White Throat is book #2 in the Clementine Jones series by Sarah Thornton. I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller set just down the road from me in the Great Sandy Straits, Queensland. This story takes place after Clem leaves Katinga and becomes involved in preserving the White Throat Snapping turtle, alongside her friend Helen. Helen and her team of misfits are passionate about saving the turtle however, other townspeople want developments in the area to proceed. Unexpectedly, Helen is found dead at a quarry but her death is ruled a suicide, not murder. Clem decides to take investigations into her own hands. Clem is much tougher and a bit unlikable in this second installment but in saying that I still really enjoyed the story. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for my digital copy.

Clem is an unlikable protagonist and the plot is not very credible but I loved the setting and the side characters, including the dog.

I have to say this book wasnt for me. I just couldnt get into it. It was a quick read . It is number 2 in the series but you could read it as a standalone.

The second book in the Clementine Jones series by Sarah Thornton, was a well written and enjoyable, though slightly far fetched, read.

Thornton delivers another engaging tale where plenty happens to keep the pages turning. She delivers a particularly strong sense of place, immersing readers in coastal Queensland and crafting a rich atmosphere with the small town and its surrounds and the variety of people who live and work there.

At times I wasn't entirely sure how I felt about Clem as a main character - she can veer from heroic to pitying, crafty to rather foolish at times. She's a sharp lawyer, but also naïve at times. Readers enjoyment of WHITE THROAT may fluctuate depending on their feelings towards Clem.

Thornton does a good job making readers care what happens - both in terms of Clem's investigation into her friend's death and how various outcomes will play out for her and other characters. More of a crime thriller than a mystery, in way - even though there's a murder mystery spine, the threat of bad things that may still come looms even larger. An action-packed slice of Aussie crime fiction.

Here I was thinking Alan Carter’s Nick Chester was going to be the most pig-headed and stubborn crime lead I’d read all year, but Sarah Thornton has gone and trumped him on that score with her White Throat leading lady.
Clementine Jones is a woman who goes with her gut, much like J M Green’s Stella Hardy, and she would give Emma Viskic’s Caleb Zelic a run for his money when it comes to being reckless with her own safety, and at times the law. These qualities make her an easy person to befriend yet tough to care for, but most importantly for us, a thrilling lead for a contemporary crime thriller.

Read full review at: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2020/12/white-throat-sarah-thornton-review.html

Clementine Jones is a disgraced lawyer and is hiding from her past, she's currently house sitting in the small coastal backwater town of Piama in Queensland. She has Sarge a 55kg bull mastiff to dog sit and Pocket her blue heeler to keep her company. Boredom leads to her becoming involved in the local environment cause involving saving the white turtles.

The endangered freshwater white throated snapping turtles habitat is threatened by development of the new port. It’s a turtle that can breathe underwater through its bum, worth saving no less!

A woman is found dead at the base of Howard’s Quarry, a fifteen metre drop! She was the president of the Wildlife Association of the Great Sand Straits and also a close family friend of Clementine's.

Police Investigations find nothing suspicious and deem it suicide but Clementine is sure it has more to do with the port development and her friend Helen has been murdered.

More complications arise by the arrival of ex-con and good friend Torrens wanting to lie low at her place. As Clementine sets off on her own dangerous investigation into Helen’s death she gets down and dirty and takes a few too many risks endangering her own life.

A wonderfully written and exciting Australian crime mystery, the second in a series but also a standalone read.

This is the second book in the Clementine Jones series and I didn't enjoy it as much as the first.
In this book, Clementine has fled her coaching success in rural Katinga and is house sitting in a old shanty on the coast in Northern Queensland. Here she is reacquainted with a friend of her mother's, Helen who is leading a campaign to save some turtles and stop a mining project. Early in the story Helen is found dead in a quarry and the police rule it a suicide.
Clementine is convinced that this not true and commences her own investigation. This is when I really started to dislike Clementine, she uses her friend Torrens and destroys that friendship in the process. I found that very hard unforgivable in view of the faith that Torrens had in her. She also turns her back on the people who want her back in Katinga while eyeing a lucrative job with a law firm in Melbourne.
There were a few other things that niggled me, like where the money for listening devices came from and how a boat was there in time to help her make an escape, plus a marathon swim in a rough sea.
Still a good read with a fast moving plot, but I did not really like the central character in this book.
Thank you text Publishing and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Sarah Thornton’s second crime novel featuring Clementine Jones, is as compulsive reading as her first, Lapse.

