Brigid George

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Born and bred in Melbourne, I could not resist either the title or the cover of this book. And George did an excellent job both of capturing my home town, and also some of its cultural vibe. This book is unmistakably Melbourne in its setting.

True crime writer Dusty Kent is engaged by Brian Chamberlain, a wealthy TV magnate to try and clear the name of his daughter Gracie, who was jailed for the murder of a celebrity TV chef. There has been a confession from a petty criminal called Rory Flynn that seems to clear Gracie, but doubt has been cast by Flynn's subsequent murder. Chamberlain's idea is to gather known associates of Flynn's, who don't seem to have an alibi, for a weekend at his mansion, under a promise for them to win a luxury cruise. Once there, Dusty will use her investigative talents to determine which, if any, of the assembled suspects were Flynn's two accomplices.

This setup is highly derivative of Agatha Christie, with a bit of a Colombo feel to it as well, in the condescension shown to the investigator by the suspects. George makes a bit too much of Kent's supposed internal "lie detector", and this never seems convincingly demonstrated. In true Christie style, there are some clues signalled in the plot development that an alert reader will pick up on to identify the guilty, rather than a big clever plot twist that leaves the reader aghast. The interest here is trying to beat Kent, and her offsider Sean, in assigning guilt.

Overall, this book is a bit derivative, and I could have done without all the romantic tension that George tries to insert. This is the sixth book in the series, but I did not feel that not having read the earlier ones lessened my enjoyment. There was some early exposition that would probably make reading the earlier ones less enjoyable, but I didn't think that was a big deal. Overall, this is a solid entry in a well-mined genre, made better by a very good sense of place.… (more)

I've read the first book and enjoyed it, if not loved it but this short prequel was pretty weak. There was no detecting, just speculation and there was none of Dusty's background.

The point of a prequel is usually to introduce the main character/series but I know even less about her than I did reading the first book. Plus it's billed as Dusty's first case but apparently she's been busy solving all these other crimes. And regardless, how did they know to contact her and that she was going to be branching out on her own? It made no sense. And how is she even supporting herself? Has she got an income source? Is she still working for the newspaper? She hasn't sold any books yet so it's not like she has royalties. It frustrated me.

I'm glad I read the first book before this or I likely wouldn't be bothering with the rest of the series. 1 star.… (more)

I love cold case crimes and with the Australian setting (yep, Aussie here), I was pretty excited to find this series. But this was not quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be from Dusty's point of view but instead it's narrated by Sean O'Kelly, her new assistant. I enjoyed the mystery and it was decently written, but I also felt I never really got to know Sean or Dusty all that well because of Sean narrating. They were just sort of there interviewing witnesses and puzzling out who did it.

Although Dusty had somewhat of a background it was never really fleshed out enough to help her come off the page. As far as Sean goes, I know very little about him at all, except that he's a straight male who thinks every female is attractive and is busy calculating his chances with them. It was hard to like him when he was weighing up his chances between Sarah and Dusty. As far as the mystery goes the second murder felt unnecessary and made me feel sad. I mean did he even see anything? Or was it all just a lie? And how could you kill a kid? It was pretty rough.

Still aside from my complaints I did enjoy reading and I'll pick up the rest of the series. Hopefully Dusty and Sean will become more rounded. 2.5 stars, rounded up to 3.… (more)

investigative journalist, Australia, secrets, author, whodunit, murder, relationships*****

The wealthy father of the young woman accused and convicted of the murder of her employer has found new evidence that nearly shows that his daughter was falsely convicted. So, he hires Dusty and her business partner to gather the real suspects in a high-end mansion and dangle a cruise to get them to stay and allow Dusty's interrogations. They all had passed the police alibi test, but are they all true? Dusty has a great track record of solving cold cases and she has to work hard to solve this one. Great read!
I requested and received a free temporary e-book copy from BooksGoSocial via NetGalley. Thank you!… (more)