Welcome to our Mystery and Thriller collection, where you'll find spectacular titles by Australian authors ready to ignite your imagination...
Murder at the Tennis Club - a DI Mark Williamson Detective Story.
DI Mark Williamson and his wife, Christine, move from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia for a quieter lifestyle. Serious crime is low and Mark finds time to join the local Tennis Club, but peace in this idyllic area is shattered when a woman is found murdered in her own home.
Can Mark find Faye Abbott’s killer and is her death linked to the murders which occur shortly afterwards at the Tennis Club?
Caryl Hunter believes she lost her brother during the wartime evacuations of 1939.
Her adoptive mother denies his existence and Caryl was too young to remember with certainty. When she finds a black and white photograph of her family standing on a London station platform in the company of a mystery boy, her determination to find him reignites. In 2020, Caryl’s daughter, Megan, takes up the search for her missing uncle.
Confronted by her own secret, will she ignore it or will she remember Caryl’s lifelong torment and avoid the mistakes of the past?
Ben doesn’t like being a nude model in a small country town.
Then again, the local footballers don’t like their girlfriends ogling Ben. Broke and lonely, Ben falls for Marty, the smart, ambitious and ruthless young woman rapidly taking over her brother’s drug and gun-running trade. Once Ben gets pulled into their dark world of bikies and crime, he discovers a new level of violence that makes the footballers seem harmless – especially when his only friend is then murdered.
“It's been a long time since I read the first few pages of a novel and thought, I need to read this book. I adored the characters, the subtle humour and insights into rural Australian communities.” – J.P. Pomare, best-selling author of Call Me Evie
Set between the Blue Mountains and a Sydney hospital, Lisa Kenway’s All You Took from Me is a thriller brimming with great characters and nail-biting tension.
Anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident. So why is a stranger following her? After questioning patients about their dreams, she becomes convinced that an anaesthetic drug might help her access missing memories. But there’s no way to be certain without jeopardising her career or her life.
As unexplained threats escalate, Clare realises she must take matters into her own hands to learn the uncomfortable truth about her secretive husband, his connection to a mysterious club and what she did to trigger a stranger’s crusade for vengeance. But how far will she go?
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London, 1941, and in the battered capital of occupied Britain, Emilia Shaw works as a translator for SS General Oskar Voigt, a man with a penchant for cowing populations and exacting bloody reprisals. Emilia has been recruited by the English resistance and attracts the suspicions of Irish policeman Brendan O’Connor who is Voigt’s security chief.
Brutal SS Colonel Hans Morser is also suspicious of Emilia, while she becomes increasingly wary of her proximity to her SS boss. The occupation regime has invited the Duke of Windsor to England, promising him the crown, unleashing a wave of violence from the resistance. A delicate dance of politics now unfolds as the Duke pressures the quisling government for his coronation while Hitler, the supreme kingmaker, prevaricates. Ultimately, the ill-judged German invasion of Russia precipitates a bloody battle for liberation. With the end of the war, Brendan O’Connor hunts Nazis obsessively, particularly former SS General Voigt, a man for whom he nurses a visceral hatred.
But even the bitter post-Liberation reckoning could be dwarfed by a constitutional crisis which threatens the very foundations of the country, a crisis that can only be averted by one man — the most unlikely of them all.
When Anika Molnar flees her home country of Hungary, not long before the break up of the Soviet Union, she carries only a small suitcase – and a beautiful and much loved painting of an auburn haired woman in a cobalt blue dress from her family’s hidden collection.
Arriving in Australia, Anika moves in with her aunt in Sydney, and the painting hangs in pride of place in her bedroom. But one day, it is stolen in what appears to be a carefully planned theft, and Anika’s carefree life takes a more ominous turn. Sinister secrets from her family’s past, and Hungary’s fraught history cast suspicion over the painting’s provenance, and she embarks on a gripping quest to uncover the truth.
Hungary’s war-torn past the contrasts sharply, with Australia’s bright new world of opportunity in this moving and compelling mystery.
Following the death of her beloved Aunt Hilda, widow Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, an historic property in the Blue Mountains township of Numballa, Australia.
