First I must say I love Australian books. We have some great authors and I can relate to the places in the Australian books as I have been to many places within Australia.

In this book we see forensic pathologist Nicola Fox taking a break and heading to her holiday house in Brunswick Heads but what she finds is a dead sun-backer in her own backyard. This is not the holiday she expected especially when she becomes a suspect.

This book had me going from page one and with the well developed characters, the setting and the story it all made for a very interesting and mysterious read. With lots of secrets, lies and even some lighter moments and humour. I really enjoyed reading this one and look forward to seeing what comes next.

Thank you NetGalley and Echo Publishing for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

I previously read The Beacon by this author and loved it. It surpassed it. I love a book set in Australia, a crime so this one ticked all the boxes. I cared about these characters and that's important in my rating system. Highly recommend.

Following on from the Beacon, Jack, Caitlyn and Nicola are back and this time it is something close to home. A body has been found dead at no other than Nicola Fox’s holiday home in Brunswick Heads. The body has been dead for some time and has been arranged to sit on a lounge chair with a book and cocktail. The mystery doesn’t end there especially when another body turns up at the same spot. Things are not adding up.

To be transported back to sunny Byron Bay made my little heart happy, even if it is for a murder mystery. I loved this book, it had me hooked from page one and did not show any signs of letting me go. I really enjoyed having all the gang back in this book and hope to see them in more books by P.A Thomas.

This crime mystery had everything it needed to be a great read - the cast of characters on point, a well written murder mystery, some hilarious moments especially with Caitlyn bringing Jack along on her bucket list of daring excursions including skydiving.

Thank you Echo Publishing and Netgalley for gifting me a copy for my honest book review.

This ended up being a funny one for me – I was intrigued enough by the premise to give it a go as, a. I like crime fiction, and b. I’m always intrigued by novels with a journalist as one of the main characters.
I couldn’t really say that I liked this book, but at the same time, I couldn’t claim to vehemently dislike it either. I think the best adjective to describe it would be ‘inoffensive’, except to anyone who (like me) once worked in a local newspaper and takes umbrage to the depiction of the profession.
‘The Sunbaker’ jumps around between the minds of four characters (plus an extra one that I won’t spoil, but which kind of gave the game away a little). Nicola Fox is the pathologist whose holiday home becomes a dumping ground for a dead body; Jack Harris is a local journalist and acquaintance who she turns to for support; Caitlin O’Shaughnessy is a local lawyer and is agonising over her relationship with Jack; and Begley, the local, cantankerous cop who isn’t one for any of the protocol, standard or otherwise.
There’s enough going on here to keep me reading, even though the mystery falls apart a little in the second half of the book. There aren’t enough red herrings dotted through to provoke doubt, and the obvious culprits are way too easy and obvious.
The antagonists felt very much like caricatures, with a police communications officer who wouldn’t get a job running a church newsletter.
Of the main characters, I liked Caitlin best of all – it felt like she went on more of a journey as a character. The others were a little one-dimensional for my liking and many of the scenes between Jack and Begley or Jack and Ricky read like a pair of teenagers trying to out-banter each other.
The main issue was that it didn’t feel like there was any jeopardy for any of the characters – they were all spectators, even Nicola whose house was the crime scene(!) and it never felt like any one of the main characters was in any kind of immediate peril.
My last, and biggest gripe, was around the depiction of the journalistic profession. I’m not sure how the newspaper goes out when it has one journalist who writes one story every few days… Add to that that a breaking news story should not include the journalist’s suppositions, and I was already in the ‘hard to win over’ category.
As I said, there was enough in this to keep me reading to the end, and I did like the setting and some of the secondary characters, particularly Marylin/Brenda and Moira, but it all felt a bit too easy for (most of) the characters in the end.
2.5 stars rounded up.

My thank to Echo Publishing for the eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Australian author PA Thomas came onto the crime scene with his enjoyable debut The Beacon. This was Australian rural crime fiction set in a glitzy coastal town of Byron Bay with a suspend your disbelief murder and plenty of verve. The Beacon introduced journalist Jack Harris, son of a major media dynasty, and Caitlin O’Shaughnessy, daughter of the editor of the local newspaper whose murder they investigate but also Jack’s best friend Ricky, member of an organised crime family.
The Sunbaker brings the trio back together to solve yet another bizarre series of murders. When The Sunbaker opens pathologist Nicola Fox returns to her holiday house in Brunswick Heads to find a dead man on one of sunloungers complete with cocktail and a book in Russian on his chest. She turns to Jack Harris, one of the only people she knows in the area but also turning to Harris is local cop Begley who wants to solve the case before the organised crime squad that has been dispatched from Sydney to investigate. They are on the scene because the victim (and Caitlin’s boss) is a barrister who worked for a notorious bikie gang. Soon Ricky is also on the scene and Jack and Ricky get up to their old tricks of breaking and entering, hacking and generally annoying the police but also getting closer to the truth.
Jack is once again a little bit too perfect and too suave. Caitlin is relegated to the sidelines a bit, her arc is very much centred around her possible inheritance of Huntington’s disease from her mother and its impact on her relationship with Jack. And Ricky might be a computer prodigy but even he produces a number of deux ex machina moments (including his ability to bug the police station and call in favours from his criminal ‘uncle’).
But none of that matters too much. Like The Beacon before it, The Sunbaker is a breezy, winking engaging piece of Australian crime fiction. While it is somewhat based on real issues and events (including the Victorian police use of a mob lawyer as an informant), it is also light and more than a little bit unbelievable. The trick is not to take any of it too seriously. Just sit back and have a good time.

