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Viewing entries tagged with 'angelas reviews'
Minnie's side of the story
Sacha de Bazin was in Invercargill recently talking about her very first book, The day she cradled me. She was so lovely and her talk was so interesting that it made me want to read the book. I remember studying the case of Minnie Dean - the infamous "Winton baby farmer" and the only woman in New Zealand history to be hanged - in my high school History class, so I was looking forward to reading de Bazin's fictional account of her life and crimes.
Looking for a new courtroom drama?
Defending Jacob is written by William Landay, an ex-Assistant District Attorney. Just another lawyer-turned-writer who has churned out yet another bland courtroom drama? Not in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed Defending Jacob and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys legal thrillers along the lines of John Grisham and Richard North Patterson (in their heyday), or anyone who enjoys a "meaty" read.
Good as dead
Good as dead is the latest offering from British thriller writer Mark Billingham. If you enjoyed Billingham's 2008 standalone novel, In the dark, you will probably want to give this a look as it brings back Helen Weeks and unites her with DI Tom Thorne (one of my favourite dysfunctional detectives). Weeks is a single Mum police officer who finds herself on the wrong side of a hostage drama when she is held at gunpoint by her local dairy owner who demands that Thorne re-open the inquiry into his teenage son's death in youth custody. As Thorne races against time to try to find out what happened to the boy, Weeks must try to keep the hostage-taker calm in order to keep herself and her fellow hostage alive.
Blood count
Surgeon Edward Hammond once saved a man's life, never dreaming that this would come back to haunt him. The man was Dragan Gazi, a Serbian gangster who is now standing trial in The Hague for war crimes. Hammond is blackmailed into trying to retrieve Gazi's millions, which leads him on a dangerous, wild chase across Europe and forces him to unwillingly confront his own past decisions.
When she woke
Set in a not-too-distant future, Hannah awakes in a prison hospital, her skin genetically altered to a bright red colour, and her movements broadcast to the American nation on reality TV. Her crime? Abortion. In a society where the lines between fundamentalist religion and government have been blurred and a pandemic has left many women sterile, abortion has become one of the worst crimes that can be committed. Many convicted criminals are no longer kept in prison, but are "Chromed" (their skin colour altered) to match the severity of their crime, and are released back into the community to make their way as best they can. Hannah's crime is made worse by the fact that she refuses to name the father of her baby, who is high up in the church.
