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Simon Collinson

Simon Collinson
Simon Collinson is a reviewer, bookseller, and editor. He was a Young Writing Ambassador for the SA Writers’ Centre and a 2013 editor of the Flinders University student magazine Empire Times. He lives in Adelaide, where he founded the city’s first Finnegans Wake reading group.

Simon Collinson reviews 'How I Became the Mr Big of People Smuggling' by Martin Chambers

June–July 2014, no. 362 01 June 2014
How I Became the Mr Big of People Smuggling is sold as a crime novel, but this is a crude categorisation for an unusual book. Mr Big is more like a fictional memoir; the story of Nick Smart, a high-school graduate who signs up to work as a jackaroo at the remote Palmenter Station, but quickly discovers that it is a front for a people-smuggling outfit. He then kills the station’s murderous namesa ... (read more)

Simon Collinson reviews 'Prisoner X' by Rafael Epstein

June–July 2014, no. 362 27 May 2014
Reports about the Mossad often have the unfortunate trait of reading like a John le Carré novel. We hear of spies assuming false identities and injecting poison into the ears of Israel’s enemies, or of a Mossad director beginning his weekly meetings with the question, ‘Who are we going to assassinate today?’ Unfortunately, most of these stories are true. As well as enhancing the agency’s ... (read more)

Simon Collinson reviews 'The Toe Tag Quintet' by Matthew Condon

February 2013, no. 348 31 January 2013
Matthew Condon is a writer who confounds expectations. He followed his prize-winning epic novel The Trout Opera (2007) with Brisbane (2010), a meditative exploration of the city’s rich history. In The Toe Tag Quintet, he turns his hand to crime. This is not a novel but a series of novellas about a detective’s exploits following his retirement to the Gold Coast. The stories are consecutive but ... (read more)