Category: Murder Mystery

Waiting on Wednesday – Dead Fall Lake by S. R. White

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery, Waiting on Wednesday2 Comments

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 post, I check out an excellent upcoming Australian crime fiction novel from an author who has really impressed me in recent year with Dead Fall Lake by S. R. White.

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S. R. White is an outstanding author who has been making an intriguing impact on the Australian crime fiction scene in recent years. Primarily known for his Detective Dana Russo series, White has written some deeply complex, character-driven crime fiction novels, that provides some fresh new takes on the classic crime fiction narrative. This includes the first book of White’s that I had the pleasure of reading, Prisoner, which contained a fantastic murder mystery solved through a series of complex interrogations.  The next novel in the series, Red Dirt Road, was another impressive read, with the protagonist forced to uncover the truth amid a closed pool of suspects in a remote Australian town.  His fourth Dana Russo novel, White Ash Ridge, featured another clever story, as the protagonist needed to solve a murder likely committed by a board member of a charity formed after a previous failed police investigation.  All of these, as well as the 2025 spin-off novel Pacific Heights, have been extremely impressive, and I like the elaborate and memorable cases they contain.

As such, I am always keen to see what White will be writing next, and it looks like he has another very interesting novel coming out in March 2026 with Dead Fall Lake.  Featuring another compelling case, this time involving an extreme sports enthusiast found dead in a wilderness sinkhole, Dead Fall Lake sounds pretty damn awesome, and I am curious to see how this new novel unfolds.  Based on my experiences with White’s other novels, I already know I’m going to love Dead Fall Lake, and it is already one of the top Australian releases I am looking forward to in the new year.

Plot Synopsis:
Deep in the Australian wilderness, a famed sinkhole renowned as a stunning freediving spot attracts people from all over the world. But there’s a dark, puzzling mystery when a local sports hero – and the glamorous face of a high-adrenaline video channel – is found dead far beneath the surface.

Despite diving the sinkhole hundreds of times, his lifeless body is discovered dressed in normal clothes, handcuffed to a supply line. With no witnesses – and evidence submerged 30 metres underwater – how can Detective Dana Russo unravel such a shocking case?

Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Comedy/Satire, Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery1 Comment

Publisher: Penguin (Trade Paperback – 30 September 2025)

Series: Erenest Cunningham – Book Four

Length: 355 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The over-the-top investigations of Ernest Cunningham resume in the outstanding and highly entertaining Australian crime fiction novel, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief by Benjamin Stevenson.

For the last few years, the Australian crime fiction scene has been the playground of Benjamin Stevenson. A comedian and performer with his brother, Stevenson started writing back in 2018 when he debuted his first crime fiction novel Greenlight (also released as Trust Me When I Lie and She Lies in the Vines), which Stevenson expertly followed up a year later with the great sequel Either Side of Midnight.  While these initial books were really good, for me Stevenson’s best work has been his Ernest Cunningham novels.

The Ernest Cunningham series follows the titular character, a crime fiction expert from a notorious family, who finds himself caught up in some real-life whodunit situations. The first book in the series, Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone (one of my favourite Australian novels of 2022), was particularly impressive, and it cleverly combined the author’s great sense of humour with a compelling mystery. Stevenson continued to impress the following year, with Everyone on this Train is a Suspect (one of my favourite books and pieces of Australian fiction of 2023) a worthy sequel that further parodied various crime fiction subgenres. Stevenson even released a short, but impactful, Christmas entry in the Ernest Cunningham series last year with Everyone this Christmas has a Secret, which saw a Christmas variety show get very bloody, and which ended up being one of my favourite pieces of Australian fiction in 2024. Due to how wildly entertaining these books were, I just had to get the fourth book in the series, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief, when it came out this year, and it was one of my most anticipated reads for the second half of 2025, especially with its fun title and awesome plot concept.

Ernest Cunningham, murder mystery expert and Australia’s least likely detective, has so far solved three murders, each in its own outrageous scenarios.  But even he is unprepared to solve a case in the middle of a bank robbery.

Trapped in a small-town bank while trying to get a loan for their new detective agency, Ernest and his fiancé Juliette find themselves at the mercy of a masked armed bandit, who has locked down the bank and demanding access to the vault.  The only problem, the bank’s chief of security who knows the code is missing, and Ernest was just in the process of being hired to find him.

Besieged by the police and with no chance of escape, Ernest is determined to get his fellow hostages out alive by discovering out the vault’s code.  However, as he begins his enquiries, he quickly discovers that the armed man holding them hostage isn’t the only criminal he’s dealing with.  There are many different things that can be stolen in this bank, and all the trapped hostages have their own plots in motion.  However, only one person is there to steal a life, and when bodies start turning up, Ernest once again finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation.

With all the suspects trapped in the bank with him, Ernest works quickly to solve the murders before the police end the siege.  All the people in the bank are suspicious, but is the killer the bank robber, the silent priest, the greedy film producer, the teen gaming prodigy, the dying teenage girl and her mother, or a member of bank’s staff? To find the truth, Ernest will have to uncover everyone’s secrets and work them into his established rules for a murder mystery.  But can he solve the crime before the killer takes him out, or is this one crazy investigation that even Ernest Cunningham cannot survive?

Benjamin Stevenson once again deeply impresses as Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was a brilliant and highly addictive novel that perfectly combines over-the-top mystery with the author’s distinctive humour.  Clever, wildly entertaining, and just a little silly, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was so much fun to read, and it gets a full five-star rating from me.

