Promise by Tony Cavanaugh

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Genre - Mystery, Australian fiction

As critiqued by Graeme Blundell - not for the faint-hearted.  Not a pretty ending, but as an Australian the book makes you plough through in light of knowing our countryside and its areas. A very good crime story, complex and quite a shocker as to what is involved with these types of killers.

The storyline is written around Noosa and Trewantin in the Sunshine Coast of Queensland.  Darian Richards, after sixteen years as the head of Victoria’s Homicide Squad, has had enough and retired to Noosa hoping this would drive away his nightmares of homicide cases he endured.

A deranged serial killer is stalking the Sunshine Coast and young girls have vanished, all blonde and pretty.  The killer knows how to stay under the radar, how to hide in plain sight and how to hurt and kill.  Darian gets involved during his own personal time to try and catch the killer.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

A Distant Land by Alison Booth

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Genre - Australian fiction

Alison Booth born in Melbourne and grew up in Sydney and spent 2 decades in the UK and returned to Melbourne.  She is also a Professor of Economics at the Australian National University.

9 year old Zidra Vincent met Jim Cadwallader in their beautiful home town of Jingera. Jim ended up as a respected war correspondent in Cambodia and Zidra a reporter at the Sydney Morning Herald.  Jim is exposed and captured by the Viet Cong and his family are advised of him being shot.  Zidra who has always wanted to end up with Jim is absolutely devastated.

In the meantime Zidra is embroiled in protecting her very good friend who is fighting for the rights of the aboriginals in Australia, and is being followed by a Government sleuth who pressurizes her to spy, for the sake of her family.  Zidra, learns more about what is happening with her friend Daisy and gives her a tape to record any meetings that are held with this fictitious named-sleuth. This ends up with Zidra’s writing a front-page explosive article on politics and government wrong-doing for which she is widely congratulated.

A very good fictional read and most believable considering Australia’s participation in the Vietnam War at the expense of freedom.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

Educating Alice by Alice Greenup

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Genre - Biography, Australian


This is one of the best biographies you can read. Set in rural outback Queensland, the sheer power of Alice’s transformation from an outgoing 18yo from the leafy suburbs of Brighton Beach (Melbourne) to the humble beginnings at Yepoon and then further afield. From an outgoing teenager who knew all and a gap year to ride around Australia with her brother’s friend, finding herself dumped in Alice Springs, brings a revelation that life has not started.


Alice has had to learn the outback ways, what is expected with her first job as a Governess to a very strict couple and in her spare time no television, radio or even not able to use a mobile. Is this the life for her? After all, a cow is a cow and likewise so is a horse is her only knowledge of the running of an outback station.


Alice’s empathy with the land and her transformation took quite some time with hard work and always at the back of her mind to finish her studies which she did. Time away from her beloved ‘mate’ Rick was a test in the strength of their relationship. With adversities from the dry weather conditions, Alice’s health and an accident which did not seem possible to come through unscathed.


The story starts a bit on the slow side, but nevertheless descriptive to the environment keeps you reading and wishing there was another book in the offing.


I have never read such a great biography with so much emotion and feelings for our beloved country, makes you feel lucky no matter what your situation is.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

Beyond Fear by Jaye Ford

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Genre -Australian, Psychological Thriller

This is an absolute thriller and lives up to its name. Four women have a girls weekend away at a remote country B'n'B and their aim is for a few laughs and plenty of relaxing. Not the case. On the way there, they nearly get killed and when eventually finding the cottage come across two men who are camping nearby. Seems ideal, but turns out these two men who are brothers are vicious, crude and and are after something buried in the cabin which has since been refurbished. With only four women in the way, what could be easier? Keep reading for a very dramatic storyline. 

---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville

The Good Daughter by Honey Brown

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Genre -General Fiction, Australian Fiction


Brown lives in rural Victoria with her family and the background of the story is in rural outback Victoria, with the usual harsh conditions. It gives the reader a feeling of earlier times in a rural country town. A good Australian outback storyline and opens ones eyes to teenagers’ choices and interpretation of life around them as they live each day.


The main character is Rebecca Toyer is a 16yo living on the outskirts of a rural town and coming from the poorer side of the track. She has to deal with the death of her mother and her relationship with a father who is a truckie and away for days on end.


She also deals with virginity, local boys, together with the wealthy land owners (Kincaids) who are the owners of the property she lives on. Her first love is local lothario Aden Kincaid (step son) ignored by his father, and at 22 wants to ride his motor bike around Australia. Rebecca finds herself in danger of living up to schoolyard taunts together with Zach Kincaid (younger son), who is besotted with her and will do anything to get her attention and wanting to join Aden on his venture.


