Tipping Point is an engrossing read. It is third in the Detective Kate Miles series and shows us Kate’s strength as she investigates a case that implicates her brother Luke.

Luke returns to Esserton for the funeral of Ant Reed, a friend of his from his younger days. Within a few days, another of Luke’s friends is found shot dead and the questions start – of the three high school mates, two of them are dead under suspicious circumstances. Could Luke be involved with the death of his two friends? Is it a coincidence or is there something from the past connecting the three?

After the press investigates the deaths, Kate is sidelined from the case. She soon finds herself caught between wanting her brother to be not involved with the tragedies and her loyalty to the police force.

This story draws you into Kate’s world and shows the struggles of steering a life between the conflict of family and wanting to find the truth. Sometimes, it must seem as if it is impossible.

This is my first Dinuka McKenzie ‘Kate Miles’ book, and as far as Australian small town police procedural books go, this was good, even though it was bit light on the police procedural parts.

Small towns, entitled ‘boys’, women left devastated in the wake of actions that should have been dealt with differently. This storyline is becoming very familiar and, unfortunately, I lost momentum in wanting to finish the book. There were parts that I found to be distracting and I am not sure if it was the writing, or just that I am a bit tired of this storyline.

I do think the flashbacks were well used, the pace was good and the mystery and the intrigue, kept me interested for the most part, but it fell a bit flat for me towards the end.

Dinuka McKenzie delivers the goods once again in her third Detective Kate Miles crime novel.

Set a few months after the events of “Taken,” McKenzie’s latest opens amidst the oppressive heat of an Australian summer. Luke Grayling, Kate’s estranged brother, has returned home to Esserton a few weeks before Christmas to farewell Ant Reed, a childhood friend, dead by suicide.

Despite the wretched circumstances, and his combative relationship with his father, Luke is glad to have a distraction from the turmoil of his life in Sydney. Then another mate from high school is found shot dead, and Luke finds himself identified as a person of interest. Kate is sidelined from the police investigation because of her connection to Luke, but interposes herself nonetheless.

“Tipping Point” is another well-wrought procedural, expertly blended with distinct characters whose motivations are magnificently drawn, and imbued with a wonderful continuity that will delight readers who’ve followed Kate since “The Torrent.” There are few other Australian crime writers in the same league as McKenzie, whose books I’ve run out of superlatives for. She is as close to a sure-thing as you can get.

Dinuka McKenzie is ingraining her name in Australian crime drama and I can not get enough. Detective Kate Miles is fast becoming a favourite of mine and the character development is of the highest caliber throughout the series thus far. We learn more and more about Kate as her life is peppered through the pages with expertise, Dinuka certainly knows how to write a captivating story.

Tipping Point is an edge of your seat thrill ride that will have you tearing through the pages at warp speed. With a well woven story and plenty of action, allow yourself time to devour this book in one sitting. A big five stars from me!

Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for this early reading copy.

This is a book in parts, from the viewpoint of different people and at different timelines to bring it all together. But it is mostly about the present and the deaths of two high schools friends where it seems the third in the group may either be in some sort of trouble too! Luke, Ant and Marcus were best mates in high school and now Ant and Marcus are dead. Was it suicide or something a bit more sinister?

This is a book that has twist and turns aplenty and kept me on the edge of my seat. I had no idea where the story would go or end up which is great as it kept me turning the pages. There were so many overlapping stories of each of the main characters but it didn't get muddled or confusing which made it easy to read.

The story is well written and really is about the lives of the people in it and what happened in the past to make the people they are in the present. It is a very interesting read but I must say I was a bit disappointed with the ending as it seemed, for me, to fall a bit flat. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to seeing what comes next for Detective Kate Miles.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is the third book in the Detective Kate Miles series, and I am happy to report McKenzie’s writing seems to be getting stronger with each installment.

Kate is still trying to have it all -- marriage, kids and a successful career as a police detective. That last part means she becomes lead detective on a case which, initially, looked to be an open and shut case of accidental shooting. Then, just as quickly, she is taken off the case when her own brother is implicated.

I enjoyed Kate’s father’s character in the last book (Taken) and I was a little sad he only played a bit part this time. Kate’s brother, Luke, was okay, but not quite as interesting. I also think that Kate’s husband is a little bland and, maybe, needs to feature more if McKenzie is going to continue with the series. I would assume, for example, that I shouldn’t have been finding Kate’s new boss infinitely more intriguing. (Or maybe I should? Maybe McKenzie is thinking of a new series featuring this character? Sounds good.)

