thriller – Page 3 – Aussie Reviews

Beneath the Shadows, by Sara Foster

When Grace and her husband move to a cottage on the North Yorkshire moors, it is supposed to mark a new start for them. Adam has inherited the cottage and, with a new baby to care for, it seems a chance to have a home of their own could not come at a better time. But they’ve barely unpacked when Adam disappears, leaving Grace and her daughter, Millie, alone…

There was a dark shape on her doorstep. ..She headed to the front door. Once there, she twisted the key in the lock, pulled it open and stopped in shock.
In front of her was Millie’s pram. She peered inside to find her ten week old daughter fast asleep…
Grace ran her fingers gently over her daughter’s forehead, then glanced around and said , ‘Adam?’
No one answered.

A year later, Grace reruns to the cottage to seek closure. She may never know what happened to Adam, but it is time to move on. But the longer she spends in the village of Roseby the more unsettled she feels. Are the people here trying to hide something from her – and who, if anyone, can she trust?

Beneath the Shadows is an absorbing blend of mystery and self-discovery, with the character of Grace growing as she tackles the mystery of what happened to her husband. Unravelling the past, and the events of the present, will draw readers deep into author Sara Foster’s magical web, wanting to know what happened – and why and wanting to see the likeable main character find closure and happiness.

This is Foster’s second novel. Her readers will eagerly await a third.

Beneath the Shadows, by Sara Foster
Bantam, 2011
ISBN 9781741668711

This book can be purchased in good bookstores, or online through Fishpond.

Beyond Fear, by Jaye Ford

Jodie Cramer loves the one weekend each year when she and her three best friends escape together for a girls’ weekend. She can forget her busy life as a divorced working mother, and relax with her friends. But this year is different. It’s Jodie’s turn to book the accommodation and, on the road to the country town, their car is run off the road…

Jodie smelled bacon and fresh coffee as she ran up the steps to the verandah. She took a second to pull herself together … Bursting through the door and announcing that Matt Weisman, the nice guy who’d rescued them last night, was more than likely a stalker would not be the best method of describing what had just happened … But she had to tell them. Forewarned was forearmed.

Now Jodie finds signs of trouble wherever she looks, but her friends think she is just paranoid. They don’t know the history of the old barn they are staying in, or its dark secrets.

Beyond Fear is a thrilling first novel from debut author Jaye Ford. As the four friends find their weekend plummeting into horror, the characters of Jodie and each of her friends, as well as their new friend Matt Weisman, are developed and explored. Jodie is a feisty yet troubled main character and Matt has his own scars, being on recuperative leave from the police force. Together the pair take centre stage in the battle to outwit two brothers with little to lose.

Beyond Fear is the sort of book you don’t want to read late at night, but this is a sign of how well it does its job. A gripping read.

Beyond Fear, by Jaye Ford
Bantam, 2011
ISBN 978186471197

This book can be purchased in good bookstores or online from Fishpond.

Wyatt, by Garry Disher

Wyatt took the stairs. The lift was available, but lifts were a trap. He went straight to the first-floor apartment’s concealed safe and removed the contents: spare cash, two sets of false ID and the deeds to both properties. Finally he grabbed the dark suit hanging in his wardrobe. There was nothing else that he wanted to take with him when he left the place forever, no photos, no diaries, letters or other keepsakes, for the simple reason that he had no past that he wanted to think about.

No one knows much about Wyatt. But, after an absence, he is now back in town. Eddie Oberin doesn’t know a lot about Wyatt, but he wants Wyatt to work with him on a big heist. Eddie’s ex-wife Lydia has some inside knowledge which makes the job easy, or so it seems. But Alain Le Page, the target of their heist, is an unknown quantity, and he might just be a match for Wyatt and his team.

Wyatt is a crime thriller from one of Australia’s masters of the genre. Pitting shyster against shyster, and with a colourful cast of characters including a stripper with a huge chip on her shoulder, and another woman who may prove to be Wyatt’s equal, it is a story which keeps the reader guessing right to the end.

Great stuff.

Wyatt, by Garry DIsher
Text Publishing, 2010

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

The Borgia Ring, by Michael White

Middleton crashed down on the table, his face connecting with a clutch of wine bottles and glasses, knocking them into laps and on to the floor. One of the women screamed and leapt up. The architect slid backwards, away from the table. As he fell, more blood and vomit gushed from his mouth.

Max Rainer dashed over to him. Middleton had stopped moving. One eye stared sightlessly at the ceiling; the other was a uniform scarlet. Rainer placed two fingers to his partner’s neck then turned to the others as they clustered around, a look of disbelief on his face.

When builders unearth a skeleton on a building site, they are shocked. But more shocking is the chain of events this ancient skeleton unleashes. First a security man is brutally murdered as he guards the site. Then others connected to the site are also killed, one at a time.

DCI Jack Pendragon is having a tense first week at his new posting. The pressure is on him to solve the murders and stop the serial killer from striking again. But the only clues to the murderer’s identity seem linked to the skeleton – a man who has been dead since the fifteenth century.

The Borgia Ring is an absorbing crime thriller set in contemporary London, with a parallel story set in France and London in the fifteenth century, allowing the reader an insight into the older mystery which those in the modern one cannot know. The modern killer draws his inspiration from the fifteenth-century Borgia family, renowned for their cruelty and depravity, giving a chilling depth to the series of crimes which Jack Pendragon must solve.

A compulsive read.

The Borgia Ring, by Michael White
Bantam, 2009

This book can be purchased online from Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Sharp Shooter, by Marianne Delacourt

I froze, not knowing which way to jump.
A shout from behind me urged me to run. It snapped my paralysis and I leaped back onto the pavement. I saw some things really clearly: scratches on the duco, a plastic spider swinging from the car’s rear-vision mirror, the mask and hoodie that hid the driver’s identity.
A split second before the car smashed up over the curb, I threw myself backwards off the retaining wall and into the river.
There was a loud thunk, followed by a roar of acceleration, and the car drove off, leaving me a quivering mess in the water.

