Murder In Montego Bay by Paula Lennon

Paperback:  Murder In Montego Bay (2017) introduces crime-fighting duo Jamaican Detective Raythan Preddy and Scottish lawman Detective Sean Harris set in the picturesque city of Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Privileged Chinese-Jamaican brothers Lester and Carter Chin Ellis have enjoyed a sheltered life as the heirs to the iced desserts empire Chinchillerz.  One fateful night, following a fiery encounter with local law enforcement the brothers are taken to Pelican Walk Police Station, where Lester is detained for drunk driving, while Carter is released without charge.

When Carter is shot dead within minutes of leaving the station, his murder throws the police force into crisis mode.

Discredited Detective Raythan Preddy is put in charge of the murder case and is forced to accept the assistance of Detective Sean Harris, a Scottish lawman seconded to Jamaica.

With his superiors watching his every move and the Chin Ellis family interfering with the investigation, Preddy is determined to catch the killer and save his career.

About the author:  Paula Lennon was born in England to Jamaican parents, the sixth child and only girl amongst five boys.  She lived in Jamaica during her teens and attended college in Chapelton, Clarendon.  Back in England, Paula worked for many years as a commercial lawyer in London, before deciding to live where the weather was more conducive to smiling.  She currently resides in Jamaica, where she is always actively plotting, writing, and admiring the Caribbean Sea.  Murder in Montego Bay is her first novel.

Rating:  4/5

Roger Rogerson: From Decorated Policeman To Convicted Criminal (Australian True Crime) by Duncan McNab

Paperback:  The verdict is guilty.

On 20 May 2014, former New South Wales police officers Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara murdered student Jamie Gao in cold blood.  Both have been found guilty of murder and possession of 2.78 kilograms of methamphetamine, and sentenced to life imprisonment.

But this was not Rogerson's first trial or conviction.  Once one of the most highly decorated police officers in New South Wales, he was dismissed from the police force in 1986, and jailed twice.

That was just the tip of the iceberg.

This is the eye-opening account of Rogerson's life of crime - policing it and committing it - and reveals the full story of one of the most corrupt and evil men in Australia, and the events that led inexorably to the chilling murder of Jamie Gao in storage unit 803.

For years, it was almost heresy to say or think that Roger Rogerson was anything other than a good bloke.

Roger Rogerson:  From Decorated Policeman To Convicted Criminal (2016) is dedicated to those who had the guts to disagree.

About the author:  Duncan McNab is a former police detective, private investigator, investigative journalist and media adviser.  He was in the Gao murder trial courtroom for eighteen weeks and has been following Rogerson's career - on both sides of the law - for over 30 years.  Quite simply, he knows more about Roger Rogerson than anyone else - alive.

#StopBrexit

Margaret River Bookshop and Internet Cafe, Western Australia

Located on the main street of Margaret River, Australia's famous wine and surf region in the south west of Western Australia, the Margaret River Bookshop is owned by the McLeods, a local family whose descendants settled in Margaret River in the early 1860s.  Family members Keith and Pauline McLeod and their sons all play a part in running the bookshop. 

Whether you are looking for the latest best-seller or specialist publications around viticulture, winemaking or surfing right through to books about the region’s history by local authors and illustrators, Margaret River Bookshop is the place to go.

The book shop also hosts regular guest author presentations, book signings and talks as well as being one of only two ABC Centres in the region.  It is a member of the MRBTA (Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association).

Needless to say, do drop in when you are in the area! 

(Photo credits:  Choose and Book)

We Who Live In Quiet

Dirty Girl (Australian True Crime) by Juliet Wills

Paperback:  In June 1975, dressed to impress in her finest ball gown, dripping with expensive jewelry and driving a limited edition luxury car, socialite and brothel madam Shirley Finn was invited to the grounds of the Royal Perth Golf Club for a special occasion - her own modern day public execution.

The killers knew they would not be caught.  Their power reigned supreme in one of the most remote and prosperous cities on earth, during an era of police protection and 'containment' of organised crime.