Giving up her teaching job to move to the mountains, Clare plans to restore the house to its original glory. She also hopes to track down a box of missing documents that may shed light on why husband Jack secretly second-mortgaged their former home. Clare makes friends with the locals, including a young boy, Joe, and soon hears of plans to redevelop Numbulla and to exploit the land bordering the protected wilderness area. As she joins the protest against the rezoning, it's clear someone doesn’t want her there and they'll do anything to stop her...
Bellevue is a moving tale of love and loss, and of the bonds that are forged when people unite to make a difference.
The Kelly family has always been trouble.
When a fire in a remote caravan community kills nine people, including 17-year-old Sabine Kelly’s mother and sister, Sabine confesses to the murders. Shortly after, she escapes custody and disappears.
Recently made redundant from marriage, motherhood and her career, journalist Rachel Weidermann has long suspected Sabine made her way back to the river—now, twelve years after the ‘Caravan Murders’, she has the time and the tenacity to corner a fugitive and land the story of the year.
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Rachel’s ambition lights the fuse leading to a brutal chain of events, and the web Sabine weaves will force Rachel to question everything she believes.
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Vikki Wakefield’s compelling psychological thriller is about class, corruption, love, loyalty, and the vindication of truth and justice. And a brave dog called Blue.
The unsolved murder of a ballroom dancer sets rookie journalist Jade Riley on a hunt for the killer.
Journalist Jade is determined to write a career-defining article. Her dance instructor Anton wants to know who killed his fiancée.
Caught between the glamorous world of ballroom dance and Anton’s dark past in the Valencio crime family, can they solve the murder before they become the next targets? Anton’s sister, desperate to protect family secrets, tries to stop the investigation.
The siblings are on a collision course, challenging the Valencio maxim: loyalty to family no matter what.
A story as dark as the narcissistic souls who have gathered together unfolds in a single, transformative night ... Anna is on the brink of a revelation that echoes through the silver birch corridors of the infamous Narcissus Gardening Club.
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Tonight, she is ensnared in a dangerous game where alliances are as fragile as its members. The club comprises of peculiar combination of people, the members are affectionately nicknamed the queen, the princess, the general, fetch, the jester and the goddess, and the man Anna despises the most in the world, her husband. When a shocking death strikes the club, every member is under the spotlight. Questions are raised as psychologist Dr Margot Gray, with her irrepressible spirit and piercing intuition, navigates a web spun with secrets and deceit. Wizardry of a brilliant kind is needed for Margot to stop the killer striking again.
Prepare for a captivating journey, where every page turned brings you closer to the shocking revelations that lie at the heart of the Narcissus Gardening Club.
New South Wales, 1972. Following the death of her beloved Aunt Hilda, widow Clare Barclay inherits Bellevue, an historic property in the Blue Mountains township of Numballa, Australia.
Giving up her teaching job to move to the mountains, Clare plans to restore the house to its original glory. She also hopes to track down a box of missing documents that may shed light on why husband Jack secretly second-mortgaged their former home. Clare makes friends with the locals, including a young boy, Joe, and soon hears of plans to redevelop Numbulla and to exploit the land bordering the protected wilderness area. As she joins the protest against the rezoning, it's clear someone doesn't want her there and they'll do anything to stop her...
Written from Clare's and Joe's perspectives, Bellevue highlights cross-generational bonds that grow between them as they struggle, individually and together, towards an acceptance of the losses each has sustained.
In an Australian beachside suburb, climate change can no longer be ignored…
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An eye-opening book set on the Australian East Coast a few years from now. None of us know exactly when the sea level rises will start to force change - whole families moving en masse away from their coastal communities - but we know it will happen eventually.
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Powerfully relevant and gripping, High Rise delivers a bold and haunting vision of the not-so-distant future. The terrifying question all readers will ask: is this science fiction or history written ahead of its time?
Author Vanessa Lee wants to create awareness and action for climate change policies by engaging readers with compelling fiction rather than statistics and news reports.
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Jane is a contact tracer.
She has to call a lot of people and some of them don’t want to talk. Various reasons – tax or immigration issues, infidelity.
Domestic abuse.
Jane knows all about that. She and her daughter Tara have spent years in hiding from Tara’s manipulative and terrifying ex. Now, as Jane talks to a close contact, she realises the woman on the phone is scared of the same man – and he’s close.
