PRIME CUT by Alan Carter ★ ★ ★★

An Outback Thriller

Reviewed by Tracy Harris

The West Australian outback was never on the career path for Detective Senior Constable Philip “Cato” Kwong. The poster boy for political correctness, Cato’s career had been on the fast-track, until everything goes wrong and Cato finds himself an unwilling member of the Stock Squad, investigating the deaths of rotting road-kill.

Mining town Hopetoun is not part of Cato’s patch, a booming anomaly in a world in economic meltdown. However when a human torso washes ashore on Hopetoun’s scenic coastline, Cato is despatched to investigate and a glimmer of light appears on his career radar. Ignoring the fact that his rescue from highway hell is only for a few days until staff from other departments can be relocated, Cato grabs the opportunity to redeem himself to his old boss, DI Mick Hutchens and takes on the case like he has no tomorrow.

It’s a plan that works well until he realises that the senior officer in the two-cop town is one of his exes, Tess Maguire.  Tess has demons of her own to lay to rest, and the last person she needs to see on her turf is Cato.  After all, where Cato goes, trouble follows, and so he does, making enemies faster than friends as he lifts the lid on migrant exploitation and upsets the power brokers of Hopetoun.

However, as their investigation proceeds and another death comes to light, the whole team becomes a potential target for an even more disturbed criminal mind whose crimes not only cross the decades, but half the world as well.

With a succinct and direct style, Alan Carter has written a novel that grips from the first page to the last. An immigrant to Australia from the UK, Carter has captured the dry Australian spirit accurately. His characters are well drawn and thought out and reflect their locales perfectly.  Carter’s familiarity with the Great Southern region adds to the tale and his personal experiences of Hopetoun and a mining boom give a depth of understanding many authors would do well to emulate.

Thank you to Fremantle Press for our review copy of Prime Cut .

Publication Year  2011

Publisher             Fremantle Press

Awards         Shortlisted, Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, 2010
Available        in Prime Cut ebook 2011 and Paperback Prime Cut 2011

Sample Chapter   PRIME CUT extract.pdf

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alan Carter was born in Sunderland, UK, in 1959. He holds a degree in Communications Studies from Sunderland Polytechnic and immigrated to Australia in 1991. Alan lives in Fremantle with his wife Kath and son Liam. He works as a television documentary director. In his spare time he follows a black line up and down the Fremantle pool. Prime Cut is Alan Carter’s first novel. He wrote it while he was living in Hopetoun as a kept man.
Awards - Winner, Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction, 2011Short listed, UK Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, 2010

An Interview with Sara Foster

DEEP CONNECTIONS

An Interview with Sara Foster the Author of Shallow Breath

Whilst most non-Australians struggle mimicking the Aussie drawl most readers of Sara Foster’s latest mystery Shallow Breath, set predominantly in Western Australia, would be surprised to learn that the author of this quintessential Aussie story has only lived there for eight years. 

English-born Foster has always felt the land down-under was her second home. Thanks to her Australian stepfather there were many childhood family visits to the sun-burnt country.

The best-selling psychological suspense author credits her “Aussie” friends and her travel around the country for her insight in creating authentic Australian characters in her latest mystery. “I’ve enjoyed talking to many different Australians with interesting stories from similar backgrounds to many of my characters before I began writing.”

Shallow Breath, set in the present day, with flashbacks to the early nineties, tells the tale of Desi, a woman who has done something terrible in her past and now returns from prison to her seaside home hoping to reconnect with her teenage daughter Maya. Maya is finding it difficult to forgive her Mother for her inexplicable actions.  

Told in five parts via multiple view-points, Desi recounts her life in the nineties whilst working at the West Australian iconic Atlantis Marine Park just as it was shutting its doors. It was there she met American Connor, a passionate marine biologist, with whom she develops a friendship which changes her life forever.

Foster spent months researching Atlantis and the true-life drama and public fascination surrounding the releasing of its tamed dolphins back into the wild upon the 1990 park closure. 

Foster continues, ‘I chatted to a lady who lived locally and had worked in the restaurants there who filled me in on extra details.  I also talked to a lot of people who had been visitors and remembered the dolphin shows well and provided their own photos.”

