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Book review – The Second Wife, by Ali Lowe

April 10, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Second Wife

Author: Ali Lowe

Publisher: Hachette Australia, 2026; RRP: $34.99

Review: Marian Chivers, Ballarat Writers Inc. book review group

The author

Ali Lowe is the author of six novels, including the breakout The Trivia Night, The Private Island, The Running Club, and The School Run, which was a WHSmith Book of the Month. A journalist by profession, she was Features Editor at OK! in London and has written for bridal magazines, parenting titles, websites and newspapers.  She has dual Australian and British citizenship and lives on Sydney’s northern beaches with her husband and three children.

The blurb

The Titan Pacifica is a luxury cruise liner on an eight-day voyage from Sydney to the idyllic, coconut-palm shores of the South Pacific. On the exclusive Deck Nine, Irving Fairchild, CEO of billion-dollar logistics business Fairchild & Sons, celebrates his 70th birthday. His family is invited and he is footing the bill. Irving is about to make the big announcement about his successor and everyone has a vested interest in who will be the chosen one.

But the news is unexpected. Six set sail on the luxurious cruise but not all of the group will make it back to Sydney.

The book

The Second Wife has an interesting structure: it is divided into ten parts (nine days of the cruise with the location and a section titled Afterwards). Within each section there are chapters following three main characters: Gen (the second wife), Celia (the daughter-in-law), and Molly (the concierge with a secret or two). There are also transcripts from a hit podcast The Deadliest Cruise of All Time featuring various members of the crew. In the Afterwards section there are also excerpts from the biography of Storm, a dancer who is roommates with Molly and who also has secrets.

If descriptions of Cartier watches, Hermes scarves, Louboutin shoes and so on is your catnip you’ll enjoy this book. It gives some interesting insights into how a cruise ship functions and the way murder can be handled at sea. Both the morgue and the jail on board get utilised on this particular cruise.   

There are enough plot twists and surprises to keep you reading; trying to work out who’ s next and who really did it. Just how many killers are there? Some members of the family are so obnoxious that it’s a shame their wealth couldn’t buy them a better personality, and the reader almost feels like they deserve to be offed.

There was a point where I became confused as to who’s story was being told: Molly’s or Storm’s. I managed to figure out a few of the clues but was still kept guessing. The mysteries drive the narrative as I found few of the characters likeable or able to be taken at face value. 

The publisher recommends The Second Wife for fans of Big Little Lies and White Lotus and it definitely fits the brief. There are even some sneaky references to similar books within the novel. If you like twisty and suspenseful with a touch of luxe, this novel is for you.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

Book review — The Underhistory, by Kaaron Warren

August 31, 2024 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Underhistory

Author: Kaaron Warren

Publisher: Viper/Profile Books, 2024; RRP: $32.99

For the twenty or so years I’ve been kicking around in the Australian speculative fiction scene, Kaaron Warren has been been at the forefront with her long and short fiction, earning accolades here and abroad for her skilful exploration of the dark side of human experience – supernatural or otherwise. She also has a knack for taking everyday objects and surroundings and finding a cracking story. For example, two years ago she won the AsylumFest ghost short story competition with a story inspired by an inscription in a  book salvaged at a thrift store.

The Underhistory was, according to the author’s notes in the book, spawned in a collection of post cards similarly rescued and provided by a friend.

The result is an utterly compelling crime story taking place in a notionally haunted house.

Our protagonist is Pera, who has rebuilt her family home following its tragic destruction when she was nine. Killed in the incident were her immediate family, the visiting prime minister and others besides. Pera was the sole survivor, the tragedy following her through her life since. The isolated rural mansion has many rooms, and this is one of the highlights of the novel: Pera conducts ghost tours, the prefect way to reveal not only the eclectic rooms of the home and its grounds to the reader, but a guided tour to key moments in Pera’s life.

An interview with Kaaron Warren

@ the horror writers association

On the occasion of the story, the 60-odd-year-old host is showing a small group through the house when  a carload of interlopers arrives. Tension ramps up as Pera quickly divines their background, their reason for being there, and the threat they pose to her guests, herself and her home. As the lone  survivor, she does not take such threats lying down, and her psychological battle with the intruders is a masterpiece of characterisation.

The propensity for violence of the interlopers is writ large for the reader in italic sections that I am still of two minds about, as they perhaps undermine the claustrophobic tension of the story – Pera’s reaction to them, and the deft characterisation, convey the sense of compounding threat. And yet, it is the mention of these men early that sets the scene for the reader and provides an undercurrent of tension ahead of the inevitable meeting and resultant game of cat and mouse,. What is more effective: the known violence, or the inferred? A question for book clubs everywhere, perhaps. One thing is certain: Pera, long acquainted with death, is no mouse.

