The latest gathering of The Book Circle was held on Wednesday 9 September and a variety of books were shared. Last One Out - Jane Harper This gripping thriller is set in a decaying Australian town, still grieving over the unexplained disappearance of a local boy some years before. The author makes good use of the rural landscape, giving a strong sense of isolation and despair. A sinister coalmine looms as a ‘dark stain’ over the town, adding to the melancholy atmosphere. There is a slow build of tension throughout, and at last, a resolution. Recommended. The DI Wilkins Mysteries - Simon Mason This police procedural series features two mismatched detective inspectors, both named Wilkins. Ray is the son of an affluent Nigerian-English family, impeccably groomed, and an Oxford graduate. Ryan grew up in a trailer park, with an abusive and violent father, and has an abiding dislike of privileged elites. You would think they wouldn’t get on, and for months, they don’t. In their first case, A Killing in November, Ryan is sent to interview the distinguished Provost of an Oxford college. The heated interview ends with Ryan calling him ‘Peter Pervert’. The Provost is quick to complain to his friend, the chief constable, and fireworks ensue for Ryan. He manages to save his career by his gift for intuitive detective work, and solves the crime singlehandedly. Under Ryan’s influence, Ray finds himself engaging in unconventional crime solving, and is soon quite glad that Ryan has an illegal Glock in his glovebox. I am now listening to the fifth book in the series, The Dangerous Stranger, where Ryan meets and falls for a glamorous female DI from Paris. There are six books in the series, and it is best to read them in order, because there are developments in their personal lives and a growth in understanding between the two detectives. Look out for the series at Wangaratta Library. Gravity Let Me Go -Trent Dalton This book was crowned QBD’s Fiction Book of the Year 2025. Trent Dalton’s first book Boy Swallows Universe (2018) was voted ABC No1 book of the first 100 in 2025. Last year was a big one for the author. Gravity Let Me Go, follows Noah Cork, a freelance crime reporter in Brisbane who finds a murder clue in his letterbox. The clue leads to a massive true-crime book deal. The book and the victim become Noah’s obsession. Noah says he has to chase the truth but also says he needs the money. His obsession with the story causes him to neglect and alienate his family, including his wife. It also causes him to be targeted by the victim’s family, the murderer and the police and other reporters. It is gritty, fast-paced, surreal and mystical at times, and a dark Australian crime caper mixed with a deep look at marriage and ambition. I found this book hard to read at times and a bit all over the place. However, I loved the characters, I loved the plot and there was never any chance I would not finish reading it. Noah Cork is such a flawed character and this makes him most believable. He makes you laugh, he makes you cry and makes you feel alive. Noah is just so human. The Limestone Road - Nicole Alexander From the deserts of Egypt to the rolling hills of South Australia, The Limestone Road is a captivating novel about one soldier's courageous journey home. In the summer of 1944 soldiers Canning Christie and his father Michael arrive in South Australia from the desert sands of North Africa. Canning carries the trauma of war and a fractured memory of a terrible event, while charismatic Michael resumes his womanising ways, intent on concealing his own secret wound. Inexplicably drawn to a vineyard on their land, Canning dreams of producing his own wine. A chance meeting with Grace Huntley, the daughter of the local landowner, offers him hope for that future. But dormant memories keep rising up: his childhood with his mother, the years traversing the interior with his father and his time at the front. Soon, viticulture becomes an obsession, one he suspects lies in a hazy recollection of a night in battle. To move forward Canning must reconcile the past, even if that means working with Italian POWs and accepting help from an immigrant German. And ultimately taking a stand against his own father, whose increasingly reckless behaviour is threatening to destroy their new life. I Love the Whole World - Victoria Hannan Hannan is a Melbourne writer, and this is her third novel, an enjoyable mix of humour and pathos. The story is set in the year 2000. Leslie’s husband Dennis, a physiotherapist, has ditched her for a younger woman with better posture. After the divorce, Leslie realises how small her life has become married to Dennis. Before their marriage she was a history graduate, about to start on her Masters degree. As a distraction from her regrets, she starts entering newspaper competitions, and to her amazement, wins an all-expenses-paid holiday for two, to Las Vegas. She and her friend Jenny decide to go, then Jenny falls ill, and Leslie finds the courage to go on her own. Arriving in Las Vegas, she is amazed to see slot machines lining the airport exit, with new arrivals already feeding them money. Then to the elaborate Egyptian-themed Luxor Hotel, a trip to the Grand Canyon and the Hoover Dam. After re-uniting with an Australian friend and his lovely American wife, at last she feels her self-confidence returning. She borrows a car and drives off on her own to explore Utah, Cleveland and Texas. Leslie is a woman re-born.