Ironically, one of Foster’s friends with whom she had lost touch approached her on her launch night telling her she used to work with the dolphins there. “I had no idea,” said the surprised author.

Strange connections like this were actually the inspiration for the book. The most relevant to the book reminisces Foster was not of the human-kind.  “In 1999 when I was diving on the Great Barrier Reef, I returned to the boat and was hanging on to a rope waiting to be helped out. I put my face underwater and found myself staring at a ten to thirteen foot minke whale less than an arm’s length away just watching me curiously.”

Instead of being frozen with fear, as Foster had expected to be on encountering an enormous creature, she was instead filled with wonder. “I certainly felt that there was an assessing, intelligent eye watching me.”

Foster counts this underwater encounter, as well as her ”travel to some amazing places”, as the fuel that has steadily grown her passion for conservation over the past twelve years. “Without that experience I don’t know if I would be quite so passionate about saving all the minke whales harpooned every year in the Southern Oceans,” she adds.

She also reminisces of “fabulous encounters” with wild dolphins and an hour-long play session with a baby sea lion in the Galapagos – “this little animal just bolted around me and mimicked whatever movement I made.”

          Readers of Shallow Breath will find themselves bang in the middle of an eco-warrior drama and Foster’s fervor for animal conservation shines. Foster often highlights conservation issues through her Twitter and Facebook accounts and a visit to her website www.shallowbreath.com provides information not only on her book but issues as wide-ranging as the dwindling orangutan population, horrific treatment of dolphins in Japan, and the plight of orphaned Kangaroo joeys after their mothers are killed in culls.
          “I’ve realised just how fragile so much of life is,” says Foster “and how an enormous swathe of the natural world is under threat today from industrial development without respect for nature or regard for long-term sustainability. Shallow Breath developed out of this interest, and I plan to continue talking about it and supporting different causes as much as I can.”

This book is Foster’s third and she admits that it can become “quite intense” juggling her family life in a northern Perth suburb with her young daughter. “Basically, whenever my husband isn’t working he is looking after our daughter while I am locked away with the laptop and piles of draft chapters. I try not to take on too many deadlines so our family life isn’t pushed aside for too long but it’s definitely a challenge.”

With the rise and rise of e-books, and the changes in the industry, Foster believes that “the terror of physical books ‘dying’ is probably a bit of an overreaction.”  Instead she hopes the flexibility offered by e-books may create earning opportunities for writers. “I really admire people like Hugh Howey, whom I think has been particularly savvy in the way he has published his books in different territories.”

Despite her mastery of the Australian vernacular, and without ruling out a future sequel to Shallow Breath, Foster won’t be returning immediately to the island continent in her next book. “I think I’m going to go for some more dark and unusual family secrets in a psychological suspense set over the course of one night in the Lake District in England. Watch this space!”

Read our review of Shallow Breath. CLICK HERE

Review Copy supplied by RANDOM HOUSE Australia. For more information please visit http://www.randomhouse.com.au

For a FREE First Chapter of Shallow Breath CLICK HERE

Visit The Shallow Breath Website to learn how Sara blended fact with fiction to create SHALLOW BREATH.

Release Dates: Australia and New Zealand: December 2012

PURCHASING DETAILS 
You can purchase Shallow Breath from all good books stores in Australia.

E-Book for Australians and International: Amazon   Amazon UK
if you are overseas or in Australia, you can ALSO purchase direct from the author's website.
CLICK HERE.

The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton ★ ★ ★★

NOT YOUR STANDARD HEROINE

 

           Reviewed by Tracy Harris

 

When a small company has a default on a payment or loan, they call in the debt collectors. But who does an International, multi-million dollar business call in when someone has defrauded them of over US$50,000,000?

The answer is simple, or for those in the know, at least. Ava Lee, a Canadian born Forensic Accountant who has partnered with her “Uncle” Chow Tung, an elderly Hong Kong based Chinese businessman who may, or may not, have close connections with the Triad gangs.