The mystery plot was nicely balanced - intricate enough to keep me guessing but not so convoluted that I couldn’t solve some parts. McKenzie also managed to incorporate many topical themes, focusing on sexual abuse and domestic violence.

Looking forward to more from McKenzie (whether that be more Kate or something else). 4 out of 5

Such a great series and this was no exception. Kate's brother, Luke, is central to this book, told in both present and past tense. More family dysfunctions appear and Kate is taken off a case. Look forward to the next episode in Kate's story.

Thanks NetGalley and Harper Collins Australia for the advanced electronic version of this book- available now!
I really enjoyed The Torrent and whilst I had not read Taken before dipping into Tipping Point, I will be going back to read it! There were some references to the previous books but they don’t impact the overall storyline.
Detective Kate Miles is fast becoming a favourite character for me- she’s juggling home and career, family and relationships with a sharp tongue and compassion.
This was an interesting story, with overlap between domestic relationships, mystery and police procedural. There were plenty of twists and turns and some moments I was totally surprised by.
This is aussie noir at its best and I’m keen to see what comes next!

Solid 3 stars for Dinuka McKenzies 3rd book in the Detective Kate Miles story.
This book can be read as a stand alone but I personally enjoyed it more having read her previous two books to understand the back story for Kate.
This book really develops Kate’s character and back story whilst having a good crime mystery intertwined. It’s an easy and interesting read and I enjoy the authors thoughtful descriptions.
The author has a very set formula that her books follow and whilst it works well, I’m looking forward to Kate hopefully getting the chance to be on the frontline in the middle of the action in her next book!

Detective Kate Miles is back in Tipping Point by Dinuka McKenzie, the third book in the series featuring the likeable detective balancing her job and life with her husband, two kids and various relatives who seem to come to the attention of police far more than she'd like.

Kate's a likeable protagonist. I was surprised here that her partner seemed to have suddenly disappeared as the ambitious and smooth Josh Ellis played the perfect foil to Kate's unfettered doggedness. She's got a new (temporary) boss here and there's obviously more to that story though McKenzie doesn't go into too much detail. I wondered if the backstory was on the editing room floor (or bookish equivalent) or if he'll pop up again and we'll learn more in future.

I note (in her acknowledgements) McKenzie talks about the challenges with this manuscript and it doesn't show as it's a great read (possibly my favourite of the series), starting with the death of a friend of Kate's older brother (Luke) who seems to dip in and out of Kate's life. He returns for the funeral and - unfortunately - is there when another of his old mates dies. And even more unfortunately, Luke was at the scene just before the time of death.

Muddying matters is the fact Luke was recently fired from his job. He doesn't initially tell us why, but we kinda learn the gory details. I'm not sure if I skimmed over this more than usual as I wasn't really clear on how he came to be in that predicament. And I perhaps would have preferred he be more clearly inculpable but McKenzie doesn't go down that route. It works though as it means a strung-out Kate is questioning whether her brother could have played a role in his friends' deaths. And tension comes to a head when a police officer is killed investigating a lead offered up by Luke in his defence.

Given her brother's potential involvement Kate's off the case (officially anyway), so it most certainly becomes personal. And it's interesting here that Kate seemingly becomes jaded, her own exposure to this case and the ethical dilemmas it offers perhaps being a turning point (or rather, a tipping point #seewhatIdidthere?).

I'm really enjoying this series that offers an excellent balance of action and personal-life nuance. McKenzie ends this with changes afoot so I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

Tipping Point by Dinuka McKenzie is an excellent read. A well developed story about Detective Kate Miles set in a small town in the the northern rivers area of New South Wales. The characters are interesting and their interactions bring out depth in the plot and sub-plots. An extraordinarily good Australian crime thriller that had lots of twists and turns with heart stopping moments. It also had a lot of thought provoking themes such as domestic violence, date rape, sharing intimate videos, drug addiction, depression and suicide.

While I haven’t read any of the previous two novels The Torrent and Taken in this Detective Kate Miles series, it doesn’t detract from the enjoying it as a stand alone novel. Mind you, having read this one I will certainly go to the other two as I found the location, characters and the authors writing style captivating.

Highly recommended read.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from HarperCollins Publishers Australia via
NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

#TippingPoint #NetGalley

Detective Kate Miles returns for her third outing in Dinuka McKenzies new book.
Kates brother Luke has returned home a few weeks before Christmas to farewell his friend Ant who has committed suicide. After the funeral Ants father has asked Kate to investigate Ants death as he knows there is no way he would kill himself. Kate thinks it is just a father grieving and doesn’t take it further. However soon after, Luke’s other best friend of over 20 years, Marcus, is found shot dead supposedly in an accident where he tripped while out shooting rabbits. Evidence soon shows that he was shot from more than an arms length away. As Kate starts to look into both deaths of Luke’s childhood friends, it soon looks like her brother had something to do with Marcus’s death.
With personal things going on in both the siblings lives, and Kate taken off the case because of a conflict of interest, she must try and juggle her loyalties to her brother with the loyalties to her work.
Another great read from an author who is right up there with Jane Harper and Michael Robotham.

