Book reviews: 10 new titles to put on your reading list this week
LOOKING for a new book to curl up under the covers with? From a murder mystery set in the shadow of Hobart’s imposing Mount Wellington to a look at the life of best-selling author Wilbur Smith, there’s something for all tastes.
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EVER spent half an evening scrolling through Netflix for something to watch, only to give up and rewatch something you’ve seen many times before?
Maybe it’s time to put down the remote and picked up a book.
MUGSHOTS 3: GRIPPING TRUE CRIME STORIES
To help you navigate the expansive waters of the new release section of your local bookshop or online bookstore, we’ve reviewed 10 of the best new titles.
LONELY GIRL
Lynne Vincent McCarthy
Ana is living a solitary life on her grandmother’s property near Tasmania’s Mt Wellington with her dog, River. She nursed her grandmother until she died, having lost her own mother at 12.
Now, she lives on her own at the isolated property, haunted by a childhood of neglect. She has a part-time job at a pharmacy, run by her only friend Lenny, who holds a candle for her despite her strange behaviour.
But Ana’s focus is on River, who is living his last days. That is, until she hears a disturbance in a van parked outside a local hotel and peers inside. What she sees is not at all what she expects — a woman in the throes of ecstatic sex.
They lock eyes and Ana feels a connection to this woman that she’s unable to shake. She finds herself longing to feel what that woman felt. When the woman, Rebecca Marsden, turns up dead nearby, Ana becomes obsessed.
This puts her directly in the path of the man she believes killed her — Rebecca’s lover. Or, should it be, this obsession puts Rebecca’s lover directly in the path of Ana? This impressive debut by McCarthy is equal parts disturbing and addictive.
- Shelley Hadfield
LIAR’S CANDLE
August Thomas
Thomas, a fluent Turkish speaker who studied at Istanbul’s top public university, uses her sassy smarts as an American woman who’s travelled widely and has a keen eye for place, people and events to kick off her literary career.
Her debut novel is set in Turkey with 21-year-old intern Penny Kessler at the US embassy — the scene of a terrorist bomb that leaves Penny injured.
The fast-paced thriller gives a nod to Ian Fleming and James Bond in its dramatic style, though it lacks the taut narrative skill of a master. Thomas is best at painting a convincing portrait of Turkey and its capital Ankara, taking us into the social and cultural life as well as describing political and diplomatic intrigue.
The book’s strengths are let down by a plot that sometimes stretches credulity, such as when a mere intern is plucked from the hospital by Turkey’s president to recuperate at his palace. This aside, Thomas is a writer to watch.
- Dennis Atkins
MUGSHOTS 3
Keith Moor
Melbourne has been home to shocking murders, terrorist plots, record drug busts and a host of chilling crimes. In the third book in the series, Herald Sun reporter Keith Moor exposes the facts behind crimes that many people only remember as headlines, taking an almost forensic approach to cases such as the Russell St bombing, Society Murders, and the Queen St killer.
He accesses court documents, police records and witness interviews to examine the detailed work in catching the criminals.
Particularly fascinating is the story of the DNA freezer. Long before evidence could be gathered from saliva, sweat, semen or hair, Victoria Police froze samples on the chance they might be useful one day.
Decades later, cold case teams began work to surprise murderers and rapists who thought they had escaped justice. Mugshots 3 reveals the devious brutality of criminals and the relentless work to catch them.
- Jeff Maynard
BAD BLOOD
John Carreyrou
I can’t recall the last time I was so riveted by a piece of nonfiction. I lost count of the times I said, “Oh my God” out loud.
Bad Blood, by Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Carreyrou, began with a tip-off from a blogger with suspicions about Theranos, a company being hyped up by media with an appetite for a hot start-up story.
Started by 19-year-old uni dropout Elizabeth Holmes in 2003, it was based on an “invention” that promised to revolutionise blood tests.
Rather than having blood taken by a nurse with a needle, the device would use a prick test. Ill people could use it at home, and the “Edison” would send results to doctors. Pharmaceutical companies could monitor the efficacy of drugs in real time. Investors fell over themselves to hand Holmes money.
But behind the scenes, Theranos was aware its device simply didn’t work. Carreyrou and his sources withstood incredible pressure to tell this story. It is testament to the importance of fearless journalism.
- Clare Sutherland
A MONTH OF SUNDAYS
Liz Byrski
Books about book clubs have become pretty much a genre in their own right. Their popularity highlights something that sounds obvious — there is a solid market for writing about women’s friendships in a positive, warm and interesting way.
But it is a market that felt like it was ignored for a long time. Byrski’s newest book adds an element that has had too little attention — old age.
Her protagonists are in their 60s and 70s, women with failing health and a lifetime of struggles and secrets, but whose stories remain full of inspiration.