For Tommy Ordonez, the richest, self-made millionaire in the Phillipines, they are the answer. As Ava begins her investigations, starting with Tommy’s North American based brother, Phillip Chow, she soon discovers a complex real estate fraud case that ultimately links back to the shady world of on-line gambling. Travelling through San Francisco, Las Vegas, Vancouver and London, Ava is forced to watch her back as a contract has been put on her by a disgruntled adversary.

Not your standard heroine, Ava is not prepared to let others do the dirty work and, in her line of business, it can certainly get dirty. Cool and calm, she refuses to be flustered when attacked by anonymous strangers, hit men or even confronted with matchmaking close friends.

Ava is an unusual character whose unique personality adds to the tale. An exotic combination of traditional and respectful Chinese culture and modern Canadian values, Ava is not prepared to back down from any confrontation, nor allow herself or her colleagues to be manipulated into actions which are not of any benefit to themselves. Tough, resourceful, chic and incredibly intelligent, it’s certainly a wild ride as we follow Ava on her business trip like no other.

Ian Hamilton has lead an exciting life working as a journalist, a senior executive with the federal government, a diplomat, and a businessman with international links. His first book, a non-fiction publication, was published almost 40 years before his first Ava Lee novel. Fortunately, his experiences from travelling throughout the world have given him an excellent background to draw upon for his current series. Like Ava, Ian and his wife are based in Canada.

If you are a fan of strong female characters who don’t back down in a crisis and who don’t take prisoners, the Ava Lee series is certainly one you don’t want to miss. Be warned, there are punches thrown and blood spilled so if, as a reader, you’d prefer to avoid violence, this is not the book for you.

 

The review copy of 'The Disciple of Las Vegas' supplied by NetGalley.

For more information about this book, click through to Hachette website The Disciple of Las Vegas 

RELEASED:  November 2012

More Information from the Publisher Hachette Australia

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

          

It was a life-threatening health scare that prompted Ian Hamilton to write his first in the series of captivating Ava Lee novels. Just two days out of hospital and recovering from surgery, Ian sat down at his computer. The name ‘Ava Lee’ came to him and the first chapter was quickly written. A few short weeks later, the first Ava Lee novel was completed.

Ian is not a stranger to the literary world. He began his career as a journalist and wrote a non-fiction book in 1968, The Children’s Crusade, which was a Canadian Book-of-the-Month selection. He has written for several magazines and newspapers in Canada and the U.S., including Maclean’s, Boston Magazine, Saturday Night, the Regina Leader-Post, the Calgary Albertan, and the Calgary Herald. He has been a senior executive with the federal government, and as worked internationally as a diplomat and businessman. Although there are 40 years between books, Ian never lost his passion for writing.

The years he spent travelling the world on business, spending countless hours on planes and hotels, became important influences on his writing, providing personal insights into the world of business and into the many people, places and cultures Ava Lee encounters.

His inspiration for the Ava Lee series did not end when the first book was complete. About half way through writing the first book, an idea for the second book came to Ian and he built it into the plot of the first. He began writing the second book the day after the first book was finished. The same is true for the third and fourth books. Within eight months, all four books were complete. Ian secured a four-book deal from his publisher before the last two books were even read by the publisher. International rights have been sold into the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany and worldwide Spanish and French rights.

Ian is currently working on the continuation of the Ava Lee series and has already completed books 5 and 6.

Ian lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife Lorraine. He has four children and seven grandchildren.

Visit this author's website  http://ianhamiltonbooks.com/

 

The Tsunami Countdown by Boyd Morrison ★ ★ ★★

A THRILLER OF A RIDE

(In the USA known as “The Rogue Wave”)

It was twelve-thirty a.m. and my husband was falling asleep.  ‘How much longer are you going to read?’ he mumbled.

‘It’s eleven minutes until the tsunami hits and there is no way I’m leaving now,’ I answered. And I kept reading “The Tsunami Countdown” by Boyd Morrison until the wave hit, and then kept going until my weary eyes forced me to put it down somewhere around two a.m.

And on the next night I was there again until the wee small hours because there was no way I was going to sleep before I finished this book.  Of course, the next day was a tsunami of exhaustion but it was worth it.

