Crooked Leg Road

This mystery-adventure comes from the author of The Tunnels of Tacoma, which won the 2013 Davitt Award. Four friends - Kitty, David, Andrea and Martin, get caught up in a series of misunderstandings and mysterious events. They take on the role of detectives to solve a complex mystery, just as the election of a new premier draws closer.

Andrea believes she is being followed by the foreign men loitering around David’s house. When David disappears, his grandfather claims he’s gone interstate to visit relatives the group has never heard about. Determined to discover what has happened to their friend, Andrea, Kitty and Martin find themselves unprepared for what they encounter.

There is a new boy at school whom Kitty befriends. Skender is secretive and evasive. What is he hiding, and can he be connected to David’s disappearance?

Meanwhile other mysteries unfold. Debates in class have ignited rumours that their school will be closed down and the seaside land developed if the new premier has his way. Who is the real main candidate in this election, and how far will he go to get chosen?

The group set out to solve the mystery. But there are secrets, threats, dangers, and unexpected outcomes to face before all their questions are answered.

This novel is terrific reading for the 10+ age group. It’s full of surprises, twists and turns; where things aren’t what they first seem and neither are the people.

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Title: Crooked Leg Road

Author: Jennifer Walsh

Publisher:  Allen& Unwin

Publication Date: April 2014

Format: Paperback

ISBN: 9781743316931

Type: Children's Fiction Mystery/Adventure

The Ottoman Motel

by Christopher Currie

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Mystery. Paperback RRP $32.95

The Ottoman Motel and the town Reception, bring to mind words from the song Hotel California… you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave…

Simon and his parents arrive in the small northern NSW town of Reception on a late afternoon after travelling all day from their new home in Queensland. They are here to see Simon’s maternal grandmother, Iris, who they haven’t spoken to in several years… not since Simon’s accident. All Simon knows is that Iris is not well.

Once Simon and his parents have checked into the Ottoman Motel, his parents decide to go for a drive, leaving Simon to have a rest. When Simon wakes up, it is late and his parents have gone.

And so begins a mystery of a teenage boy being left in a town where everyone is a stranger, everyone has a secret and no-one can be trusted.

Christopher Currie has created a storyline that, although strangely bizarre, is all too possible. Parents going missing, children isolated, people hiding from the world in tiny towns. Add to this, illegal activities, inadequate police and children dealing with loss and you have a disturbing but captivating story.

This is one book that once you pick it up… you will struggle to put down again.

http://furioushorses.com/

Plague

by Michael Grant

Hardie Grant Egmont. Young Adult, Mystery, Science Fiction. Paperback RRP $19.95

Guest Reviewer - Ian Brown

This is the fourth book in the series; Gone, Lies, Hunger and now Plague.

It’s been eight months since all the adults have disappeared, from FAYZ, the Fallout Alley Youth Zone centred on Perdido Beach. You need to have read the previous books, to be up-to-date with what has happened in the FAYZ.

In Plague, fresh water is running out and a fatal flu hits the town, killing many of the children.

The series of books are filled with dark, violent and sometimes gory action. There is a large cast of characters, and multiple storylines to keep the reader in suspense. While Plague does answer many questions, others remain, to keep the reader intrigued. Each new book in the series brings new stories within a complex main story.

If you are a fan of authors like Stephen King and love a good horror story, but have yet to discover this series of books, check them out. As for me I can’t wait for the next instalment, Fear out in 2012.

The Reading Stack reviewed Michael Grant’s Gone in October 2009.

http://www.egmont.co.uk/gone/

http://themichaelgrant.com/  

Virals

by Kathy Reichs

Random House. Young Adult, Mystery. Paperback RRP $29.95

Guest reviewer – Ian Brown


Virals is the story of Tory Brennan who, after the sudden death of her mother, goes to live with her marine biologist father whom she has never met, on a remote island in South Carolina.

Tory hangs out with a group of other teenagers who also live on the island. Together they explore the nearby Loggerhead Island and discover there is something strange going on at the Research Institute.

