Or you could read David Marr's Killing for Country. It's the story of one of his ancestors who was in the Native Police in Queensland in the 1860s. Marr's account shows that in those days killing Aborigines wasn't something to be ashamed of, it was supported by the local squatters, and even...

Recently finished Elsebeth Egholm's Three Dog Night. (Despite being translated from Danish, the title refers to the Australian practice of having three dogs sleeping next to and on top of you on very cold nights.) Anyway, the book is definitely in the "Scandinavian noir" genre. (If you don't...

The book is readily available AFAIK, along with several other titles by the same author. The "Operation Mincemeat" movie is fairly recent (2012 IIRC). An earlier one - "The Man Who Never Was" - was released in the 1950s. Both tweak the story a bit to heighten the drama, e.g. adding an office...

Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. An account of a British WW2 deception operation. The body of a Royal Marine was found floating off the coast of Spain in April 1943. It had a briefcase attached containing top secret letters, implying an immanent Allied invasion of Greece and Sardinia...

In that case, I'm not sure I should mention Margaret Hickey's latest An Ill Wind. It's a whodunit set in the fictitious town of Carrabeen in rural Victoria. A local philanthropist and wind farm promoter is found hanging from the blade of one of the local wind turbines. Looks like a suicide...

Although Keating described this book as a massive betrayal (IIRC), it's really more about the author IMHO. By his own admission, Watson kept trying to involve himself in the action, completely failing to understand that it wasn't his job. Interesting read, though.

Page limits? No idea. Although I expect that publishers have to be a bit more flexible with fantasy and science fiction because of the amount of world-building that goes into them. Speaking of science fiction, currently about half way through John Scalzi's When the Moon Hits Your Eye. I've...

I'm less charitable. I think a good editor would have tightened up the logic, eliminated the irrelevant incidents, and insisted the author learn how newspapers work. My guess is that the quick wrap up was because the page count was mounting, and some deus ex machina was the only way to get...

The Beacon: P.A. Thomas Genre: Murder mystery Setting: Byron Bay No. of pages: 416 The blurb - "Jack Harris, the disgraced son of Australia's most powerful business tycoon, has just been exiled to Byron Bay as a junior journalist at his father's smallest regional newspaper, The Beacon. His...