Literary Brooding

  Bluebird, Bluebird Attica Locke 320 pages, published September 12, 2017 Darren Matthews has problems, his career as a Texas Ranger, his marriage and his personal life is on the precipice of crashing spectacularly.  While suspended, Matthews is given the opportunity by a colleague to look into the suspicious deaths of a black lawyer and a local white woman in the small town of Lark, in Shelby County. Matthews's investigation opens up old wounds, further festers existing wounds and has him questioning all he knows.   As I finished the last words of this novel, I was just in awe. Locke has put down on the page a story and characters that are beautifully realised. I was completely taken back by the prose, the descriptions, the characters, the plotting, it was quite simply a master class.  The topics that Locke covers are deftly done; you fully understand the complexity that all the characters find themselves in.   What starts as a go down, have a look ar...

The Season Helen Garner Text Publishing, December 2024, 208 pages The Season is a glorious book as Garner watches her youngest grandson mature into a man as through their share enjoyment of footy. What makes this special is Garner's honesty, humour, and insight. You have a young man moving into the prime of his life and Garner acknowledging that her time is limited. There is no sadness but a wonderful tenderness. For those who don't appreciate the fanatic AFL football fans, it is captured beautifully with the dedication and commitment to having a team on the winning side. Garner's writing is on point. Her descriptions immediately create a sense of place, and you know the characters. I really liked the observations of the people who used the oval from the joggers, grandparents pushing grandchildren, the skateboarders, and those who attended games. These little snippets are just fantastic. I just really loved the book, and I am ever so appreciative of being allowed an opportu...

Wired - Timepunk Romance #1 Liz Maverick 336 pages • first pub 2007 by Dorchester Shomi L Roxanne Zaborovsky is having a really tough time, all she wants to do is go the 7-Eleven get some stuff and go home. To make sure she is not disturbed by anyone she does her shopping at two am. So when a couple of men accost her, fight over and know who she is, well life gets even more complicated for Roxanne. For both these men Mason Merrick and Leonardo Kaysar have designs on influencing Roxanne's future and she finds both of them just a tad irresistible. Wired is interesting mix of time travel and cyber punk, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. All the characters are well developed and the story rattles along at a good pace. I also read Thursday's Child: The play by Eva Di Cesare.  No review for that one as I am still trying to determine whether it is a script I would put on the stage. I have read the novel the play was based on. Just not sure that I would want to go and se...

The Death of Dora Black: A Petticoat Police Mystery Lainie Anderson 321 pages, Hachette Australia, published August 28, 2024 Glenelg, South Australia, January 1917, and the body of young woman Dora Blacks is recovered from underneath the jetty. The Police are convinced that this is a misadventure, a young woman despairing over a lost love. Miss Katie Cocks and her offsider Ethel Bromley believe that officer in charge is looking for an easy solution and overlooking that this could be murder. Lainie Anderson has based her Petticoat Mystery series on the real life Miss Cocks who became the first policewoman in the British Empire to paid the same wage as a man, it did not mean equal treatment though. By blending history and fiction together, Anderson has crafted an entertaining mystery. The central character is Miss Katie Cocks, who when entering the force was not a young woman and the role was more of a social worker, assisting women in trouble or morality enforcer, assisting women to not...