The group rescue a dog from the top secret laboratory and are exposed to a rare virus. This virus gives them the senses and reflexes of a canine. Now they have to solve a murder if they can stay alive long enough.

This is a great read for teenagers who like a lot of action - mysterious men with guns, an old murder, breaking into the labs, having your DNA changed. There’s many plots and twists to keep the reader involved.

http://kathyreichs.com/
http://viralstheseries.com/

thyla

by Kate Gordon

Random House. Australian, Supernatural, Mystery, Young Adult. Paperback RRP $17.95


Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Tessa has no memory. She remembers her first name but that is all. She was found in the woods near Hobart, naked, alone, with strange horrible scars across her back and no memory.

Policewoman, Connolly, helps Tessa to adjust and enrols her into an elite boarding school where Connolly’s daughter, Cat, once attended … until she went missing.

Are Cat and Tessa connected somehow? There is more to the two girls than just Connolly, their age and the school. The mountains behind Hobart have many hidden secrets and Tessa starts to learn more as she tries to remember her past. Her dreams show Tessa glimpses of a past that doesn’t seem to be from the present but over a hundred years ago.


When Tessa’s roommate finds a book with a photograph of Tessa, her world starts to make less sense than ever before. And when it couldn’t get any worse, her scars start to cause incredible problems.

thyla is a book that will appeal to readers who are over the vampires and werewolves but still like that supernatural genre. vulpi is the awaited sequel which will be out soon. I can’t wait.

http://www.kategordon.com.au/

Follow the Money

by Peter Corris

Allen and Unwin. Australian, Crime, Mystery. Paperback RRP $29.99

Guest Reviewer – Ian Brown

Peter Corris has been writing about P.I. Cliff Hardy for a long time although this is the first Cliff Hardy novel I have read. Follow the Money, is set in Sydney. Cliff has lost his P.I. license and all his money thanks to his unscrupulous financial advisor. The advisor has disappeared, presumed dead, but there have been reports of him sighted.

Cliff has been asked by a lawyer to find the advisor and Cliff’s money. He manages to get bashed, shot at as he chases the money.

As a first time Hardy read this was a great place to start. Corris has created a truly likeable character. The plot has plenty of twists, lots of action, and set in the seed underbelly of Sydney.

The Reading Stack is a big fan of Peter Corris and has done several reviews of his works. In 2007 The Big Score, in 2008 Blood Brothers and Open File.

http://www.petercorris.net/

White Heat

 by Melanie McGrath

Pan Macmillan. Mystery, Crime. Paperback RRP $32.95

Guest Reviewer - Anastasia Gonis

The setting for this fast-paced murder/mystery is the Arctic Circle where nature and the breathtaking frozen landscapes are the pivotal characters. Fearless Edie is a hunter, guide and teacher; a divorced woman doing a man’s job. For this she is ridiculed and marginalized but none-the-less more capable than most of the men of her area whose lives are ruled by manipulative and corrupt elders, alcoholism and boredom. Having grown up in the Inuit settlement, she is as familiar with every rock and rivulet of the tundra as with her life’s breath.

 

When her beloved stepson Joe dies and his death is ruled as suicide as a way to escape his gambling debts, Edie goes to pieces and back to the bottle she’d kicked two years previously. She absolutely rejects the possibility of suicide by a person who for years had dreamed and saved to make a life in nursing.

When the bones of two missing visitors are discovered and the deaths are again adeptly brushed aside, Edie takes matters into her own hands. She slowly links Joe’s death with the bones unable to stay hidden beneath their shroud of snow. For Edie knows bones. She is a hunter ‘as familiar with the icy ground as with her own skin’. It is this familiarity that results in her discovering the evidence she has been seeking, and claiming the truth denied to her.