Having fled Katinga in the wake of her past being discovered, Clem is house sitting in the small coastal town of Piama, Queensland, while she considers her next move. As restless as ever, she involves herself in a local conservation effort to save the endangered White Throated Snapping Turtle at the urging of the leader, and old family friend, Helen Westley. When Helen’s body is discovered at the base of a cliff, Clem refuses to accept the police’s conclusion that her death was the result of suicide, and sets out to prove Helen was murdered because of her activities opposing the local Port development project.

In searching for whomever is responsible for Helen’s murder, Clem uses her legal skills to ferret out the most likely subjects, and then uses less than legal means to dig deeper. There is plenty of suspense and action as Clem confronts her potential suspects, and Thornton provides intriguing twists and turns as Clem uncovers a mess of deception, corruption, and betrayal.

Clementine is a complex character, irrevocably scarred from causing the death of a woman in a drink driving accident, she is intent on punishing herself and has a tendency to behave recklessly. In White Throat she is determined to avenge Helen’s murder, no matter the risk to herself, and refuses to acknowledge the concern of those who care for her, namely Torrens, and Rowan.

While Rowan attempts to stay in touch with Clem via the telephone, Torrens, one of the young footballers Clem coached while in Katinga, makes a physical appearance in White Throat. He needs a place to lay low after receiving an unorthodox inheritance, but trouble follows him, adding another layer of threat to the story. I really like the friendship between Clem and Torrens, though that’s at risk here when Clem finally admits she doesn’t plan to return to Katinga.

While White Throat could be read as a stand alone, I recommend you don’t miss out on the experience of also reading Lapse, as both are well crafted, exciting, and entertaining reads. I’m already looking forward to the next.

Many Thanks to Net Galley, Text Publishing and the author for a chance to read and review this book. All opinions are expressed voluntarily.

White Throat is book #2 in the Clementine Jones series by Aussie author Sarah Thornton which can be read as a stand-alone. Clementine Jones is on a house-sitting gig in Piama when she becomes involved in helping out Helen who was a mother-figure to her when she was growing up. Helen is on a SAVE THE WHITE THROAT TURTLE mission running the Wildlife Association of The Great Sandy Straits along with a group of volunteers. But Helen’s death classified as a suicide by the Police, disturbs Clem as she hunts for the reason that caused the death of her Auntie Helen.

Clem is an accidental detective who has no formal training but who kind of blunders thru things some legal, but mostly illegal along with her friend Torrens. There are a number of suspects in Clem’s list as she uses her lawyerly skills to ferret out the truth. The Pandora’s box once opened reveals a resort development scheme, locals swindled of their hard-earned cash in one Ponzi scheme or another thus making Clem’s job tough to carry out.
Meanwhile Torrens has his own past that comes calling in the form of a gunman.

Frist few pages into the story didn’t excite me much but as Clem begins her enquiries and things become murkier, White Throat became a thrill-ride. I loved the character of Clem who refuses to lie low and accept everything as is, she’s quite determined and loyal. The story also takes us to the myriad turmoil that disturbs Clementine as she finds it difficult to return to Katinga where she was given an opportunity by the townspeople after her fall from grace.

The author has beautifully woven a complex tale of corporate development against environmental concerns with a brilliant murder mystery keeping everyone on their toes. Love to follow Clementine Jones as she heads off to another adventure.

This review is published in my blog https://rainnbooks.com/, Goodreads, Amazon India and twitter.

