Cleeves, Ann (2025) The Killing Stones. Macmillan.
Shetland‘s Detective Jimmy Perez returns, now posted to Orkney with his life partner and boss Willow. When Jimmy’s best friend Archie is killed by a blow to the head with a Neolithic stone this investigation becomes personal. As he and Willow scan the archipelago for clues two other murders with a similar MO occur. Slow burn mystery with plenty of local colour. Tourism guide to Orkney and its ancient past.
Rating: 3/5
Moore, Liz (2024) The God of the Woods. The Borough Press.
Fourteen years after the Van Laar’s nine year old son, Bear, disappears in mysterious circumstances their teenage daughter, Barbara, also goes missing in the same Adirondack mountain wilderness. The wealthy Van Laar family own an estate, which includes Camp Emerson, on the edge of the wilderness. Barbara is Bear’s younger sister, born after his disappearance, as a replacement child. When Barbara disappears she is on her first camp stay. In this tale, told on two timelines – 1961 and 1975, there are two mysteries to be solved with lots of scenarios and suspects. Are the disappearances connected? A multilayered and well developed plot that blends family drama with police procedural. Intense literary mystery. Riveting.
Rating: 5/5
Harper, Jane (2025) Last One Out. Macmillan.
Ro returns to the dying NSW town of Carralon Ridge for the annual memorial of her son Sam’s disappearance. Five years ago Sam had gone missing on the evening of his twenty-first birthday. Ro, her estranged husband and daughter have all been haunted by his disappearance and are still seeking answers. Meanwhile the remaining residents of Carralon Ridge continue to struggle with the encroachment the neighbouring coal mining operation, the dissolution of their past and fear for their futures. Can the truth still be found in the town? Harper once again makes the environment central to her tale, you can feel the coal dust. Grief colours every page. Well written but don’t expect too much.
Rating: 4/5
Spears, Dean and Michael Geruso (2025) After the Spike: The Risks of Global Depopulation and the Case for People. Bodley Head.
Birth rates are falling globally. The world’s population will peak in the next couple of decades, then rapidly decline. What happens next? Is it better for the planet if we have more or less people? Spears and Geruso explore the two futures making a case for and against people, from our imperfect world to sustaining progress. This book blends research with philosophical argument to offer a thought provoking look at how incoming demographic change will impact the future of our species.
Rating: 4/5
O’Sullivan, Suzanne (2025) The Age of Diagnosis: Sickness, Health and Why Medicine Has Gone Too Far. Hodder Press.
Neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan seeks to reframe commonly held assumptions about receiving a diagnosis to a medical condition. She examines a number of pathologies challenging is any diagnosis better than no diagnosis, and is preemptive testing the surest way to longterm health? She draws on the experiences of real people asking if the phenomenon of diagnosis creep does more harm than good. New diagnostic concepts for borderline or uncertain medical conditions are being pathologised and subsumed into a category creating labelling, anxiety and narrowing aspirations. Are diagnoses attributing more to sickness? O’Sullivan advocates a return to ‘slow medicine’ and generalist doctors to allow the holistic evaluation of patient’s needs. Hyperspecialised silos are making it difficult to offer alternative explanations for a patient’s symptoms. Going forward there is a need to dispel the belief that that technical medicine is superior to clinical medicine. Scholarly and very human.
Rating: 5/5
Pullman, Philip (2025) The Rose Field: The Book of Dust, Volume Three. Penguin Random House.
In this final book in Lyra’s ‘never-ending’ story we find Lyra, sans her daemon Pantalaimon, racing east along the ancient Silk Road still seeking answers on the meaning of Dust. Her friend Malcolm Polstead and Pantalaimon are on their own quests. Tracked by powerful enemies from Magisterium they must seek help from a coterie of dangerous creatures along the way. Whilst I was enthralled by Pullman’s His Dark Materials saga I have been less engaged with the Book of Dust trilogy. From the complex theocracy, and consciousness of Dust, to the parallel worlds this series has required dedication and fortitude (Volume 3 runs to 622 pages). For fans.
Rating: 3/5
Brooks, Geraldine (2025) Memorial Days. Hachette Australia.
A memoir about sudden loss and a journey through grief. When Tony Horwitz, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, and husband of author Geraldine Brooks, suddenly drops dead on the US’s Memorial Day holiday Brooks finds she must process her own loss alongside loved ones and his broader community, in a cultural setting. Horwitz was Jewish, and Brooks converted to Judaism before they married. Amidst the post-death busyness of tasks and ritual Brooks recognises that she must take time for her own grief. On remote Flinders Island, off the coast of Tasmania, Brooks starts her mourning and finds solace: enjoying the wild natural landscape and wildlife. Deeply personal.
Rating: 4/5
7:30 Bookclub 