Too close.
Suddenly the past comes slamming back into the present as Jane realises she and Tara can’t keep running forever. One day, they’re going to be found.
When Hannah Allen was fourteen years old, she was abducted by an elusive serial killer, Peter Harris.
Intended to be his eleventh victim, she was his only survivor. Ten years later, a body is found with eerily similar injuries to Peter’s victims, complete with the numerical brand he forced upon his captives.
Soon it becomes clear that somewhere, someone is continuing Peter’s work...
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Somewhere, someone wants Hannah dead. Can she survive a serial killer twice, or has her luck finally run out?
After receiving a substantial inheritance, thirty-seven-year-old aspiring writer, Theresa, moves to the High Country of Victoria, Australia, to finally write the novel she had always planned.
Here, she meets and marries Rick Goodman, a former TV star and local entrepreneur. He encourages her dreams to write a novel and rekindles her long-forgotten desire to have a child.
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Life on their idyllic Alpine property is bliss, until Rick’s ex-wife goes missing and Theresa must uncover the truth about her disappearance in time to save herself and her unborn child.
A shocking discovery deep in the Snowy Mountains. A killer who will do anything to keep secrets buried.
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On her daily rounds, ski patroller Vanessa Bell discovers human bones high on the snowy Mount Stillwell at Charlotte Pass ski resort. Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder of the Sydney Homicide Squad is called in to lead the investigative team on this mysterious cold case. When a second murder rocks the resort, Ryder suspects that the deaths are related, and that the person responsible is still in the village.
Set within the stunning Snowy Mountains, this intriguing mystery uncovers deadly, long-buried secrets in the valleys and mountains of this iconic area.
Belinda Lawrence returns to her home town of Melbourne, to discover a murder that’s close to her heart.
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A murder which leads to the seat of political power, Parliament House. The various threads of deceit and intrigue are gradually unravelled and, with Hazel Whitby at her side, Belinda is confronted by warring political factions. The mystery deepens with the discovery of a priceless historical item, of value to both political powers, and which places Belinda’s life in jeopardy.
The gregarious Major, an enigmatic university Professor, two colourful antique sellers, eccentric retired music-hall entertainers and Belinda’s partner, Mark Sallinger…
…all immersed in the scheming and covert encounters besieging Belinda as she solves her most challenging mystery.
A thrilling tale of snow-bound crime and suspense from the bestselling author of Charlotte Pass.
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Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder of the Sydney Homicide Squad is on the hunt for notorious fugitive Gavin Hutton. After months of dead-ends, the breakthrough Ryder has been hoping for leads him back to the New South Wales Snowy Mountains on the trail of the suspected killer.
Meanwhile, when an injured man bursts into the remote Thredbo lodge managed by Eva Bell, her first instinct is to protect her daughter, Poppy. The terrifying arrival of Jack Walker turns Eva's world upside down as the consequences of Jack's presence become clear.
With a killer on the loose, Jack Walker and Ryder are tangled in the same treacherous web - spun across the perilously beautiful Crackenback Range.
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A thrilling tale of snow-bound crime and suspense from the bestselling author of Charlotte Pass and Crackenback.
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When a light plane crashes at night in the midst of the New South Wales Snowy Mountains, Sydney Homicide's Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder and Detective Constable Mitchell Flowers are sent to investigate what immediately looks like foul play. As Ryder and Flowers investigate the crash they uncover a generations-old feud between two local families. Could the bitterness that has been carried through the years have anything to do with the death of the pilot?
Meanwhile, Detective Constable Nerida Sterling is already deep undercover in the Snowies, her assignment to infiltrate a drug ring operating in the mountains and to ultimately hunt down a murderer.
As her cover becomes more and more tenuous, what lengths will Sterling go to in order to get the information that she needs?
A homeless man, Old Joe's death was not unexpected. Not until it was found to be murder.
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This was Darlinghurst Road, Kings Cross, once a hub of inequity, of strip joints and gentleman's clubs, of licensed premises and restaurants. But now, the area is changing, going upmarket, another enclave for those that can afford it, not a place for the homeless, nor is it a place of murder, but then, another murder in Point Piper, upmarket and exclusive, a woman, her throat cut.
