Bookshops I visited in Sydney

On the third day I arrived in Sydney, I thought I would pay a visit to any bookstores that happened to come across my path while I was checking out the city.

My mission was to buy books by Australian authors and Australian authors only.

I took a ferry from Cremorne Point where I am staying across to Circular Quay, the hub of Sydney Harbour, and then caught one of the myriad buses heading out to the city.

The first bookshop I came across was located on 424 George Street.  It is Dymocks, a family owned business and the oldest Australian-owned bookstore.  There are more than twenty branches of Dymocks in New South Wales alone.

There, I bought

1)  Red Dust by Fleur McDonald

2)  Indelible Ink by Fiona McGregor

3)  Siren by Tara Moss

4)  Border Watch by Helene Young

5)  The Butcherbird by Geoffrey Cousins

There is no particular section on crime and the Australian fiction section covers romance, historical and crime so you need to know who and what you want to buy otherwise the choices can be overwhelming.

The staff were extremely helpful and friendly and I came away with a good experience and a good impression of the store.

I was also given a free attractive and exclusive book bag (see above) featuring selected titles from the 'Dymocks Booklovers' Best Top 101 list' to carry my purchase in as I had bought over AUS$100 worth of books.

I was a very happy customer.

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Out of the four bookshops I visited in Sydney, I think Abbey's Bookshop is the most well-stocked in terms of crime fiction find.

The crime section is divided into three sections:

1)  Modern Crime

2)  Australian Crime/Crime Anthologies and

3)  Historical Crime.

Unfortunately, I did not explore the rest of the store as I spent too long a time in Modern Crime and had to go when one part of my anatomy called much too loudly in the hush of the aisle.

I bought

1)  Feeding The Demons by Gabrielle Lord (Australia's First Lady of Crime)


2)  Vodka Doesn't Freeze by Leah Giarratano

3)  The Tattoo Man by Alex Palmer

4)  The Darkest Hour by Katherine Howell

If you come to Sydney looking for Australian crime writers and their books, I recommend visiting Abbey's first.

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On the fifth day of my holiday down under, I came across two bookstores.

The first one is the Japanese bookstore, Kinokuniya which is situated at Level 2, The Galeries, 500 George Street, Sydney 2000.

As is expected, there is a good selection of books in the store as well as a cafe at the side of the entrance to quench one's thirst or rest those tired feet.

Sadly, I did not find the customer service at Kinokuniya as good as Dymocks'.  I had a list of about ten Australian authors and a pen in my hand and even so, none of the staff approached me to ask whether I needed any help and I did not bother asking for help either.

Nevertheless, I did make some purchases and they were

1)  Torn Apart by Peter Corris

2)  Thrill City by Leigh Redhead

3)  The Broken Shore by Peter Temple

I have not gotten round to buying a Kindle yet and I do not think I ever will unless Santa decided to drop me a present down the chimney this year but I have found an alternative here in Australia and that is the ECO Reader, a 6-inch digital book, priced at AUS$199 available at most bookshops here.

Apart from those two gadgets, I am very much in the dark about paperless books so to speak and will carry on buying printed books in bookshops and borrowing books from libraries for the foreseable future.

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The second bookshop I chanced upon is a discounted bookstore named T Kelly Discount Books situated at 583, George Street, Sydney 2000.  It is quite small and narrow and packed full of books from ceiling to floor and on two extended shelves in the middle of the floor space.  As the banner outside the entrance depicts, T Kelly also sells CDs and DVDs.

The owner is a friendly and helpful chap who helped me find the books that I asked for but unfortunately, even though there is a good selection of bestselling books by bestselling and well-known authors from around the globe, he could only find Peter Temple for me!  Where are all the Aussie writers?

How discounted is it?  Well, a book from a chain bookstore usually costs AUS$24 or more but at T Kelly's, a book sells for AUS$19 give or take.

I love bookshops.

Thus my mission continues.