What another brilliant and hilarious story.  Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was such an entertaining read, and I loved how crazy and exciting Stevenson made it.  Starting off with an interesting introductory note from the protagonist that sets the scene and foreshadows some of the events to come, you are quickly taken to the bank setting in small-town Australia, where Ernest and returning character Juliette are tasked with investigating the missing head of security, who has changed the code to the vault.  Stevenson does an effective job of introducing the locked room scenario, as well as the various suspects in these opening chapters, before the bank is taken over by the masked armed robber.  With everyone gathered as hostages and the bank surrounded by police, Ernest finds himself taking on the task of finding the combination to the vault to fulfil the robber’s unusual request of a single dollar from the bank’s vault.  This initial investigation provides a lot of hints about events for the future, before the story takes an enticing turn when someone dies in a spectacularly unusual situation.  This inspires Ernest to take on an unadvised secondary role in the case, which moves the story into an entertaining new direction.

The second half of the book is even more compelling, and you power through it fast as you can to get to the conclusion.  It quickly becomes apparent that there are multiple murders associated with this case, in addition to the other simultaneous heists taking place throughout the bank, all of which Ernest needs to uncover to solve the entire case.  The author selectively reveals some of these secondary crimes earlier in the plot, which allow the story to move forward, while also moving the suspicion away from some of the potential suspects.  While Stevenson continues to work in even more details about the suspects and the circumstances of their heists, there is also a certain amount of personal drama added into the mix, especially once Juliette realises the lengths Ernest has gone to solve the case, with some excellent moments leading up to it.  The interplay between the main plot and the author’s notes that hint at the future become even more entangled and urgent as the book continues, especially as the events of the two start to catch up, and Stevenson works in the usual concern about the protagonist’s survival a little earlier than usual.  Everything leads up to the classic summation gathering, where all the remaining secrets are revealed in hilarious and over-the-top fashion.  Featuring a big and deadly climax that all of Ernest’s investigations seem to require, the book ends on an entertaining note, with the series still having the potential to go forward.

I really enjoyed this new novel from Stevenson, which was an excellent continuation of the Ernest Cunningham series.  Working well as either the fourth book in the series, or an excellent standalone novel, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was a lot of fun, with the concept of a crime fiction expert using the tropes of the genre to identify the killer in a humorous situation still as effective as ever.  Told in the form of a true-crime book by the protagonist as he recounts the events of the bank heist, the narrative features a classic closed circle of suspects as Ernest investigates several murders, including an actual locked-room mystery, as well as several adjacent thefts, all while trapped in the murder scene.  The result is an over-the-top mess of an investigation, as the various big personalities trapped in the bank clash with Ernest’s unusual methods and style, much to the audience’s glee.  While there is a lot of focus on the book’s humour, Stevenson also does a great job pulling together a complex mystery with a lot of compelling suspects.  There are a lot of intricate details and clues loaded into the story, often hidden by the more comedic interactions, and all these elements are well used later in the book, whether in solving the murders or examining the various hidden motivations of the other characters.  The eventual reveal of the killer also proves to be quite clever, and there is some fantastic build-up to the discovery, even if the methods the protagonist uses to uncover them, as well as the crimes itself, are a tad ridiculous.

As with the previous books in the series, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief is a great satirical take on classic crime fiction novels, with the author and the protagonist both keen to utilise and honour the well-known tropes of the genre.  While Stevenson once again features a fun takedown of old-school detective fiction murder mysteries, he also takes his protagonist outside of his crime fiction wheelhouse with the murder taking place amid a heist.  Forcing the protagonist to apply heist tropes alongside his established rules for classic murder mysteries results in a great hybrid case, with a lot of jokes and references about both subgenres of crime fiction.  Stevenson naturally goes overboard with the heist elements, with several concurrent thefts happening in the bank, all of which could serve as a potential motive for murder.  I loved the outrageous variety of thefts that were worked into the plot, especially as most weren’t typical fictional robberies, and it was quite impressive to see Stevenson work them into the novel’s larger murder mystery.  The series’ usual pre-narrative hints of events and murders to come, with accompanying page numbers, were missing in this latest novel, instead replaced by the alternate focus on the protagonist’s plight, as he instead uses the introduction to reveal that he is trapped in a safe and slowly running out of air.  The humour of this situation, as well as build-up of suspense to when Ernest gets locked in the safe, added some extra fun and drama to the plot, and it was an interesting twist on the usual Ernest Cunningham book.  I really enjoyed how Stevenson continues to experiment and alter the initial story and writing concepts he introduced in Everyone in my Family has Killed Someone, and this book was a worthy addition to this series, especially with the new focus on heist fiction in addition to other comedic differences.

As with the previous books in the series, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief features a memorable and over-the-top cast of characters.  This includes series protagonist Ernest Cunningham, a writer and crime fiction expert who has accidently found himself in the middle of several murder investigations.  Attempting to continue his unlikely career as a professional detective, Ernest proves to be an intriguing and entertaining protagonist, especially with his cynical outlook on the world.  Much of the book’s humour comes from Ernest’s entertaining observations of the people around him, and he has a unique way of solving crimes that mocks traditional murder mysteries in all the best ways.  There is a compelling addictive element to Ernest’s need to solve crime in this latest novel, which often forces him to make some stupid decisions, and the author adds in some interesting and entertaining self-reflective moments that I quite enjoyed.  There is also and quite entertaining look at Ernest’s notoriety and semi-fame in wider society, which plays into the story in several fun ways, including making him a potential target for murder.  I loved how much Ernest has developed over the series, and this proved to be a great extra inclusion to his story.