The imagery is superb throughout the book. The reader can feel the chill of the wind and hear the sound of the water rushing by within the boundaries of the shrinking Arctic. The dips and rises of every turn are visible as is the sense of isolation in the inaccessible area. The Arctic is projected perfectly through the tense, tight, and precise prose woven by a knowledgeable sense of place, space and time.

http://www.melaniemcgrath.com/

Faerie Winter

by Janni Lee Simner

Random House. Young Adult, Mystery, Fantasy. Paperback RRP $18.95

Reviewer – Barbara Brown

I had just finished reading Simner’s Bones of Faerie when I found the sequel, Faerie Winter, so I was excited to continue on with Liza’s plight of humans versus faerie and the plight of the children that were born after the war would become. Sometimes sequels can be a bit disappointing but Faerie Winter was so good I read it in just over a few hours. I couldn’t put it down.

Liza has returned to her village with her friend Matthew and Tara, her mother who they rescued from the world of Faerie. Life in the village is as normal as it can be when every child has a magical gift. However, when a young boy enters the village the trouble begins.

Ethan is a firestarter. He doesn’t seem to be able to control his power and Liza and Tara end up with a burnt house and the townsfolk demanding Ethan leave. But Ethan is only young and badly injured, so he is given a reprieve of three days to prove he is not a threat. Matthew sets out, in his wolf form, to get help from Faerie friends in another village to tend to Ethan’s injuries. The evil trees are dying now but a new danger lurks in the forests.

Liza ends up with a lot more than she expected when she brought Ethan to her home and it isn’t good. How can she help others when she has no control over her own powers and thoughts?

If you have never read a fantasy tale before then I recommend you read both Bones of Faerie and Faerie Winter. Loved them! And would it be wonderful to see on the big screen?

The Reading Stack reviewed Bones of Faerie this month.

http://www.simner.com/

Bones of faerie

by Janni Lee Simner

Random House. Young Adult, Fantasy, Mystery. Paperback RRP $18.95

I hesitated before picking up Bones of faerie. There are so many “fairy” and mystical beings books around that I could not possibly see how this one could be anything new. Luckily I was wrong.

A war between humans and Faeries has occurred. Most of the world has been devastated and now people live in small communities surrounded by myth and fantasy and the dangerous world of magic. It isn’t just Faeries that are to be watched but now the plants have tasted blood and thrive on attacking humans who venture too far from their well-tended paths. Once you have been caught by a tree do not expect to live.

Liza has watched her father protect their town by destroying anything that holds magic. When her own baby sister who is born with faerie-pale hair, clear as glass, is left to die on the hillside, Liza is scared. Her mother disappears into the forest without a word and Liza is left with her father and his draconian beliefs and punishments.

When Liza discovers that she may possess magic and sees a vision of her mother she decides to escape from her father and seek her mother, even though she knows she could not have survived outside the town after dark. But her visions show her the past and the future and the present and her mother, she feels, is alive. Somewhere. But where?

Liza’s journey takes her into the realm of Faerie and back again and her powers may enable both world of Faerie and human to heal.

Bones of faerie was an incredible journey that I now want to continue with the second recently published Faerie Winter.

http://www.simner.com/

FEVER

A Dark Touch Novel

by Amy Meredith

Random House Australia. Young Adult, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy. Paperback RRP $17.95

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Book three of the Dark Touch Novel series starts with a severe heatwave hitting Deepdene. Along with this heatwave is a plague affecting the citizens of the small coastal holiday village for rich New Yorkers. No-one has died from the plague despite the fever, rash and then skin falling off in chunks.

Eve Evergold is the local Deepdene witch and with the help of her best friend Jess and Luke, the boy that seems to have Eve on his mind and he on hers, they set out to try and figure out if the plague, along with the weather, is caused by a demon or is just a virus that is running rampant throughout their small community.

But Eve has sealed the portal that allows demons to easily come and go and it still is secure. Where and what is this new demon?

With more and more friends getting sick, the school being closed and the whole community locked in from the outside world, Eve, Jess and Luke are going to need every bit of brain, strength and knowledge that they can to outwit and get rid of this demon – who is he? Could he be one of them?

A great read for young adults that like a bit of the occult and are sick of vampires but still like to see a girl kick some bad ass butt!

The Reading Stack reviewed book one Shadows, in June 2010. Book two, The Hunt, was released in late 2010 and book four, Betrayal, will be out soon.