Rising out of an abusive welfare system to become a police-protected madam, Shirley's fate took an astonishing turn towards the top end of town.

As one of Perth's best-known socialites, she hosted fabulous parties.  But her downfall was fast and furious, following fears she might expose money laundering and high-level corruption in 'The Wild West' of the seventies.

Dirty Girl (2017) is an important historical document that reveals the secrets and lies of powerful interests, criminal and political in Australia.

Dirty Girl (2017) is a shocking book.  As the cover proclaims, it is all about what is alleged to be a "state sanctioned murder".  Perhaps we might expect such allegations to involve tales of intrigue or dirty dealings in some obscure part of a foreign country many years ago.  Instead, it involves the relatively recent activities of the police and associated agencies in Perth, Western Australia in the 1970s.  Juliet Wills has provided a valuable service to all of us who live in Australia by having held as it were a mirror up to nature, and allowed us to see an important aspect of our society for what it is.  It is a great achievement on her part - and a terrible disgrace on the part of others. - Dr Robert Moles LLB (Honours), author and retired associated Professor of Law at Adelaide University

About the author:  Juliet Wills has choppered into crocodile breeding grounds, been chased by rioting armed gangs, and jumped from a civilian plane with the 13th load at 13 000 feet on Friday the 13th.  She has also pursued the story of brothel madam Shirley Finn's murder with fearless obstinacy.  Born in Sydney, Juliet has lived and worked throughout Australia.  She has been awarded for her Excellence in Television Journalism, written for major newspapers, and lectured in broadcast journalism at two universities.

The mother of three lives in Perth and now works in real estate.  Her first book, The Diamond Dakota, was published by Allen and Unwin in 2006.

You can find out more about Juliet Wills' quest for justice for the Finn family at www.finnmurder.com

Brexit Shambles

Maralinga by Judy Nunn

Paperback:  In the remote wilderness of a South Australian desert, a young soldier makes a horrifying discovery;  a discovery that sends the love of his life on a most incredible journey.

In the spring of 1956, British Lieutenant Daniel Gardiner accepts a twelve-month posting to Maralinga, South Australia, on a promise of rapid promotion.  Instead, he finds himself in a violent and unforgiving landscape, infected with the unique madness and excitement born from involvement in a nuclear testing site.

Adventurous journalist Elizabeth Hoffmann travels halfway around the world searching for answers, and her lost love.  Here, she discovers the truth about this desolate place, and the story of the innocent people who had walked their land unhindered for forty thousand years, until now.

Maralinga - a desolate place where history demands an emerging nation choose between hell and reason.  The power to love, the power to hate, the power to destroy human existence - Maralinga (2011) has them all.

About the author:  Judy Nunn's career has been long, illustrious and multifaceted. After combining her internationally successful acting career with scriptwriting for television and radio, Judy decided in the 90s to turn her hand to prose.

Her first three novels, The Glitter Game, Centre Stage and Araluen, set respectively in the worlds of television, theatre and film, became instant bestsellers, and the rest is history, quite literally, in fact. She has since developed a love of writing Australian historically-based fiction and her fame as a novelist has spread rapidly throughout Europe where she is published in English, German, French, Dutch, Czech and Spanish.

Her subsequent bestsellers, Kal, Beneath the Southern Cross, Territory, Pacific, Heritage, Floodtide, Maralinga, Tiger Men, Elianne and Spirits of the Ghan confirmed Judy’s position as one of Australia’s leading fiction writers.

In 2015, Judy was made a Member of the Order of Australia for her "significant service to the performing arts as a scriptwriter and actor of stage and screen, and to literature as an author".

Rating:  5/5

Murder In The Latin Quarter (Aimée Leduc Series) by Cara Black

Paperback:  When a Haitian woman arrives at the Paris office of Leduc Detective and announces that she is PI Aimée Leduc’s sister, Aimée must dig into her father’s past to solve a murder.

