Confessions of a female PI

Reading Tiffany Bond’s racy self-published read Confessions of a Female Private Investigator could very well make you paranoid.

She does, after all, spend much of her time following cheating spouses, and her case files are bulging with accounts of unfaithful partners and their flimsy cover stories.

These stories have helped to form the basis of her memoir, the chapters of which alternate between her time working for Detection Group clients (the names of whom have been changed to protect those who have been conned and cheated), and her former days (many of them hair-raising) as a beat cop in Brisbane.

There are plenty of con men, battered wives, a housewife with a surprising second job, and a cyber stalker among the parade of targets that make this an entertaining if sobering read.

Suffice to say Tiffany, who handed in her badge to run her own private detective agency in Queensland, has led a pretty colourful life in and out of uniform.

Confessions of a Female Private Investigator by Tiffany Bond, RRP$34.95, Kiss Publications.

You can buy a copy via her website at www.kisspublications.com.au

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Anything but normal

Julie Catt’s refreshingly honest memoir ‘Normal’ is of course anything but, with a storyline more suited to a wacky soap opera.

Adopted at an early age, the Sydney psychologist and ex-pat American was a self-described wild child who revelled in the attention she attracted from the opposite sex.

After a stream on sexual shenanigans, she ‘settles’ down with Will in what appears to be married bliss and quickly has two children – but something is still amiss.

She buries herself in feminist literature and, on a whim, attends a women-only festival where she leaves her inhibitions at the gate and samples life as a bisexual.

It’s on her second outing to the same festival that Cupid strikes, and she falls in love with an Australian lesbian, which spells the end of her relationship with Will – and seemingly draws a line under her sexuality.

She swaps marriage in America for de facto disharmony in Australia, and finds living with a militant feminist is not all it’s cracked up to be when you have a young son in tow. It’s heartbreaking stuff to read of how she ships off her child to live with his father when her partner makes it clear he’s not welcome to live in what she believes should be a women-only household.

In a brief moment of domestic bliss, Julie becomes pregnant with her third child via artificial insemination - but her tortured relationship disintegrates as the birth approaches.

The reader hardly has time to catch a breath when a rebound fling six months down the track sees another baby in the making – but how and with whom? The answers are surprising, but then this book is one long surprise.

There’s more, much more, but somehow not enough in this colourful memoir about a woman who has lived her life with such passion and pizzazz. The reader is left wanting to know more about Julie’s world, one in which she seems to have re-written the rules of relationships and parenting.

Issues of family, love, sexual attraction and parenting are all explored as Julie, who admits her fair share of mistakes, seeks to discover what drove her decisions and governed her relationships with those closest to her.

The wild ride seemed to be over far too quickly, but what a ride it was – and love had quite a bit to do with it.

Normal – The true story of a complicated family by Julie Catt, Text Publishing, (RRP$34.95).

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AC/DC - the deluxe edition

As Acca Dacca fans geared up for Australia's Black Ice tour in 2010 – the first time rockers AC/DC had toured Australia in eight years – they entertained themselves reading the band’s re-released in-depth biography, AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll.

Unlike tickets to the Australian concerts - which reportedly sold out in a record three hours – the good folk at HarperCollins ensured the attractive black AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll Deluxe Edition was in plentiful supply as Christmas approached.

And there’s lots to recommend this new edition, authored by respected rock journalists Murray Engleheart and Arnaud Durieux. The book, originally released in 2006, chronicles the band’s fortunes across a lifetime of memorable songs and the overwhelming tragedy of lead singer Bon Scott’s death that could have destroyed the band.

Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young started the pioneering metal band in 1973 while brother George found fame with ‘60s poppers The Easybeats (of ‘Friday on the mind’ fame). Bon joined in 1974 and the band took off, finally achieving international success in the late 1970s just before his death.

After Bon died, as a result of a heavy drinking session in 1980, Brian Johnson stepped up as lead singer, and has remained with the band ever since. Bon still has many fans, and his grave in Western Australia is considered a mandatory destination for those on the AC/DC pilgrimage trail.

However I digress – despite all the fascinating detail in the book, it’s the pictures that keep grabbing your eye.

Little gems abound, like the photos of the band with Angry Anderson – with hair!;  Bon in bib and brace overalls when they were trendy (we’re sure they haven’t been back in circulation since); and Angus wearing a Zorro costume (he went through quite a few, even dressing as a gorilla, before eventually settling on the iconic schoolboy uniform).

And to think many of the photographs were taken 200 million albums ago. Wow!

Even if you’re not a fan of the band, there’s still plenty to keep readers occupied in this highly detailed account of AC/DC’s highs and lows, and the band’s incredible staying power.

AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll by Murray Engleheart and Arnaud Durieux (HarperCollins, RRP$49.99) is available from all good bookstores.

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Wounded Guardian's exciting debut

Redemption looms large in Duncan Lay’s debut novel The Wounded Guardian, in which an orphan and a desperate queen thwart the retirement plans of a traumatised war veteran.

Martil is a soldier who in company with his fellow Ralloran countrymen has committed a host of atrocities, including killing women and children, all in the name of war, earning the soldiers the title ‘the Butchers of Bellic’.

He leaves his country to try and forget his past, and escape his double-edged reputation, but finds the old habits of a warrior die hard.

After an attack by bandits, which he successfully fends off by killing all of his attackers, he finds himself in charge of the chief bandit’s daughter, six-year-old Karia.

It is this unlikely relationship that adds another dimension to Martil’s character, as he gradually undergoes a transformation, rediscovering his purpose and pride.

Lay’s descriptive passages will engage fantasy fans with weaponry, clothing and lodgings all described in minute detail.

And the story itself is dense with twists and turns as assassins, archbishops, greedy nobles and scheming soldiers are thrown into the mix.

When Martil discovers the famed Dragon Sword, a magical weapon that only the Queen’s champion can wield, and later rescues Queen Merren, who is being held prisoner by her cousin Duke Gello, the story really takes off.

Military buffs will appreciate the fighting tactics, and perhaps even the violent and bloody battles that move the story along.

Heroism, romance, heartache, sex, violence, death and disappointment - The Wounded Guardian has it all in spades.

But a magic sword, especially one that can drain the life of its wielder for making poor decisions, is no guarantee of victory.

And even if he succeeds, will he ever be able to lay the ghosts that haunt him?

But of course Martil’s story is bigger than one book – it’s the first of a trilogy that, once you read the first, will have you hooked as you wait to discover the fate of war-ravaged Norstalos, its Queen, her champion and his young charge, who has a secret all her own.

The Wounded Guardian (Harper Voyager, RRP$20.99).

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