REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Author Robert Goddard has been criticised in the past for being a little formulaic with his plot development, but he is back to his best with this latest novel in his quite prolific career.

REVIEWED BY MARK HOTTON - © Fairfax NZ News

Cold Blood is a weighty beast: 566 pages about a murder in New Orleans that involves, surprise surprise, voodoo in the French Quarter in the buildup to Mardi Gras.

REVIEWED BY NATASHA HOLLAND - © Fairfax NZ News

Peering into someone's life, you will always have a distorted view as you only glimpse what is on the surface or what they are willing to reveal to you.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

James Patterson and Harlan Coben are two of my favourite authors in the murder/thriller/mystery/general mayhem genre, so when they have good things to say about another author, I take notice.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Noah Boyd is one of those rare authors who not only writes in the crime thriller genre, he also lived it.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

In The Strain, del Toro and Chuck Hogan introduced a new kind of vampire – a pure predator, who's sole focus is on feeding, and their prey of choice is the human race.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

An incredible discovery, a merciless foe, a shocking revelation: these are the headlines on the back of The Covenant of Genesis and the novel provides all of the above.

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MAXWELL - © Fairfax NZ News

This story follows Sean Egan, an undercover cop who has infiltrated a criminal group he believes killed his brother, and Detective Inspector Tina Boyd, who has captured a brutally sadistic serial killer known as the Night Creeper.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is the fourth book in the Detective Sam Shepherd murder mystery series and I'm pleased to report that they just get better and better.

REVIEWED BY CHRIS CHILTON - © Fairfax NZ News

Here's something on the edge: a graphic novel by Auckland artist Ant Sang.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

I'm always a little stunned by just how prolific author James Patterson is.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Set in 1968 in the University town of Carew, Naked Cruelty is an old-fashioned crime thriller.

REVIEWED BY NATASHA HOLLAND - © Fairfax NZ News

Perfection is hard to come by but Iles comes so close to it with this book.

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MAXWELL - © Fairfax NZ News

Anna Marukas has a pretty terrible weekend holiday in Queensland when two of her tour party die within hours of each other.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

It seems like the murder mystery genre is the flavour of the day right now, with books about devious murderers, innocent (and sometimes not-so-innocent) victims and clever-clogs detectives popping up everywhere.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Book review: Jack Reacher is back and better than ever.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

With its fast pace and gritty feel, the third Ty Hauck novel is every bit as riveting as its predecessors. Private security investigator Hauck is blown away by the news that an old friend form his past has been murdered along with her husband and daughter.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

OPINION: A young man was on trial for murder. He stood accused of killing the victim in his own home. He had confessed to the crime, turned himself in and readily admitted his guilt. T

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

With a diagnosis of malignant brain cancer and just a few weeks to live, Kenny Drummond thinks back over his life and decides to put things right with the people he believes he has let down over the years.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

For Jon Payne and David Jones, friends, former comrades in arms and freshly recovered from their last adventures, a night helping a charity event seems a simple enough activity; until a mysterious woman unleashes a murderous chain of events.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Sebastian and Oskar are physicists and have been close friends since meeting in college.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The tagline on the front of this book reckons we are being introduced to a new, kick-arse crime fighter for fans of Janet Evanovich and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the arse-kicking abilities of the main character.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Former CIA operative Jack Morgan runs Private – one of the most exclusive, and expensive PI firms in America. Private is where you go if you're rich, powerful – and desperate.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Cliff Hardy, a resident of Sydney, has survived many an adventure, having been a hero in numerous Corris crime thrillers.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The final unpublished work of Michael Crichton is a good, old-fashioned adventure.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

There's no doubting Dunedin-based author Vanda Symon's talent as a writer and I certainly enjoyed most of this book, the third to feature stroppy chick/newbie detective Sam Shepherd.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The latest Jack Reacher novel is, as expected, a cracker.

REVIEWED BY KEN MACKAY - © Fairfax NZ News

When a sex worker is found savagely murdered in Sydney bush land, Paul Harrigan and Grace Rioran are thrust into solving the crime, even though this would normally be suited for Grace alone.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Aussie author Colleen McCullough is probably best-known for The Thorn Birds and while I enjoyed that book every bit as much as everyone else in the world, I wasn't such a great fan of some of the later offerings, particularly the Masters of Rome series.

