Book Watch - Herald on Sunday - 19 February
By CJ Box (Corvus,
$24.99)
Renewable energy
meets murderous motives in award-winning CJ Box’s latest tale starring Wyoming
game warden Joe Pickett; another example of his impressive touch for thrillers
set in America’s rural and wilderness areas. When a millionaire property
developer is found murdered, hanging from a controversial wind turbine on his
sprawling ranch, the prime suspect is his wife Missy – who also happens to be
Pickett’s mother-in-law. Pickett finds himself caught between his bosses and
his wife, who wants him to prove her mother’s innocence. Box mixes a gripping
plotline with compelling characters, layered relationships, and well-evoked
settings.
By Patricia
Cornwell (Little, Brown, $39.99)
More than 20 years
after shaking up crime fiction by bringing forensics to the fore, Patricia
Cornwell and her fearless heroine Kay Scarpetta are still going strong, and in
fact, are back to their best. Red Mist
sees Scarpetta travelling to Savannah to meet a high-security prisoner. Drawn
into a long-closed case, her sojourn to the sweltering South takes a truly
deadly turn, threatening many lives. Red
Mist contains plenty of intriguing forensics, but the highlight is
Scarpetta and her perspective on the world, along with the interplay between
characters.
By Derek Hansen
(Hachette, $37.99)
If you like your
crime fiction laced with plenty of laughs, then this caper set in the Australian
Outback could be just the ticket. Former bank manager Lambert Hampton helped
transform the tiny town of Munni-Munni after stumbling across a robbery gang’s
stash. Years later, the crims, the cops, a rogue investigator and two hit men
are all chasing the money, converging on the town, causing shenanigans aplenty.
Hansen, who grew up in New Zealand, creates an intriguing tale packed with
eccentric characters and memorable moments that stay with you long after the
final page.
By Chevy Stevens
(Allen & Unwin, $36.99)
Canadian author
Stevens follows up her excellent debut Still
Missing with another cracking story. Sara Gallagher has always wondered why
she was given up for adoption. After months of research she locates her birth
mother, only to face rejection, then discover an even more horrifying truth:
she is a child of rape, her birth mother the sole survivor of a serial killer
still on the loose. The killer contacts Sara after her story ends up online. Never Knowing is a layered tale that is
as much about a woman’s search for herself, as the search for a murderer.
Reviewed by Craig Sisterson who helped
establish the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel. He writes about crime and
thriller fiction for several publications here and overseas, and blogs at http://kiwicrime.blogspot.com
First published in the Herald on Sunday 19 February, 2012
First published in the Herald on Sunday 19 February, 2012
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