WWW Wednesday – 18 March 2026

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WWW Wednesday is a weekly post hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that they’ve recently finished, what they are currently reading and what books they are planning to read next. Essentially you have to answer three questions (the Three Ws):

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

So, let’s get to it.

What are you currently reading:

Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox (ebook)

I’ve started reading the upcoming Australian crime fiction novel, Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox this week.  Another cool outback thriller from one of Australia’s most well-known authors, Redbelly Crossing has a great plot behind it, as two estranged brothers/cops, attempt to solve a dark murder in a small town.  However, it soon becomes clear that only one of the brothers wants to solve the case, while the other wants to bury it by any means they can.  I’ve already made a ton of progress on Redbelly Crossing, and it’s proving to be an impressive and complex read, filled with damaged characters.  I’m about two thirds of the way through this book at the moment, and I’m very curious to see how the entire thing comes together.

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Pretenders to the Throne of God by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Audiobook)

I’ve also recently started listening to the excellent fantasy audiobook, Pretenders to the Throne of God by the legendary Adrian Tchaikovsky.  The fourth book in Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers series, Pretenders to the Throne of God follows various individuals caught up in a siege of a fantasy city, all of whom have their own problems and agendas.  I’m really loving this book so far, which blends great personal storylines with a unique setting to create an exceptional read. I’m hoping to get through a good chunk of Pretenders to the Throne of God in the next week, and I’m curious to see what cool characters and storylines emerge the further we get into it.

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What did you recently finish reading?

The Shark by Emma Styles (Trade Paperback)

I managed to knock off the cool Australian thriller, The Shark this week. The second book from author Emma Styles, The Shark is an intriguing crime fiction novel that follows two young women determined to find and stop a serial killer currently terrorising Perth.  A cool and interesting read that I am hoping to review soon.

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The Hard Line by Mark Greaney (Audiobook)

I’ve also powered through the audiobook version of the new Gray Man novel by Mark Greaney this week, The Hard Line.  A very impressive new entry in one of my favourite spy thriller series, The Hard Line sees the protagonist attempt to stop a series of assassinations across the United States, while being hunted by a vengeful assassin, who has come out of retirement specifically to take out the Gray Man.  The Hard Line was another exceptional novel from Greaney, and I really enjoyed where this elaborate entry in the series went.  A highly recommended and thrilling read.

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What Rhymes With Murder by Penny Tangey (ebook)

I had fun quickly reading the entertaining cosy murder mystery, What Rhymes With Murder this week. An intriguing and exciting debut novel from Tangey that makes good use of its parent-based plot.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates by Shailee Thompson

I’m in the mood for more cool debuts so the next book I am hoping to check out is the first book from Australian author Shailee Thompson, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates. A very entertaining sounding read that will feature a deadly series of murders at a speed dating event, in fun and apparently romantic, horror novel. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates sounds like the perfect book for me, and I look forward to seeing how crazy it turns out to be.

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That’s it for this week; check back in next Wednesday to see what progress I’ve made on my reading and what books I’ll be looking at next.

Warhammer 40,000: The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Throwback Thursday, Tie-in Novel, WarhammerLeave a comment

Publisher: Black Library (Audiobook – 1 February 2012)

Series: Ciaphas Cain – Book Eight

Length: 9 hours and 29 minutes

My Rating: 4.75 out of 5 stars

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The mighty hero of the Imperium returns for another rip-roaring and highly entertaining Warhammer 40,000 adventure, with The Last Ditch by Sandy Mitchell, a wonderful Ciaphas Cain novel that proves exceptionally hard to put down.

I have been in a real Warhammer 40,000 mood lately, so I decided to continue my exploration of the franchise by diving back into one of its best and most hilarious series with another Ciaphas Cain novel by Sandy Mitchell.  The Ciaphas Cain series are particularly awesome Warhammer 40,000 novels that follow the adventures of the legendary human hero Commissar Ciaphas Cain as he faces down the many horrors the grimdark Warhammer universe has to offer.  However, what sets the series apart from other series in the franchise is the fantastic tongue-in-cheek way in which the supposed hero of the series sees himself as a substantial coward concerned more with his own survival, and whose heroic exploits are down more to luck and chance.  This results in a fantastic collection of books, each one of which throws the protagonist into danger despite his best efforts, often resulting in a series of hilarious and over-the-top adventures.  I have had an outstanding team reading the previous entries in the series, including For the Emperor, Caves of Ice, The Traitor’s Hand, Death or Glory, Duty Calls, Cain’s Last Stand and The Emperor’s Finest, and I have been eager to read the eighth novel in the series, The Last Ditch for some time.

Commissar Ciaphas Cain, famed hero of the Imperium of Man, is at the height of his legendary career, fighting back the many enemies of humanity despite his best attempts to stay out of battle.  However, despite his reputation usually landing him in the most challenging of conflicts, Cain’s next mission seems to be relatively straightforward.  Once again accompanied by the Valhallan 597th regiment of Imperial Guard, Cain is tasked with eradicating a simple ork infestation on the frozen planet of Nusquam Fundumentibus.  However, not even Cain’s most pessimistic musings of the future can prepare him for the horrors to come.

Travelling aboard a disreputable freighter, Cain and his soldiers are forced to make a deadly crashlanding on Nusquam Fundumentibus, right into the middle of an ork horde.  Engaged in a desperate fight for their lives against the greenskins, the Imperial Guard are blind to other threats hiding on the planet, threats that are far more insidious than a group of rampaging orks.

As the conflict continues and several isolated communities on the planet start to go dark, Cain soon becomes aware that something apart from the orks are stalking the citizens of Nusquam Fundumentibus.  Something ancient and malevolent lies hidden beneath the ice of the planet, and the new war has finally woken them up.  Outnumbered and outmatched, the Imperial Guard need to pull a desperate and no doubt suicidal plan to survive.  Luckily, they have a bonified hero to lead the charge, even if he’d rather be anywhere else in the galaxy.