Tara Sharp is unemployed and living in her parents’ garage. Her one gift -an ability for reading people – is always landing her in trouble, Until she meets Mr Hara, who teaches her to understand what people’s auras mean, and to more accurately read their motives and abilities. Now Tara is in business as an investigator, and things are looking up. For now.

On her first case, Tara finds herself caught up with some of Perth’s most colourful criminal personalities – and soon she is fighting for her life, desperate to solve the case before it kills her.

Sharp Shooter is the first story featuring Tara, a sassy twenty-something with a knack of landing herself in trouble. Filled with humour, this action packed thriller set in the suburbs of Perth, is billed as targeting fans of Janet Evanovich, and is a satisfying blend of action, mystery and laughs.

Sharp Shooter, by Marianne Delacourt
Allen & Unwin, 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Bye Bye Baby, by Fiona McIntosh

And with the memories came a white rage that burned away the terror. Suddenly I was calm and precise; there would be no sympathy for my victim. I knew that killing the members of the mocking Jesters Club was the only way I could kill the suffering of so long.

There is a serial killer on the loose, murdering middle aged men in meticulously planned attacks. DCI Jack Hawksworth assembles a team of Scotland Yard’s best talent to try to catch, and stop, the killer before anyone else dies. But there are few clues and no apparent motive for the killing, making this is a difficult case to solve.

In the meantime, Jack has a new lady friend, a tenant in his building. Perhaps Sophie might be the woman who can finally get under Jack Hawksworth’s skin. But his colleague, DI Kate Carter isn’t so sure. Her feelings for her boss are strong, and she doesn’t trust Sophie’s motives.

As Hawksworth’s team battle against time to catch the killer and stop more deaths, tension is high both within the team and among those who have reason to believe they, too, could be in the murderer’s sights.

Bye Bye Baby is a thrilling mystery, with readers taken on a roller coaster ride through twists and turns as the horror of a series of gruesome crimes is balanced with the highs and lows of the police characters’ personal lives. The first person perspective of the murderer, offered several times during the book, provides an interesting contrast and sense of difference to the book, with readers invited to feel sympathy for the killer.

A surprising, gripping thriller.

Bye Bye Baby, by Fiona McIntosh
Harper Collins, this edition 2009

This book can be purchased online at Fishpond. Buying through this link supports Aussiereviews.

Dangerous Deception, by Sandy Curtis

He slumped down on the bed as the swirling mists in his brain subsided, dragging air into his lungs in great panting gulps. Gingerly he moved his arms, his legs. Finally he swung his body over the side of the bed and stood, weak and unsteady, fighting to make sense of what had happened.
Slowly he became aware of a great emptiness in his soul. A desolation, a sense of loss so profound his gut clenched with the knowledge of it.
Because now he knew. He understood. But his brain refused to believe.

When Rogan McKay wakens in the middle of the night, his body is racked by intense pain, followed by a sense of loss which can mean only one thing – his identical twin, Liam, must be in trouble. Life-threatening trouble. Rogan feels it may be too late to help Liam, but he has to find out.

Meanwhile, Breanna Montgomery is on the run. Her colleague Professor John Raymond lies paralysed in hospital, but his work prior to his accident is so important that everyone wants to find his research. Breanna doesn’t have the Professor’s notebooks, but those that want them don’t believe her.

When Rogan tracks down Breanna, believing she may know what happened to Liam, the pair become embroiled in a shocking series of events, where their lives are repeatedly in danger as they search for the truth.

Dangerous Deception is a fast-moving thriller about the lengths people will go to, to get hold of research which could impact on human survival. The novel brings together a diverse cast of characters – from a disgraced journalist trying to get her daughter back, to brilliant scientists – and a diverse mix of plot elements, including romance, unexpected twists and turns, and a satisfying ending.

Author Sandy Curtis is obviously devoted to the thriller genre, and she does it justice in everything she writes.

Dangerous Deceptions, by Sandy Curtis
First Published by Macmillan, 2005, this edition Pan, 2006

The Road, by Catherine Jinks

When Grace finally leaves her abusive husband, she takes refuge with an elderly uncle on his outback property. Still, even there she doesn’t feel safe. When someone brutally murders the uncle’s two dogs, she realises that her escape hasn’t worked.

On the highway nearby, travellers drive the barren highway between Mildura and Broken Hill. A family on holiday, a truckie on his regular route, two brothers off on an Outback adventure and an eccentric country woman are all on the road, unwittingly being caught up in Grace’s drama and its chilling aftermath.

When Grace’s ex finds her and seeks his retribution, supernatural forces are woken. The travellers find themsleves caught in a twilight zone, where their destinations are suddenly unreachable. The rules are unclear, the way out seemingly unreachable. Only justice will end their ordeal.

The Road is a gripping thriller from versatile Australian author Catherine Jinks. Jinks has previously tackled children’s young adult, historical and chick-lit genres. Her transition to the thriller genre is seamless – readers would be forgiven for thinking Jinks has always written books of this kind. The strands of the story are woven together with Jinks’ magic control. The characters are real and incredibly fascinating and the setting, whilst necessarily stark, is clearly drawn.

Fans of Stephen King and of thriller movies will not be disappointed with this offering. It is a very visual story and the scene changes, the use of suspense and changes in atmosphere all make The Road a book crying out to made into a movie.

Of course, readers won’t need the movie to be gripped by this tale. Its page-turning suspense and chilling sequence of events make it perfect as it is.

The Road, by Catherine Jinks
Allen & Unwin, 2004