A Deadly Trade (A Detective Kubu Crime Novel) by Michael Stanley

About the authors:  No, you did not read wrong and yes, there are two authors with regards to this book/series.  Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip.  The pair have had many adventures together, including tracking lions at night, fighting bush fires on the Savuti plains in northern Botswana, surviving a charging elephant and losing their navigation maps while flying over the Kalahari.  Sears lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.  Trollip divides his time between South Africa and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  To find out more, click on their website here.

Below is a picture of the crime-writing duo - Sears (L) and Trollip (cradling the cat):

First line in the book:  The farewells had been said many years ago, so Goodluck hugged his old comrade and left without a word.

Synopsis:  How can a man die twice?  That's the question facing Detective 'Kubu' Bengu when a mutilated body is found at a tourist camp in northern Botswana.  The corpse of Goodluck Tinubu displays the classic signs of a revenge killing.  But when his fingerprints are analysed, Kubu makes a shocking discovery:  Tinubu is already dead.  He was slain in the Rhodesian war thirty years ago.

Kubu quickly realises that nothing at the camp is as it seems.  As the guests are picked off one by one, time to stop the murderer is running out.  With rumours of horrifying war crimes, the scent of a drug-smuggling trail and mounting pressure from his superiors to contend with, Kubu doesn't notice there is one door left unguarded - his own.  And as he sets a trap to find the criminals, the hunters are closing in on him...

My take:  As far as I know, the only other story set in Botswana is Alexander McCall Smith's and here I am reading the other pea in the pod to the No 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, albeit "with a dark edge and even darker underbelly" (Peter James).

Assistant superintendent, Kubu, (Setswana for 'hippopotamus' because of his big waistline and hearty appetite) works in the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department and is fond of food, wine and his wife, Joy.  He reminds me very much of Shamini Flint's Inspector Singh - both men boast a commanding girth and like food.  They work in a laid back environment with their subordinates and have someone higher-up to answer to even when they are working quite independently.  Their books are pleasantly paced and not as edgy and dark as say Deon Meyer's.

As with McCall Smith and Deon Meyer's, I do not think you can read a novel from South Africa and not come across the local cultures and customs, its people and its beautiful landscape and not forgetting its diverse wildlife.  These types of books are very much culturally inclined while enjoying a good light crime mystery.  I have enjoyed reading this book in flight to Kuala Lumpur for my Christmas break but having said this, it would not make me read their debut (A Carrion Death) soon/next for the simple reason that I would like to explore other literary styles, a more hard-boiled style perhaps.  It has been an enjoyable read though.


A Deadly Trade is published in the USA under the title The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu.

If you are searching for more South African crime novels to read, you can click on the Top 10 compiled by www.guardian.co.uk.  Enjoy reading!

Rating:  2/5

Concourse (A Lydia Chin & Bill Smith Mystery) by S J Rozan

First line in the book:  At Mike Downey's wake the coffin was closed.

My thoughts:  This time, piano-playing P I Bill Smith comes to the forefront while Lydia takes a back seat in the second book of the Lydia Chin/Bill Smith mystery series.  At the behest of his old mentor, Bobby Moran, who runs a security business, Bill goes undercover to investigate the killing of a security guard at the Bronx Home for the Aged in a gang-infested territory in the Bronx.  What he then uncovers is a startling web of corruption in the world of non-profit organizations and the evil wrought by money and the giddying power of knowing you can get away with it!

Likeable characters, rich and rewardingly plotted, exciting at every turn and a first-rate read.  I am impressed with her poetic diction which is so vivid it awakens my imagination.  Her detailed descriptions of nature, buildings, people, scenes can only come from one who knows what they are writing about.  This book is a true blue dee-tec-tive story in the way a P I is supposed to detect and find answers for his client with a lot of legwork and asking questions and if you started with Nancy Drew and the Hardy boys in the past and want to know how much detection has evolved and changed since those heydays, then this is the series to get you back into it.  I love a good P I story and I am not saying it lightly.