The rest of the cast of Everyone in this Bank is a Thief is also quite impressive, with my favourite being Ernest’s patient fiancé, Juliette.  A strong-willed, intelligent supporting character who has been Ernest’s love interest since the first book, Juliette often finds herself trapped in these elaborate murder investigations alongside her partner.  Her latest outing in Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was particularly fun, as Stevenson used some interesting shenanigans to showcase Juliette’s feelings about Ernest’s antics, especially when he gets caught up in an investigation.  The real brains and emotional heart of this novel, Juliette was extremely awesome, and I love how well she complements Ernest as the protagonist.  The rest of the cast, the majority of whom are fellow hostages in the bank, also prove to be a ton of fun, especially as all of them are thieves in one way or another.  While I’m going to limit my discussion about these supporting characters to avoid spoilers, I will say that Stevenson came up with an awesomely eclectic group of suspects, red herrings and rogues here, and uncovering their associated ploys and schemes made for some great reading.

Overall, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief was outstanding fourth entry in the Ernest Cunningham series, and I had such an epic time getting through it.  Benjamin Stevenson has perfected his formula for highly entertaining murder mysteries, and the intricate blend of complex mystery, excellent humour and outrageous characters makes for quite an impressive read.  One of the best Australian crime fiction novels of 2025, Everyone in this Bank is a Thief comes very highly recommended, and I cannot wait to see what Stevenson writes next.

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Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery1 Comment

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (ebook – 19 August 2025)

Series: Standalone

Length: 310 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Those looking for a fun and very meta murder mystery that looks back at the classics should check out the very amusing new novel from Australian author Sulari Gentill, Five Found Dead.

There are few Australian crime fiction authors whose works have entertained me over the years as much as Sulari Gentill’s have.  An amazing author who knows how to combine unique premises with compelling mysteries, Gentill has written some great novels over the years.  I am a particular fan of her Rowland Sinclair series about an unlikely gentleman protagonist in the 1930s who solved crimes loaded with historical cameos, while some of her more recent standalone novels, such as Crossing the Lines, The Woman in the Library and The Mystery Writer, have also received critical acclaim.  As such, I was very happy to get my hands on her latest novel, Five Found Dead, which had a very fun plot behind it which resulted in quite an exciting and fast-paced read.

Plot Synopsis:

On a train, there are only so many places to hide…

Crime fiction author Joe Penvale has won the most brutal battle of his life. Now that he has finished his intense medical treatment, he and his twin sister, Meredith, are boarding the glorious Orient Express in Paris, hoping for some much-needed rest and rejuvenation. Meredith also hopes that the literary ghosts on the train will nudge Joe’s muse awake, and he’ll be inspired to write again. And he is; after their first evening spent getting to know some of their fellow travelers, Joe pulls out his laptop and opens a new document. Seems like this trip is just what the doctor ordered…

And then some. The next morning, Joe and Meredith are shocked to witness that the cabin next door has become a crime scene, bathed in blood but with no body in sight. The pair soon find themselves caught up in an Agatha Christie-esque murder investigation. Without any help from the authorities, and with the victim still not found, Joe and Meredith are asked to join a group of fellow passengers with law enforcement backgrounds to look into the mysterious disappearance of the man in Cabin16G. But when the steward guarding the crime scene is murdered, it marks the beginning of a killing spree which leaves five found dead—and one still missing. Now Joe and Meredith must fight once again to preserve their newfound future and to catch a cunning killer before they reach the end of the line.

Gentill brings the fun with this very compelling and exciting crime fiction novel that serves as a great love letter to a classic Agatha Christie novel.  Bringing together a colourful array of characters, including an overabundance of cliche detectives and setting them loose against an apparent serial killer, Five Found Dead was a very easy book to fall in love with, and I ended up powering through it in less than a day.

The plot for Five Found Dead had a lot of interesting elements to it, which resulted in a very fast-paced novel that hit a lot of entertaining notes.  Starting off with some quick introductions to the lawyer protagonist and her author brother, you soon find yourself aboard the iconic Orient Express.  A natural setting for any murder mystery, Gentill brought together an amusing array of characters inspired by classic crime fiction novels, many of whom are revealed to have law enforcement backgrounds, as well as a very similar grudge.  The story naturally soon devolves into a compelling murder mystery when a guest disappears from their blood-soaked room.  Thanks to a new strain of coronavirus infecting part of the train, the passengers find themselves stuck on the rails, and it falls to the protagonists and the various assembled detectives to solve the case.  However, a series of additional murders quickly unfold across the train, resulting in chaos and anarchy, especially when the normal passengers of the train attempt to escape the growing massacre.

I loved the excellent and fast pace of Five Found Dead as Gentill cleverly lays out the respective murders and keeps increasing the stakes of the plot.  While much of the story is intentionally silly, including the appearance of so many stereotypical detectives with connections to the initial victim, the author works it into a great investigation angle, and I had fun working out who was behind the killings.  There are some fantastic twists and turns throughout the book, and while I saw a few reveals coming thanks to the featured clues, the identity of the actual antagonist hit me by surprise.  Some of this was due to the clever red herrings and potential alternate suspects that Gentill included, although I must admit the brilliantly crazy disguise utilised by the killer helped a lot.  This led to a very exciting and over-the-top conclusion, where all the secrets come out and the various fun storylines come together.  I had an absolute blast getting to the end of Five Found Dead, and Gentill crafted an extremely exciting murder mystery here that served as an homage to the classic, while also bringing its own flair to the occasion.