The always outstanding Ciaphas Cain series continues in impressive form, as Sandy Mitchell adds further depth to some of the more entertaining and gripping novels in the Warhammer 40,000 franchise.  Combining intense action with the protagonist’s unique insights into the grimdark Warhammer universe, The Last Ditch was a brilliant addition to the series that I couldn’t get enough of.

Mitchell once again came up with an outstanding narrative for The Last Ditch that grabs your attention early on and keeps you hooked to the very end.  I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about reading The Last Ditch, as it looked like Mitchell was going to rehash the similar ice-world story found in Caves of Ice.  However, this book has a very different narrative, while still maintaining all the familiar story elements that make this series to dependable to read.  Starting off on a different footing with a fun transport arc that ends in deadly tears, The Last Ditch has an explosive first third (literally), which provided a lot of initial drama and risk.

The Last Ditch’s story quickly dives into even more awesome action, as the protagonist is reluctantly forced into action against the orks, while other dangerous threats lurk beneath the surface.  I liked how Mitchell did a good job building up tension in advance of the reveal about the true antagonists of the novel, with the reader knowing that something worse was coming thanks to Cain’s prescient narration from the future, and the author used this time to expand on his new setting.  The eventual sequence revealing this enemy had a great horror vibe to it as Cain explored tight quarters underground, and it led naturally into an extended campaign.  The rest of the book is a good mixture of connected action scenes, as Cain and the other characters slowly work out just how desperate the situation is and attempt to take steps to address it.  This works well as an overarching narrative, and you really appreciate the scope of the situation and the protagonist’s continued accidental heroics as he tries to run away.

All this perfectly leads up to a final big sequence, where the desperate protagonists are forced into a particularly brutal fight with little hope of survival.  Unsurprisingly, this requires Cain to engage in another suicide mission, which leads to some of the best action scenes in the entire book.  This entire last section of The Last Ditch is a particularly awesome thrill ride which I powered through so very quickly to see how everything came to an end.  Readers come away very satisfied from The Last Ditch, which honestly was one of the stronger books in this cool series, and I really enjoyed how Mitchell continues to entertain with his amazing and entertaining Warhammer 40,000 premise.

Mitchell maintains pretty much the same writing style for The Last Ditch he has previously utilised in the other Ciaphas Cain books, which allows for a very impressive light read.  It is told primarily in a chronicle/journal format written by an older Cain, which recounts the events of this adventure through the narrow focus of the protagonist’s unreliable memory.  This allows for a fun and self-centred take on events that examines Cain’s reluctant action while also loading up the story with some entertaining humour that provides a great satirical look at the usually grimdark Warhammer 40,000 universe.  This main narrative of action, adventure and supposedly cowardly behaviour is cleverly interspersed with a range of entertaining footnotes, commentary and in-universe texts that have been provided by the account’s patient, if sarcastic, editor, Inquisitor Amberly Vail.  This combination of narrative elements not only cleverly provides readers with and informative and light-hearted look at events taking place outside of Cain’s selfish storytelling, but it also pumps up both the humour and the stakes of the plot, especially as you become aware of the planet-wide impacts of the central adventure.

As with all the books in the series, The Last Ditch does work well as a standalone novel that readers can enjoy without any previous knowledge of the other Ciaphas Cain books, or indeed the wider Warhammer 40,000 universe.  While this novel is set in the middle of Cain’s personal chronology and makes mentions of several previous adventures, readers should have no trouble following along, with the point of these references made clear quickly through the writing and context.  Established fans of the series will also have a lot of fun with this book, especially as Mitchell continues Cain’s adventures with the Valhallan 597th, and there are a lot of entertaining familiar beats with this newer entry.  Like many of the previous books, The Last Ditch does have some repetition issues, with Mitchell reusing a lot of basic story ideas and phrases in Cain and Vail’s descriptions that returning readers will notice.  However, I felt that this entry was distinctive enough, especially with a more horror vibe to it, that any readers can come in and easily enjoy it.  This allows The Last Ditch to remain an awesome addition to the overall series, and it’s one I personally had an outstanding time getting through.

I also must once again highlight some of the great character work in this novel, especially when it comes to the main character of Commissar Ciaphas Cain.  A complex figure and self-professed coward, Cain spends most of the book trying to come up with ways to avoid combat and survive the inevitable danger his reputation and own bad lack force him to participate in.  With a very cynical and self-deprecating writing style, Mitchell always tries to emulate classic, comedic and craven military figures like Flashman or Blackadder with his depictions of Cain.  However, despite the protagonist’s best efforts to showcase himself as a dishonourable coward, his resultant heroic actions and Inquisitor Vail’s notes help to show the reader that his is somewhat lying to both us and himself, as he continues to be an inspirational figure.  This allows for quite a complex and relatively light-hearted read, as you are constantly wondering just how honest the protagonist is being with his observations and descriptions of his actions.  This all blends well with Cain’s witty and sarcastic humour, which lightly lampoons the usually serious Warhammer 40,000 universe and ensures that you are constantly entertained as you follow Commissar Cain into danger once again.

The rest of the cast of this novel are also a ton of fun, especially as many fan favourite characters from the previous novels are well utilised here.  This includes Cain’s faithful aide, Jurgen, who continues to toe the line between gormless soldier and ultra-effective sidekick, and is a very entertaining inclusion in any of these books.  Inquisitor Amberly Vail once again has a big impact, despite her actual appearance in the novel being quite negligible, and her no-nonsense overarching commentary allows for quite an amusing read.  The returning members of the Valhallan 597th regiment were a welcome inclusion, and it is always cool to see the close relationship that Cain has with these soldiers after so many adventures.  Throw in a young gung-ho commissar that Cain is forced to school, and a planetary governor trying to stay in control of her planet amongst the chaos of war, and the cast of The Last Ditch was pretty exceptional and continues Mitchell’s habit of showcasing entertaining and complex supporting characters.