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Statistically, Sydney's Eastern Suburbs rarely has a murder, but after four, are they serial or random, and if they are, why? Sergeant Natalie Campbell from Kings Cross Police Station is wet behind the ears when she pairs with Detective Haddock, but she soon learns that she is more astute than the man, although she's a risk taker.
He has to protect her, but she will take the investigations forward.
The loyalties of those closest to him will be tested…
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When an unprovoked and vicious assault leaves William Denham at a Sydney hospital with serious head injuries, he soon begins to experience strange visions.
Forced to question his sanity as the realisation that he is experiencing premonitions of violent and horrific crimes yet to occur, those closest to Will are confronted with his newfound abilities, causing fear for his state of mind.
As the visions of these brutal crimes continue to plague Will, he must turn to his friends for help to save the lives of the unsuspecting victims...
ONE SECOND... ONE BREATH... ONE CHANCE.
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Fasten your seatbelt low and tight for an aviation and medical thriller that'll grip your mind and capture your heart. Dylan Malloy has retreated from the world, throwing himself into a second choice job in Australia’s remote outback. His days as a self-sufficient loner, however, are rapidly ending.
Dylan knows he won’t make his twenty-fifth birthday without lifesaving surgery. His one-and-only chance means a desperate journey to hospital—today—and the last flight to Perth departs in just a few minutes.
But the thought of boarding that 737 is as painful as the sinister disease destroying his body from within, and as dark as the underlying truths he fights to keep secret.
A loving husband lost to devastating summer floods. A teenage girl injured during a robbery.
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Two seemingly unconnected cases that will push a detective to the brink.
In Northern New South Wales, heavily pregnant and a week away from maternity leave, Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is exhausted and counting down the days. But a violent hold-up at a local fast-food restaurant with unsettling connections to her own past, means that her final days will be anything but straightforward.
When a second case is dumped on her lap, the closed case of man drowned in recent summer floods, what begins as a simple informal review quickly grows into something more complicated. Kate can either write the report that's expected of her or investigate the case the way she wants to.
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How far is Kate prepared to push to discover the truth?
The tense, must-read new Detective Kate Miles novel from the award-winning author of The Torrent.
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Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is back from maternity leave and struggling on multiple fronts - the pressures of a second child, financial strain from her husband losing his job, and a corruption scandal that may involve her father. When an infant goes missing, Kate finds herself fronting a high-profile and emotionally fraught case. Was baby Sienna removed from her bassinet by an unknown abductor or is the answer much closer to home?
Amidst a frenzied media demanding answers, and a station chief looking for any reason to remove her from the investigation, Kate is pushed to her limits, pulled between the competing demands of the family at the centre of the case and her own spiralling personal life.
A suicide. A shooting. And a reckoning, decades in the making.
Weeks from Christmas in the sweltering heat of summer, Detective Kate Miles' estranged brother, Luke Grayling, returns home to Esserton to farewell a childhood friend - Ant Reed, dead by suicide. Within days of the funeral, another young man, Marcus Rowntree, is found shot dead in the back paddock of his property.
Almost twenty years ago, Luke, Ant and Marcus were best mates in high school and now two of the three friends are dead. A tragic coincidence? Or is there something more sinister connecting the three men?
When Luke is identified as a person of interest in Marcus's death, Kate once again finds herself in the middle of a media storm, sidelined from the case and battling accusations of conflict of interest.
As press attention deepens, and uncomfortable truths about Luke's personal life and past events come to light, Kate is forced to contend between loyalty to the police force, and the bonds of friendship and blood.
Is it paranoia – or is someone watching?
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For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe. Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway.
The victim looks just like her. Coincidence?
As more murders shake the city and she’s increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear. She’s been found.
A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.
Cassie Edwards swore she’d never fall in love… then she met Jamie.
He changed everything, and Cassie’s never been happier. But with less than one month to go to her wedding, Cassie discovers Jamie is cheating on her with his colleague. Blinded by rage, Cassie makes it her mission to seek revenge on the pair.
As her hunt for the truth takes her to some of the darkest corners of the internet, Cassie learns just how little she knows about the man she shares her life with. It leaves her wondering one thing – is Jamie someone she should destroy, or someone she should fear instead?
