Just So Stories

Random Reviews and Ramblings from Redcliffe

  • The Locked Room – Adam Cece

    Penguin Australia August 2025 Wowzers! Hold on to your hats, and make sure to get yourself sorted with snacks and drinks for this one because you are not going to want to stop reading it once you’ve started. Let’s say you take a really tricky escape room, mix it up with an ever-evolving game with…

  • Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire – Amy Doak

    Penguin Australia July 2025 Anyone who has read the first two Eleanor Jones books will know exactly how pleased I was when this one arrived. You would also know exactly why the first two titles have been so highly acclaimed. Amy Doak has a great grip on the whole YA crime/mystery genre with characters which…

  • The Haunting of Hindmarsh Hall – Kate Gordon

    Riveted Press Simon & Schuster April 2025 RRP: AU$ 16.99 / NZ$ 18.99 If you have kidlets who are mad for detectives and mystery, and particularly if they’re the ones who love an Enid Blyton ‘find-outer’ adventure, then you are going to need this one. In a small town of indeterminate location, two boys are…

  • In Plain Sight: Friday Barnes #13 – R. A. Spratt

    Penguin Australia It was quite synchronistic to get #13 Friday Barnes arriving on Friday 13th, I thought! And, needless to say, I promptly gobbled it up over two nights with much snickering and snort laughing [No R. A. Spratt is ever read without the snaughling!]. The Friday romp continues with our intrepid but ‘special’ detective,…

  • The Counterfeit Bust: Riz Chester – R.A. Stephens. Illustrated by Em Hammond.

    Rhiza Press/Wombat Books May 2023 SKU: 9781761111181 $12.99 Here’s a quick one to promote a series that only recently came my way. As always Wombat books have hit a nail squarely on the head with Riz Chester. She’s an ordinary kid, doesn’t do anything that’s remarkable, pretty average at school but she is observant. In…

  • Escape from Marigold Manor – Rachel Jackson

    For someone with a mild [understatement] addiction to cozy murder mysteries, this new Rachel Jackson Solve it Your Way was right up my alley. Not that I didn’t also enjoy the first in the series Escape from Cuttlefish Cove, but this one had the perfect setting and characters for my taste. In this new one,…

  • How to Sail to Somewhere – Ashleigh Barton

    Hachette Australia Imprint: Lothian Books March 2025 9780734423627 | RRP $16.99 My recent enjoyment of the newest Katya Balen book has been serendipitously echoed in Ashleigh Barton’s gorgeous new MG novel which has similar themes but definitely more mystery. The two books written half a world apart (weirdly) have striking likenesses, though with a different take on…

  • The Girl and the Ghost – Jacqueline Harvey

    Penguin Australia April 2025 OMG!!! JH fans, both young and old, are about to lose their minds!!! This fabulous new book, which I gobbled up in two sittings, heralds the start of another new series from the best-selling author, who really knows how to reach her audience. In this instance, the audience has just expanded…

  • Something Somewhere – Richard Yaxley

    Scholastic Australia August 2024 ISBN: 9781760266370 ISBN-10: 176026637X RRP: $18.99 Richard Yaxley is one of our outstanding local authors, acclaimed and awarded for many of his books, and this newest one is another fine example of his skill. Earlier in the year I reviewed the wonderful The Other Shadow and this book is, to my mind, of…

  • Hotel Balzaar – Kate DiCamillo. Illustrated by Júlia Sardà.

    Walker Books Australia October 2024 ISBN13:9781529523782 Australia RRP:$24.99 New Zealand RRP:$27.99 One thing is always certain. A book by Kate DiCamillo will always be captivating. After the first Norendy tale, readers knew they could look forward to more of the magic realism of this series and it has come with another glorious story about stories.…