This book grabs you on the first page, hurls you along faster than the impending wave and leaves you panting for breath at the conclusion.  It is cinematic in scope and style. In fact, as much as it would make a great movie, you really don’t need a film to capture the imagery.  Boyd Morrison does a brilliant enough job with his words. 

The story lands us smack bang in the Pacific Ocean during an airliner crash from an unexplained explosion.  There are no survivors.  Kai Tanaka, the new and untested assistant director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Honolulu, notices a minor seismic disturbance in that region but it does not seem big enough to cause a Tsunami. 

However, it becomes clear when they lose contact with Christmas Island and its three thousand inhabitants, and a remote sensor in the region, Kai begins to suspect there is a disaster on its way within the hour.  He must make the decision whether to warn Hawaii and save millions of lives including his wife and daughter.  There is a lot at stake if he is wrong.  It will cost the State a fortune and he will lose his job. 

What happens after the wave hits is incredible and exciting as Kai and a band of survivors struggle to stay alive as the greatest Tsunami ever imagined strikes the Islands, destroying everything in its path.

Michael Crichton fans will eat this book up and if you are going to indulge in this thrilling adventure novel, then be sure to stock up on energy drinks (for the weary next day) as the impending wave picks you up from your life and dumps you in Boyd Morrison’s world. From the first page until the last there is no escape.

My review copy of 'The Tsunami Countdown' supplied by Hachette Australia. For more information about this book, click through to Hachette website HERE.

RELEASED: DECEMBER 2012

More from the Publisher Hachette Australia

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
(in his own words) 

My wife and I had a unique agreement. After we had been married for three years, she decided to attend medical school, but having earned an English degree in college, she needed two years for her pre-med requirements. So that meant nine years of pre-med, med school, and residency, during which time I was the wage-earner with a full-time job, unable to spend much time on my passion, writing fiction. When she became a practicing physician, I got nine years to make my dream come true and become a published author as she supported me. It was a great deal. I did it in less than five years.

I took a roundabout route to becoming a novelist. Fresh from earning a BS in mechanical engineering from Rice University, I got a job with Lockheed working on the Space Station Freedom project at Johnson Space Center. I got to play with a lot of cool stuff like the space shuttle and station mockups, the robot arm, and the Precision Air-Bearing Floor, which is like a giant air hockey table that simulates microgravity. The best experience I had was when my job required me to fly on NASA's Vomit Comet, the same KC-135 plane used to train astronauts for zero gravity and to film the space sequences in the movie, Apollo 13. I didn't vomit.

After a couple of years at NASA, I decided to go back to grad school and get a PhD in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech. My specialty in ergonomics came in handy at RCA, where I designed electronic program guides for TVs and digital satellite systems. During my career at RCA, I earned eleven US patents.

When my wife and I moved to Seattle for her residency at the University of Washington, I got every ten-year-old boy's fantasy job in the Xbox games group at Microsoft. As a usability manager, it was my responsibility to make games as fun and user-friendly as possible. Yes, I got paid to play video games. I was credited on both PC and Xbox games, including Project Gotham Racing 2, Flight Simulator 2004, and Forza Motorsport. I left Microsoft to become a full-time writer, but I'm still a gamer.

In 2003 I fulfilled a lifelong dream and became a Jeopardy! Champion. To see exactly which questions I got right and wrong, check out my two games on the Jeopardy! Archive. You can find out how I got onto the show in this article.

VISIT Boyd Morrison's Website http://www.boydmorrison.com/

 

 

Dangerous Waters by Toni Anderson

A RECIPE FOR SUSPENSE

 

 

Dangerous Waters is the fifth book from Toni Anderson and the second one I’ve read.   And I can report that if you enjoyed her previous suspense romance, EDGE OF SURVIVAL, or any of her other stories for that matter, then this latest tale will not disappoint. Anderson follows a formula which I am sure fans of her books will wholeheartedly applaud.