I can see why this book won the Shamus Award (awarded by the Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) for the best detective fiction genre novels of the year) for the "Best P I Hardcover Novel" category in 1996.  This book could be used as a textbook/reference book for students in writing programs.

Rating:  5/5

China Trade (A Lydia Chin & Bill Smith mystery) by S J Rozan

First line in the book:  I jumped a pothole in Canal Street as I dashed between honking cars and double-parked ones.

My thoughts:  As I said I would after reading S J Rozan's The Shanghai Moon, I am back with her superb debut called China Trade introducing the original tea-drinking American-born Chinese private investigator Lydia Chin and her sidekick, Bill Smith.

Set in the heart of New York's Chinatown, Lydia is hired by the local Chinese community organizers to find a set of rare Blair porcelains stolen from the basement of its headquarters.  Lydia works with her low fann sometimes partner, Bill, to find a link between groups of rival Chinese tongs and the black market in stolen art.  An investigation that Lydia eventually finds not as straightforward as it first appears when violence intervenes in the courtyard behind the kitchen of a seafood restaurant...

Face.  Reputation.  People desperate to protect their good names.  When it comes to the Chinese people, you can be pretty sure this is what it is all about on all counts!

Rozan certainly has Chinatown and Chinese cultural nuances down pat and is a talented writer in the contemporary sleuth genre.  What I like most is that it is funny and witty and the relationship between Lydia and Bill is so comfortable and easy that it seems Rozan must have been writing about a rea life friendship.  A very interesting reader's comment about this book went like this, "...this book was written in the early 90s and it was amusing to remember that not so long ago people used answering machines, answering services and pay phones!"  I wonder if anyone noticed while reading the book at the present time.

An excellent start to a long series of books alternating between Lydia and Bill.  Highly recommended.

S J Rozan is a former architect and lives in lower Manhattan, New York City.

Rating:  5/5

Cream Puff Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes) by Joanne Fluke

First line in the book:  There was a loud crash as someone dropped a platter.

Back cover blurb:  Bakery owner Hannah Swensen has a dress to fit into and a date with her sister, Andrea, at Lake Eden's new health club, Heavenly Bodies.  Dragging herself out of bed on a frigid Minnesota morning for exercise, of all things, is bad enough.  Discovering the body of man-eating bombshell Ronni Ward floating in the gym's jacuzzi?  Okay, that's worse.  Nor does it help that there's a plate of The Cookie Jar's very own cream puffs garnishing the murder scene.

Trying to narrow the list of Ronni's enemies down to fewer than half the town's female population, Hannah has her plate full.  Trouble is, when it comes to cookies - and to murder - there's always room for one more...

My thoughts:  This eleventh book wraps up my sweet indulgence with the Hannah Swensen mystery series as the bookshop does not stock the new ones at the moment.  However, I will be back for more when they are available.  In the meantime, I will start another series ie A White House Chef Mystery series by Julie Hyzy which have been marked down on my next-to-read cosy reading list.

If you want to find out about Joanne Fluke, her books, photos, what's next, reviews, interviews and especially her recipe index, click here which will link you to her homepage.

Rating:  3/5

The Reversal by Michael Connelly

Connelly introduces his latest book:



The best-selling author answers questions about The Reversal for USA Today:



First line in the book:  Tuesday, February 9, 1:43 P.M.  The last time I'd eaten at the Water Grill I sat across the table from a client who had coldly and calculatedly murdered his wife and her lover, shooting both of them in the face.

Dust jacket blurb:  When Mickey Haller is invited by the Los Angeles County District Attorney to prosecute a case, he suspects he's being set up.  Why should one of the hottest defense lawyers in the business agree to switch sides for one trial?  Especially since the DA's determination to re-try Jason Jessup, a convicted child-killer who spent almost twenty-five years on death row before DNA evidence freed him, seems doomed to failure.