I loved Sarah Thornton’s first novel, Lapse, where we meet Clementine Jones, a disgraced Sydney corporate lawyer, who ends up in a small Victorian town coaching AFL football. In the second of the series, White Throat, we find Clem on the sandy shores of a small coastal Queensland town where she is house sitting and once again trying to decide what to do with her life; does she return to continuing coaching or return to the world of being a lawyer?. In the meantime she becomes involved with a conservation group who want to protect the White Throat turtles from proposed developments and unfortunately the leader of the group dies - the police and coroner believe it to be suicide but Clem isn’t happy with that conclusion and sets out to find the truth.
Clem’s determination is not appreciated by some and this leads to a lot of twists and turns in the story.
Highly enjoyable and a recommended read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Text Publishing for a copy to read and review.

The second in the series of disgraced lawyer Clementine Jones, which I think can be read as a stand alone but like most series, you get more out of them as you follow the characters.
Clem is running from her past and even after acceptance from the town of Katinga, she has found herself house sitting in a small coastal QLD town. Becoming involved with saving the White Throat Snapping Turtle with her good friend and mother figure Helen dispels some boredom.
When a body is found at the bottom of a quarry and written off by the police as suicide, Clem is 100% sure it wasn’t....But convincing them is another matter.
I enjoyed this next instalment, finding it quite fast paced and sometimes a little over the top but that was its appeal. I think I mentioned in my review of her first book that I could really see this being a TV series and I would love if it was picked up, I feel it would be a winner in that respect.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

Clementine Jones, former lawyer and lately the coach of the grand final winners in the small Victorian town of Katinga, was house sitting in Piama, up on Queensland’s Great Sandy Straits. The two dogs, Sarge and Pocket kept her company, but she was bored. Joining the group trying to save the white throat turtles in the area and keeping Turtle Shores safe was helping her good friend, but Clem wasn’t sure it was helping her own sanity. But when a body was found at the bottom of an old quarry, and the police deemed it suicide, Clem was incensed. There was no way it was suicide – and she would prove it…

As Clem and her good friend Torrens thought up a multitude of plans – some legal, some not – she knew she would have her work cut out. Money talks: it was up to her to pander to the egos of some of these people if she was going to save the turtles, save Turtle Shores and prove that the person was murdered. As the danger accelerated, Clem fleetingly wondered if she would leave Piama alive.

White Throat is the 2nd in the Clementine Jones series by Aussie author Sarah Thornton and I really enjoyed it. There was plenty of action, some brutal murders, a few sleezy characters along with plenty of heartwarming scenes from the Katinga Cats. Clem is a well thought out character, though she did do a couple of silly things this trip. (I knew she’d be found out, so she should have!) An excellent addition to the series, White Throat is one I have no hesitation in recommending.

With thanks to Text Publishing for my ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Earlier this year I was introduced to Clementine Jones, a disgraced former lawyer who is hiding out in a small country town called Katinga. White Throat is the second book with Clementine, only this time she is in the Great Sandy Straits of Queensland. She is house sitting and involved in the local environmental cause to save the turtles. She isn’t living a quiet life until an old family friend is found dead at the bottom of a quarry. The police say that it was suicide but Clemens is not convinced.

This was a quick and enjoyable read by another great Aussie writer. I flew though it in 2 days. I loved learning more about Clem and watching her come to terms with with her life after prison. She’s has to make decisions about where her life is heading but her former football team in Katinga are not making it easy to walk away from them.

Thanks to Text Publishing and NetGalley for my advanced copy of this book to read.