Her recipe for a successful suspense seems very simple but certainly difficult to replicate if you haven't her talent for plotting.  Take a feisty police investigator, Sergeant Holly Rudd, and place her in the middle of a mystery in the wild setting of Barkley Sound, notorious for dangerous swells.  Throw in a beyond handsome suspect in Finn Carver, who just happens to be a former special services soldier, and you have a recipe for a thumping page-turner.

Whilst diving on a just discovered local wreck, Finn Carver and Dr. Thom Edgefield discover a submerged body stabbed to death   Thom, thirty years before, lost his six-week-old baby and wife to an unsolved murder.  His two-year-old daughter was never found and he never stopped trying to unravel the mystery. When he sees Holly he is flawed by her resemblance to his dead wife but Holly is certain they are not related.  Besides she has other problems to contend with in her investigation.

She has already made the mistake of sleeping with a fellow officer before realizing he was married, so she is not making another mistake by giving in to her wild desire for a suspect in her latest murder case, Finn Carver.

There is a cast of suspicious characters, including Finn’s brother Brent who has recently been freed from prison.  As Holly moves closer to untangling the web of secrets she finds herself in danger, not only from a murderer, but also of falling hopelessly in love with a man, whom she fears will only compromise her.

Grab yourself a coffee and a sweet treat and sit yourself down with a fulfilling read from an author who knows how to flavour her stories with the right mix of suspense and steamy romance.

RELEASE DATE:  November 20, 2012

For more information and to purchase please visit Toni's Books
Toni Anderson's Blog: http://tonianderson.blogspot.com.au/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TONI ANDERSON is a former marine biologist who conducted her Ph.D. at the Gatty Marine Laboratory in St. Andrews, Scotland, and traveled the world with her work. She was born and raised in rural Shropshire, England but, having lived in five different countries, finally settled in the Canadian prairies with her husband and two children—about as far from the ocean as possible. She combines her love of travel with her love of Romantic Suspense and writes stories based in some of the places she’s been lucky enough to visit.

She’s a member of Romance Writers of America, Kiss of Death Chapter, and The International Thriller Writers’ Association.

When not writing, she’s walking the dog, gardening or ferrying the kids between school, piano, and soccer games.
           Toni is represented by Jill Marsal of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency, LLC

Visit Toni Anderson's Website for more information on her and her books. http://www.toniandersonauthor.com/#

LIFE AFTER LIFE by Kate Atkinson ★ ★ ★★★

A CLASSIC IS BORN

 

Kate Atkinson’s LIFE AFTER LIFE is amazing, incredible, unique, extraordinary, page-turning, surprising, moving.    Still all these superlatives fall short in their praise.  It’s that special.

Even labelling presents difficulty.  It’s an historic tale set during WWI and WW2. It’s a supernatural tale of re-incarnation.  It’s an alternate history in part. It’s beautiful literature with sentences so poetic you read them more than once.  And it’s a drama of secrets that unfold so teasingly that you want to skip ahead so bad your fingers itch.  But you dare not because Atkinson has framed and paced her story so perfectly you know you will miss out.  As you close the final page you want to open the first page and start all over again. This is a book you want to own and not borrow from a friend.  You want to touch its cover later and remember how you felt as you read it. 

Ursula Todd is born on February 11^th, 1910 to wealthy English parents but dies immediately only to be reborn again.  This time she lives longer and we learn more about her life and family.  But again she dies and is reborn to a new life with slightly altered events.  It is an era fraught with danger from illness, accidents and dangerous friends and strangers.  In each new life Ursula retains a Déjà vu sense of her previous downfall and is able to avoid  those deaths only to face new challenges. Her deaths are varied and surprising and whilst some lives are short, in some she lives to middle-age. Atkinson’s mastery of pacing creates a marvelous rollercoaster ride, so we never really know when the next death will arrive.

Through Ursula’s and her family’s eyes we experience life in early twentieth century England and the horror and tragedy of the two World Wars; once even behind the German lines up close and personal with Hitler. The detail is meticulous and the feeling of witnessing history uncanny.

LIFE AFTER LIFE is a thought-provoking rarity and sometimes these beauties cannot be analysed. Somewhere in the words, the emotions, between the ink on the page, a magic is born.  On February 11^th, 1910 Ursula Todd is born, a classic wondrous character, surely to be loved by generations of readers.

