I had this on my kindle for quite a time before reading it. After the first couple of pages I almost stopped as I thought it was going to be too flippant and not my kind of story. I kept going and I'm so glad I did. I thoroughly enjoyed this unusual crime story. I loved the characters, even the baddie until I found out he was the killer. Will read more from this author. ( )

What a shocking, stunning debut from a writer of extraordinary talent. Finn Bell is an author I want to be reading for a long time. I read The Killing Ground (originally titled Dead Lemons) because I just happened upon a blog post written by Finn Bell. I knew if he wrote so well that I couldn’t put down a blog post I would love any novel he wrote. And I was right. The intro, the end notes, and everything in between is elegant prose yet down to earth, gritty and totally mesmerizing.

It’s hard to categorize The Killing Ground and put it into a specific genre. I’ve seen it described as a blend of hard-boiled noir and rural gothic. It’s a crime thriller with organized crime and an amateur sleuth in a unique remote wilderness setting. The environment was so different than anything I have lived in or read about, but the descriptions were so vivid and complete that after a couple of chapters I felt right at home in the setting.

The pacing is perfect and the words flow, making this book almost impossible to put down. Humor turns to danger and the suspense is non-stop. The characters are complex and well-developed. Not really people I want to know, but definitely people I want to know more about.

I hate spoilers and don’t want to take away from the reading experience by giving away plot points, but The Killing Ground is one of the best books I have read in a long time and I highly recommend it. Thanks to the author for providing a copy for my honest review. ( )

This book was beyond creepy and sometimes scary. Yes, I am talking about Finn's cats. That was just horrible. I also think Finn has nine lives because of the amount of times he almost died in the book. Honestly, I'm not sure how he is even alive.

Finn is an alcoholic who ends up in a wheelchair after an accident. He divorces his wife, sells his company and ends up moving to the far south in New Zealand. The cottage Finn moves into also happens to be where a young and her father went missing years before. The father was never found, and the pubic bone was the only part of the young girl that was discovered. Finn starts asking questions and starts to play detective to try to find out what really happened all those years ago. Finn's life starts changing for the better with the help of Betty, his therapist, Murderball, friends and Patricia, a possible love interest. Finn's convinced his creepy neighbors, the Zoyls, are out to get him.

The book goes back and forth between present with Finn fighting for his life while dangling off a cliff and the past when he first moved to Smugglers Cottage. I felt like I got a mini history lesson about New Zealand while reading the book and enjoyed it. I had my suspicions on who was behind Alice's disappearance but I never completely guessed. I liked the story line, characters and writing style. I look forward to reading more by the author and definetely recommend the book.

Thanks to NetGalley, BooksGoSocial and the author, Finn Bell, for a free electronic ARC of this novel. ( )

When reviewing Best Crime entrant PANCAKE MONEY, the second book from Finn Bell in the 2017 Ngaio Marsh Awards, I wasn't aware that DEAD LEMONS had won Best First Novel. Not even slightly surprised to be honest. These are both very good books.

As mentioned then, these novels are grouped together as "The Far South Series" the grouping coming from location rather than any connection between characters and storylines so whilst you absolutely should read them both, you can do that in any order you like.

The central character named Finn (I'm going to assume not completely autobiographical...) is a complicated man, trying to rebuild a complicated life. In a wheelchair after a bad accident, he's got some seriously big demons from his past and his present to deal with. The past disappearance of a young girl and her father seem like a bit of distraction therapy, as he moves into an abandoned house, starts to explore the local community, and come to grips with some big mistakes made. Helping him come to terms with the drunken car accident that put him in the chair, the subsequent break up of his marriage and most of his friendships, is local therapist Betty, the professional help he obviously desperately needs. Helping him with more local issues is hairdresser Patricia who guides him in getting to know the personalities and history of the town, but would he listen when everybody warned him to stay the hell away from the weird neighbours down the road? There's much in the broken, repentant character of now that reflects the bull-headed, determined character of the past. So stick his nose in he does, and the expected personal jeopardy he deals with is complicated by his confinement to a wheelchair in some rather unexpected ways.

Part of the strength of DEAD LEMONS is the restrained, dry sense of gallows humour. Even when Finn is at his most extreme jeopardy it's hard not to laugh at some of the predicaments he's gotten himself into, and the slightly bizarre ways he rescues himself, or at the very least protects himself, until help arrives. That's not to say that it's all humour, with some confronting aspects woven into this story, including as is required by convention, a warning about some animal cruelty that's short, sharp and brutal. As is some of the treatment dished out to Finn, as he discovers more about a place that he seems to have become reluctantly attached to along the way.

The plot here is believable, complex without being complicated, fitting nicely into a small town, surrounded by a rural area, populated by people who know everyone, have secrets, and are darn good at keeping them to themselves. You will have to accept the odd bump and jolt along the way with some motivations for events not being as seamless as it could be, but as a stranger in a strange place, Finn works as a catalyst for discovering the truth, partly because he doesn't want to let sleeping dogs lie, and partly because he seems like a character who will do anything to avoid confronting his own problems.

As the blurb puts it "Now he must choose between exoneration and condemnation, justice and vengeance." Readers are all too often left wondering which one he gets to choose, and which one he deserves.

https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/review-dead-lemons-finn-bell ( )

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