Damien finds much to admire in his review of Shane Maloney's new novel: "Sucked In is typical Shane Maloney which is to say, endlessly entertaining, wryly amusing and totally original. Murray Whelan remains one of the good guys, untainted by corruption, unscarred by cabinet brawls and ready to fight the good fight for mates and constituents alike."
"The Washington Post" has worked its way round to a review of Richard Flanagan's novel The Unknown Terrorist, which continues the interesting record of favourbale reviews overseas and not so favourable ones here: "Flanagan's tightly crafted narrative is akin to the oppressive power of Kafka's Trial, or Capote's In Cold Blood, stark realism revealing underlying sickness. His prose glitters and shrieks with spare vitality.."
Teresa looks at Careless by Deborah Robertson on her weblog "Black Marks on Wood Pulp" and, while she thought it "an excellent account of contemporary Australia", she found something unfulfilling in the book.
Sarah Weinman, proprietor of the "Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind" weblog, and crime reviewer for "The Baltimore Sun", is impressed with Peter Temple's The Broken Shore (last item): "Temple's previous efforts -- especially the Jack Irish novels -- amply illustrate why he's one of the best reasons to be thankful to Australia. But The Broken Shore takes his work to a richer, darker place, taking the conventions of crime novels and expanding them to incorporate the idiosyncrasies and unique traits of Temple's native country."