The mansion, with its multiple floors, secret compartments, and basement of mysteries (the Underhistory of the title), is slightly reminiscent of the Winchester Mystery House in the US, while the interlopers bring to mind the emotionally stunted specimens of the Australian movie The Boys, one of the most harrowing dramas I’ve come across.

This is a cleverly composed story, a hostage drama in a can with the house itself part of the narrative structure in both present and past. Combined with Warren’s knack for description and characterisation, it’s a fabulous read. Given The Underhistory has been published by houses with heft, it can only be hoped that the novel may introduce Warren to a deservedly broader audience.

Reviewed by: Jason Nahrung

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Book review – The Housekeepers, by Alex Hay

September 1, 2023 / / 0 Comments

Title: The Housekeepers

Author: Alex Hay

Publisher: Headline/Hachette, 2023; RRP: $32.99

Alex Hay has been writing as long as he can remember.  He studied History at the University of York, and wrote his dissertation on female power at royal courts, combing the archives for every scrap of drama and skulduggery he could find, and this knowledge is evident in this, his debut novel, that won the Caledonia Novel Award 2022.

Mayfair, 1906, a Park Lane mansion and a recently dismissed housekeeper combine for an audacious heist orchestrated by a talented and criminally connected group of women.  Never underestimate those below stairs. 

A combination of Ocean’s Eleven and Upstairs, Downstairs, this is an engaging novel with a well-developed plot and characters.  The heist is not just a matter of monetary gain or simple revenge for some of the characters.  As dark and long-held secrets emerge, the stakes become higher and higher. 

Alex Hay talks about The Housekeepers

@ the bookstorm podcast

The plan is to strip the mansion of all its goods on the night the former employer holds the ball of the season.  Seven women; two former housekeepers, a seamstress, a black-market queen, an actress and the amazing duo of Jane 1 & 2 all have skills to offer, scores to settle and everything to gain. 

Well written, well researched and set against a background of new technology, social change, suffragettes, and political conflict.  A fun read with depth and insights into the glamorous world of the newly and the established rich and those who serve them. 

Reviewed by: Marian Chivers, August, 2023

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

Review copy provided by the publisher

  • Maria Chivers has a lifelong interest in reading and writing with her work and study involving books from children’s literature to post-graduate studies.

Book review — One Punch, by Barry Dickins

November 20, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Title: One Punch: The tragic toll of random acts of violence

Author: Barry Dickins

Publisher: Hardie Grant, 2020

The author

Barry Dickins is a well-known Australian author, journalist, playwright, actor, artist and educator. He is the author of numerous books – fiction, memoirs, non-fiction, collections of essays – and plays.

In 1995 he was awarded the Louis Esson Prize for Drama for his stage play Remember Ronald Ryan, and the Amnesty Prize for Peace through Art.

The book

Barry Dickins writes of the random acts of violence perpetrated upon individuals, and looks at the gratuitous violence witnessed daily within our society. He researches ‘one punch’ deaths – whereby one punch to a victim results in their death. He describes the history of the events, the perpetrators, the court cases and the verdicts, and interviews the families of the victims.

In Barry’s search for information and understanding, he speaks with witnesses, medical staff who attend the victims of violence, school teachers, a former judge and a priest.  

Unable to interview the offenders, he wonders at their remorse.

Research update: 127 Australians killed by coward punches since 2000

JENNIFER SCHUMANN, VIFM/MONASH UNIVERSITY,2019

The author describes, in down-to-earth prose, the many acts of violence seen within society, including unprovoked attacks perpetrated on vulnerable people and property, and aggressive acts by motorists.

Throughout the book, Barry looks back on a safe and loving childhood and ponders the differences between those earlier years and now.

Violence touches Barry’s life when a family member, out walking with friends, is brutally attacked by a group of young men.  This leaves Barry with a ‘revolving disbelief’ that anyone would want to do harm to an innocent person.

Stop the Coward Punch

DANNY GREEN’S FIGHT AGAINST ONE-PUNCH ATTACKS

Reading this book was like sitting down with a long-time friend and listening as he tells his story in a gentle and caring way.  Barry writes of the violence and trauma in such a manner the reader is not traumatised by the reading. Instead we come to an understanding of the complexity of this subject.

Barry does not offer a solution, nor does he try to solve the question of why these things are happening – for who can?  But he has opened our eyes to it.

One Punch is a book that needs to be read.

Reviewed by: Linda Young

Ballarat Writers Inc. Book Review Group

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