A virtual orphan since her mother’s desertion and her father’s death, Aimée has always wanted a sister.

She is thrilled.

Her partner, René, however, is wary of this stranger.  Under French law, even an illegitimate child would be entitled to a portion of her father's estate:  the detective agency and apartment that Aimée has inherited.

He suspects a scam.

But Aimée embraces her newfound sibling and soon finds herself involved in murky Haitian politics and international financial scandals leading to murder in the Latin Quarter on the Left Bank of the Seine, the old university district of Paris.

Murder in the Latin Quarter (2009) is the ninth instalment in the authentic Aimée Leduc PI series set in Paris, France.

About the author:  Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 17 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, which is set in Paris.  Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris - the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture - and invitations to be the Guest of Honour at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime.  With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.

Cara was born in Chicago but has lived in California’s Bay Area since she was five years old.

Her love of all things French was kindled by the French-speaking nuns at her Catholic high school, where Cara first encountered French literature and went crazy for the work of Prix Goncourt winner Romain Gary.  Her junior year in high school, she wrote him a fan letter - which he answered, and which inspired her to make her first trip to Paris, where her idol took her out for coffee and a cigar. Since then, she has been to Paris many, many times.  On each visit she entrenches herself in a different part of the city, learning its secret history.  She has posed as a journalist to sneak into closed areas, trained at a firing range with real Paris flics, gotten locked in a bathroom at the Victor Hugo museum, and - just like Aimée - gone down into the sewers with the rats (she can never pass up an opportunity to see something new, even when the timing isn’t ideal - she was headed to a fancy dinner right afterwards and had a spot of bother with her shoes).  For the scoop on real Paris crime, she takes the flics out for drinks and dinner to hear their stories - but it usually turns into a long evening, which is why she sticks with espresso.

Rating:  4/5

Murder In The Rue de Paradis (Aimée Leduc Series) by Cara Black

Paperback:  Parisian PI Aimée Leduc is head-over-heels when a former boyfriend, an investigative journalist, reappears and proposes - but his professional past has caught up with him, and now Aimée must figure out who would want him dead.

Aimée Leduc seems to be having a streak of good luck.  First, she secures a lucrative computer security contract for her Paris detective agency.  Then her ex-boyfriend Yves, the gorgeous bad-boy investigative journalist, reappears in her life.  He insists he is back in Paris indefinitely and wants to make the ultimate commitment.  He proposes to her that very night, and Aimée can’t help but say yes.

When she wakes up in the morning, though, Yves is gone without even leaving a note.  Aimée is irate until she learns the awful truth: Y ves was murdered early that morning.  Heartbroken and convinced the Brigade Criminelle are not following the right leads, Aimée pursues the mystery behind her fiancé’s murder. Y ves was killed trying to further a cause he believed in.  Even if it means putting her own life on the line, Aimée won’t let him die in vain.

Murder in the Rue de Paradis (2008) is the eighth book in the riveting Aimée Leduc PI series set in Paris, France.

About the author:  Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 17 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, which is set in Paris.  Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris - the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture - and invitations to be the Guest of Honour at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime.  With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.

Cara was born in Chicago but has lived in California’s Bay Area since she was five years old.

Her love of all things French was kindled by the French-speaking nuns at her Catholic high school, where Cara first encountered French literature and went crazy for the work of Prix Goncourt winner Romain Gary.  Her junior year in high school, she wrote him a fan letter - which he answered, and which inspired her to make her first trip to Paris, where her idol took her out for coffee and a cigar. Since then, she has been to Paris many, many times.  On each visit she entrenches herself in a different part of the city, learning its secret history.  She has posed as a journalist to sneak into closed areas, trained at a firing range with real Paris flics, gotten locked in a bathroom at the Victor Hugo museum, and - just like Aimée - gone down into the sewers with the rats (she can never pass up an opportunity to see something new, even when the timing isn’t ideal - she was headed to a fancy dinner right afterwards and had a spot of bother with her shoes).  For the scoop on real Paris crime, she takes the flics out for drinks and dinner to hear their stories - but it usually turns into a long evening, which is why she sticks with espresso.