I have long extolled the impressive virtues of the audiobook format when it comes to Warhammer 40,000 fiction, as it is just so much fun having the over-the-top stories read out loud.  Some of the very best Warhammer books in this format are the Ciaphas Cain audiobooks, due to their elaborate casts and the fantastic way their narrators capture the unique style of the series.  This is particularly true for The Last Ditch, which was another absolute joy to listen to, as its amazing narrators perfectly captured both the humour and complex action.  Coming in with a decent run time of nine and a half hours, listeners can absolutely fly through The Last Ditch audiobook, which once again features all the awesome elements that the rest of the series had.  This includes the use of several different narrators, with the incredible vocal talents of Stephen Perring, Penelope Rawlins, Emma Gregory, Toby Longworth and Andrew James Spooner, all adding a lot to the impact of this fun and fantastic story.

Perring is particularly awesome as he voices the main plot of The Last Ditch from the perspective of Cain.  Voicing the protagonist’s conflicted memories of the events, Perring perfectly captures the complex personality of the main character, while also providing a fun take on the action and adventure occurring around the protagonist.  Perring has a great range of different voices for this part of the book, with each of the characters getting a very fitting tone that showcases their separate personalities, including many recurring voices the narrator used in previous audiobooks in the series.  Perring is once again supported by Penelope Rawlins, who voices the character of Inquisitor Amberley Vail as she edits Cain’s memoirs.  Rawlins really dives into the sarcastic character of Inquisitor Vail in these supporting parts of the book, providing a calm, indulgently humorous voice that fits the fun feel of the series.  Rawlins’s interruptions and inclusions as Vail complement Perring’s narration extremely well, adding some great  humour to the plot without ruining the flow of the main story.  These two narrators work together extremely well to bring out much of the book’s humour, and I love how they both have kept coming back to this series to ensure some excellent continuity.

While Perring and Rawlins do the main narration, the additional narrators each have a fun supporting role in proceedings.  Emma Gregory probably gets the most use of the three as she once again voices the memoirs of an ambitious officer in Cain’s regiment, retelling events in a particularly bombastic way.  Gregory deliberately over-acts her part of the audiobook to show off the brash personality of the memoir’s author, and you have to love the pomp and self-importance that Gregory adds to her voice work in these scenes.  The other two, Longworth and Spooner, both of whom are well-established narrators of Warhammer fiction in their own right, have a lot of fun with more minor supporting roles in The Last Ditch, and their cool, if short, inclusions added some fun variety to the experience.  The overall result was another excellent listen that really enhances the fun and impact of the story and the larger franchise.  I honestly think that the Ciaphas Cain series has some of the best audiobooks, and The Last Ditch perfectly showcased how well these books come across in this fun format.

With all the fun action, humour and great focus on a fantastically flawed protagonist fans have come to know and love, Sandy Mitchell continues his exceptional Ciaphas Cain Warhammer 40,000 series with The Last Ditch.  A wonderful and deeply entertaining read, The Last Ditch was a joy to read from start to finish and I had such a brilliant time with it.  Indeed, I enjoyed The Last Ditch so much that I immediately dove into the next book in the series, The Greater Good, the second I finished it.

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Top Ten Tuesday – Favourite Green Book Covers

On By The Unseen LibraryIn List3 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly challenge that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers creating and sharing lists on various book topics.  In this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants are tasked with listing their favourite books that have green covers in honour of Saint Patrick’s Day.

I always love lists that let me look at cool covers, and this was one of the more interesting ones I’ve had the chance to do.  It turns out that green is an awesome colour to use for book art, and a lot of novels I’ve loved over the years have made great use of green in their amazing covers.  As such, I was left with a huge list of potential covers to feature on this list.  I was eventually able to whittle it down to the very best, and I have included the 10 book covers (plus a few more in an honourable mentions section), that utilised this colour to its greatest effectiveness.  The resulting list is very cool, and I think it showcased an excellent cross section of books I’ve loved over the years with epic and green covers.

Honourable Mentions:

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

A great cover that makes strong use of green instead of the usual red we associate with Margaret Atwood’s books.

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Oaths of Damnation by Robbie Macniven

While there is a lot of focus on the red power armour of the Space Marine on this cover, I personally love the green mist and buildings in the background.  This green backdrop deeply enhances the already cool picture, and hints at the darker nature of these mysterious warriors.

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Colonyside by Michael Mammay

The green jungle really pops in this cool cover.

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The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

A simple but effective green cover that I’ve always enjoyed.

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Top Ten Tuesday:

Warboss by Mike Brooks

Thanks to an overabundance of green things throughout the franchise, there are several Warhammer 40,000 novels that I want to feature on this list, but I thought I would start off with an obvious choice and focus on a cover featuring the dangerous greenskins of this universe, the orks.  There were several ork focused covers I could have used here, but I liked the one for Warboss the most, mainly because it has the most variety and comedic charm.  This is one of the more entertaining covers I want to feature here, although special mention should also go to Brooks’ other ork Warhammer 40,000 books Brutal Kunnin and Da Big Dakka, both of which had great green covers.

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Inheritance by Christopher Paolini

A classic fantasy novel I had to feature here was the fourth and final original Eragon novel, Inheritance.  All four of the series’ original covers featured strong colours corresponding to a dragon from the plot, and this includes Inheritance, which features a cool green dragon.  The great inclusion of a new green dragon, plus the different shades of green around him as part of the cover really stood out to me, and this is one of first books I think of associated with the colour green.

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False Value by Ben Aaronovitch

Another cool fantasy novel that makes great use of the colour green in its cover is False Value by Ben Aaaronovtich.  The eighth book in the author’s Rivers of London series (all of which feature awesome covers), False Value really stands out thanks to its spooky use of green in the urban sprawl that makes up the cover.  The vivid and spectral bright green is very striking, and it also cleverly represents the ghostly nature of the investigation the protagonists are involved with.  An overall great cover that fits this interesting story extremely well.