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

When a beautiful blond girl is washed up on a Sussex beach with insomnia, Brighton beautician Dale thinks she knows her.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

When a Vatican archivist uncovers a secret set of papers that relate to the death of Pope John Paul I, he is unsure who to trust.

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MAXWELL - © Fairfax NZ News

Michael Roman has a good life. His career and home-life couldn't really be any better. But things can't always be perfect.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

I enjoy a good old-fashioned murder mystery and this book certainly delivers plenty of murder and mystery.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Luca and Bill, two British mountaineers, spot an unusual-looking mountain during a climbing expedition in Tibet.

REVIEWED BY JOSEPH BEAUMONT - © Fairfax NZ News

Jack Higgins' latest book is engrossing but ends with a whimper.

REVIEWED BY MURRAY ALLISON - © Fairfax NZ News

Having read and enjoyed Stuart MacBride's DS Logan series I had initial doubts about his latest offering. But those initial doubts didn't last long as his latest thriller set in Glasgow in the near future drags you along at breakneck speed.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is the second book in the Grace Descanso series.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Here's a book that will grab you by the throat from the very first page and keep your attention to the end.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The latest book from Nicci French is an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Novelist Cubby Greenwich has a pretty good life. He has an adoring, talented wife, a genius son, and few things to truly darken his horizon.

REVIEWED ROBERT MAXWELL - © Fairfax NZ News

The Unwanted follows the story of Jonathan Quinn.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

James Patterson has produced another page-turner with this latest book in the Alex Cross series.

REVIEWED BY STEVE MASON - © Fairfax NZ News

Clive Cussler can still come up with a good plot, but the way he puts the flesh on the bones of the story – the storytelling – has gone down the toilet.

REVIEWED DARREN BROWN - © Fairfax NZ News

The world has been hit by a pandemic that has almost wiped out the human population.

REVIEWED KEN MACKAY - © Fairfax NZ News

This is the third book Mark Abernethy has written. Using the same character for each, he has produced a novel that sums up the political tensions in East Timor.

© Fairfax NZ News

It's the mirrors that bother Alexander Rahl. He doesn't know whether he is paranoid or just on to something he just can't put his finger on.

REVIEWED JOSEPH BEAUMONT - © Fairfax NZ News

Daniel Silva's latest thriller is the ninth featuring Israeli super-spy Gabriel Allon.

REVIEWED BY LYNETTE KLAVER - © Fairfax NZ News

Kat Novak is the assistant medical examiner in Albion, where an unidentified narcotic has felled three corpses in quick succession.

REVIEWED F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

REVIEWED KEN MCKAY - © Fairfax NZ News

Robert Hunter and Carlos Garcia, homicide detectives in Los Angeles, are thrown into a murder enquiry that doesn't seem possible.

REVIEWED BY STEVE MASON - © Fairfax NZ News

Dan Brown has written a couple of good novels but, sadly, The Lost Symbol is not one of them.

REVIEWED JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This book kicks straight into the action with a drive-by shooting at a service station happening in the first chapter and right under the nose of main character, Detective Ty Hauck.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

An old tale of Corsairs on the Barbary Coast has a modern-day parallel with the war on terror.

REVIEWED BY JUDY CLEINE - © Fairfax NZ News

This book is, as the jacket claims, a compelling read.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Two little boys are abducted from the streets of Glasgow and it seems that’s not all they have in common.

REVIEWED BY GWEN CHALONER - © Fairfax NZ News

A delightful cross between Agatha Christie and the Kumars.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Stalinist Russia was a place of repression, fear and brutality.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Regan Reilly PI is gradually organising her new life in New York when a call for assistance sends her back to her old haunts in Los Angeles.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

American adventurer Ethan Gage, while recovering from his first two adventures, Rosetta Stone and Napoleon's Pyramids, soon gets embroiled in a third.

REVIEWED BY GWEN CHALONER - © Fairfax NZ News

Set in Sweden, this crime novel is un-put-down-able.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Ellie Falkner's life changes drastically when two policewomen come to her door to tell her that her husband Greg has been killed in a car crash.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Hill is the author of the Dalziel and Pascoe series, but turns to something a little lighter for The Roar of the Butterflies, essentially a "cosy" mystery.

REVIEWED BY GWEN CHALONER - © Fairfax NZ News

This book is a crime thriller set in London featuring Detective Chief Inspector Jack Hawksworth and a sequel to Bye Bye Baby, but you don't have to have read that one to enjoy this one, which is great because there's nothing I hate more than finding a really good book on the shelves only to discover I should have read another one first.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

A random traffic accident unveils the existence of a power struggle in the local underworld to Inspector Falcon and his team.