#TippingPoint. #NetGalley

Meet again : Detective Sergeant Kate Miles

Kate's brother, Luke Grayling, was recently fired from his work at financial company in Sydney. With his "free time" from work, he's heading home to Esserton, to attend a funeral of his childhood bestfriend, Ant Reed. At the funeral, he also meets his other bestfriend, Marcus. The coroner showed that Ant committed suicide but Ant's father denied this and asked Kate to investigate further.
Just a couple of days after Ant's funeral, Marcus was found dead in the paddock as result of fire arm injury and Luke was the last person who stayed with Marcus that night.
Luke quickly becomes person of interest and this development makes DS Kate Miles removed as lead detective on this case.
So, what's Luke involvement on Marcus' case?

Another unputdownable crime fiction from Dinuka. The ending will leave us wondering if we'll meet DS Kate Miles again.

Dinuka McKenzie’s police detective Kate Miles is back for the third time in Tipping Point, and once again her family and community connections are central to the story. Miles was introduced in McKenzie’s award winning debut The Torrent and returned in Taken. This third book in the series could be the last but if nothing else it has exhausted all of McKenzie’s family issues and has put her on a potential course to a new environment if she returns.
After a brief (and reasonably irrelevant) cold open, Tipping Point starts with Kate’s brother Luke being fired from his job and escorted off the premises. Luke keeps this piece of information to himself when he returns to his home town of Esserton to attend the funeral of one of Anthony Reed, one of his two close schoolfriends. Anthony committed to suicide in Brisbane but his father thinks that there was more to it and asks Kate to call in some favours and look into the case. Not long after his return Luke is falling out with his family, getting into fights and the third member of his school group, Marcus, dies in what at first appears to be a suicide but Luke is in the frame and Kate is sidelined from the case.
While there are some point of view chapters from Luke’s perspective and some “Then” labelled back story chapters, Kate Miles is the centre of this book. Loyal to her colleagues but challenged when a new commander arrives and her old sparring partner Josh is brought back to Esserton due to her conflict. At the same time she is trying to protect Luke, mend the relationship between Luke and their father, and support her own young family. Kate once again comes across as a tenacious, compassionate, intuitive detective who slowly works her way to the solution of the case although after astute readers will have worked it out (she does get a bit distracted by other events).
Tipping Point is another strong piece of rural Australian crime fiction. McKenzie deals with a number of topical issues – revenge porn, sexual abuse, police overreach, victims compensation – but never didactically. The issues drive the actions of the characters who are, for the most part, believable and engaging in their own right. Whether Kate Miles returns or McKenzie chooses to give her a rest and deliver something else, Tipping Point demonstrates that she is firmly established on the Australian crime fiction scene.

A hot Australian thriller that was hard to pull away from as I simply just had to know how it would all play out.

Tipping Point is the third book in the Detective Kate Miles series by prize-winning Australian author, Dinuka McKenzie. While he’s not telling his family that he’s been fired from his financial consultancy position in Sydney, it does mean he can attend the funeral in the Northern Rivers town of Esserton of one of his best friends from school.

Ant Reed’s death was deemed suicide by Queensland Police, but Frank Reed is certain his son would never take his own life and, at the funeral, he implores Luke’s sister, Kate Miles, to look into it. But as a NSW Police Detective Sergeant, she has no authority in Queensland.

Luke’s family is surprised when he hangs around after Ant’s funeral, Kate less so when she has to collect him from the River Arms pub after a drunken altercation with a backpacker that leaves him with a black eye, nor by his antagonism towards their father during a family lunch.

Kate is called out of that lunch to attend the scene of a shooting: Marcus Rowntree, the other of Luke’s best friend from school, lies dead in his backyard. Suicide or misadventure? And then the complications begin to pile on: Luke was apparently the last person to see Marcus alive; Marcus is the son of renowned and influential Australian actor, Eric Harrington; the autopsy deems it murder; Luke is suddenly nowhere to be found.

Kate has a history with Esserton’s new Acting Station Chief, Leo Esposito, but he’s being impartial about her close involvement to persons of interest. Kate voluntarily takes leave, excusing herself from the investigation, perhaps a little chagrined that the source of a year’s irritation, Detective Sergeant Josh Ellis will be coming from Byron Bay to take over the case.