While Five Found Dead is loaded with amazing and familiar characters, I feel that I need to highlight protagonist Meredith Penvale and her brother Joe as the two best written characters in the novel.  A pair of Australian twins, Meredith and Joe have journeyed to the Orient Express to celebrate Joe’s recent cancer remission and to rejuvenate his writing muse.  While much of the story revolves around Meredith’s inadvertent role as amateur detective aboard this train of suspicious souls, Gentill also spends time examining the emotional health of these two main characters, and as a result dives deep into the impacts of cancer and the effects it can have on both the sufferers and their loved ones.  In this case, Meredith is the loyal sister who sacrificed a successful career to care for her brother and, now that he’s recovered, is wondering where her life will go and whether to follow her true passions.  Joe, on the other hand, is a seemingly light-hearted figure who has an amusing meta initial arc about a murder mystery set onboard the Orient Express.  However, there is also a lot of hidden fear in Joe about his cancer returning, which sees him literally running from bad news, while also trying to keep this potential truth from his long-suffering sister.  You can tell that Gentill put a lot of herself into these two characters, and their personal focuses outside the mystery are extremely realistic and powerful.  Indeed, these personal concerns and the powerful writing that accompanies them gives Five Found Dead some much needed emotional heft that helped to evolve this novel into something truly special.  Throw in all the additional eccentric figures that accompany Meredith and Joe onto the Orient Express, and Five Found Dead has a truly amazing cast who enhance the entire story.

Overall, I found Five Found Dead to be an addictive and engaging novel that I honestly couldn’t stop reading.  Sulari Gentill’s latest standalone novel was a wonderful blend of mystery, charming humour and complex characters, that came together into something extremely awesome.  I really enjoyed Five Found Dead, and it is an excellent read for someone in the mood for a light-hearted murder mystery with some amazing heart to it.

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The Bolthole by Peter Papathanasiou

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery2 Comments

Publisher: MacLehose (Trade Paperback – 29 July 2025)

Series: DS George Manolis – Book Four

Length: 349 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Acclaimed Australian crime fiction author Peter Papathanasiou returns with another outstanding entry in his DS George Manolis series, The Bolthole.

Peter Papathanasiou is an Australian author who has been making some excellent waves in recent years with his intricate and culturally relevant murder mysteries set around striking areas of outback Australia, as well as one novel set in Greece.  These books form part of his DS George Manolis series, which I had had the pleasure of first reading in 2023 with the third entry in the series, The Pit.  A fantastic novel that combined moving character history with the red desert of the Kimberley mining region, The Pit was a captivating and memorable novel that I had a great time with.  As such, I was very interested when a copy of The Bolthole arrived, and it proved to be another curious read.

Plot Synopsis:

Located off the coast of South Australia, Kangaroo Island lies surrounded by violent seas harbouring deadly great white sharks and forgotten shipwrecks.

Over the centuries the Islanders have cultivated a sense of self-sufficiency, independence and resilience. But times are changing: multimillionaires from the mainland are building immense clifftop mansions and filling the skies with private planes and helicopters. A quiet paradise is being transformed into a bolthole for the rich and privileged. And the locals aren’t happy.

Richard Marlowe, a wealthy “blow-in” to the island, goes missing, last seen wading into the ocean for a dawn swim. A shark attack is blamed, but things don’t add up. Reuniting for a new investigation, Detective Sergeant Manolis and Senior Constable Sparrow arrive on the island, but their presence isn’t welcomed, either. Faced with hostility from both Islanders and newcomers, their attempts to locate the missing man are derailed by a civil war over limited resources, a fragile environment, and fractured community dynamics.

The Bolthole was another compelling novel from Papathanasiou that successfully blended a cool focus on an iconic Australian setting with a slow-burn mystery.  The result was an awesome novel that I had an excellent time getting through and which consistently kept my attention.

Papathanasiou’s new novel is primarily set on the historical and picturesque Kangaroo Island and features an intricate mystery about a powerful business luminary who goes missing during his morning surf.  Arriving on the island, protagonists Detective Sergeant Manolis and Senior Constable Sparrow begin an investigation of the disappearance.  With a split focus between these two protagonists, The Bolthole’s narrative goes at slow but steady pace, as the police officers become familiar with the island, its people, and certain controversial local politics and developments that the victim, Richard Marlowe, was involved in.

The author sets The Bolthole’s mystery out in a very methodical and detail focused manner, with the protagonists trying to learn everything about the victim and potential suspects in the case, while also dealing with their own personal conflicts and concerns.  While the plot was often focused more on the social, cultural and environmental issues affecting Kangaroo Island, the investigation angle was constantly ongoing, and Papathanasiou continued to fit in subtle clues and development.  The conclusion of The Bolthole was intense and captivating, with several clever twists, some great reveals, and even a bit of exciting action.  Most readers are going to come away from this novel very satisfied, and I felt that Papathanasiou produced an impressive piece of Australian crime fiction.

The Bolthole proved to be an effective, character-driven mystery novel that once again showcased the author’s love of remote and unique locations.  A rich and detail laden book, The Bolthole is a slower read than most crime fiction novels; however, this deliberate pacing from Papathanasiou allows him to feature a great collection of supporting characters, while also really diving into compelling setting of Kangaroo Island.  The author spends a lot of time exploring the island, and readers come away with a great deal of knowledge about its history, environment and culture, with a particular focus on some of the modern issues impacting it.  This includes extended discussions about new developments, exploitation of natural resources, impacts on the environment, and concerns about cultural changes to Kangaroo Island led by new wealthy residents buying up the land.  While the focus on these issues comes across a little preachy at times, it plays into the narrative around the main mystery extremely well and helps to explore certain character motivations and attitudes, while also laying down some false leads for the reader.  As such, the resulting mystery proves to be quite compelling, and the unique tone that Papathanasiou took for this book is going to appeal to a lot of readers.