Despite the risks, Mickey finds it's an offer he can't refuse.  Not only will the trial generate a media blitz, but as Mickey and his lead investigator Detective Harry Bosch learn more about the death of twelve-year-old Melissa Landy all those years ago, they become convinced that Jessup is guilty - and once freed he will kill again.

With the odds stacked against him - including a defense attorney adept at portraying Jessup as the innocent victim of a corrupt justice system and a key witness who risks having her life torn apart on the stand - Mickey knows that if this is the only case he ever prosecutes, it's one he cannot afford to lose.

My thoughts:  What an exceptionally well-written book!  This is the fourth novel of Connelly's twenty two novels starring Mickey Haller as the protagonist and Harry Bosch taking a not-so-secondary role.  It is very hard to fault Connelly's books because he never disappoints his fans and always delivers top quality work.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because it is a book about right and wrong, love and evil.  As Bosch says, "There are certain kinds of evil in the world that had to be contained, no matter the hardship."  Does justice always prevail?  We know that there are no certainties in a courtroom and that a wrong does not necessarily mean a chance of conviction and that a right does not mean that the public will agree with the verdict.  Potential political fallout plays a huge role in enforcing judgment, more often than not on opposing ends of the scale.

In this respect, it demonstrates that nothing seems to move in a straight line and how a mistake in judgement can affect the search for truth and thereby pervert the course of justice.  In the author's acknowledgement, he writes that he greatly benefited from reading Defending the Damned:  Inside a Dark Corner of the Criminal Justice System by Kevin Davis, an award-winning journalist, author, magazine writer and a former crime reporter based in Chicago.  His book gives you a true behind-the-scenes look on the way the court system works in America.

A gripping and convincing storyline with well-drawn characters and their relationships with one another, realistic dialogue, smooth prose, excellent attention to details, all in all, an intelligently written thriller which you just gotta read!  Super!

In my opinion, Michael Connelly is one of the best and inspiring contemporary writers of crime fiction.

You can follow and keep up to date with him on Facebook.

Rating:  5/5

Don't Blink by James Patterson & Howard Roughan

First paragraph in the book:  Lombardo's Steakhouse on Manhattan's tony Upper East Side was justly famous for two things, two specialties of the house.  The first was its double-thick, artery-clogging forty-six-ounce porterhouse, the mere sight of which could give a vegan an apoplectic seizure.  The second claim to fame was its clientele.

Dust jacket blurb:  


The Good:  New York's Lombardo's Steak House is famous for three reasons - the menu, the clientele, and now, the gruesome murder of an infamous mob lawyer.  Effortlessly, the assassin slips through the police's fingers, and his absence sparks a blaze of accusations about who ordered the hit.

The Bad:  Seated at a nearby table, reporter Nick Daniels is conducting a once-in-a-lifetime interview with a legendary baseball bad-boy.  In the chaos, he accidentally captures a key piece of evidence that lands him in the middle of an all-out war between Italian and Russian mafia forces.  NYPD captains, district attorneys, mayoral candidates, media kingpins, and one shockingly beautiful magazine editor are all pushing their own agendas - on both sides of the law.

And The Dead:  Back off - or die - is the clear message Nick receives as he investigates for a story of his own.  Heedless, and perhaps in love with his beautiful editor, Nick endures humiliation, threats, violence, and worse in a thriller that overturns every expectation and finishes with the kind of flourish only James Patterson knows.

James Patterson answers questions about Don't Blink:



My thoughts:  I used to read a lot of James Patterson because his thrillers are short and to the point.  A very important element is that they do not ramble at all.  Even so, the salient points are there and they are actually very well-written.  The plot and characters are intriguing and the dialogue flows easily thereby making his books absolute page-turners!  This is the first book by James Patterson which I am coming back to after a particularly long sabbatical.  I would recommend Patterson to anyone who wants to have a fast-paced and entertaining crime thriller to read in their busy lives.

I love James Patterson's official website - there is so much going on!