But her father, former Esserton CI Arthur Grayling insists she act to help her brother. Running a parallel private investigation into the murder, though, isn’t going to do her career any good. At least they can get him decent legal representation once he turns up.

Luke hasn’t shared the reason he was fired, but the issue has followed him up to the Northern Rivers, or maybe he has followed it. And there’s something from the trio of friends’ past that’s coming home to roost. Leo Esposito also has a touchy matter from his past that’s going to blow up in Esserton, in a big way.

Once again, McKenzie gives the reader a page-turner filled with topical subjects: date rape; sharing of intimate media clips; domestic violence and coercive control; depression and suicide. this is a tightly plotted tale with twists and turns to keep the reader guessing right up to the final reveal. The body count includes one particularly sad loss for Kate, and there are some tension-filled moments as further deaths are narrowly avoided.

Her characters continue to develop, and it will be interesting to see in which direction Kate goes from here. This is McKenzie’s best so far, and more from this talented Aussie author will be eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harper Collins Australia.

Brilliant, I loved it. There are some books that just can’t pull yourself away from with the need to find out what’s going to happen, and this is definitely one of those stories. Dinuka McKenzie has done a fabulous job with this Crime Thriller, especially with the main character Detective Kate Miles, and the way she goes about the investigation. There are so many great Australian thrillers being written at the moment, and this is up there as one of my favourites. Great entertainment. 5/5 Star Rating.

The 3rd book in the DS Kate Miles series, Tipping Point once again conspires to ensure Kate’s working life is anything but straight forward. This is an Australian police procedural crime novel that blazes like the sun above its northern New South Wales setting and presents a terrible reckoning for three former school friends.

Kate’s brother Luke has returned home to attend the funeral of Ant, one of his childhood friends but he’s brought with him secrets and a bad attitude. Ant’s death is ruled a suicide and that’s certainly what it looks like, but his father doesn’t believe it and approaches Kate at the wake asking her to look into it for him. Not only is it not her case, it’s not even in her state and essentially demurs.

Then Marcus Rowntree is found dead, a gunshot wound that appears to have been accidental as he was attempting to climb over a fence. But was it an accident? The last person known to have seen Marcus was Luke. The problem is, Kate went and told Luke of his former best mate’s death the next morning, a clear breach of police protocol and a clear sign that she has a conflict of interest in the case.

Not for the first time she’s removed from an active case that she’s supposed to be leading and the media scrutiny she’s always been so wary of is bound to start up again. And to top things off, the replacement being brought in to take over the case is her recent nemesis, DS Josh Ellis.

There is a use of flashback chapters that are interspersed between the present day narrative and they recount earlier events in the lives of Ant, Marcus and Luke. They serve to set the groundwork for an explanation about what’s happening to them today and they prove quite effective at giving us a good idea about their true personalities, not to mention potential motives for why two of them are dead.

At its core, Tipping Point is a police procedural drama, but apart from Kate we get very little sense of the actual police work performed by her fellow officers apart from at a very superficial level. And, for the third book in a row, Kate has been hampered in some way, this time through police protocol which has seen her being stood down. It would be nice to see her in action, running an investigation with the full support of superiors and colleagues alike.

A couple of untimely deaths, her brother somehow mixed up in it, family tensions running rife and cast aside at work. Kate is compelled to find out more, even if it’s just to assure herself that Luke is all right. But he is keeping secrets, that’s for sure.

From a bustling start that built up the promise of a great deal of intrigue, there was a distinct loss of momentum at around the two-thirds mark. This was due to a series of side issues that tended to distract from the main story rather than enhance it. I even found myself losing interest at times and nearly missed the crucial piece of information that drew everything together.

I’m looking forward to seeing what lies in store for Kate Miles and her extended family. She appears to be a highly accomplished investigator, I hope she gets more of a chance to showcase her talents.

My thanks to HarperCollins via NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC to allow me to read, enjoy and review this book.

WOW! That was intense! I think I forgot to breathe!!

Dinuka you had me on the edge of my seat and I thought I had worked it out but nope I never would have guessed this!My heart is racing! What an action packed murder mystery! Fabulous detective work.

I found myself imagining being Detective Kate Miles and having to deal with all of this 🤯 I also put myself in Luke’s shoes and that was also 🤯 I did this a lot throughout the book because it was all so full on. When I thought this couldn’t possibly get any better, I was totally wrong! It certainly ramped up and had the best ending that I’m very happy with.

An Australian crime novel at its finest! If you love crime, mystery, twists and being completely engaged, then you need to read this!