On top of the above elements, I must also mention the great characters featured within The Bolthole, as Papathanasiou brings back the two main protagonists from his previous novels, Detective Sergeant Manolis and Senior Constable Sparrow.  Both these police characters have some interesting character elements, which the author does an excellent job exploring through their separate perspective chapters.  Manolis, for example, is still dealing with certain revelations about his family that came up in previous books and spends much of the novel guilty about how the truth will impact his partner.  At the same time, he tries to balance his obsession with finding justice with his failing marriage and his inability to properly prioritise them.  Sparrow, on the other hand, is dealing with his extreme dislike of the island due to the historical atrocities inflecting on his people there by white settlers, as well as issues around his own past and hidden sexuality.  While the author somewhat overplayed Sparrow’s cultural outrage and snarky nature in this book, for the most part these two protagonists are great to follow, and they blend well with the massive array of supporting characters that populate the author’s version of Kangaroo Island.  There are a lot of interesting figures in this supporting cast, and it proved fun to see the protagonists dive into their various histories.  This includes the victim, Richard Marlowe, whose own history and motivations proved quite interesting to uncover.  These characters, and more, all added a lot to The Bolthole’s overall impact, and it allowed for quite a compelling narrative in the end.

Peter Papathanasiou continues to showcase his skill as one of Australia’s more unique crime fiction authors with the distinctive novel, The Bolthole.  An excellent book with a lot of interesting elements to it, The Bolthole hits hard and keeps the reader’s attention with a great mystery and a compelling look at certain real-world issues.  A recommended novel, especially for those who love crime fiction reads that make full use of the background settings.

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Nightshade by Michael Connelly

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Five-Star Books, Murder Mystery9 Comments

Publisher: Allen & Unwin (ebook – 20 May 2025)

Series: Detective Stilwell – Book One

Length: 351 pages

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

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The master of American crime fiction, Michael Connelly, introduces a cool new character with his outstanding 2025 novel, Nightshade, an incredible extremely addictive murder mystery that was a true highlight of the first half of this year.

Few authors are as consistently impressive and exciting as crime fiction legend Michael Connelly, who has continuously produced complex and captivating novels that fall across the various crime fiction sub-genres.  I have had an outstanding time reading some of Connelly’s more recent books, including the outstanding Ballad and Bosche novels (Dark Sacred Night, The Night Fire, The Dark Hours and Desert Star), his Mickey Haller/Lincoln Lawyer novels (The Law of Innocence and Resurrection Walk), as well as the impressive Jack McEvoy novel Fair Warning (one of my favourite books of 2020).  All these books have been highly enjoyable, and I am always eager to explore more mysteries and thrillers in Connelly’s shared universe.  As such, I was very excited to get my hands on Connelly’s first 2025 release Nightshade, which introduced a new protagonist in a compelling scenario.

Plot Synopsis:

No. 1 internationally bestselling author Michael Connelly introduces Detective Stilwell: a determined cop on a purgatory beat in paradise.

Detective Stilwell of the Los Angeles County Sherriff’s department has been exiled. Once he manned a mainland homicide desk; now internal politics have relegated him to a low-key post, policing rustic Catalina Island. He’s beginning to think he could get used to it.

It’s all business as usual in his new territory, following up drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts, until Stilwell receives a report of a body found wrapped in plastic at the bottom of the harbour. He begins working the case, and soon he’s forced to cross all lines of protocol and jurisdiction in pursuit of justice.

But when Stilwell discovers dark secrets hidden in the shadows he must now ask: Is Catalina really the serene island it appears to be or is it brewing a deadly poison?

Nightshade was an intense and fresh new novel from Connelly, who successfully debuts a new character in a fantastic fashion.  Featuring a slick mystery with a cool new location, Nightshade was an awesome read that I absolutely flew through.  One of the better books from the first half of 2025, Nightshade gets a full five-star rating from me and comes very highly recommended.

Connelly produced an outstanding narrative in Nightshade that perfectly sets out a compelling series of mysteries on the picturesque Catalina Island.  The plot starts off fast with new protagonist Detective Stilwell, an exiled detective turned top cop on Catalina Island, working low-level crime on the island, before discovering a murdered girl at the bottom of the harbour.  Despite being instructed not to interfere in the case, Stilwell’s curiosity and rebellious nature get the best of him, and he soon engages in his own investigation, pulling strings through his island connections.  Connelly sets the scene for this separate, protagonist-led enquiry nicely, and there is a compelling blend of investigation arcs and the protagonist resolving his many personal issues, including his growing connection to Catalina Island and its inhabitants.  The author ratchets up the intensity of the plot, as his main enquiry brings to light several sinister secrets, while other smaller cases from the island further showcase the underlying corruption of the seemingly picturesque police posting.

The second half of Nightshade goes in some excellent directions, as Connelly keeps the intensity running high.  Following a shocking yet well-set up additional death, Stilwell is forced to deal with numerous threats from all corners, including betrayal, a corrupt former partner, and a sinister assassin stalking the island.  Thanks to a combination of some fantastic revelations, a powerful confession sequence, and an intense rescue, there is barely a second to stand still in the lead up to Nightshade’s conclusion, and the attempts to solve the partially interlocked cases allows for an excellent overall narrative.  I felt that Connelly set up each of his major mysteries in Nightshade extremely well, and the solutions came about naturally through some excellent storytelling.  While the main cases are solved, Connelly leaves a few story elements open, and I feel like the legal ramifications for a couple of arrests will be explored in any sequels that Connelly has planned for this novel. 

I really enjoyed how Nightshade came together, and Connelly produces an excellent character-driven murder mystery with a lot of compelling moving parts to it.  Perfectly focused on an interesting and complex protagonist, Connelly effectively builds a great mixture of plotlines for this novel, including two central mysteries and various personal elements for the protagonist.  Each of these storylines are well balanced and come together in an effective overall narrative, with the reader easily following the various cool twists and moments of excitement.  This is a very sharp and constantly moving novel that proves easy to get drawn into and hard to put down.  I easily powered through Nightshade in a couple of days, mainly because I was curious to see how the various mysteries unfolded, but also because of the compelling personal drama surrounding the book’s characters.