And here is the website for the co-writer, Howard Roughan.  He has two books under his belt - The Up and Comer (2001) and The Promise of a Lie (2004).  He lives with his wife and son in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

Rating:  2.5/5

The Templar Legacy (A Cotton Malone thriller) by Steve Berry

First paragraph in the book:  Paris, France.  January 1308.  Jacques de Molay sought death, but knew salvation would never be offered.  He was the twenty-second master of the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, a religious order that had existed under God's charge for two hundred years.  But for the past three months, he, like five thousand of his brothers, had been a prisoner of Philip IV, king of France.

Dust jacket blurb:  The ancient Order of the Knights Templar possessed untold wealth and absolute power over kings and popes...until the Inquisition, when the Knights were wiped from the face of the earth, their riches left hidden - forever?

Cotton Malone is enjoying his quiet new life as an antiquarian book dealer in Copenhagen, when he is unexpectedly plunged back into the cloak-and-dagger world he thought he'd left behind at the US Justice Department.

It begins with a violent robbery attempt on Cotton's former supervisor, Stephanie Nelle, who's far from home on a mission that has nothing to do with national security.  Armed with vital clues to a series of centuries-old puzzles scattered across Europe, she means to crack a mystery that has tantalized scholars and fortune-hunters through the ages - by finding the legendary cache of wealth and forbidden knowledge thought to be lost forever when the Order of the Knights Templar was exterminated in the 14th Century.  But she's not alone.  Competing for the historic prize - and desperate for the crucial information Stephanie possesses - is Raymond de Roquefort, a shadowy zealot with an army of assassins at his command.

Cotton is soon involved in the perilous race.  But the more he learns about the ancient conspiracy surrounding the Templars, the more he realizes that not only lives are at stake.  At the end of a lethal game of conquest, rife with intrigue, treachery, and lust for power, lies a shattering discovery that could rock the civilized world - and, in the wrong hands, bring it to his knees.

My thoughts:  It is said that this book is Berry's breakout book and the most popular of his books printing over 2 million books worldwide.  It is also the book that first introduces the protagonist Cotton Malone.  And for myself and new readers out there, I manage to get a copy of a confidential and personal Magellan Billet dossier on the protagonist strictly for fans of Berry only and not for public circulation!

This being my second Berry book, I am starting to notice that the author's distinctive way of writing is to combine controversial historic matters (like religion) and a present day investigation to make a truly fabulous suspenseful thriller.  For those who like that kind of combination, it is an irresistible and interesting read.  The Templar Legacy is an exceptionally written book and well-researched.  The author knows exactly what he is writing about and there are pictures, cryptograms, anagrams, symbology and plenty of thought-provoking questions for you to figure out the secrets and inconsistencies of the past.  I think that sometimes, having an inquisitive mind is all good but asking too many questions can be exhaustive and fruitless simply because you cannot have all the answers.  You can debate and discuss till the end of time but the fact remains that you gotta have faith.

Berry and his wife have set up a foundation dedicated to the worldwide preservation and reservation of all things historic.  You can read about why history matters to the author here.

Last but not least, these helpful images related to The Templar Legacy are taken from Steve Berry's website.

You will love this book, I know I did.

Fans of Berry will love this recent article on Steve Berry's dream home from The Orlando Sentinel.

Rating:  5/5

Carrot Cake Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes) by Joanne Fluke

First line in the book:  The Amen couldn't come fast enough to suit Hannah Swensen.

Backcover blurb:  Between baking up a storm for The Cookie Jar and unraveling the mystery of her cat Moishe's recent strange behaviour, Hannah Swensen has a lot on her plate.  But she'll always make time for her business partner, Lisa, who's in the midst of preparing for a big family reunion.  Everyone is delighted when Lisa's long-lost uncle makes a surprise appearance.  No one has heard from Gus in twenty-five years.

