JAI BAIDELL

Genre: Crime Published: 2017 Series: Stella Hardy Read: December 2017 This is the second Stella Hardy story, and I loved it. Even the tag line is great — The road to hell has to start somewhere. Who wouldn't want to read on? Stella is a social worker in western Melbourne, a working class area with many immigrants undergoing significant social change. Her friend, Phuong, a police officer, needs help clearing her boyfriend of a corruption charge. Stella’s brother is in town, her own boyfriend is avoiding her, and some of her clients want her help. Things go downhill from there. Some great language. How about this?  “Phuong seized my hand with the force of a handcuff.”  Or this, “My heart hurdled the top rib.”  Or this,  “Up close, I saw that some hard years dragged at her cheeks.” J.M. Green is a great author and this is a wonderful book. Highly recommended.

Genre: Crime Published: 2015 Series: Stella Hardy Read: December 2017 First in a series featuring Stella Hardy, a western Melbourne social worker who helps immigrant families. Stella is drawn into a frightening world of drug dealers and murder. Stella also has a new boyfriend with a drug problem and a missing neighbour to find, as well as irritating colleagues and bureaucracy at work. And nagging at her throughout is the fear that something she did in the past has come back to haunt her. I loved this book. It has great characters, a wonderful sense of place, and an exciting and convincing story of modern Australia. I love Stella, a person trying to do good but struggling with only average ethical standards which get her into trouble. There's a  little bit of Stella in most of us, I think. The story is set in Western Melbourne, a relatively economically deprived area with many immigrants. Recent political point-scoring in Australia has seen statements t