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Boundless by R. A. Salvatore

I felt that the outstanding novel Boundless by legendary fantasy author R. A. Salvatore is a perfect inclusion here.  Featuring one of the book’s iconic Drow characters shaded in green, and with green colouration around him melding into a dark background, the cover for Boundless is pretty dawn awesome, and I’ve always loved its ethereal and intense vibe.

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Jingo by Terry Pratchett

It’s not an Unseen Library list without a Discworld novel, and for this post I decided to focus on Jingo, which features a gorgeous cover from unique author Josh Kirby (I featured Kirby’s expanded cover here).  While much of the action in this exaggerated cover takes place on brown/yellow ships, the use of green in the roiling ocean below is incredible, and it brings the entire artwork together perfectly.  I love the use of green here, and this cover was some of Kirby’s best work.

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Whisper in the Wind by Luke Arnold

I really enjoy the great mixture of smaller sketches and creatures layered throughout this cover, especially as the various shades of green stands out amongst the black and yellowish green of the boarder.  A fantastic cover that makes excellent use of various shades and combinations of green to prepare readers for the adventure to come.

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King’s Enemy by Ian Ross and The Wisdom of Crowds by Joe Abercrombie

I’m doing a joint entry here for these two epic books, because both use green in the same way with their covers.  Featuring an emerald, green banner bedeck with a lion, the King’s Enemy and The Wisdom of Crowds’ covers both look very striking, with the green standing out amongst the raging battle and war behind them.  I like these two covers equally, as while the green banner in The Wisdom of Crowds looks cooler, I love the green smoke coming up behind the banner in King’s Enemy.  It helps that both these novels are exceptional five-star reads, and I’m really happy to feature them both here.

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Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The green shaded, ruined world of the cover of Service Model is very awesome, and I think it sets the mood perfectly for this outstanding narrative.  An excellent cover for a hilarious and thought-provoking novel.

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Deathworlder by Victoria Hayward

Another very cool Warhammer 40,000 novel I needed to feature on this list, is the brutal novel Deathworlder, the debut novel from Victoria Hayward.  This cover really fits the dark and desperate nature of Deathworlder’s plot, and I love the cool green colours used throughout it.  The green colouration of the Catachan soldiers are cool at several levels, especially as it highlights the jungle fighting, camouflaged nature of these characters.  At the same time, it also works to show how the humans are no longer blending into the now alien infested world they find themselves on, with the once green plants turning purple all around them.  As such, the green really helps to tell part of Deathworlder’s story on the cover, and it looks outstanding as it does so.

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Green Lantern comics

For the final entry on this list, I really wanted to feature at least one comic cover that used a lot of green.  While I was tempted to highlight some Marvel comics thanks to a variety of green Hulks, I instead went down the DC Comics route and chose some covers that were utilised during Geoff Johns’ legendary Green Lantern run.  There were a ton of awesome covers during this period that were so damn exceptional thanks to their different uses of green, and I ended up deciding to feature a few here as they all looked cool in different ways.  This includes the below cover for the volume, Revenge of the Green Lanterns, which has some subtle green up front and centre, with protagonist Hal Jordan’s ring coming up in front of his obscured body and face.

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I also loved the cover used for another volume of the same run, Wanted: Hal Jordan.  The use of green is a lot more prominent for this volume, and I like how it is showcased with the desperate and damaged protagonist.

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The below cover for the Blackest Night comic is also extremely awesome, especially with the more muted green light from the protagonist’s ring providing some spooky green illumination to the zombie characters surrounding him.

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The final Green Lantern comic I want to feature is from the first volume of the Green Lantern (2011) series in The New 52.  While I’m not the biggest fan of The New 52 relaunch, the below cover was pretty baller with the green smoke and Green Lantern symbols, and it was so cool to see Sinestro in the green again after all these years.  A very worthy final entry for this list.

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And with those amazing comic covers, we’re at the end of my latest list.  I think the above collection of covers came together extremely well, and the resulting barrage of green looks amazing.  Not only are all the books and comics above pretty to look at, but they also feature some great stories that are really worth checking out.  Let me know what you think about my collection of covers below, and I’ll be interested to hear about your favourite green covers as well.

WWW Wednesday – 11 March 2026

On By The Unseen LibraryIn WWW WednesdayLeave a comment

WWW Wednesday is a weekly post hosted by Taking on a World of Words, where bloggers share the books that they’ve recently finished, what they are currently reading and what books they are planning to read next. Essentially you have to answer three questions (the Three Ws):

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

So, let’s get to it.

What are you currently reading:

The Shark by Emma Styles (Trade Paperback)

I just started reading the cool new Australian thriller, The Shark.  The second book from author Emma Styles, The Shark is an intriguing crime fiction novel that follows two young women determined to find and stop a serial killer currently terrorising Perth. Kidnapping the man everyone suspects to be the killer, the two protagonists are soon engaged in a dark battle of wills, especially when other women go missing while they have the supposed killer captured.  I’ve made a bit of progress on The Shark, and it is proving to be an interesting and cool read.

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The Hard Line by Mark Greaney (Audiobook)

I’ve also started listening to the audiobook version of the new Gray Man novel by Mark Greaney, The Hard Line.  A very impressive new entry in one of my favourite spy thriller series, The Hard Line sees the protagonist attempt to stop a series of assassinations across the United States, while being personally hunted by a vengeful assassin, who has come out of retirement specifically to take out the Gray Man.  The Hard Line is proving to be an exceptional listen, and I have made some real progress on this audiobook so far. I should be able to knock The Hard Line off in the next week, and I am extremely excited to see how this outstanding thriller comes together.

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What did you recently finish reading?

Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K. J. Parker (Trade Paperback)

I had a good time finishing off Sister Svangerd and the Not Quite Dead by K. J. Parker this week. A clever and fun fantasy novel, that followed a complicated monk and his murderous nun assistant as they investigate strange occurrences and deaths at a major religious conference, this book delivered all of Parker’s trademark chaos, clever humour and complex storytelling as he sets up another outstanding trilogy. A great read that I had a blast with.

