Reviewed by Ian Lipke The C.J. Box series of books consists of rambling episodes disguised as books in series. The only things they have in common are characters who appear time and time again. The best known of these is Cassie Dewell, a private investigator. The first book is Back of Beyond featuring Cody Hoyt.
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke As many readers would agree, there are hundreds of children’s stories about koalas, but Danielle Clode reminds us that there are barely a handful of adult books about them. Despite their iconic status and celebrity, koalas remain a mystery. Clode delves into their world to discover the story behind this animal
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve The mountains of mystery and thriller books continues to grow at a steady pace, with new titles constantly appearing. Authors’ determination to write a book that is different, even outstanding, must present a tough challenge. Often, there is the disillusioned detective, with a partner who can be a means of underlining
Reviewed by Ian Lipke If you’ve taken the trouble to order Robert Galbraith’s latest novel The Ink Black Heart, keep up the exercises, as you’ll need to be fully fit to cope with this 1000-page blockbuster. The novel is written by J.K. Rowling under a pseudonym. This is a long tale that has its strengths
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve It is an exceptional ability in an author to be able to convincingly and seamlessly blend fact and fiction in order to produce books as brilliant as the late Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy. Maggie O’Farrell, with her latest novel, The Marriage Portrait, has demonstrated that she too possesses this to
Reviewed by Norrie Sanders The withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 left a vacuum that was instantly filled by the Taliban – intimidating militia who had been forcibly ousted from government two decades before. In the preceding days and weeks, many of the 5 million residents of Kabul lived with unremitting chaos
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Told from dual first-person perspectives (Crew and Wren) this book follows a developing relationship between Lancaster Prep Boarding School eighteen-year-olds Crew Lancaster and Wren Beaumont. Crew Lancaster belongs to a family that owns the school. (I know of no situation where a school is owned by a family – I could
Reviewed by Patricia Simms-Reeve Each of its 28 pages is certain not just to raise a smile, but lots of laughter. The combination of the hilarious rhyming text and illustrations that are beyond amusing makes You Can’t Let an Elephant Drive a Racing Car an irresistible book for young readers. In fact, it is bound
Reviewed by E. B. Heath Whatever is done for love always occurs beyond good and evil. Nietzsche, F. W. (1894) As far as this reader is concerned Justin Gregg is preaching to the choir in his conviction that cognition and the subjective experience of animals are much the same as humans, albeit not as complex.
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Another story by Stephen King – a tale of an ordinary boy who is an average student academically but something of a legend at sport. It is his misfortune that his mother was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and his father attempted to drown his grief in
Reviewed by Rod McLary As he did with his previous novel Playing Nice, JP Delaney confronts the intricacies of the child welfare laws. This time though, through telling the story of Anna, he deconstructs adoption law in England and adopted children’s right of access to their birth parents’ history through what is called a ‘Later
Reviewed by Ian Lipke Thomas Paine, though discarded somewhat these days, was a seventeenth century philosopher with an interest in the church, the place of God in people’s lives, and an upstart crew of religious people who threw down a challenge to the clergy and their traditions. The latest book to appear on the shelves
Reviewed by Richard Tutin John Farnham is one of the most respected and popular musical artists in Australia. Many of us have grown up listening to his music and enjoying his live concerts. Yet, as Graeme Turner explains in his book Whispering Jack, there was a time when Farnham, though popular, was not taken seriously
Reviewed by Wendy Lipke According to the Media Release, Nora Roberts published her first novel using the pseudonym J. D. Robb in 1995. Since then, the In Death series of books has sold over sixty-six million copies. Each new novel in this series usually reaches the number one best seller charts the world over. I
Reviewed by Rod McLary Where does one start with a review of a Jane Harper book? Each of her previous novels has been hugely successful – both critically and commercially. Each has been plotted meticulously and suspensefully with engaging characters [largely] and denouements which often catch the reader unawares. Jane Harper’s latest novel Exiles is