Review
Five go out for a walk, but no one comes back alive. Why?
Margaret Hickey’s latest novel could be termed as a “destination thriller”: beautiful setting, but grisly occurrences.
- by Sue Turnbull
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A compelling tale of one of our early bushrangers who struck gold
Frank Gardiner pulled off the country’s biggest gold heist, but his story epitomises the ambivalence that Australians had for bushrangers.
- by Pat Sheil
Family trauma and rich, awful people doing rich, awful things
Taffy Brodesser-Akner has followed up her bestseller Fleishman is in Trouble with a dysfunctional family story in the vein of Succession and The Royal Tenenbaums.
- by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen
All the Kennedy men: a tale of misogyny, sexism, abuse and destruction
Maureen Callahan’s book goes over some familiar ground, but assembles a case against Kennedy men over how they treated the women in their lives.
- by Andrew Broertjes
What to read next: Striking Japanese stories and our submarines at war
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction releases.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Steven Carroll
A killer combination: The 1940s crime novel that ushered in film noir
The Billy Wilder classic Double Indemnity was the most influential film noir release, but certainly not the last.
- by Tom Ryan
Like DNA, this novel unfolds as two strands, winding around each other
In Courtney Collins’ Bird, the main character wakes up in hospital, unsure of where she comes from or who she is.
- by Jessie Tu
At the heart of a love story, an urge to understand Country
Anita Heiss’ second historical novel is an act of remembering, educative about sorry business and the need for empathy.
- by Lucy Sussex
It may be short, but this story of music strikes the right note
Andrew Ford speculates that music might predate speech. But in his informative “shortest history”, he insists that music is not a universal language.
- by Barney Zwartz
What to read next: The brilliant Rachel Cusk and a striking memoir
Our reviewers cast their eyes over recent fiction and non-fiction releases.
- by Cameron Woodhead and Fiona Capp
Queer lovers doubling up in the face of society’s hostility
In Dylin Hardcastle’s second novel, the two main characters face pressure not to be their true selves.
- by Declan Fry