Ros, Adele, Judy and Simone have been in a Skype-based book group for years. When circumstances bring them together for the first time, all are facing major transitions that are intimidating and frightening.
In each other and their books, they find the insight and the support needed to move into the future. A warm and comforting read.
- Corinna Hente
THE TRUE COLOUR OF THE SEA
Robert Drewe
IT will come as no surprise to Robert Drewe’s many fans that he has returned to the coast in these new short stories after his venture inland in last year’s novel Whipbird, set mainly in Ballarat.
The lives he charts here — swimming, surfing and cruising — may at first appear insignificant, but they are all readily identifiable because of being so familiar. The stories are built not on national heroes but on the Australian stereotypes we have met in pubs, barbecues and the workplace.
Some make us cringe, others call for sympathy and we can empathise with those who seem to have settled for mediocrity when they were obviously aiming a good deal higher. Drewe (above) is a master of the game we play in cafes and restaurants, where we try to put a story to the faces or snippets of conversation we pick up at the next table.
He gives a biography, an entire life, in a couple of paragraphs, before leaping into the main action. These are portraits of people who, if they do not make Australia great, certainly make it memorable. It’s an ideal book for the beach or to take on a cruise.
- Barry Reynolds
THE STORY KEEPER
Anna Mazzola
Audrey arrives on the island of Skye desperate to keep as much distance between her father and stepmother as she can, and hoping to find out more about the death of her mother on the island.
It all hinges on getting a job as assistant to elderly Miss Buchanan, a folklorist wanting someone to help catalogue the old stories and fairy tales that live on among the crofters. Audrey discovers no one trusts her — to locals, she’s an outsider, to the church, she’s fostering dangerous superstitions.
It becomes even darker when Audrey finds a girl’s body washed up on the beach and hears tales that she’s not the first to be “taken” by the evil sluagh. When another girl goes missing, the dark signs around her hint she might be next.
Mazzola made a hit with her creepy debut The Unseeing, winning the 2018 Edgar Award for best paperback original. Set in 1857, The Story Keeper is a gripping and assured follow-up for fans of spooky mystery.
- Corinna Hente
THE FOOTBALL SOLUTION
George Megalogenis
Megalogenis’ latest diagnosis of modern Australia reminds us why he is one of the most original commentators on our current mores.
xamining our nation through the history of Aussie rules footy and his beloved Richmond, Megalogenis remarks the team and major political parties shared a propensity to sack coaches and leaders.
“The media egg them on, turning political journalism into something akin to an extended footy tipping competition, with Newspoll as the scoreboard,” he writes.
This book has the biggest thesis going: that the Tigers’ climb to the top last year is not just a metaphor for getting out of our economic and social slump but a map for how to do it.
Along the way we follow Paul Keating’s conversion to footy and dig into the Adam Goodes events of 2015. Megalogenis has plonked a new idea into national conversation: what would Richmond do?
- Dennis Atkins
Meaghan Wilson Anastasios
As binge-watching takes over the world, savvy storytellers are writing novels to translate seamlessly to the screen. They write in scenes, cut from era to era, location to exotic location.
Literature it ain’t. Story it is. Anyone with film-writing nous has a head start.
Cue Wilson Anastasios — academic, archaeologist, art historian — who debuted in 2014 as co-author of The Water Diviner, sister project to the Russell Crowe film of that name.
Her first solo project is The Honourable Thief, a thriller full of characters with one eye on the camera. Here’s dissolute but dashing Benedict Hitchens, a twist on Indiana Jones.
There’s the sly Turkish antiquities dealer, a smooth police chief, a sinister Nazi collaborator and Ben’s string of lovers. Each strongly drawn and easily cast. Dialogue pithy, scenery great, locations colourful, action pedal-to-the-metal, sex and brawls are of the wham bam variety. Bond meets Lost Ark and the ghost of Errol Flynn.
- Andrew Rule
ON LEOPARD ROCK: A LIFE OF ADVENTURES
Wilbur Smith
Wilbur Smith, who was born in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), is an international best-selling author whose sprawling historical novels are peppered with sex, violence and plenty of detail.
Most of Smith’s stories have been set in southern Africa where, he writes, “the wilderness is as beautiful as love and as deadly as heartbreak”.
On Leopard Rock is an autobiography that reads like one of Smith’s novels. He tells stories of big game hunting and travelling with his father, then explains how he worked those experiences into his books.
While the action comes thick and fast, Smith avoids giving away too many personal insights. His first two wives barely rate a mention, as does his estrangement from his children.
Instead this is a rollicking tale of an adventurous life lived between the pages of his books. It’s a memoir that will delight his fans.
- Jeff Maynard
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