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan

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Genre -Australian Fiction

A beautiful classic and a must for all who have not read this Australian book, which was made into a film and highly acclaimed in its own right.

Bojan Buloh and his very young wife of 16, Maria, and their baby, emigrated from Slovenia to Tasmania. Having fled the atrocities of German soldiers, families, Bojan is haunted by these circumstances for the rest of his life and made him a drunkard. He worked as the lowest of migrants in building the Tasmania Hydro dam. Always able to use his hands with wood and the love of the Australian different species of wood, helped him build furniture and make a bit of money to survive. He is left to raise his daughter Sonja who eventually fled to Sydney and some thirty five years later, Sonja visits her father who is a drunkard.

One cannot imagine the hardship during the times of construction of the dam and later the Hydro scheme, that these poor migrants went through and how badly they were accepted into the Australian way of life. Charity was poor and each for his own.

A wonderful read which leaves you appreciating the uphill battle migrants’ face when arriving into a new country and their stoic pride to keep going for their future generations


---- Reviewed by Judy, Rowville Bookchat

The paperbark shoe by Goldie Goldbloom

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Genre - Historical fiction

Set in Wyalkatchem in the West Australian wheat belt, this is a fictional tale about Gin and Toad and 2 Italian prisoners of war who came to work on their farm as labourers in 1944. She has captured the harshness of the country and the deprivation of the times and given us the character of Gin Toad. Married to Toad to escape a mental institution she survives the heat and dirt of the farm and gives up her ladylike ways as she becomes immune to the lack of music and lover in her outback life. Then she meets Antonio and becomes infamous as the traitor who helped an Italian POW to escape. This story is haunting, gritty and sad but it has a wonderful style of language which captures the atmosphere of the times and life on the land.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

Sunshine on Sugar Hill by Angela Gilltrap

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Genre - Biography


Once upon a time, an Australian girl moved to Harlem. This is the true story of ABC “Strictly Dancing” presenter, Angela Gilltrap who grew up in sunny Queensland, shared a flat at beautiful Bondi Beach and chose to live on Sugar Hill in Harlem. Angela fell in love with an African American and went to live in his sixth floor apartment on one of the noisiest streets in Manhattan. She describes her adventures as the only white woman living in this part of the city with humour and tries to explain her attachment to her new home. I especially enjoyed the contrasts with life in Australia … “the trees, the silence, the absence of guys hanging out on my block”.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Knox

The slap by Chris Tsiolkas

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Genre - Australian Fiction

Tsiolkas has written a uniquely middle class Australian tale that exposes the domestic life of a group of family and friends in everyday suburbia. He explores the consequences when a man slaps a friend’s child at a family barbeque. The story slips seamlessly between opposing viewpoints and reveals the strain this puts on all the people involved. An intriguing look behind the curtains of our lives with an emphasis on the racial differences simmering in our suburbs. It reminded me of the the social realism of the Melbourne novel "Monkey Grip" by Helen Garner.

--- Reviewed by Sue, Knox

Bad Hair Days by Pamela Bone

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Genre - Non-fiction


This biography was published in 2007 while Pamela was in remission from cancer. Pamela was a well known Melbourne Age journalist, feminist, human rights champion and a passionate advocate for women. This is not a true step by step account of medical intervention but a journey into an extremely interesting and often sad struggle to awake the Australian public about the reality of the happenings to humans in Africa, especially children and women. A moving look at serious illness and how it affects sufferers and their families. Pamela died on 27 April 2007.

---- Reviewed by Julie, Ferntree Gully

Flying the coop by Ilsa Evans

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Genre - Comic Fiction


Chris Beggs, 38 year old divorced mother of two has just become the proud owner of a free range chook farm in Healesville. Feeling a little reckless after making this spur of the moment decision Chris is determined to make this venture work and with the help of some new found friends and a chicken suit, it looks like it will! Chris leaves behind her city home and job and welcomes early morning egg collections, possum poo and a dangerous alpaca! Humorous light fiction from this popular local author.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Knox Library

Unexpected Elements of Love by Kate Legge

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Genre - Family

I picked this book up after seeing it listed as one of the great books set in Victoria on The Summer Read list from the State Library this year. It is a novel about love and family and provides an insight into the lives of two women, Beth and Janet, and their extended families. Janet is a working wife and mother, torn between the demands of her work as a weather presenter and her anxious, unpredictable son, Harry. After 50 years of marriage, Beth is coping with warning signs of dementia in her husband, a famous sculptor facing the end of his career. This novel concentrates on the details of domestic life and relationships within the broader setting of the Australian climate.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Knox Library