How far would you go to destroy your husband?
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A man runs for his life in a forest.
A woman plans sabotage.
A body is unearthed.
Newly-minted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her home town, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder - a 'file and forget'.
But this is no ordinary cold case, as the discovery of more bodies triggers a chain of escalating events in the present day. As Nell starts to join the pieces together, she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her. Could her own family be implicated in the crimes?
The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more dangerous the present becomes for her, as she battles shadowy assailants and sinister forces.
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Can she survive this harrowing investigation and what price will she have to pay for the truth?
In an isolated country town brought to its knees by endless drought, a charismatic and dedicated young priest calmly opens fire on his congregation, killing five parishioners before being shot dead himself.
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A year later, troubled journalist Martin Scarsden arrives in Riversend to write a feature on the anniversary of the tragedy. But the stories he hears from the locals about the priest and incidents leading up to the shooting don't fit with the accepted version of events his own newspaper reported in an award-winning investigation. Martin can't ignore his doubts, nor the urgings of some locals to unearth the real reason behind the priest's deadly rampage.
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A compulsive thriller that will haunt you long after you have turned the final page.
For half a lifetime, journalist Martin Scarsden has run from his past. But now there is no escaping.
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He'd vowed never to return to his hometown, Port Silver, and its traumatic memories. But now his new partner, Mandy Blonde, has inherited an old house in the seaside town and Martin knows their chance of a new life together won't come again.
Martin arrives to find his best friend from school days has been brutally murdered, and Mandy is the chief suspect. With the police curiously reluctant to pursue other suspects, Martin goes searching for the killer.
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And finds the past waiting for him.
Martin Scarsden's new life seems perfect, right up until the moment it's shattered by a voicemail: a single scream, abruptly cut off, from his partner Mandalay Blonde.
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Racing home, he finds an unconscious man sprawled on the floor and Mandy gone. Someone has abducted her. But who, and why?
So starts a twisting tale of intrigue and danger, as Martin probes the past of the woman he loves, a woman who has buried her former life so deep she has never mentioned it.
And for the first time, Mandy finds denial impossible, now the body of a mystery man has been discovered, a man whose name she doesn't know, a man she was engaged to marry when he died.
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It's time to face her demons once and for all; it's time she learned how to trust.
An unputdownable standalone thriller from the bestselling author of Scrublands.
In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable young people and billionaires do as they please.
Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner's death is straightforward, not even who found the body. Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan.
But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations.
Have Ivan and Nell been set up and, if so, by whom?
A wife burning with resentment. A husband hiding the past. Their teenage daughter crusading for the truth. Who can we trust?
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The close-knit community of Kinton Bay is shocked when fifteen-year-old Siena Britton makes a grisly discovery near a cave in the national park. Siena believes it's a skull from the town's violent colonial past and posts a video which hits the news headlines.
But her parents, Meri and Rollo, think the skull is related to their teenage parties in the Killing Cave back in the 1990s. And a school mate who went missing then.
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The Liars is a heart-stopping cocktail of family secrets, sinister unsolved disappearances and a community at war with itself.
How can a child disappear from under the care of four playgroup mums?
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One Thursday morning, Lexie Parker dashes to the shop for biscuits, leaving Bella in the safe care of the other mums in the playgroup.
Six minutes later, Bella is gone.
Police and media descend on the tiny village of Merrigang on the edge of Canberra. Locals unite to search the dense bushland. But as the investigation continues, relationships start to fracture, online hate messages target Lexie, and the community is engulfed by fear.
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What happened in those six minutes and where is Bella?
A good teacher can change lives …
Every evening, Allison watches her husband's new house, desperate to find some answers. Every morning, she puts on a brave face to teach kindergarten. She's a good teacher, everyone says so - this stalking is just a tiny crack in her usual self-control.
A late enrolment into her class brings little Gracie. Allison takes the sick girl under her wing, smothering Gracie with the love she can't give her own son. When Gracie has a chance to go to America for treatment, Allison whips up the community into a frenzied fundraising drive.
​But as others start to question her judgement and the police arrive at her door, Allison wonders if she can trust herself. Has she crossed a line?