Ghost Watch

The new Vin Cooper thriller

by David Rollins

Pan Macmillan Australia. Australian, Crime, Thriller, Mystery. Paperback RRP $25.00

Guest Reviewer – Ian Brown

Australia’s David Rollins has created a great series of adventure books involving special agent Vin Cooper. This is the fourth book and having only read Ghost Watch, I can’t wait to read the three previous books.

This is a gripping read from cover to cover. If you are a fan of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan or Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne, then these books are for you.

In Ghost Watch, Vin Cooper, special agent for the United States, is on assignment in Kabul to protect an Afghan politician. When that goes wrong and the politician is killed, Vin is assigned to a cushy job in Africa looking after entertainers performing to American troops. Things go wrong again, and Vin and the entertainers end up in the middle of the African Congo fighting for survival.

From then on it’s a battle to survive involving corruption, various tribes fighting each other, slavery and gold mines.

David Rollins has written a story that puts you into the heart of Africa. Go there!

http://www.davidrollins.net/

Only the Good Spy Young

by Ally Carter

Hachette Australia. Young Adult, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99


Reviewer – Barbara Brown

Ally Carter is the teenage girl’s equivalent of Ian Fleming. In the Gallagher Girls series there’s everything a spy-in-training could want. Espionage, gadgets to shoot, blow up, even invisible ink!

Cammie Morgan is starting her junior year at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. The Gallagher Academy is no ordinary school. It is a school to train female spies. And Cammie is no ordinary student. Her mother is the Headmistress of the school and her father has been missing for many years, presumed dead. Both parents were high ranking spies and Cammie is now being pursued by a secret sect. Cammie, ‘the Chameleon’ is having trouble hiding.

When one of their own is thought to be a double agent, Cammie’s life is in far greater danger. Who can she trust and where can she get the answers to the puzzles everyone is keeping from her?

Fans of the Gallagher Girls won’t be disappointed in the fourth book in the series, newcomers you will love the action and thrilling storyline and everyone will be eager to read the first three books. The good news is there is definitely a fifth story imminent but the bad news is I can’t tell you why. It would spoil the story. Suffice it to say Cammie is still in danger and is putting all her friends, family and the spy boy, Zach, at risk.

The Reading Stack has also reviewed Ally Carter’s I’d Tell You I Love You but then I’d Have to Kill You, Cross my Heart and Hope to Spy, Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover and Heist Society. Heist Society has been long listed for a 2010 Inky.

http://www.thegallaghergirls.com/
http://www.allycarter.com/
http://www.gallaghergirlseries.com/

The Poison Diaries

by Maryrose Wood
Based on a concept by the Duchess of Northumberland

Harper Collins Publishers. History, Mystery, Crime, Fantasy, Romance. Paperback rrp $19.99


Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Jessamine Luxton’s father, Thomas, is an apothecary in 18th century England. He is renowned throughout the area, so famous that the local Duke of Alnwick Castle has given him Hulne Abbey to live rent free so long as he tends the locals with their ailments. But Thomas Luxton couldn’t save his own wife and when the time comes he will not be able to save Jessamine.

Thomas agrees to employ Weed, an orphan boy who was working in a mental institution until his ‘special tea’ interfered with business by appearing to cure patients. Weed seems to know a lot more about the healing powers of plants than Thomas does. Could Weed assist Thomas with his desire to know all about the good and evil of plants? But Weed is a strange lad who doesn’t speak and likes to stay underground and in the dark.

With Jessamine’s help and patience, Weed changes and opens his heart and mind. Soon a love develops between the two and that is when the plants from the poisonous garden Thomas Luxton has locked away, begin to wield their magic.

Jessamine is betrothed to Weed but on her engagement night she becomes ill and Thomas and Weed have no idea how to save her. Weed is drawn to the poisonous garden and sets on a quest to save his beloved.