Uncle Gus is immediately the hit of the reunion.  He's almost as popular as Hannah's scrumptious carrot cake, which is also Gus's favourite dessert.  But the next morning, as the whole family gathers for the group photo, one person is missing.  Hannah offers to track down Uncle Gus, but her search leads to a shocking find.  Over by the bar at the pavilion, she spots two slices of her infamous carrot cake, frosting-side down on the floor - and Gus's corpse with an ice pick jutting out of his chest!

Now Hannah's got to sift through a long list of suspects to find a killer - even if it could mean a recipe for her own demise...

My thoughts:  I do love carrot cake from time to time, even better carrots in soup or carrot soup.  How did I get to the eleventh book in the series so quick?  After a bit of Googling, I found that there are five books left in the series, the newest one coming out in February of next year called Devil's Food Cake Murder.  Happy reading.

Rating:  3/5

Candy Cane Murder by Joanne Fluke, Laura Levine & Leslie Meier

Backcover blurb:  'Tis the season for trimming the tree, caroling, baking cookies, and curling up by the Yuletide waiting for Santa to drop down the chimney.  But in this festive collection of holiday whodunits, murder is also paying a visit...

Candy Cane Murder by Joanne Fluke

When a trail of candy canes leads to a corpse outfitted in a Santa suit on a snowy bank, Hannah Swensen sets out to discover who killed Kris Kingle...

The Dangers of Candy Canes by Laura Levine

A wealthy suburbanite takes a lethal tumble off his roof while installing a giant candy cane.  Now it's up to Jaine Austen to sift through a long list of scheming neighbours with dirty secrets in their stockings to expose a murderer...

Candy Canes of Christmas Past by Leslie Meier

Lucy Stone must learn the mystery of a glass candy cane that was found smashed to bits by a corpse's body to unlock the doors of Christmas past - and find a killer who got away with murder.

My thoughts:  With Christmas less than a month away, I think this tantalizing three-in-one book will make a special gift to a loved one, family and friends, colleagues, as a Secret Santa gift or even yourself this Christmas!  It is very tempting to curl up by the fire with a good book on a cold day!

Rating:  3/5

Hit by Tara Moss

First line in the book:  Meaghan Wallace pushed a damp lock of pale blonde hair off her face and squinted in the half-light.

Backcover blurb:  She's street-smart, stunning and hoping to leave her troubled past behind her.  Makedde Vanderwall is ready to start work as a forensic psychologist...and a new life in Australia with her detective boyfriend Andy Flynn.

Hoping to scrape together some extra cash, Mak begins working part-time for an infamous Sydney PI.  With a knack for investigation and bending the law, she might just have stumbled across her true calling - and the career that could break up her relationship once and for all.

Then she is hired to investigate the murder of A-list PA Meaghan Wallace.  The police believe it's an open and shut case but Mak discovers that it's a lot more complicated...

About the author:  Tara Moss, is the author of five bestselling crime novels published in fifteen countries in ten languages.  Writing has been a lifelong passion for her; she began penning gruesome 'Stephen King-inspired' stories for her classmates when she was only ten.  Tara enjoyed a successful international career as a fashion model before pursuing professional writing, first earning a Diploma from the Australian College of Journalism.  She began writing her debut novel, Fetish, when she was just twenty-three.  Her crime novels have been nominated for the Davitt and the Ned Kelly awards.  She has a star on the Australian Walk of Fame:  the first person so inducted for services to literature.

Not a writer to rely solely on imagination, she has toured the FBI Academy at Quantico, spent time in squad cars, morgues, prisons, labs, the Supreme Court and criminology conferences worldwide, taken polygraph tests, shot weapons, conducted surveillance, flown with the RAAF, and acquired her CAMS race driver licence.  Tara recently earned her PI licence, and was set on fire by Hollywood stunt company West EFX and choked unconscious by Ultimate Fighters 'Big' John McCarthy for her research.

Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Tara is a proud dual Australia/Canadian citizen, and divides her time between Sydney, Los Angeles and her hometown in Canada.  She is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, as well as an ambassador for the YWCA and the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children.

