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More than Murder by Jayne Chard

By Erin Britton

1 May, 2025

Julia Fortnam has been retired for 92 days, two hours and 35 minutes, and boredom has started to set in. In fact, it’s getting so bad that she might have to actually start writing the book she has been talking about for so long. That’s…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

The Grapevine by Kate Kemp

By DeathBecomesHer

28 April, 2025

It’s coming up to Christmas in Canberra, and young Tammy is not looking forward to the long summer holidays. She’s certain the time will drag, and even begs her teacher for a vacation project but instead is told to go and enjoy herself for a…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

Black Water Rising by Sean Watkin

By DeathBecomesHer

15 April, 2025

It has been a popular crime fiction setting for years, thanks to the likes of Luca Veste and Kevin Sampson, and Liverpool has seen something of a renaissance lately, helped by The Responder and This City is Ours on the BBC. Time to add another…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

The Department by Jacqueline Faber

By Sonja van der Westhuizen

25 February, 2025

Jacqueline Faber’s debut novel is a dark academic thriller perfect for readers who enjoyed Joanne Harris’s St Oswald trilogy or Leigh Bardugo’s Ninth House and Hellbent. The story centres around the disappearance of a college student at an unnamed university in America’s South, and the…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris

By DeathBecomesHer

10 January, 2025

Last year I read and reviewed Here One Minute by Liane Moriarty, and it changed my attitude to flying. The book’s central character is an elderly woman who stands up on a flight between Hobart, Tasmania and Sydney, Australia and proceeds to tell each of…

iBook Kindle Print Reviews

Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney

By DeathBecomesHer

20 December, 2024

In a world populated by off-kilter characters, it takes a certain something to make a protagonist memorable for a crime fiction reader. For me there are just a handful that stick out – Elizabeth in Emma Healey’s Elizabeth is Missing, for example; Liz Nugent’s Strange…

Features

Best debut crime novel of 2024 shortlist

By crimefictionlover

18 November, 2024

It’s always a pleasure to welcome new crime writers into the fold, and 2024 has been a vintage year for first class debuts. CFL readers are a discerning lot, and this super sextet they have nominated offer an eclectic mix, to say the least. Let’s…

Kindle Print Reviews

You Can’t Hurt Me by Emma Cook

By Dave Bradley

7 November, 2024

This is Emma Cook’s first crime novel, but it arrives with the confidence of an accomplished author. And so it should, because although this standalone mystery is her first book of genre fiction, Cook is an experienced newspaper editor and author of several non-fiction works….

Crime Fiction Lover

More than Murder by Jayne Chard

The Grapevine by Kate Kemp

Black Water Rising by Sean Watkin

The Department by Jacqueline Faber

An Ethical Guide to Murder by Jenny Morris

Deadly Animals by Marie Tierney

Best debut crime novel of 2024 shortlist

You Can’t Hurt Me by Emma Cook

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