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Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman (Audiobook)

I also powered through and finished the new Alex Delaware novel from Jonathan Kellerman, Jigsaw.  The latest entry in Kellerman’s long-running crime fiction series, Jigsaw sees the protagonists investigate two separate and complex murders which may have an interesting connection to each other. I got through Jigsaw extremely fast last week, and it proved to be another outstanding crime fiction read.

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What do you think you’ll read next?

Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox

The next book that I am hoping to read is the upcoming Australian crime fiction novel, Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox.  Another cool outback thriller from one of Australia’s most well-known authors, Redbelly Crossing has a great sounding plot behind it, as two estranged brothers/cops, attempt to solve a dark murder in a small town.  However, it soon becomes clear that only one of the brothers wants to solve the case, while the other wants to bury it by any means they can.  Sure to be a powerful and compelling read, Redbelly Crossing sounds very impressive, and I look forward to diving into it next.

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That’s it for this week; check back in next Wednesday to see what progress I’ve made on my reading and what books I’ll be looking at next.

Waiting on Wednesday – 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell

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Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy.  Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.  For this latest Waiting on Wednesday, I highlight a cool upcoming thriller with the awesome sounding 138 Main Street by Gavin Bell.

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I like to think that over the years I have more than proven my love for unique thrillers with intriguing or distinct plot ideas that are near guaranteed to produce amazing and highly entertaining reads.  As such, I always keep an eye out for these sorts of books, and few upcoming novels fit the bill more than the epic 2026 release 138 Main Street, the debut novel of new author Gavin Bell.

Set for release in May 2026, 138 Main Street features a very fun crime fiction concept, when a serial killer starts targeting people around the United States who live at a specific address, the titular 138 Main Street.  However, because of the sheer quantity of main streets in America, the FBI are unable to predict where the killer will strike next, resulting in nationwide panic, vigilante violence and more, as the killer plots a revolution.

I love this fantastic plot idea, which is honestly extremely brilliant and entertaining.  If Bell can back up this cool concept with an equally outrageous narrative and some great writing, then I think that 138 Main Street has the potential to be one of the more memorable and impressive crime fiction debuts of the year.  I cannot wait to see how this interesting new book unfolds, and 138 Main Street is sure to be an outstanding read.

Plot Synopsis:

138 MAIN

AN ADDRESS TO DIE FOR…

There’s a killer on the loose. And he’s targeting one specific address—138 Main Street. The problem? There are over 7,000 Main Streets in the USA. And the police and FBI have no clue which one will be next.

For FBI Special Agent Ben Walker and his rookie colleague, Officer Zoe Hill, the pressure to solve the case is unimaginable. There aren’t enough police officers to cover every house, and vigilante residents are attacking anyone who rings their doorbell. Main Street might be one of America’s most popular addresses, but for those living at number 138, it comes down to fight or flight.

Then a manuscript is sent to the New York Times, purporting to be the manifesto of the “Main Street Killer” and demanding radical social change. As the effect of the terror campaign takes hold across the nation, Walker and Hill find themselves in a race against time to stop the killer. But with their target always several steps ahead, and almost 3,800,000 square miles of ground to cover, they’ll have to find him first…

Top Ten Tuesday – Book Titles Featuring Ordinal Numbers

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Top Ten Tuesday is a fun weekly task that currently resides at The Artsy Reader Girl and features bloggers creating and sharing lists on various book topics.  For this week’s Top Ten Tuesday, participants need to list their favourite books that feature ordinal numbers in the title.  As defined by The Artsy Reader Girl topic page, ordinal numbers are numbers that define an item’s place in a series, for example whether it’s the first, second, third, etc, book in the series.

This was a very interesting topic, which I was curious to try out.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a lot of books I’ve read that specifically used a number in the title to correspond where it sat in the series.  As such, I’ve been a little creative with this subject and included some more unusual examples, as well as books where the number in the title corresponds to where the novel sits in the series.  I’ve also wasn’t too attached to putting the actual numbers in and have relied on a few number-based words (for example first instead of one, twice instead of two and so on).  This produced an interesting list from a bunch of different authors, and I ended up liking the final result.  So, let’s see what made the cut.

Honourable Mentions:

Fool Me Twice by Jeff Lindsay

The fun second book in Jeff Lindsay’s Riley Wolfe series.  A special shoutout also needs to go the third and fourth entries in the series, Three-Edged Sword and The Fourth Rule.

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The Two-Faced Queen by Nick Martell

The ultra-impressive second entry in Nick Martell’s The Legacy of the Mercenary Kings.  I’ve left this as an honourable mention as the name really is a coincidence tied to a character’s title.

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Top Ten List:

First Watch by Dale Lucas

My first choice for this list (pun intended), was the cool fantasy crime novel, First Watch by Dale Lucas.  An interesting read with an excellent mystery premise behind it, First Watch was the great first book in a series and a fun inclusion here.

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First and Only by Dan Abnett

Another ‘first’ book in a series that identified itself as such in the title was the cool Warhammer 40,000 novel, First and Only by Dan Abnett.  Book one in the iconic Gaunt’s Ghosts series, First and Only was a great opening entry that perfectly introduced the series’ scenario and solider characters.  An outstanding first book in one of my favourite Warhammer 40,000 series.

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Fool Me Once Harlan Coben

Another cool novel that proclaims’ where it sits in a series is the outstanding read, Fool Me Once from the always impressive Harlan Coben.  Previously a standalone novel, Fool Me Once just became the first book in a series after Coben released a sequel in 2025 with Nobody’s Fool, allowing for its inclusion on this list.

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Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry

I’m being slightly cheeky by including Patient Zero in this list, as it was technically book one in Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger series.  However, I think it’s appropriate because the premise of this novel is a team of elite operators attempting to hunt down and killing the first patient in a man-made zombie plague (i.e. the titular patient zero). In some ways, Patient Zero followed a similar trend as it was the first book in a series that quickly and relentlessly spread out into a massive, long-running franchise.  As such, I’m going to include Patient Zero on this list, and it comes very highly recommended for those who like an extreme, science fiction thriller.