 

My review copy of Life After Life thanks to the hardworking people at RANDOM HOUSE Australia.
For more information please visit http://www.randomhouse.com.au

Release Dates: Australia and New Zealand: 18^th March 2013

To Pre-order or purchase after release date in Australia  click here
Available in Hard Cover, Paperback and eBook.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

         Kate Atkinson was born in York and now lives in Edinburgh. Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and has been a critically acclaimed international bestselling author ever since.

         She is the author of a collection of short stories, Not the End of the World, and of the critically acclaimed novels Human Croquet, Emotionally Weird, Case Histories, and One Good Turn.

         Case Histories introduced her readers to Jackson Brodie, former police inspector turned private investigator, and won the Saltire Book of the Year Award and the Prix Westminster.

          When Will There Be Good News? was voted Richard & Judy Book Best Read of the Year. After Case Histories and One Good Turn, it was her third novel to feature the former private detective Jackson Brodie, who also made a welcome return in Started Early, Took My Dog.  Kate was awarded an MBE in the Queen's 2011 Birthday Honours, for services to literature.

Useful Links

• Visit Kate Atkinson's official website
• Follow Kate Atkinson on Facebook
• Follow Jackson Brodie on Twitter
• Sign up to Kate Atkinson's enewsletter for updates

 

The Divergent Trilogy by Veronica Roth

Its not easy being different

 

Harry Potter was very concerned about joining Hogwart’s faction Slytherin as it seemed a breeding ground for bullies, where as Hufflepuff was mostly filled with jolly wizards.  But in Veronica Roth’s dystopian novels, Divergent and Insurgent, factions are a life commitment and there isn’t a chatty sorting hat in sight.

Roth by the age of 23 had best sellers on her hands with Divergent and its follow up Insurgent.  In 2012 she added a movie deal for her trilogy and is one of the new breed of authors, like the Hunger Games' Suzanne Collins, capturing the imagination of young readers by supplying a bleak future for humanity. 

In a dystopian Chicago, the population has divided themselves into five very different groups abiding by a strict code of conduct; their behaviour almost genetically implanted in them.  These factions, the citizens decide, allow them to live harmoniously.

Beatrice is born into Abnegation (the Selfless), and we meet her on her sixteenth birthday when she must choose to stay in her faction or transfer, and live the rest of her life in one of the other factions—Erudite (the Intelligent), Candor (the Honest), Amity (the Peaceful), Dauntless (the Brave).  Before deciding their future alliance all candidates must undertake an aptitude test to assist their decision.  Beatrice results are not so clear cut; unbeknown to her she is divergent with an aptitude to fit into more than one faction, a seemingly dangerous trait. 

At the ‘Choosing Ceremony’ she transfers to Dauntless, forsaking her family.  In her first hours at Dauntless she discovers they demand new initiates survive a ruthless initiation program for a limited ten spots.  The unsuccessful will become ‘Factionless’, a terrible fate of bleak homelessness.  During the program Beatrice, now renamed ‘Tris’, befriends fellow initiates and discovers that her talent for the tests creates dangerous enemies.  Despite her best efforts she also finds herself attracted to their seemingly heartless trainer, Tobias "Four" Eaton.

Insurgent follows on directly from Divergent, taking Tris and her collaborators on a journey into the true origin of the Factions. They will fight for the future of all divergents against faction leaders whose goal is anything but harmony between factions. 

The final in the trilogy is due for release in 2013.

My review copies of DIVERGENT and INSURGENT thanks to the fantastic people at Harper Collins Australia
 

To buy or learn more visit Divergent and Insurgent 
eBook is also available here eBook

Release Dates: 2011 and 2012
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Veronica Roth graduated from Northwestern University with a degree in creative writing. While she was a student, she often chose to work on the story that would become ‘Divergent’ instead of doing her homework. It was indeed a transforming choice. Now a full-time writer, Ms Roth lives near Chicago.
DIVERGENT is her first novel.
Visit Veronica Roth's Official Blog: http://veronicarothbooks.blogspot.com.au/