Rating:  4/5

Murder On The Ile Saint-Louis (Aimée Leduc Series) by Cara Black

Paperback:  Parisian PI Aimée Leduc finds herself caring for an abandoned infant while trying to track down the child’s missing mother

Facing a tight deadline on a computer security contract, Aimée responds to a telephone call from a stranger that leads her to an abandoned infant in a courtyard on the Ile Saint-Louis.  She brings the baby home with her, calls her Stella, and awaits contact from the mother.

But days pass, and no one reclaims the infant.

Meanwhile, a group of environmental protesters is trying to stop the government from entering into a contract with an oil company notorious for pollution.  As Aimée attempts to identify the baby’s mother, two murders and an abortive bombing involving the protesters lead her - and little Stella - into danger.

On the run in the sewers beneath the Seine, Aimée finally finds the woman she has been looking for, only to discover that the man she has fallen in love with is not who she thought he was.

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis (2007) is the seventh book in the suspenseful PI Aimée Leduc series set in Paris, France.

About the author:  Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 17 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, which is set in Paris.  Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris - the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture - and invitations to be the Guest of Honour at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime.  With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.

Cara was born in Chicago but has lived in California’s Bay Area since she was five years old.

Her love of all things French was kindled by the French-speaking nuns at her Catholic high school, where Cara first encountered French literature and went crazy for the work of Prix Goncourt winner Romain Gary.  Her junior year in high school, she wrote him a fan letter - which he answered, and which inspired her to make her first trip to Paris, where her idol took her out for coffee and a cigar. Since then, she has been to Paris many, many times.  On each visit she entrenches herself in a different part of the city, learning its secret history.  She has posed as a journalist to sneak into closed areas, trained at a firing range with real Paris flics, gotten locked in a bathroom at the Victor Hugo museum, and - just like Aimée - gone down into the sewers with the rats (she can never pass up an opportunity to see something new, even when the timing isn’t ideal - she was headed to a fancy dinner right afterwards and had a spot of bother with her shoes).  For the scoop on real Paris crime, she takes the flics out for drinks and dinner to hear their stories - but it usually turns into a long evening, which is why she sticks with espresso.

Rating:  4/5

Murder In Montmartre (Aimée Leduc Series) by Cara Black

Paperback:  Aimée’s childhood friend, Laure, is a policewoman.  Her partner, Jacques, has set up a meeting in Montmartre with an informer.  When Laure reluctantly goes along as backup, Jacques is lured to an icy rooftop, where he is shot to death.

Laure’s gun has been fired, gunpowder residue is found on her hands, and she is charged with her partner’s murder.

The police close ranks against the alleged cop killer.  Aimée is determined to clear Laure.  In doing so, she encounters separatist terrorists, Montmartre prostitutes, a surrealist painter’s stepdaughter, a crooked Corsican bar owner, and learns of “Big Ears” - the French “ear in the sky” that records telephonic and electronic communications which the Security Services monitor.

Identifying Jacques’ murderer brings her closer to solving her own father’s death in an explosion in the Place Vendôme years earlier.  It still haunts her.  She cannot rest until she finds out who was responsible.

Murder in the Montmartre (2006) is the sixth book in the intensely Parisian PI Aimée Leduc series.

About the author:  Cara Black is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 17 books in the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, which is set in Paris.  Cara has received multiple nominations for the Anthony and Macavity Awards, a Washington Post Book World Book of the Year citation, the Médaille de la Ville de Paris - the Paris City Medal, which is awarded in recognition of contribution to international culture - and invitations to be the Guest of Honour at conferences such as the Paris Polar Crime Festival and Left Coast Crime.  With more than 400,000 books in print, the Aimée Leduc series has been translated into German, Norwegian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hebrew.