The second in the series, THE SUNBAKER is another one of those novels that could be read as a standalone, but add THE BEACON (https://www.austcrimefiction.org/review/the-beacon-pa-thomas) to your reading list anyway. For those that haven't yet had the pleasure, Jack Harris, disgraced son of a "major" media baron, was sidelined to the stable's least important paper - The Beacon - located in Byron Bay which turned into a happy career and personal move in the first novel. Caitlin is the lawyer daughter of the longtime, much admired editor of the paper, who met a very grisly end in that story, and she and Jack teamed up to solve that case, forming a firm friendship with a sprinkling of romantic attachment.

Fast forward to this second novel and Jack's ensconced as a journo in Byron Bay, and Caitlin's moved from her high-powered Sydney based job to work as a legal assistant to a local barrister. A high flyer in his own right, this barrister has some very dodgy clients, not that Caitlin has come across any of them. Fast forward a bit more, and local pathologist Nicola Fox heads out from Byron to her holiday home in Brunswick Heads only to discover a staged corpse lounging in a deck chair by her pool which, conveniently, points the finger of initial suspicion directly at her, but why are the organised crime squad suddenly in the picture?

There's a quote on the novel cover from William McInnes

'P.A. Thomas has a clinician's mind, a photographer's eye and the gift of great storytelling. A wonderful book'.

Given that the author has trained as a nuclear medicine specialist he does bring that clinician's mind to these novels. It's evident in the romantic frisson between the two main characters - Jack and Caitlin, prompted by medical complications. Making the romantic tension less will they / won't they and more can they? Then there's the prologue that comes with the sort of black humour that will undoubtedly ring bells with medical and ancillary support staff. Given that this is, though, the story of a series of bizarrely staged deaths, medical and forensic viewpoints are a big part of the picture, as is location and the people that keep popping up in unexpected places. This reviewer chooses to put the lock picking, housebreaking and hacking undertaken by Jack and his lifelong best friend Ricky down to that storytelling gift though.

The photographer's eye comes out in the sense of place, and the observational details scattered throughout the book. Whilst the main location for "The Beacon" newspaper and the cast of characters is Byron Bay, the crime all seems to be happening in Brunswick Heads. This gives the author a chance to draw a picture of tourist town Byron versus quiet, locals mostly, Bruns. There's a sense that crime would never happen in Bruns, and when it does, the laid back nature of the place reveals itself in the slightly haphazard observations of goings on. It also gives Thomas a chance to introduce a supporting cast of a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, way too many bands playing Simon and Garfunkel covers, and a persistent bin chicken.

Mind you, there's also the imposed humour of Caitlin's wish-list of daring doings, way too many of which require a head for heights, which Jack most definitely does not have. And then there's the distinct possibility that Jack's developing a thing for pathologist and prime suspect Nicola, which is pushing more than one or two of Caitlin's buttons.

It sounds like a lot but Thomas most definitely has a gift for storytelling. It's rollicking, fast paced, serving up of twists and turns, delivering a roller coaster of a reading ride with no sign of second novel jitters. The characterisations are great, the romantic tension believable and not at all offputting, and it's peppered with sly humour and clever hook lines. THE SUNBAKER bodes well for the life of an ongoing, long-running series.

i loved this book from the blurb and then onwards. right until the end i was completely immersed in this world. it was clever it was whip smart plotting and so were the characters.
i certainly was thinking all the way through that i wanted to hear more from Jack. id like a Jack in my life please, or if i defintely needed help!
and also Nicola who is hard to read at first and bit harder to know but that almost made me care for her more and was more indered to her when she did left people in her was there for others.
this book was just so strong in all aspects. i shut the book and felt like when youve had a brilliant meal, just really blooming satisfied and pleased with yourself!
the setting also had a soft spot for me too. and i could really picture the places that held my heart with deep familiarity.
this book was so much more than a crime novel for me.
this book is top notch.

THE SUNBAKER is funny, clever and a great crime novel!

I loved P.A. THOMAS' protagonist - Jack Harris - who is intelligent, suave and vulnerable in equal measures.

Jack, a nominal journalist living a dream existence in Byron Bay, is adept at working with his quirky friends - the genius criminal Ricky and daredevil lawyer Caitlin - to piece together bits of information and solve a couple of murders that involve decomposing dead bodies showing up on sun lounges with a cocktail.

While not cosy crime, P.A. THOMAS' humourous style and fun characters bring a levity to an otherwise gritty and dark story.

I read this in one sitting! It was a very engaging read with lots of twists. Nicola and Jack were well written characters.

I just finished an entertaining read. The Sunbaker by PA Thomas kept me turning the pages until the very last one.