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The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman

Moving onto the twos/twice, we have The Man Who Died Twice.  The second book in Richard Osman’s exceptional Thursday Murder Club series, The Man Who Died Twice was an excellent novel and a wonderful sequel.  A fun and hilarious inclusion for this list.

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The Third Day, The Frost by James Marsden

I just had to include The Third Day, The Frost here, as it is one of my favourite Australian novels.  While James Marsden took the name from a Shakespeare line, the title does also correspond with The Third Day, The Frost being the third book in the author’s iconic Tomorrow series.  I have a lot of love for this novel, especially as this third entry is easily the best entry in this outstanding young adult war series.  A highly recommended read and a very worthy novel to highlight in this post.

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Four Ruined Realms by Mai Corland

The next entry on this list is a little different, as the Four Ruined Realms is the second book in its series.  However, as the four decreases from the five in the first book, Five Broken Blades, I think that it counts as an ordinal number as it does indicate to readers where Four Ruined Realms lies in the Broken Blades series.  It helps that the third book in the series, Three Shattered Souls (which I still need to read), also negatively changed number to reflect its position in the series, relative to the five in the first book.  As such, I think this is an acceptable inclusion for this list, and an interesting loophole I’m happy to exploit.

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The Fifth Elephant by Terry Pratchett

Due to the name of this blog, I generally try to include one of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels on my lists, and for this Top Ten Tuesday I’m going to use The Fifth Elephant.  A fun and highly entertaining fantasy crime fiction novel set out in an entertaining Transylvania parody setting, The Fifth Elephant is a good inclusion for this list as it is the fifth book in the City Watch sub-series.  An excellent book that really expands the setting in some interesting directions for the rest of the Discworld series, The Fifth Elephant fits into this post perfectly, and I’m glad I could highlight Terry Pratchett’s legendary words again.

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The Malevolent Eight by Sebastien de Castell

This next entry is another slightly different inclusion, as The Malevolent Eight is really the second book in a series, rather than the eighth.  However, I’m including it here because The Malevolent Eight is the sequel to Sebastien de Castell’s fun, parody-titled dark fantasy novel, The Malevolent Seven, which as you can imagine brought together seven malevolent adventurers for a job.  The subsequent title of The Malevolent Eight helps to showcase this book as a sequel to The Malevolent Seven, and as such I think it counts as an ordinal number and a perfect inclusion for this list.  A highly recommended read as well, The Malevolent Eight is a ton of fun and I deeply enjoyed getting through it last year.

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Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh

The final book that I want to include on this list is the highly entertaining legal thriller, Witness 8.  A great read on its own, the eight in this title serves to refer to a malevolent witness who is manipulating the events of a trial for her own ends.  However, Witness 8 also serves as the eighth book in Steve Cavanagh’s outstanding Eddie Flynn series, so it also works as an ordinal number inclusion.  A very cool read whose title works on several levels, Witness 8 is an excellent novel for fans of crazy legal thrillers and the perfect book to end this post on.

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As you can see, I’ve had the pleasure of reading a few cool books with ordinal numbers in their titles over the years.  While I didn’t always follow the expected rules for this list, I quite like how it turned out, and I think it nicely shows off some of the unique novels that I have fun reading.  I had a great time pulling this latest list together, especially as I needed to think hard about the books I wanted to feature here, and I think the results speak for themselves.  Let me know what cool books you’ve enjoyed that had ordinal numbers in the title and make sure to check out some of the above awesome books when you get a chance.

Quick review – Whisky Valley by Joan Sauers

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery, Quick Review1 Comment

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (ebook – 3 June 2025)

Series: Southern Highland Mystery – Book 2

Length: 384 pages

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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Australian screenwriter Joan Sauers returns to the Southern Highlands with another cosy and compelling mystery Whisky Valley.

Back in 2023, I had the pleasure of reading Joan Sauers’s first book, Echo Lake, a cosy Australian mystery that really stood out thanks to its great use of several small towns in the picturesque Southern Highlands as a background setting.  While not my usual cup of tea, I quite enjoyed Echo Lake, especially as I drive through the Southern Highlands all the time, and I was curious when Sauers released a sequel novel last year.  This second book from Sauers, Whisky Valley, proved to be another fantastic read, that combines entertaining characters with beautiful locations and a clever mystery.

Plot Synopsis:

A missing violinist. A rising flood. A race against time. Intrigue, music and danger collide in Whisky Valley.

After nearly being murdered last year, Rose McHugh battles anxiety as she uses her investigative skills to find her son’s best friend, a famous violinist who is missing along with his priceless violin.

As floodwaters rise, Rose uncovers secrets and lies among the missing man’s fellow musicians, as well as their patron and her enigmatic psychologist husband.

But when a body is found, can Rose shield her son from suspicion?

Whisky Valley was a genuinely nice and enjoyable mystery novel from Sauers, who provided a great balance between character moments and the underlying murder narrative.  Bringing back protagonist Rose McHugh as she continues her troubled settlement in her beloved Southern Highlands, Whisky Valley quickly introduces a new crime involving a missing violinist with connections to Rose’s son.  Determined to solve the case before her son is suspected, Rose soon uncovers deeper secrets beneath the musical world of the victim and uncovers details of a troubled family.

I quite enjoyed how this new mystery from Sauers unfolded, and there was a certain amount of uncertainty and alternating suspects that will keep readers guessing until the end.  Indeed, I felt that the mystery in Whisky Valley was stronger than that of the first book, and I really enjoyed just how captivating and suspenseful events got as this book progressed.  This great mystery blended well with the other key aspects of the book, including the protagonist’s continued exploration of her new local area, her various relationships and friendships, including a new romance, and the fallout from the trauma of Echo Lake.  This allowed for a quite emotionally rich novel at times, especially with a lot of compelling conflicts and complex problems coming out of the woodwork.  Sauers did a great job building up a lot of different issues in the plot and slowly resolving them throughout the course of Whisky Valley, and you come away a lot closer to the relatable protagonist of this novel as a result.

