviewed by Ian Lipke “Sometimes it takes letting someone else in to discover who you really are.” That line from the author is the key to the wonderful story that unfolds within the covers of this book. It’s a simple enough yarn. A boy in his universe focused on his own problems. A girl in

Reviewed by Rod McLary For aficionados of James Lee Burke’s writing – and I will disclose straightaway that I am one –  the title of his latest book is prescient.  The name Detective Dave Robicheaux of the Sheriff’s Department in New Iberia, Louisiana is well-known and needs no further introduction. The first book in the

Reviewed by Rod McLary Jack Heath is the bestselling author of about twenty books for young adults and children.  His books have been short-listed for many awards.  However, with his new novel Hangman, he has made a giant leap into another genre – dark and perverse crime novels. In Timothy Blake – the young protagonist

Reviewed by Angela Marie “Take care…the value of a secret depends upon whom you’re trying to keep it from. You may think it’s worth a lot. I may think it’s worthless. Someone always has to pay.” In Michael Robotham’s latest cliffhanger, the key title word, “secrets”, conjures an immediacy of need to know. Is the

Reviewed by Antonella Townsend Elle Croft’s debut novel, The Guilty Wife, is (cliché alert) a page-turner with a mind-bending plot.   No time to stop for coffee, solving the mystery of who killed Calum Bradley becomes paramount.  Easy to dismiss the obvious ‘red herring’, really it could only be …  but then it wasn’t.   Then maybe