She hosts the true crime series Tough Nuts: Australia's Hardest Criminals on the Crime & Investigation Network and Tara Moss in Conversation on the 13th STREET Universal channel.  Previously, she hosted the crime documentary series 'Tara Moss Investigates' on the National Geographic Channel across Europe and Australia/New Zealand.

My thoughts:  I bought this book at W H Smith on my way to Copenhagen back in spring.  At that time, I was trying to fulfil my reading challenge obligation by looking at authors and books outside my comfort zone.  It is uncanny how I have never felt the inclination to read books from other countries apart from the UK and the USA.  In that respect, I am grateful for the 2010 Global Reading Challenge for widening my reading scope.

Having read so many books in my lifetime, Hit comes across as a mediocre thriller written by a mediocre author on first impressions particularly in the Prologue.  However, as I go on reading, my last impressions leave me with a fairly satisfying smacking of the lips!

I am impressed that Moss writes from first-hand experience and have enjoyed reading about the ins and outs of the life of a female private investigator in one of my favourite locations in the world, Sydney.  The fact that Moss mentions a few famous landmarks in Sydney and also the well-known television soap opera Neighbours brings back a lot of good memories and makes the story as close to realistic as possible.

Apart from Sara Paretsky (V I Warshawski), S J Rozan (Lydia Chin) and Cara Black (Aimée Leduc), I do not know any other authors who have written books about a gutsy female PI until Tara Moss (Makkede Vanderwall).  Or maybe I have forgotten.  Anyway, that makes four.

This is also my first foray into Sydney's crime world and police procedures and there is no doubt that there is a full injection of 'Aussie flavour' throughout the book in terms of lifestyle and dialogue, among others.  It certainly makes a nice change from reading my usual booty.

The author's knowledge of investigative procedures certainly lends an air of authenticity to the plots and Moss has written skilfully and successfully on both terms.  As for the protagonist, she comes across as independent and strong, sensible and pragmatic.  She possesses a good work ethic as she seems to be revelling in her job as a part-time private investigator.  I like a strong female character with baggage!  However, I cannot fully grasp her character in this book because she seems to be moving forward in her life from a trouble-filled past and even though there were tidbits of references to the past and her trying to start a career in her new home in Sydney, her personality did not jump out at me from the pages.  I would very much like to read the other books to get a better insight into her past and who she really is.  

Overall, I think Hit is a well-paced and entertaining read with 'chick attitude'.  On a last note, I would say do give it a fair go but it is not a book for everybody!

There are not a lot of reviews on the web for Hit but I almost agree with Maxine Clarke's review but not quite.

Rating:  3/5

Sara Paretsky honoured with Mystery Writers of America's Grand Master Award 2011

I remember reading my first Sara Paretsky book on one of the most relaxing holidays I partook of this year.  Of all the places to get a book, I actually found 'her' in the bookshop of St Roch, Montpellier's main train station.  Without further ado, I would like to congratulate Paretsky on this most prestigious award which will be held at the organization's Edgar Awards banquet in New York City on 28 April 2011.  I hope she would write many more books on Private Investigator V I Warshawski because we expect that of her now!

Here is Robin Robinson from myFOXchicago.com interviewing Sara Paretsky about the award:



You can find out more about Sara Paretsky's award here.

And finally, this is the website for writer Sara Paretsky.

Take time to read as always.

If You Have To Cry Go Outside (And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You) by Kelly Cutrone with Meredith Bryan

About the author:  Kelly Cutrone is the founder of fashion public relations, branding, and marketing firm People's Revolution, which has represented clients such as Longchamp, Vivienne Westwood, Valentino, Jeremy Scott, Paco Rabanne, Thierry Mugler, Bulgari, Christie's, and more.  She stars in Kell on Earth on Bravo and has appeared on MTV's The Hills and The City.  Prior to founding People's Revolution, Cutrone cofounded Cutrone & Weinberg and was the director of PR for Spin magazine.  Cutrone lives in Manhattan with her daughter, Ava.

