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Book reviews June 2005

Call Me Elizabeth, Wife, Mother, Escort – A True Story

by Dawn Annandale (Time Warner $29.95)

When Dawn Annandale’s marriage falls apart she is confronted with a pile of debts and a burning desire for her children to stay at their posh schools. Needing to make a lot of money very quickly, she decides to become an escort. This book chronicles Dawn’s double life as a middle-class mother and professional by day, call girl by night. A frank and compelling story with graphic sexual scenes – not for the faint-hearted.

The Harmony Silk Factory

by Tash Aw (HarperCollins $29.95)

The life of Johnny Lim, a controversial figure in 1940s Malaysia is dissected by three people, his son Jasper, his beautiful wife, Snow and typically English expatriate, Peter. According to who you believe, Lim was everything from a dangerously successful black marketeer to a communist leader and a staunchly loyal friend. Tautly written and interesting.

Death By Water

by Kerry Greenwood (Allen & Unwin $19.95)

In Greenwood’s fifteenth instalment of the classic Phryne Fisher whodunit series, the classy, rich, charismatic – and always stylish – investigator goes after a jewel thief who has targeted the well-to-do passengers on a cruise liner. Heaps of interesting passengers and crew, deadly doings and an entertaining denouement, makes for a fun journey at sea and an entertaining, deck-chair read.

Darkhouse

by Alex Barclay (HarperCollins $29.95)

A new and exciting voice in thriller writing, outstanding for its terrific pace and build-up of suspense. This riveting page-turner begins after New York detective Joe Lucchesi shoots the perpetrator of a dreadful kidnapping case and takes a year off in Ireland with his wife Anna and son Shaun. When Shaun’s girlfriend disappears, local police suspect Joe who decides to undertake his own investigation. The end is surprising – and unsettling. Encore!

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