Weed has a special knowledge of plants and seems to be able to talk to them – or do they talk to him? What would it be like to be able to talk to the plants and flowers? The Poison Diaries is a tale of mystery, intrigue and magic with a plot that takes Weed, Jessamine and Thomas on a journey into their own hidden agendas. A wonderful story that will make you look at nature differently.

http://www.maryrosewood.com/

The Duchess of Northumberland lives in the real Alnwick Castle (also used as the set for Hogwarts Castle from the Harry Potter movies) and tends her own garden including the Poison Garden. You can view both the castle and the garden at these web sites http://www.alnwickcastle.com/ and http://www.alnwickgarden.com/.

Silk Chaser

by Peter Klein

Pan Macmillan. Australian, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.99

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

Female strappers around Melbourne’s racing tracks are being viciously killed. The killer has left DNA evidence but the police are no closer in capturing him. Despite the words Silk Chaser written on the walls, no-one knows why he has chosen particular women. The only thing in common is the girl’s occupation. Horses are being pulled from races as the women in the industry grow nervous and the union is threatening to strike. The racing fraternity is worried.

John Punter is a professional horse gambler and the son of a stable owner. His life is complicated when he starts dating, Maxine. Maxine’s father is the biggest name in radio and also one of Punter’s father’s major clients. Maxine’s dad doesn’t think Punter is good enough for his little girl.

On top of this, Punter’s restaurant, Gino’s, is being threatened by a protection racket. John Punter has a lot on his mind. Add to that the Strapper Killer.

When the killer gets personal, Punter has little choice but to become involved. Can he find the killer’s identity before it’s his life on the line?

Silk Chaser is a great Australian crime story. The killer, when identified, will make you reread the book to see if you have missed something. But you, like Punter, will not have missed a thing. It’s just that the killer is smarter than you think. Brilliant!

Shadow Sister

by Simone van der Vlugt

Text Publishing Company. Adult Fiction, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.95

Two identical sisters. Born to wealthy Dutch parents there was no need for either to pursue a career but they both did.

Lydia teaches the Dutch language to students from other countries, Elisa is a photographer with her own studio. Lydia is married with a young daughter. Elisa doesn’t seem to be able to stay with any one man except her good friend Thomas.

Life is good for the girls until Lydia is confronted by a knife-wielding student, stalked, threatened by letter and murdered at her front door. When the police cannot find any evidence of who the murderer is (the student has an alibi), Elisa decides to take up the search.

Is it as the police suggest - that it could have been a case of mistaking one sister for another? Is Elisa in danger? Why would anyone want either of the sisters dead? The story poses many questions and none of the answers are predictable.

Shadow Sister is a gripping tale narrated by both sisters. I’d have never guessed the killer. I can’t say any more… read it to find out for yourself. I bet you never guess either.

http://www.simonevandervlugt.nl/

Fatal Tango

by Wolfram Fleischhauer

Pan Macmillan Australia. Mystery, Romance, History. Paperback rrp $32.99

Set across two countries, Germany and Argentina, Fatal Tango is the story of lovers who try to defy their births and their history, to be together.

Giulietta Battin is a ballerina in the corps of the Berlin Opera Company. Damian Alsina is an Argentinian tango extraordinaire who is touring Germany. Giulietta is preparing herself for a new piece Tango Suite and wants to learn more about the dance of the tango and its music. Two people, different worlds, destined to collide.

Their passionate affair awakens Giulietta to the wonderful world of the tango and a man she has completely fallen in love with. But her dominating father is not happy and when Giulietta arrives home to her flat to find her father bound and gagged and Damian gone, she is devastated.

Desperate to find Damien, Giulietta takes flight to Argentina but what she discovers is a country lost and in despair.

Everyone Giulietta meets warns her to stay away from Damian or el loco (crazy), as the locals call him, but she knows there is something important in his unusual dance style and has started to interpret what he has been trying to say through dance.

Fatal Tango is about the tango, attraction and the political history of a country run by a cruel dictatorship. A fantastic story.

http://www.wolfram-fleischhauer.com/

Gunshot Road

by Adrian Hyland

The Text Publishing Company. Australian, Crime, Mystery. Paperback rrp $32.95


Guest Reviewer – Ian Brown

With Gunshot Road, Adrian Hyland has created a great crime story.

