eyes.2c Reviews

The Shepherd's Hut: A Novel by Tim Winton Winton's opening instantly raises the tension. Justifiably angst ridden teenage Jaxi is heading for safety. His flight into the Australian outback 'bush' is grueling and I for one am amazed that he can even contemplate it, beginning as he does on foot. No one in their right mind heads into the Australian Outback as precipitously as Jaxie does! Carrying a gun, a few supplies, binoculars and water, all that he's able to scramble together, Jaxie heads out from Monkton in Western Australia north to Magnet to find his cousin and girlfriend Lee. His only friend. The only one who gets him. Jaxie worked with his father Sid Clackton, aka Cap, the local butcher, a vicious alcoholic who has abused his wife and son all of Jaxie's life. When his mother dies with cancer, Jaxie is chained to his circumstances not through love as he had been, but through despair. The thing is Jaxie arrives home to find Cap's body under the ...

Death at Victoria Dock (Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries #4)   by  Kerry Greenwood                                  I have to say I love Phryne Fisher. I love her spirit of independence and savoie faire, a sleek fashionable woman, whose exterior hides a determined and compsionate heart. And The epitome of the cool flapper detective and thoroughly modern woman fresh from the horrors of the European war theatre where she drove ambulances. Now she is here in Melbourne flouting convention at every turn, during the time between the wars when lives were recovering from unspoken terrors and full of hope. And her two side kicks, archetypal ex-diggers Cec and Bert are fabulously under-spoken, laconic characters. Knowing the areas of Melbourne the story is set against, I enjoy figuratively walking down the streets that Phryne treads in her pursuits of information. In this case, a late night ...

Staircase to the Moon by  Elizabeth  Haran  Once again, reading Elizabeth Haran's works, I feel like I've entered an Australian travelogue mixed in with Mary Grant Bruce's 'Billabong' series for adults. The story is interesting, the Australian 'cinderella' seamstress being dictated to by the men of her family (successful tailors) out of a misguided love, organizing her life and her marriage to their advantage. All in an unknowing misogynistic way. Emily Scott rebels and runs off from Perth to the far north of Western Australia to a cattle station out from Broome. Of course there's the wonderful women of the family, the gorgeous son, World War 1, 'drought and flooding rains.' (referencing My Country by Dorothea MacKellar). You meet all the characters that one expects from the outback. The mysterious bad tempered chinaman on the voyage up to Broome is interesting, if unlikeable. I can't help it, I keep looking for Nicole Kidman...

Murder and Mendelssohn: A Phryne Fisher Mystery #20 by Kerry Greenwood Just from Greenwood's opening line I could feel the 1929 summer Australian sunlight coming in through that St Kilda window warming me. Greenwood's highly evocative prose had me picturing Phryne 'sitting in her jasmine bower, drenched in scent.' All made even more delectable and real by the wonderful cover, the divine Phyrne in her equally divine 'green silk gown embroider in phoenixes.' I am transported back to that time and place instantly. Of course Phyne nibbles croissants and sips cafe au lait! I am smitten by these scenes before moving further! I have to pause to drink it all in. I have long been a fan of Kerry Greenwood and Phryne Fisher's marvellous exploits. She is a wonderful twenties woman. This episode does not disappoint. We have a murdered orchestra conductor on one hand and are renewing acquaintances with dear John Wilson from Phyrne's war days as an ambulance d...

BurialRites by Hannah Kent Anything set in the Northern areas close to the Arctic circle grabs my attention. I am a sucker for Scandinavian mysteries. All that bleakness and those repressed inward looking  emotions. Reading an interview with Hannah Kent piqued my  interest. Burial Rites is not so much an historical mystery as a saga. Set in 1829 Iceland, this is the fictional story behind condemned murderess Agnes Magnúsdóttir. Wow! I think I reread the prologue to Butial Rites at least four times. The poetry inherent in the  language grabs you instantly. The second sentence took my breath away with its childlike pathos. I was  hooked! Kent's turn of phrase is rather wonderful such as when the District Commissioner, Bjorne Blondal, admonishes the Assistant Reverend Thorvardur Jonsson (Toti)  that he might be ,'too pale in experience' for the task he is being given, that of spiritually counselling the murderess Agnes Magnúsdóttir. I lo...

Princess Avenger by Bernadette Rowley Alicia, a princess set on vengeance. Army Captain Vard Anton, a captain set on guarding her A kingly father, weak and indecisive A husband chosen—older, coldly lecherous and totally selfish A lover killed! An erstwhile friend besotted rejected and foresworn, unresponsive to her pain and thoughts. Thrown in prison by her father. Rescued by her Captain guard. Escaped! In love, confused beset on all sides. Bring on the next episode! A Netgalley ARC

Have been reading this series by Australian author Stephanie Lauren's.   Her forward on why she writes and advice to aspiring authors is quite interesting. This comment resonated particularly,  (On a Wicked Dawn, p.20) 'Find your voice--not anyone else's, but yours. Then tell your story, the one you've been given  to tell. That's the story you love, the story that moves you. Take the creating one step at a time,  but remember: you can only find your voice by writing your book. So write the book--and then  rewrite and rewrite, by yourself, until your voice rings clearly. Until your book sings. ' Lauren's Regency Romances are redolent with heavy breathing, sensuality, reformed rakes (masking warriors with the to have and to hold motto) and the odd bit of adventure. Enjoyable reads, not much thinking required except to keep straight who is related to whom, who married who, and where all other family and non family members fit in. Stories ar...

Harbinger This intriguing offering from Australian Peta Crake, grabbed me from start to finish. I just had to keep reading. I loved the main character, Ophelia (Phi to her friends). Feisty and energetic (I’m sure she wears blunnies on the job!), yet often emotionally weary, you feel her sadness in the face of huge odds, and you her admire for her pluckiness and integrity. The interaction of the pantheon of Greek gods, from the Furies to Pandora and more, with mortals in the modern setting of Perth, Australia is provocative. Putting Zeus and Hera as Phi’s uncle and aunt with the various gods as probable relatives is masterful. Phi is just your average Aussie girl—NOT! Her day job is messenger for the gods. At night she hangs out in a bar in Perth. But now there's a new bar owner, (demigod Adonis-Aden for short) and Phi doesn't mess with the gods. But when Aden sends her on a series of exhausting non stop deliveries things go from bad to worse and the stakes are...