Short notices:
Philip Berrie on Black Ice by Lucy Sussex: "Part detective story, part horror story this book by Lucy Sussex was hard to put down because I kept wondering where it was going. At 186 pages the denouement came somewhat suddenly after all the various storylines had taken so long to establish, but the author successfully tied up all the various threads in the climax in a way that was more reminiscent of real life than Hollywood, which I, for one, was grateful for."
kimbofo is impressed with Bad Debts by Peter Temple: "This book is not dissimilar to The Broken Shore in that it features a damaged protagonist with a slightly dodgy past and a penchant for spirited women. But that's probably where the similarities end...The main difference is the writing style. Bad Debts, which was written almost ten years before The Broken Shore, certainly feels less polished, the language is tougher, the dialogue more choppy. And in the best tradition of hardboiled noir, the main character, washed-up lawyer Jack Irish, treads a very fine line between enforcing the law and breaking it. You're never quite sure whether you should admire him or despise him. "
The "Inside Southside" weblog reviews Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks: "This computer-based mystery is steeped in dark humor and full of fascinating characters, nerds, and freaks. The novel takes place in Sydney, Australia but it hovers in mental and emotional planes somewhere in cyber-space where nothing is quite what it seems on many levels."
Genevieve Tucker looks at Feather Man by Rhyll McMaster: "This is a bold and assured debut effort which maybe could have been even more powerful with stronger editing..".
Susanna Yager in "The Telegraph" on Shatter by Michael Robotham: "It's a clever novel by a very talented storyteller."
Chuck McKenzie urges readers to go out and buy Australian ark Fantasy and Horror 2007 edited by Angela Challis: "Most of the stories included I had read before, in their original publications, yet it was greatly enjoyable to revisit them, flanked as they were by tales of near or equal quality. All the standard dark fiction tropes and themes are here: loss and redemption, ghosts of the past (figurative and literal), predators and prey, and so on. There are Lovecraftian monsters, zombies, and phantoms. There are murderers, torturers, and ... folks who are just plain creepy. Standard-sounding fare, yes, but in almost every case the authors of these tales have brought fresh new takes (and twists) to their tales that elevates them well above the 'same old'."
