Category Archives: Crime fiction

My year in books: Tom Pitts

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 3 Comments

Piggyback-coverNext cab off the rank in the ‘my year in books’ series I’m running over December is one of my fellow authors in the Snubnose Press stable, Tom Pitts.

Tom is the author of a great little novella, which I read earlier this year, Piggyback. It’s the story of two young women who like to party and think they’ve ripped off a car trunk load of free drugs, when in fact all they’ve really done is bring down a s*** load of chaos upon themselves.

Piggyback, along with all other Snubnose Press titles (including my novel, Ghost Money), is currently just 99 cents until before Christmas.

Anyway, enough of my shilling.

Tom’s got a novel called Hustle due out with Snubnose in 2014. 

You can find him on the web here.

Tom, your five minutes start now…

Under the Dixie Moon, Ro Cuzon

I’m often seen touting the wares of French-born, New Orleans transplant, Ro Cuzon. That’s because he’s great, this book is great. It’s a huge tale with a lot of moving parts and it manages to tie them all together in an end-run marathon of staccato chapters that build and build until you think it’s got nowhere to go–then it takes you further.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Noir fiction, Snubnose Press

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My year in books: Margot Kinberg

Posted on December 4, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 31 Comments

For the second instalment of my year in books series, I’m very happy to welcome Margot Kinberg. Margot is one of those people who make the crime fiction community such a cool place to hang out in, a mystery novelist who has a genuine passion for reading, writing and talking about crime fiction. She has a wonderful website, Confessions of Mystery Novelist. It’s full of thoughtful reviews and features on a truly eclectic selection of crime fiction. You can check it out here.

Welcome Margot.

Thanks very much for hosting me, Andrew; it’s a real honour. I’ve been asked to share my five best crime fiction reads of 2013 and to tell the truth, that’s quite a difficult undertaking. I’ve read some fantastic crime fiction this year and it’s very hard to narrow it down to just five novels. Let’s say, then, that these are five novels that have had a profound impact on me. Here they are in no particular order:

Witness the Night, Kishwar Desai

This astounding debut novel tells the story of the murders of thirteen members of the wealthy Atwal family, and the efforts of one social worker to find out what happened on the night they died. It’s an unflinching look at life in Punjab, at the choices people make and why they make them, and at the effects of class, wealth and prejudice.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Noir fiction

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My year in books: Jake Hinkson

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 5 Comments

sh_frontCover_181113Welcome to the first of a series of posts I’m going to be running on my site over December, along the theme of my year in books.

I thought it would be great to ask a dozen or so writers and bloggers whose work I dig to do me a short overview of their five favourite reads in 2013.

While, all the people I’ve asked are crime writers, I  specified their top five didn’t have to be crime. Neither did they have to be published in 2013. The individual concerned just had to have read them this year.

First cab off the rank is Jake Hinkson. A lot of you will know his work and, if you don’t you might want to check it out, because the guy knows his noir fiction. He is the author of Hell On Church Street, The Posthumous Man, and an upcoming novella with Crime Factory Publications, Saint Homicide.

He blogs on all things noir at his site, The Night Editor. Take it away, Jake.

A Simple Plan, Scott Smith

I’ve long been a fan of Sam Raimi’s excellent 1999 adaptation of Smith’s novel about three men who discover a crashed plane full of stolen money, but this year was the first time I read Smith original novel.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Noir fiction

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Beat to a Pulp Hardboiled 3 is live

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

Harboiled

I can’t think of a better way to finish 2013, than to have a story in a new anthology of crime fiction, Beat to a Pulp Hardboiled 3.

For those of you not familiar with it, Beat to a Pulp is an awesome little (although it seems to be expanding each time I look) US operation run by hardboiled crime fiction enthusiast, editor and all round gent, David Cranmer.

It features regular short crime fiction by some of the coolest writers around. David’s also increasingly active publishing his books and novellas under the Beat to a Pulp imprint.

If this sounds like your kind of thing, add it to your bookmarks because it’s a great site.

Anyway, for the last three years running, David has collected the best of the fiction appearing in Beat to a Pulp and released it as an anthology.

I have a story in the latest anthology, Beat to a Pulp Hardboiled 3. ‘One Ashore in Singapore’ features my character Gary Chance, formerly of the Australian army and now a professional criminal. It’s a down and dirty tale of false identities, double dealings and the challenges of finding late night accommodation.

It’s my chance to play with some of the big girls and boys of the US hardboiled crime fiction scene – Patti Abbott, Hilary Davidson, Chris F Holm, Kieran Shea, Josh Stallings, Sophie Littlefield, Keith Rawson, and Fred Blosser.… Read more

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Posted in Crime fiction, Noir fiction

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Perth and crime fiction: an imaginary garden with real toads

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

1970s-Near-William-Street

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed Zero At the Bone, the latest book by Perth based crime writer, David Whish-Wilson. Zero At the Bone is a sequel to Whish-Wilson’s 2010 book, Line of Sight, which established him firmly in my mind as the president of the, albeit very small, club of Australian writers who do noir fiction and do it well.

This week, I’m thrilled to host David on Pulp Curry, with a wonderfully written and nuanced piece on the historical origins of Zero At the Bone and Line of Sight. It’s also a great insight into his home town of Perth, a place where, as he writes “the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow”.

Dave’s next book is Perth, part of the New South Books city series, out in December. 

David Whish-WilsonZero at the Bone had its genesis in a quote supplied by my brother, and it’s one I reference in the novel, by Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes, who plundered the Aztec Empire in the 16th Century. He said that “I and my men suffer from a disease of the heart that can only be cured by gold.”

This is a pretty honest assessment of the motivations behind Cortes’ journey to the New World, but the story of this maddening desire for gold, and the story of the city of Perth, where Zero at the Bone is set, are also closely linked.… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Crime fiction, David Whish-Wilson, True crime

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