Of all the subgenres in crime fiction the accidental detective is one of the toughest to pull off as a series. Particularly when that detective is stuck in a small country town. If only because of the suspension of disbelief becomes harder as the series goes on. Even for established detectives, too much complicated crime in a small radius can start to seem a little coincidental (Midsomer, anyone?).
So the question was – how to follow up to accidental detective solving crime in rural Australia debut Lapse? Sarah Thornton solved this problem by sending her protagonist, fallen lawyer turned successful football coach Clementine Jones away from country Victoria to go house sitting on the Queensland coast. She then gives her a personal reason to start digging. That reason is the death of her “aunt” (and one time surrogate mother) Helen who has moved to the small town of Pirama and has been spearheading attempts to save the endangered white throated turtle (hence the name of the book) before her untimely death which is quickly ruled a suicide by authorities.
Once readers can get past the string of unlikely coincidences that get Clementine into a situation in which she feels obligated to solve another crime, Thornton delivers another pacey thriller filled with hot button issues. There is plenty going on in the community which would be threatened by the green activism that Helen represented. Plans for the construction of a coal port, local retirees ripped off in a Ponzi scheme trying to maximise their property values, rapacious developers looking for locations for new resorts. And so there are plenty of suspects for Clem to investigate, although she is not a trained detective so her methods are, once again, more crashing than crashing through. She joins Helen’s environmental group and uses that position to get in the face of the people she suspects, a move which she knows will put her in the cross hairs. At the same time, she is dealing with one of the players from her team and occasional partner in crime from Lapse, Matthew Torrens, who has come to stay with her but is also looking to lie low. Their relationship falters when Clem reveals her intention not to return to Katinga and continue coaching the team but to take a new legal job in Melbourne.
While the circumstances that get her back into action are a little contrived, it is enjoyable to follow the further adventures of Clementine Jones. Clementine Jones is a great character – clever, resourceful, determined, prepared to bend the law when she feels she needs to and often out of her depth (at one point literally) as the action heats up. This book also plays on her conflicted loyalty to the town that took her in and the football team that she coached to a championship win and her desire to get back to a normal, anonymous life.
As with many writers who start with Australian rural crime, Thornton has transferred her action from the bush to the coast (Chris Hammer, Sarah Bailey and Jane Harper have done similar shifts). She has centred the action around real environmental issues and the plight of an actual and fascinating (if only for its method of breathing, no spoilers) Australian endangered species. And in White Throat she has also delivered another fast-paced crime thriller anchored around a flawed and engaging heroine.

This is the second in the series by Thornton featuring former lawyer Clementine Jones. We learned in the first outing Lapse, that Jones had been convicted of drink driving and a woman died as a result - although I did think there was perhaps more to that story. She spent a lot of time in the first novel keeping that secret, but it's not the case here and her history seems to be very accessible.

Lapse was set in Katinga, in rural Australia but this opens with mention of tidal flats and the ocean. We soon learn that Jones is housesitting and Thornton certainly delivers well on the imagery of Australia's coastline. The setting here was of interest to me as it's actually in my back yard... near the Great Sandy Straits in the tiny fictional town of Piama. (I assume it's fictional as I've never heard of it.)

Here she stumbles across a former mother figure and becomes embroiled in a fight to save endangered turtles (white-throated snapping turtles) from a proposed mining development. Clem's reticent at first but a death (ruled as suicide though she believes it isn't) motivates her involvement.

Clem identifies a few potential suspects and fairly clumsily attempts to investigate their motives. I wondered if the characters were a little stereotypical, though perhaps it's more indicative of small communities and those who take harbour there.

One of the characters, a football player, we meet in Lapse re-appears here... seemingly to remind Clem that she's got a commitment to the team back in Katinga, and add another layer of danger to Clem's world.

There's some suspense in terms of threats to Clem's life and some action, though less-so in the problem-solving whodunit sense. It was probably a little anticlimactic for me as I like my big 'reveals'.

I'm enjoying this series and keen to see where Thornton takes Clem next. I can't remember how I felt about her in the first book but found her to be naive and a bit of a drama queen. I wondered at one point if I actually liked her as she seemed more self-pitying than I remembered.

The standouts of this book are Thornton's ability to place readers amidst the action. Her scene-setting is vividly descriptive and she spends time on the detail so it feels authentic.

3.5 stars

‘Looking out over an ebb tide from the back verandah was like watching God paint stripes.’

The house-sitting gig in Piama on the Queensland coast does not pay much, but it gave Clementine (Clem)
Jones a convenient excuse to leave Katinga once certain facts about her past became known. It is supposed to be a temporary move. The local Australian Rules Football club want her back after her success in coaching them to their first premiership win. But Clem does not think she will return to Katinga. And, while she considers her future (including a lucrative job in Melbourne), she is helping her friend Helen with a campaign to save the endangered white throat turtle. The turtle’s habitat will disappear if a planned new port development goes ahead.