This includes new protagonist, Detective Stllwell, who is an excellent mixture of professional sheriff and occasional rogue cop.  Stilwell has a similar anti-authoritarian streak to several of Connelly’s other police protagonists, especially as he is on the outs with his superiors after doing the right thing.  Connelly did an effective job of setting up Stilwell as a new ongoing protagonist, and there are some interesting hanging threads for the character, including a complicated romantic relationship and a growing contentment with his new post at Catalina Island, which clashes with his sense of injustice surrounding his banishment there.  Stilwell worked well as a standalone protagonist in this novel, but there is also potential for Connelly to expand on him in the future, especially with several open storylines and potential long-running feuds with crooks and corrupt cops going forward.  The rest of the cast of Nightshade is also well set up, and I liked the combination of Catalina Island locals and transplants from the mainland who wander into the case.  There are some strong antagonistic forces surrounding the main character during this novel, and it was fascinating to see how Stilwell worked around them to crack his cases.

The final part of Nightshade that I must highlight is the compelling new setting of Catalina Island.  I must admit I had never really heard of Catalina Island until reading this book, and it proved to be a very interesting alternate Los Angeles setting to set a crime fiction novel around.  Connelly paints a vivid picture of the island as part of Nightshade’s plot, and I liked the depiction of it as a holiday island with its own unique charm.  The focus on the local culture versus the mainland transplants taking it over was quite fascinating, and Connelly does a great job of diving into the fascinating history of the island and working that into the book’s plot.  He also develops an interesting tale of corruption and crime on the island, which ties in nicely with some of the setting’s real-life features.  The extra focus on maritime elements, police diving, and the environment of the island (including its surprising bison herds), as well as the isolated nature of the setting, gave Nightshade a distinctive feel, and this proved to be quite a memorable novel in Connelly’s shared universe.

Overall, Nightshade was an outstanding new novel from Michael Connelly that proved very hard to stop reading.  With an intriguing new protagonist, setting, and original murder mysteries, Nightshade was a deeply compelling and highly exciting read that I had such a wonderful time with.  This book comes very highly recommended, and I cannot wait to get my hands on Connelly’s next novel, which is set to come out very soon.

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Waiting on Wednesday – Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Murder Mystery, Waiting on Wednesday3 Comments

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.  In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I check out an intriguing, upcoming murder mystery that is going to be a highlight of early 2026 with Jigsaw by Jonathan Kellerman.

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Of all the murder mystery authors I have had the pleasure of reading and reviewing since I started my blog, few have consistently impressed me as much as Jonathan Kellerman.  A veteran of the crime fiction genre, Kellerman has written a huge array of compelling novels throughout his writing career, including some very gripping reads.  His main body of work is the iconic and long-running Alex Delaware series, which follows the titular protagonist, Alex Delaware, a child psychologist, who works with his best friend, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis to investigate unusual or complex cases around Los Angeles.

The Alex Delaware novels are a classic and captivating crime fiction series, and Kellerman has written a huge number of them over the years.  I became a fan of the series myself a little more recently, when I was lucky enough to grab a copy of The Wedding Guest back in 2019.  A very cool novel with a great case behind it, The Wedding Guest was a fantastic introduction to the author and the Alex Delaware novels, and I ended up going back to the series the following year to read The Museum of Desire.  This great novel was also outstanding, and it impressed me enough to make the Alex Delaware series a must-read addition to my annual reading schedule.  I have since gone on to read every new Alex Delaware novel that followed, including Serpentine, City of the Dead, Unnatural History, The Ghost Orchid, and Open Season.  All these novels were extremely amazing, and I have had an exceptional time with all of them.

Due to how much fun all the previous novels were, I am always very keen to get my hands on the next Alex Delaware novel, and we already have some details about the 2026 addition to the series, Jigsaw.  Jigsaw will be the 41st book in the Alex Delaware series and will force Alex and Milo to investigate two separate, complicated murders that have an unlikely connection.

Plot Synopsis:

When a young woman is found dead at her kitchen table – with DNA belonging to her ex-boyfriend at the scene – psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis assume it’s an open-and-shut case.

But the guy has an airtight alibi. Could an enemy from his shady past have framed him?

Many miles away, a former LAPD officer is found brutally murdered in her garage. Her co-workers knew her as meticulously organized, but her house is full of junk and meaningless objects – except for the envelopes full of cash hidden within the chaos…

But as Alex and Milo dig deeper, they discover shocking links between the victims. It soon becomes clear they have a complicated – and deadly – puzzle to solve.

Based on the above synopsis, it sounds like Jigsaw is going to be another excellent entry in this great series.  I am already quite intrigued by the hinted plot, and Kellerman clearly has quite an outstanding mystery brewing for his 41st Alex Delaware novel.  Two seemingly unconnected murders with unique circumstances running at the same time is the great basis for an addictive crime fiction read, and I look forward to seeing the protagonists dive into both compelling victims with the author’s typical methodical, character-focused, style.  While I am curious about both murders, including one featuring an obvious, but clearly innocent suspect, and the other with an unlikely hoarder, the true test of this novel is how the author will bring both separate murders together into a single storyline.  I honestly have no doubt that Kellerman will come up with a clever link between both cases, and this will likely result in Jigsaw being an outstanding and very impressive addition to one of my favourite crime fiction series.

Due to how much fun I have had reading Jonathan Kellerman’s previous novels, Jigsaw is a highly anticipated book for the first half of 2026, especially with its intriguing synopsis.  Kellerman has never failed to wow me with his compelling mysteries, and Jigsaw already looks set to be an incredible read.  I honestly can’t wait to get my hands on the next Alex Delaware novel, and I already know it is going to be amazing.