While I did enjoy Sauers’ latest mystery, my favourite part of Whisky Valley had to be the author’s excellent use of the beautiful Southern Highlands of New South Wales as a backdrop for her mystery.  Sauers has a clear love of the Southern Highlands, which is quite evident in this series, as the protagonist lovingly describes various picturesque places found throughout the area.  As someone who spends a bit of time visiting or travelling through the Southern Highlands, it was really entertaining to see the protagonist explore various locations I was familiar with throughout the course of the book, and it helped to give a sense of realism to the plot at times.  These locations also serve as compelling backdrops to the crimes and drama of the story, and thanks to Sauers’ great descriptions, you can really envision some of the remote locales where murders are taking place, even if you’ve never been to this unique part of Australia.  Throw in some interesting dives into the region’s history and culture, which is a fantastic inclusion to the book, and you come away really appreciating Sauers’s use of the Southern Highlands in this series, especially after how well she uses it in Whisky Valley.

Joan Sauers continues to impress with her compelling and heartwarming cosy murder mystery series.  Her second book, Whisky Valley, was another great read that combined a fantastic mystery with some interesting character moments a wonderful background setting.  An excellent read that I enjoyed checking out.

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Vanish by Shelley Burr

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery1 Comment

Publisher: Hachette Australia (Trade Paperback – 30 April 2025)

Series: Lane Holland – Book 3

Length: 360 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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One of Australia’s most talented new crime fiction authors, Shelley Burr, provides another complex and deep read with the compelling 2025 novel Vanish.

Over the last couple of years, I have been having an outstanding time with the fantastic writings of new Australian author Shelley Burr, who has produced some fantastic and compelling murder mysteries.  Burr’s debut novel, Wake, followed a damaged private investigator, Lane Holland, as he attempted to solve an infamous missing persons case for his own selfish reasons.  A complex and moving small-town story about loss and the scars it leaves behind, Wake was an outstanding novel from Burr, which ended up being one of my favourite debuts and Australian novels of 2022.  Burr continued this series in a fascinating way the following year, with the amazing novel Ripper (also released as Murder Town), which saw returning protagonist Lane Holland attempt to solve another historical crime from behind bars.  Ripper, which was one of my favourite Australian reads of 2023, was an excellent follow-up to Burr’s first novel that helped to present the Lane Holland books as one of the more unique ongoing Australian series.  As such, I made sure to read the third entry in the series, Vanish, last year as soon as I could, and it proved to be an outstanding and compelling read.

Plot Synopsis:

People go to the isolated Karpathy farm looking for a new life – and are never seen again. A chilling thriller from the award-winning and bestselling author of Australian noir, Shelley Burr.

Lane Holland’s crime-solving career ended the day he went to prison. With his parole hearing approaching, he faces the grim reality that an ex-con can never work as a private eye. Yet one unsolved case continues to haunt the disappearance of Matilda Carver two decades ago.

Never one to follow the rules, Lane finds a lead – a mysterious farm community led by the enigmatic Samuel Karpathy. His farm attracts lost souls. People who want a more meaningful life. People who are hiding from their pasts. People with nowhere else to go.

But those who go to the farm seem to vanish without a trace.

Is it a commune? Is it a cult? Is it something even more dangerous? Lane goes undercover at the farm to find its dark secret – but could he too find himself intoxicated by the prospect of a new life on the land?

Vanish was an impressive third entry from Shelley Burr, who tried some interesting new techniques and narrative threads in this book to create a fantastic read.  Following on from the events of the previous two books, this third book sees protagonist Lane Holland continue to investigate several missing persons cases from prison, including Matilda Carver, the daughter of his prison warden.  Able to convince the warden to help him investigate the disappearance in person, Lane is transferred to the Karpathy farm as part of a work-release program, the last place where Matilda was seen and the location where many other people seem to disappear from.

Arriving at the farm, Lane discovers an unusual community of outsiders who have found an unlikely home at the Karpathy property.  However, the more Lane digs, the more secrets he uncovers as he attempts to work out the supposedly sinister truth behind the farm and its owners, as well as the people who have gone missing from it.  This central mystery is made even more complicated when Lane discovers the secondary protagonist of Vanish, Mina McCreery, secretly living at the farm.  The woman who Lane went to prison to protect, Mina was a great addition, especially as there are a lot of unresolved issues and drama between the two.  Forced to work together to investigate separate missing persons cases at the same location, Lane and Mina once again form an unlikely and chaotic team that was a real joy to follow.

The resulting second half of Vanish was awesome, with a range of compelling twists, red herrings and near-death experiences for the protagonist.  Burr produced a particularly emotional heavy narrative for Vanish, which focused more on Lane as a character, while also providing a more subtle mystery related to perceptions and people’s choices.  The reader is constantly left guessing about whether the residents of the Karpathy Farm are a dangerous cult, which helps to cloud who the actual villain of the story is.  There was also a great, slow build of tension through the plot, which comes to a fantastic and thrilling head near the conclusion of the book.  The various final reveals of Vanish were quite clever, and this ended up being a very satisfying standalone mystery that way.  Burr also expertly resolved several ongoing storylines from the rest of the series, and it was great to get some closure between Lane and Mina, especially after the dramatic ending of the first book.  There was a certain finality to Vanish that made me feel that this was going to be the last entry in this series, and if this is the case I’d be fine with that, especially as the protagonist finally got a happy ending.

