Words, writers and writing
AS a person of interest, Meaghan Markle usually rates way down the list of those spotlighted celebrities who engage my attention. Almost off the scale; at the lowest end. As I feel she is considered by most people apart from those sad sacks to whom all gossip is more precious than oxygen; the mainstay of their existence. The Duchess of Excess Sussex is my Marmite. Take it or leave it. In my case, one finger dipped into a dab of the ghastly stuff was enough for a lifetime’s abstinence. Flashed into my awareness, registered high on the avoidance scale and…
Continue reading
Receive my ‘Read. Write. Run. Repeat.’ newsletter
Regular updates of my reviews and commentary direct to your inbox.

PERHAPS this blog post should come with an advisory caution; like those that precede some of the raunchier dramas screened on post-watershed TV. A warning about bad language or offensive dialogue. Displaying an awareness of some readers’ fragile sensibilities. Guarding against young minds being led down sinful paths; the elderly…
Continue reading

ONE of the many pleasures gained from reading crime fiction is being plunged deep into places never previously visited. Or, if having been there only superficially as a mere transient, now getting down and dirty with the locals. No longer passing through but going well and truly off piste. The…
Continue reading

CONFUSION continues to await avid readers of two popular series of crime fiction tales centred on Britain’s south coast. They can be left flummoxed, not so much by the intricate plotting but rather by the naming of the two main characters. One wonders whether there is mutual admiration or deep…
Continue reading

I HAVE been renewing acquaintance with an old friend. As always, it was a rewarding and compelling page-turning experience. It was also thought provoking, making me wonder yet again why so few Australian crime writers make it on to the international stage. Rather than becoming household names they are too…
Continue reading
THIS was a huge letdown. A thorough disappointment on so many fronts. And all the more so for one who has been a consistent fan of the Cormoran Strike tales from the very beginning. As evidenced by having ordered and paid for this latest saga well in advance of its publication day. We know better than to judge a book by its cover or by any other peripherals. However, for the record, this gargantuan tome weighs in at 1.35 kg embracing 927 often tedious, torturous and meandering pages. It is, as the flyleaf puts it, “a labyrinthine epic”. No argument…
Continue reading