Quick Review – Landfall by James Bradley

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery, Quick Review, Science Fiction, Thriller1 Comment

Publisher: Penguin (ebook – 23 April 2025)

Series: Standalone

Length: 336 pages

My Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

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Those in the mood for a though-provoking and powerful Australian crime fiction read would do well to check out the excellent 2025 release, Landfall.  Written by acclaimed Australian author James Bradley, Landfall was a clever and intense standalone novel that presented a gritty crime fiction scenario in a dark Australian future.

Plot Synopsis:

In an already swamped city, a disastrous weather system looms, making the search to find a missing child urgent.

A missing child.

A city on edge.

Time is running out…

The world is in the grip of climate catastrophe. Sydney has been transformed by rising sea levels, soaring temperatures and rocketing social divide and unrest.

When a small girl on the margins goes missing, Senior Detective Sadiya Azad is assigned to find her. She knows exactly what it is to be displaced, and swallowed by the landscape. A murder at the site of the child’s disappearance suggests a connection and web of corruption, but fear keeps eyes turned and mouths closed.

With few leads to go on and only days until a deadly storm strikes the city, Sadiya and offsider Detective Sergeant Paul Findlay find themselves locked in a race against time.

Chilling and utterly compelling, Landfall is crime writing at its best – and a terrifying vision of the future bearing down on us.

Landfall was an excellent and exciting novel from earlier this year that presented a compelling crime fiction read with a complex and emotionally charged background setting.  Taking place in a dystopian version of modern Sydney that is starting to flood due to climate change, Landfall follows Senior Detective Sadiya Azad and her new partner, Detective Sergeant Paul Findlay, as they attempt to find a child who went missing around the Tideline, a slum area of the city that has been most impacted by rising sea levels.  However, they soon find their investigation hampered by multiple elements including corrupt policing, uncooperative family members with their own political agendas, rampart social divides and more.  This proves to be a strong start to Landfall, and Bradley does a good job of setting up the reality of Sydney, as well as introducing the case and some of the key players.

The story takes an interesting turn when a murdered body is found at a site connected to the child’s disappearance.  Assuming the two cases are linked, the protagonists are forced to investigate suspects related to the murder victim and her corporate ties, and the missing child, trying to find out who is responsible, while also dealing with the dark threat of an oncoming tropical cyclone that looks set to destroy half the city.  At the same time, several other key perspective character are introduced, including Tasim, a refugee living on the streets, who witnesses the abduction and finds himself dragged into events, and Sadiya’s dementia-suffering father, Arman, whose fractured mind provides greater context to their family’s history, as well as showing the early days of some of the environmental crisis’s impacting the world.

These character-focused storylines combine nicely to create an intriguing and compelling overall narrative, and I liked the various themes and outlooks at the future they contained.  The main investigative focus of Sadiya’s narrative is well balanced by the more human stories of Tasim and Arman, and Bradley also makes use of some intense flashback sequences to really build up the tragedy surrounding all these figures.  The mystery narrative also goes in some interesting directions, and while the culprit isn’t too surprising, Bradley does a good job focusing on the characters building their case and pulling together the conclusions.  Unsurprisingly, the climax of Landfall comes together amid the cyclone, with all the characters facing the storm in different ways.  This last part of the book, while dramatic and featuring a high-stakes backdrop, was a little rushed, and could have used a little padding to make it more satisfying.  Still, this is a mostly well-balanced narrative that allows for a good conclusion to the main story arc while also allowing Bradley to make all his thematic points.

Landfall ended up being an excellent overall read and Bradley succeeded in pulling together a complex novel with a lot of moving parts to it.  The central mystery element of the novel, while compelling on its own, was greatly enhanced by the author’s examinations of the future, which features some dire predictions and warnings, wrapped up in very human stories to make them even more impactful.  While an excellent police protagonist, I felt that Sadiya’s personal story was a bit overshadowed by Tasim and Arman’s arcs, especially as Tasmin’s story about losing his family to heatwaves and the harsh journey to Australia, as well as the very realistic depictions of dementia with Arman.  All three of these character’s stories are well wrapped up in the final chapters of the book, although I do wish there had been another chapter or two just to showcase what happened in the aftermath.  The overall focus on the potential dire future for Sydney and the world was probably the most impressive and notable part of Landfall, and Bradley provided a compelling, if terrifying, portrait of probable events to come that gives this book a fantastic edge that scrapes the edge of overshadowing the main mystery, and allows for quite a powerful overall read.

With its complex characters, intense story, and compelling visions of the future, Landfall by James Bradley was one of the more distinctive Australian novels of 2025, and I was glad I got the chance to check out my first book from the author.  An extremely interesting novel that blends crime fiction with social messaging, Landfall comes highly recommended, especially for those with one eye on the future.

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2 Sisters Murder Investigations by James Patterson and Candice Fox

On By The Unseen LibraryIn Australian, Murder Mystery, Thriller3 Comments

Publisher: Century (Trade Paperback – 18 March 2025)

Series: 2 Sisters Detective Agency – Book Two

Length: 352 pages

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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The team of iconic crime fiction author James Patterson and one of Australia’s best thriller authors, Candice Fox, once again come together for the outstanding 2025 sequel, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations.

James Patterson and Candice Fox are both very talented authors whose work I have been really enjoying since I started reading more crime fiction.  Patterson, the iconic writer who is known for his various long-running series, has been primarily producing collaborative work with other authors in recent years, including Death of the Black Widow with J. D. Barker, The No. 1 Lawyer with Nancy Allen and The Perfect Assassin by Brian Sitts.  Fox on the other hand, has been on a real roll with her great recent standalone novels, including Devil’s Kitchen, Fire with Fire, High Wire and The Chase.  On top of those previous novels, Patterson and Fox have found time to collaborate on several great books, including the fun 2024 novel, The Murder Inn, and their outstanding previous novel, 2 Sisters Detective Agency, the latter of which, has generated a sequel I now want to talk about with 2 Sisters Murder Investigations.  Following two mismatched sisters who find themselves investigating crimes in L. A. after re-opening their father’s old detective agency, this interesting series was very fun, I was very happy to receive a copy of the second 2 Sisters Detective Agency novel earlier this year.