REVIEWED BY MAREE FIELD - © Fairfax NZ News

Loosely based on the JonBenet murder case, Oates tells the story of the Rampike family through the eyes of Skyler Rampike: older brother to tragically murdered Bliss and now a young man on the outs with his family and society in general.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is the latest in the series of thrillers written by Karen Rose and featuring the immensely screwed up family of District Attorney Susannah Vartanian.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The body of a murdered FBI agent is lost in an avalanche at the start of this thriller and the story just gets more and more action-packed from there.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

The latest in a series of action-packed novels featuring FBI special agent Kimberly Quincy, Say Goodbye lives up to the hype of Lisa Garnder's earlier novels and manages to inject more than a few jarring moments and unexpected twists along the way.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Delaney is the archetypical hard drinking, demon haunted, corner cutting cop who rubs up against authority and criminals alike. When a prostitute is found viciously murdered, one of the foremost questions is to do with why she had been trying to call DI Delaney hours before her demise.

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is a debut novel by Lyttelton writer Carl Hubrick. Set in the Canterbury hinterland, it involves a courageous Rhodesian Ridgeback dog and four children aged from eight to 14 who stumble upon terrorists while out hiking.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This was one of those books that managed to surprise me.

REVIEWED BY NAIDA MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

This is the third Feng Shui Detective novel that I have enjoyed. It was first published in 2002 and is worth reading.

REVIEWED BY ROBERT MAXWELL - © Fairfax NZ News

Michael Forsythe is a hunted man. A woman from his past has been hunting him down for years in a revenge plot.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

This book presented me with a bit of a dilemma.

© Fairfax NZ News

Reformed art thief Tom Kirk and his offsider, Archie Connolly, make another appearance in this, James Twining's third novel.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Mann of Steel is a TV production being filmed in Baltimore. However, all is not well — someone or someones is-are trying to disrupt the filming with small acts of sabotage.

© Fairfax NZ News

In the backwoods of Quebec lies the exclusive Manoir Bellechase. Isolated, tranquil and the ideal destination for most of their wedding anniversaries; Arnaud Gremache and his wife return for their 35th anniversary.

© Fairfax NZ News

Warning: Reading this book could be hazardous to your health. Yes, this is one of those thrillers that could keep you reading into the small hours with page-turning regularity to match any of the Koontz or King bestsellers.

© Fairfax NZ News

I have said in the past that I like books that give me an insight into other places and cultures. This book certainly does that.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Growing up, sisters Elle and Lila are as close as they are different: one a mathematical genius with her own sense of style and quirkiness, the other a normal teen trying to fit in with her peers.

REVIEWED BY PAUL MCDOWALL - © Fairfax NZ News

I really enjoyed this book. Not only is one of the central characters a female serial killer but she has no redeeming qualities.

© Fairfax NZ News

A favourite family game becomes a terrifying ordeal when a madman forces a mother into a race for her child's life.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

After moving to the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts with her husband Dean, Madeline Dare takes on a job as a teacher at an academy for troubled teens with wealthy families.

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

I picked up this book and was riveted from the first page.

REVIEWED BY JOHN HUSBAND - © Fairfax NZ News

The contributors to the back cover blurb of this book were very generous in their praise of this young author, 38-year-old Emily Perkins, who lives in Auckland.

© Fairfax NZ News

This book definitely deserves the title of being one of publisher Random House's "killer reads".

© Fairfax NZ News

What superb holiday reading I found this book to be. 

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

REVIEWED BY PAUL MCDOWALL - © Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

© Fairfax NZ News

Paul Copeland, a public prosecutor, is called to identify a murder victim whose belongings link him to Paul's past.

© Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

© Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

REVIEWED BY JILLIAN ALLISON-AITKEN - © Fairfax NZ News

Book reviews in brief:

© Fairfax NZ News

A family feud leads to the kidnapping of a teenage girl.

© Fairfax NZ News

The new novel by Jeffrey Archer is one of his best yarns for a long while.

© Fairfax NZ News

Alan McQueen is an Australian SIS operative, highly skilled and worldly wise in counter terrorism.

REVIEWED BY F MULLIGAN - © Fairfax NZ News

An archaeological treasure hunt to find the tomb of the mythical Greek hero Hercules soon catapults archaeologist Nina Wilde into mortal danger.