I felt this third Lane Holland book came together extremely well, especially as Burr has continued to experiment with her different writing styles.  This included telling most of the book from Lane’s perspective, rather than splitting focus between another side character, which allowed the reader to get closer to the protagonist, while also being influenced by his take on events.  I liked how this change in perspective allowed for a much more emotionally rich narrative, and there is a certain uncertainty at times about whether a crime has taken place, as Lane keeps finding hidden secrets and dead-ends.  However, thanks to a series of short inclusions from a mystery character in distress, the reader is slyly aware that there is more going on, and I really appreciated Burr’s subtlety, as well as the clever explanation behind this hidden figure.  I also enjoyed how well Burr tied Vanish’s narrative back to the events of the first book, and fans of the series get some excellent closure here, while still allowing Vanish to be a mostly standalone book.  All this leads to a pretty excellent read, and it was one I was glad I checked out.

With another clever and powerful mystery, Vanish continues to showcase Shelly Burr’s fantastic skill as a rising Australian mystery writer.  A wonderful third entry in a truly compelling series, Vanish was an excellent read I had a great time getting through.  Highly recommended for both existing fans of Burr, and those readers looking for a unique Australian mystery.

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Lives of Bitter Rain by Adrian Tchaikovsky

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Fantasy, Five-Star Books, Short StoriesLeave a comment

Publisher: Head of Zeus (ebook – 15 October 2025)

Series: The Tyrant Philosophers – Book 2.5

Length: 128 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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From the amazing mind of Adrian Tchaikovsky comes a brilliant and heartfelt fantasy novella Lives of Bitter Rain, an outstanding read that provides some intriguing extra context to one of the author’s previous impressive releases.

Last year I had the great pleasure of reading the amazing Days of Shattered Faith by the legendary Adrian Tchaikovsky.  The third book in the author’s outstanding Tyrant Philosophers series (which previously featured City of Last Chances and House of Open Wounds), Days of Shattered Faith was an exceptional read that perfectly continued the loosely connected Tyrant Philosophers series with a tale of betrayal, personal growth and diplomacy gone wild in a world slowly being taken over by an empire of religion-hating perfectionists, the Palleseen.  I deeply enjoyed Days of Shattered Faith, which ended up being one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2025, and I have been eagerly awaiting the next entry in the series for some time.  However, before I get to that, I decided to also check out awesome novella Lives of Bitter Rain from Tchaikovsky, which served as an interesting companion-piece to Days of Shattered Faith, with a powerful and heartfelt personal story behind it.

Plot Synopsis:

City-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have sworn to bring ‘Perfection’ and ‘Correctness’ to an imperfect world. But before these ruthless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they despatch Outreach – the rain before the storm.

Outreach is that part of the Pal machine responsible for diplomacy – converting enemies into friends, achieving through words what an army of five thousand could not, urging the oppressed to overthrow the bloody-handed priests, evil necromancers and greedy despots that subjugate them.

Angilly, twelve-years-old, a child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, does not know it yet, but a sequence of accidents and questionable life choices will lead her to Outreach. As she travels from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk and finally, Usmai, she’ll learn that the price of her nation’s success is paid in compromise and lost chances, and that the falling rain will always be bitter.

Lives of Bitter Rain was a very clever and highly addictive novella that dives into one of the main characters of Days of Shattered Faith, Sage-Invigilator Angilly, the Palleseen ambassador who spent most of the book caught between her duties and responsibilities to her people, and her feelings for the crown prince of the nation she was assigned to.  Providing a compelling personal history of Angilly that was mostly left out of Days of Shattered Faith, Lives of Bitter Rain is a wonderful tie-in to the main book that will appeal to a wide audience.

Starting off fast, as any good novella should, Lives of Bitter Rain quickly dives into the formative events of Angilly’s childhood and captured the tragic events and influences that led her to join Outreach.  From there, the book covers how Angilly went from a brainwashed Palleseen orphan to the more flexible and unconventional figure we meet in Days of Shattered Faith.  This leads naturally to the second half of Lives of Bitter Rains’ short narrative, which shows Angilly’s assignment to the nation of Usmai and the start of the relationship that will bring her so much pain in the accompanying full novel.  Tchaikovsky does an outstanding job tying up all the loose ends surrounding this main character by the end of Lives of Bitter Rain, which provides some intriguing and deeply tragic context to this character’s actions in advance of the story from Days of Shattered Faith.

This proved to be an exceptional new release from Tchaikovsky, who provides a short and sweet read in Lives of Bitter Rain.  I really enjoyed how intense and complex he made this novella, which told its own unique story while also providing some excellent additional character work.  The expansion of Angilly’s personal history, as well as her experiences in Usmai before the events of Days of Shattered Faith, really provides some fantastic context around a lot of her actions and emotional connections in the later story.  This was honestly a very perfect prequel narrative, and you can clearly see that Tchaikovsky had all these details about this character’s past and motivations in his head when he wrote Days of Shattered Faith.  Throw in some fantastic extra worldbuilding for his Tyrant Philosophers universe, especially for the always fascinating Palleseen, and this was an exceptional novella that I couldn’t get enough of.

One of the key things readers must consider when reading Lives of Bitter Rain is whether to enjoy it before or after Days of Shattered Faith.  Both options have some appeal to it, although I personally read it after enjoying the main novel, which meant that Lives of Bitter Rain provided a certain post-mortem enjoyment which I deeply appreciated.  Not only did you finally get some lingering questions about Angilly answered but it also ensured that I found certain events from the book a little more tragic in retrospect.  However, if I had read Lives of Bitter Rain in advance, I would have had a better idea of Angilly’s personality and relationships, as well as some advance knowledge about Usmai and the city of Alkhalend, both of which would have helped me appreciate the narrative more as I was reading it.  I personally think that I made the right choice reading Lives of Bitter Rain after Days of Shattered Faith, but there really isn’t a wrong answer here and readers who do it either way are guaranteed to have an amazing time with this cool, prequel novella.

Overall, Lives of Bitter Rain comes very highly recommended, especially for those who have already got caught up in the magic and insanity of Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Tyrant Philosophers series.  An exceedingly clever prequel novella with some deep character work behind it, Lives of Bitter Rain was well-worth the read, and I am now even more excited to dive into the recently released fourth Tyrant Philosopher’s novel, Pretenders to the Throne of God.

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