Cara was born in Chicago but has lived in California’s Bay Area since she was five years old. 

Her love of all things French was kindled by the French-speaking nuns at her Catholic high school, where Cara first encountered French literature and went crazy for the work of Prix Goncourt winner Romain Gary.  Her junior year in high school, she wrote him a fan letter - which he answered, and which inspired her to make her first trip to Paris, where her idol took her out for coffee and a cigar. Since then, she has been to Paris many, many times.  On each visit she entrenches herself in a different part of the city, learning its secret history.  She has posed as a journalist to sneak into closed areas, trained at a firing range with real Paris flics, gotten locked in a bathroom at the Victor Hugo museum, and - just like Aimée - gone down into the sewers with the rats (she can never pass up an opportunity to see something new, even when the timing isn’t ideal - she was headed to a fancy dinner right afterwards and had a spot of bother with her shoes).  For the scoop on real Paris crime, she takes the flics out for drinks and dinner to hear their stories - but it usually turns into a long evening, which is why she sticks with espresso.

Rating:  4/5

Born To Run (Jack Swyteck Series) by James Grippando

Paperback:  Bestselling author James Grippando is back with another innovative and action-packed thriller featuring his ever-popular hero.

Jack Swyteck gets caught in a dangerous web of intrigue and murder at the top levels of the United States government in his most high-profile and disturbing case yet.

Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck guards his own family secrets closely, after his father's two terms as Florida's governor made some personal rifts public.  Things between the two men are finally better, and whenever Harry Swyteck asks for Jack's help he gets it. 

Suddenly, Harry needs it more than ever before.

When Harry's friend, the vice president of the United States, goes hunting for alligators in the Everglades and winds up dead, the president positions Harry to be his new VP.  Harry immediately asks Jack to be his lawyer.  The prestige that comes from the job turns lethal, however, when Jack finds himself at the heart of a complicated cover-up that spans nearly fifty years and the globe.  Before hostages can be released, an old secret must be revealed, one that could threaten the life of the president of the United States himself.

Born To Run (2008) is the eighth book in the excellent Jack Swyteck legal series set in Miami, Florida.

About the author:  James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels. He was a trial lawyer for twelve years before the publication of his first novel in 1994 (The Pardon), and later served as counsel at Boies Schiller and Flexner LLP.  He lives in South Florida with his wife, three children, two cats, and a golden retriever named Max who has no idea that he is a dog.

Rating:  5/5

Last Call (Jack Swyteck Series) by James Grippando

Paperback:  Many years ago, Jack Swyteck saved Theo Knight's life.

Theo grew up on the streets of Miami's roughest neighbourhood and lost his mother to a violent crime.  Although his uncle Cy tried his best to raise him right, by the time he was a teenager, Theo was on death row for a murder he did not commit.  Jack was the lawyer who proved him innocent.

Now a successful bar owner, Theo has turned things around.  But he needs Jack's help again, this time more than ever.

An escaped convict from the old neighborhood shows up at Theo's back door, asking for help.  In return, he will finger the man who murdered Theo's mother.  But the answers aren't so simple, and soon Theo's own life is in danger.

Jack and Theo must piece together a twenty-year-old conspiracy of greed and corruption that leads to the very top of Miami's elite, while revisiting a past that Theo has tried hard to forget.  But Theo also has the opportunity to seek the revenge that has fueled him since the day he found his mother dead in the street on a hot Miami night.

Last Call (2007) is a brilliant and bullet-fast thriller, complete with revelations that no reader will ever forget.  It is the seventh book in the excellent Jack Swyteck legal series set in Miami, Florida.

About the author:  James Grippando is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty-five novels. He was a trial lawyer for twelve years before the publication of his first novel in 1994 (The Pardon), and later served as counsel at Boies Schiller and Flexner LLP.  He lives in South Florida with his wife, three children, two cats, and a golden retriever named Max who has no idea that he is a dog.

Rating:  5/5