Plot Synopsis:

Rhonda and Barbara “Baby” Bird are half-sisters—and full partners in their Los Angeles detective agency. They agree on nothing.

Rhonda, a former attorney, takes a by-the-book approach to solving crimes, while teenage Baby relies on her street smarts.

But when they take a controversial case of a loner whose popular wife has gone missing, they’re accused of being PIs who can’t tell a client from a killer.

The Bird sisters share a late father, but not much else…except their willingness to fight.

Fight the system. Fight for the underdog. Fight for the truth. If they can stop fighting each other long enough to work together.

Patterson and Fox produce another outstanding and highly entertaining crime fiction read with 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, which quickly grabs your attention and keeps pushing you forward.  Slick, easy-to-read, and full of excitement, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was another great thriller from two masters of the genre.

2 Sisters Murder Investigations had an excellent story behind it that sees the dysfunctional Bird sisters, older sister Rhonda and rampart teenager Baby, working together at their family detective agency after the events of the first book.  After an entertaining start that shows that the sisters still aren’t on the same page, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations thrusts them into a compelling new case when the main suspect in a current murder case requests their help to prove his innocence.  Deciding to take on the case against their better judgment, Rhonda and Baby try to help their new client, Troy Hansen, who is accused of murdering his missing wife, and whose unusual demeanour about the case has convinced the entire city he is guilty.

Patterson and Fox’s narrative for 2 Sisters Murder Investigations splits early, as Rhonda’s perspective chapters primarily focus on the Hansen case, which goes in some interesting directions.  Under pressure from both the public and the police to stop helping Troy, Rhonda tries to prove his innocence, but she is quickly stymied by a series of problems, including lethal intruders trying, her client’s unusual behaviour, and a box full of concerning evidence hidden at the crime scene.  At the same time, Baby attempts to help an older man who is being targeted as part of a sinister scheme to force him to sell his house to a corrupt company.  The resulting storylines both go in interesting directions, especially the one around Rhonda and her attempts to help Troy, as the evidence continues to point to her client being a dangerous killer.  The eventual result for this plot thread was very captivating, and there were some great twists here, including an unlikely alternate suspect who suddenly shows up.  While the reveal about the actual killer wasn’t all that surprising, the way that Patterson and Fox set it up was extremely good, and the fast-paced conclusion to that arc, as well as the surprising tragedy, allowed for some captivating and intense moments.  While I liked this main plotline, the secondary storyline with Baby attempting to take on her own case ended up being a little rushed, especially at the end, although I did enjoy seeing how Baby comes into her own and acquires an excellent canine friend.  While this weak ending to the second storyline does rob 2 Sisters Murder Investigations of some of its overall impact, I did feel that this narrative for the sequel was very strong, and all thriller fans, even those unfamiliar with the series or the authors, will have a lot of fun with it.

I really enjoyed how entertaining and exciting the authors made 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, and Patterson and Fox ensure that this was a highly compelling and fun novel to read.  Utilising the multiple short, sharp paragraphs that Patterson fans will be familiar with, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was a very easy novel to power through as you jump from one compelling scene to the next.  These quick chapters really encourage you to keep going, as the next twists could be only pages away, and I found myself speeding through the story.  It helped that Patterson and Fox did a good job splitting the novel’s focus between the two sister protagonists, which allows for a layered narrative, especially as both characters have different focuses and priorities, resulting in a well-balanced and complex overarching story.  These separate storylines have a certain distinctness given to them, especially as the authors switched up the perspective style depending on whose chapter it is.  For example, Rhonda is shown as more of main protagonist due to her chapters being told in the first person, while Baby’s chapters are told in the third person, which helps to reflect her more junior role in the team.  While Patterson and Fox could have perhaps done a better job at the front of each chapter showing which character is the focal point of the book at that point, for the most part this split is pretty seamless, and I liked the alternating and fast-paced nature of the novel that the author’s writing style allows for.

On top of the great story and exciting writing style, I quite enjoyed how Patterson and Fox revisited the main characters of the series, sisters Rhonda and Baby Bird.  Still in conflict despite the initial successful nature of their relationship, Rhonda and Baby play off each other extremely well as dysfunctional sisters, which allows for a lot of fun interactions amongst the darker nature of the plot.  While you could argue there is a slight loss of character growth between Rhonda and Baby in 2 Sisters Murder Investigations, as they lose some of the cohesion they built up in the first novel, I think their continued bickering and disagreement worked well in the context of the story, as Baby tried to stretch her wings, while Rhonda continues to adjust to being a responsible guardian to a new sister.  Throw in some excellent supporting characters, including Rhonda’s complicated love interest, an obsessed cop investigating the murder, a lonely old man who finds purpose thanks to Baby, and one suspicious client who helped to showcase the unlikely choices those under pressure make, and this was a fun cast that turned 2 Sisters Murder Investigations into a really awesome read.

Overall, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was a great sequel to James Patterson and Candice Fox’s 2 Sisters Detective Agency, and it was very cool to see the Bird sisters back in action again.  Featuring a fascinating and gripping narrative that you can easily speed through and still have an awesome time, 2 Sisters Murder Investigations was an outstanding novel that is worth reading, especially if you have enjoyed the previous collaborations between Patterson and Fox.

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