Set in the Australian outback, the hero, Emily Tempest, is a gutsy woman who sets out to solve a murder. The characters she meets along the way are the sort of people you would expect living in an isolated town in the middle of nowhere – tough, real down to earth.

This is a great read, you can almost taste the dirt, dust of the outback. The best Australian crime novel I have read in a long time.

Adrian Hyland’s first novel, Diamond Dove, won the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Fiction.

Beautiful Malice

by Rebecca James

Allen and Unwin. Australian, Mystery, Young Adult. Paperback rrp $24.99


Two years ago Katherine, or Katie as she was known then, was a popular, outgoing girl with a gorgeous boyfriend and a family and lifestyle she adored. Then she changed her name, moved interstate, and attended the largest school so she would not be noticed.

She has a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know about. Yet Katherine is only seventeen years old. What is she running away from and why does she want to shrink into the shadows?

The most beautiful, popular and wealthy female in her year, Alice, singles Katherine out to be her friend. With Alice’s friendship Katherine changes, the weight of the previous few years lifts as she becomes the girl she once was. But then Alice finds out the truth about Katherine and Katherine starts to see the real girl behind the façade that Alice displays to the public.

Both girls have a secret. Katherine’s is shared amongst friends and family and helps her cope. When Alice’s secret is finally revealed Katherine understands too late. Tragedy continues to haunt Katherine. Friendship can kill.

Beautiful Malice is a book that sucked me in and held me tight on its psychotic grip until the last page was turned. I returned to reality with an audible gasp and a spinning head. Brilliant!

http://rebeccasjames.blogspot.com/

Reviewed by Barbara Brown

The Fool’s Girl

by Celia Rees

Allen and Unwin. Young Adult, History, Mystery. Paperback rrp $16.99

The year is 1601 and playwright William Shakespeare is finding fame at the Globe Theatre in London. He discovers a talented street performer with a very unusual assistant. Violetta is from Illyria and has come to England to seek something that is rightfully hers. She is accompanied by her faithful servant Feste, who is both a Fool and a gifted actor.

Violetta and Feste have escaped slavery and with Will’s help hope to see their beloved country again. But Venice and other countries want the popular trading port of Illyria as their own. The self-appointed Duke of Illyria is a tyrant who will do nothing to stop Violetta, the true heir, from returning to her country. He has ensured others will assist in not only her demise but that of anyone who aids her journey.

Violetta would rather die than not take the country’s sacred relic back with her. With dark tales of deception and intricate subplots, the reader never knows who to trust. And Violetta is finding that her trust may not be aimed at the right person.

The Fool’s Girl is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and explores what happens after the play’s final curtain has been dropped. Rees has seamlessly morphed a much–loved historical play into a dramatic story that transports the reader to a time of pirates, the plague, sorcery, beheadings, treachery and more.

http://www.celiarees.com/

SHADOWS

A Dark Touch Novel

by Amy Meredith

Random House Australia. Young Adult, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fantasy. Paperback rrp $17.95

Fifteen-year-old Eve Evergold thought she only had one talent – the power to shop! Living in the Hamptons (in the US) where the rich and famous try to hide, it’s no wonder. With a very large credit card limit and a best friend, Jess, who likes shopping just as much as Eve, the only problem these girls have is which of the two new hunks to arrive in Deepdene, will they each date.

Unfortunately one of these boys is a demon. Is it mysterious but shy Mal or Luke, the new minister’s son who has a new girl on his arm every day? Soon the women and girls of Deepdene are carted to the local mental hospital babbling about demons and soul sucking.

When Eve starts shooting fire from her finger tips she faces the realisation that she may be the one to continue her family’s tradition, becoming the Deepdene Witch to overthrow the demon. But which boy is the one?

With the shadows growing thicker and trying to grip both Jess’ and Eve’s minds, can a young girl with no skills other than knowing when to get a great price on a pair of Jimmy Choo’s be able to fight and survive the master demon?

Shadows is a novel for girls who like to think there is more to a person than meets the eye and who desire to kick some demon butt while wearing great shoes.

A modern day super hero story with the intrigue of ancient witchcraft. The Hunt is the second Dark Touch novel due out later this year.