After Helen is found dead at the foot of a cliff, the police consider her death suicide. Clem does not agree and sets out to find out what happened to Helen. And there are plenty of suspects: many of the people in Piama want the port to go ahead. The mayor and some businessmen see profits, while others would welcome the money they would receive for their properties.

Clem’s life and her investigation are both enhanced and complicated when one of her Katinga football stars (an ex-convict, himself in a spot of bother) joins her.

Clem takes quite a few risks (nothing new here) as she tries to find out what happened to Helen. Who would benefit from her death? And why did Helen include some puzzling conditions into her will?

I like Clem: she’s a flawed, focussed hero trying to work through some personal challenges while trying to ensure that Helen’s death is properly investigated. She’s feisty and brave and occasionally foolhardy. Can she uncover the truth? And will she accept what looks like a very attractive job back in corporate law? What about Katinga?

A terrific second instalment in Ms Thornton’s Clementine Jones mystery/thriller series. What will happen next?

Highly recommended.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

After running away from the shame of her past to hide in the small Queensland country town of Katinga, disgraced ex-corporate lawyer Clementine (Clem) Jones found herself in the spotlight again for successfully coaching the local Australian Rules football club to their first premiership win. Now, in this sequel, she's lying low again on the coast near Noosa, house-sitting for the summer while she considers her future and whether to accept a lucrative sports law job in Melbourne. An old family friend living in town, Helen Westley talks her into helping with a campaign to save the endangered white throat turtle whose habitat will disappear if plans for a new port development go ahead. When Helen's body is found at the bottom of a cliff, the police write it off as suicide but Clem suspects foul play and sets out to find who might have been involved.

Clem has plenty of suspects to check out amongst the mayor and town businessmen, who favour building a port that will bring in jobs as well as personal wealth, over the fate of a small group of turtles. Clem's life becomes further complicated by the arrival of one of her football stars, an ex-con who is also hiding for reasons of his own. Street smart, feisty and with a keen sense of justice, Clem will still manage to get herself into all sorts of trouble in this well plotted, entertaining thriller. But can she really save the turtle's habitat, expose Helen's killer, sort out some shady dealings and escape with her life to that cushy job in Melbourne?

4.5⭐⭐⭐⭐ This was a great second novel in the Clementine Jones series. Talk about full-on, especially the last quarter or so, I wasn't sure how Clementine was going to get out of the situation she'd gotten herself into this time. But it seems Clem has nine lives, and no matter how many people she upsets or what she gets herself into, she comes through, albeit a little battered and bruised.

I was pleased that Torrens was in the book again, the friendship between them is good, even though I'm not entirely sure their friendship has survived this time, I'm keeping my fingers crossed if there's a book #3, that they can work things out. They both have a lot to teach each other.

Clem once again goes all out, determined to uncover who murdered her friend, Helen, despite the police deciding it was a suicide. So much big corporate corruption, developer corruption, mining corruption, there were so many people who would have wanted Helen out of the way, but who actually did the deed.

I enjoyed learning about the white-throated snapping turtles, very interesting creatures, an animal that is listed as endangered, like so many these days, hopefully, the author can bring some attention to this turtle.

There was plenty of action and intrigue throughout while Clem does her thing and Torrens has her back once again. I enjoyed this even more than book one.

Thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for a digital copy of this novel in return for an honest review.

Sarah Thornton's White Throat is fabulous Australian crime writing. Set in a tropical Queensland coastal town, there are plenty of retirees, circling developers and under resourced conservationists trying to save unique eco systems and an endangered turtle. Add in simmering tensions from a Ponzi scheme gone bad, an ex-con trying to lay low, a tragic suicide (but was it really?), two dogs and two hitmen and you have the makings of a riveting thriller.

Clementine Jones is a talented lawyer and football coach, at least in a previous life. In White Throat she joins the conservation volunteers, hones her detective skills and despite her recent disgrace ponders a return to high flying legal circles. Strong, smart, determined and loyal yet flawed, Clem is an inimitable lead character

A skilfully crafted thriller that will keep you guessing throughout. Excellent as a stand alone novel, but I will certainly now be looking for the first and any future instalments of the Clementine Jones series. Highly recommended reading!