About the co-author:  Meredith Bryan is an editor at O, the Oprah magazine, and a former staff writer at The New York Observer.

Taken from the blurb:  "I'm not here to tell you how to get the perfect Margiela wardrobe or the perfect man or the perfect job in fashion.  I've had all these things, and trust me, there's a bigger prize to be had.  I believe the world will change only when we change ourselves.  And that starts with finding ourselves.  And that starts with listening to ourselves, learning to quiet the clamor in our minds and the voices of everyone around us and moving toward what feels right.  It means taking a journey like the spectacular and terrifying and ultimately mind-blowing adventure I've been on.  I hope that you, too, will choose to have a journey instead of just a life.  Actually, I hope it's a full-on expedition." - Kelly Cutrone

Raw, hilarious, shocking, but always the honest truth, If You Have To Cry, Go Outside calls upon you to gather up your courage like an armful of clothes at a McQueen sample sale and follow your soul wherever it takes you.  Whether you are just starting out in the world or looking to reinvent yourself, , If You Have To Cry, Go Outside will be the spark you need to figure out what you have to say to the world and how you are going to say it.

This is what a very relaxed and informal Cutrone has to say about her book:



My thoughts:  I digress from reading crime fiction to read a book by one of my favourite television personalities, Kelly Cutrone.  I have only ever seen her in the popular television shows The Hills and The City.  This book debuted on the New York Times bestseller list in February of this year.  It is an inspirational (and spiritual) book for any women, career or full-time mom, and packed with Cutrone's advice from her work ethics to life's lessons.  If you have not seen Cutrone on television, she can be summed up as straight-talking, witty and brutally honest and her personality will jump out at you from the book.  She is one woman who is not afraid to be herself so it is fitting that she becomes my 100th post since I started blogging in May of this year!  Finally, when life gets you down as life sometimes does, this is the kind of book that will pick you up again.

If you want to keep up with Cutrone, she can be found on Facebook among other social media sites.


As is my wont, I do not rate books of this nature but if you decide to pick it up, do enjoy it.

The Paris Vendetta (A Cotton Malone thriller) by Steve Berry

First paragraph in the book:  Giza Plateau, Egypt.  August 1799.  General Napoleon Bonaparte dismounted from his horse and stared up at the pyramid.  Two more lay in succession nearby, but this was the grandest of the three.

From the blurb:  Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone wakes to find an intruder in his Copenhagen bookshop:  an American Secret Service agent with assassins on his heels.  Narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight, the two journey to the secluded estate of Malone's friend Henrik Thorvaldsen.  The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy.  But Thorvaldsen also harbors a hidden agenda - a vendetta - that will force Malone to choose between friend and country, past and present.  Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone is forced to match wits with a terrorist for hire and to plunge into a desperate hunt for Napoleon's legendary treasure, lost for two hundred years.  It's a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value.  But at what cost?

My thoughts:  Again, I 'discovered' Berry at a newsagent in a rather swanky hotel in downtown Toronto.  Having visited Copenhagen four times now in the past two years, I was drawn to the location of the book more than the story or the author.  And I was not disappointed.

Phew, what a read!  There is no let-up at all.  Ongoing and fast-paced and captivating so much so that it was unputdownable.  It has been quite a while since I read a book which combines history and the present and I do not usually like books with a sweep of history but I think Berry has done an excellent and convincing job switching between the two to make a brilliant page-turning suspenseful thriller.  Above all, Cotton Malone is a character whom I can get used to.  I have thoroughly enjoyed reading my first Berry book and will be exploring more of the author's other books in the near future.

I like the fact that Berry has posted some amazing photos related to The Paris Vendetta on his website as I am big on photos and videos.

You can join the author on Facebook or on his homepage.

I thought this review from Mysterious Reviews is spot-on.

Rating:  5/5