Ten years ago, sixteen-year-old Gemma Toombs was kidnapped from Bangkok Airport by an infatuated drifter, Tyler MacFarlane, who took her to a secret den in the Australian desert.
Now her name is Kate Stone and it’s her turn to confront Ty and try to find answers to the questions that have obsessed her since her ordeal.
What is the legacy of this coercive relationship? Who holds the cards now? In the confusion of past and present, will Kate remain trapped in a deranged dance of desire and revenge? Or will she regain control and find release?
A companion to Lucy Christopher’s bestselling novel Stolen, this gripping psychological thriller explores a young woman’s discovery of the complicated truth about a relationship that once seemed alluring.
Not all serial killers hide in the dark...
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In the glitz and glamour of the Gold Coast, Eddie is overworked, heartbroken and about to take the trip of a lifetime with two of his best friends. They've got an old bus, a sense of adventure, and want him to jump on board for a journey down the East Coast and into the barren deserts of the outback. What he doesn't know is that he will be drawn into a world of violence, murder and mayhem, and become witness to possibly the darkest day in Australia's criminal history. Amongst the sun drenched chaos, he may even rediscover love.
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Dust and Devils. A journey into the dark heart of Australia where survival means bending the rules of friendship, and where the line between good and evil is blown away with a stinging dust soaked in blood.
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Broken hearts, rebel bikers, open roads and serial killers. Strap yourself in and come for the ride with those who dance with the Dust and Devils.
It’s July 1943 and the world has been at war for almost four long years.
One morning, young widow Emmy Penry-Jones discovers two men washed up on the beach below her house on the west coast of Cornwall. Emmy is used to rescuing washed-up sailors, the deadly Battle of the Atlantic exacting a heavy toll on shipping. But these men are not like the shipwrecked sailors she has rescued before and Emmy is soon drawn into a web of intrigue that will test both her ingenuity and her patriotism.
Rocked by accusations of war crimes against a man she knows to be innocent, Emmy launches a bid to defend him, all too aware that the accusers could turn on her.
But the trial marks a turning point and Emmy is drawn further into a deadly cycle of post-war retribution from which only one man can save her.
Dime Sheppard delivers a smart and witty caper about a crime novelist who recruits her main characters to investigate her maybe-unfaithful fiancé.
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In real life she’s meant to be planning a wedding to adorable billionaire Daniel Bradley, but Evie is seriously snarled in the sixteenth book of her successful crime series. In fact, her protagonists are becoming almost impossible to wrangle: NYPD detective Carolyn Harding is volatile after a messy divorce, and Detective Jay Ryan has that heated look in his blue eyes again. They’re both sick of being written. And frankly they’re getting a little…physical. Evie is beginning to wonder if she’s ever going to finish Book Sixteen and get them back into fiction where they belong.
But when a disturbingly familiar homicide surfaces in the city papers, it seems as if other, darker characters might have crossed the fiction-frontier too.
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In which case, Evie is in a lot of real-life trouble...
Fifteen-year-old Darren Davies is found facedown in the Weymouth River with a gunshot wound to his chest.
The killer is never found.
Ten years later, his mother receives a visit from the local police. Sandra’s best friend has been found dead on a remote Pilbara road, and Barbara’s DNA matches the DNA found under Darren’s fingernails. When the investigation into her son’s murder is reopened, Sandra begins to question what she knew about her best friend.
As she digs, she discovers that there are many secrets in her small town, and that her murdered son had secrets too...
In 1944, during the Second World War, Clara and two other young women work on a farm, as part of the Women’s Land Army.
Clara enjoys the lifestyle and the hard work helps her get through each day. No matter how busy she is though, she can never forget the horror she faced seven years earlier.
Her family was a happy one, with Clara and Ruth gradually taking over the running of the teashop in Lindari, a pretty country town set in beautiful green hills. Their father died when Clara was only four but she remembers him still.
When their mother died they still managed to keep the business running and their life was quiet and pleasant, until one night everything changed and Clara was left alone and devastated.
Thomas, a 23-year-old student priest, emerges alone from the wilderness four days after surviving a plane crash.
But a missing woman’s footprints are found with his, near the crash site. What part did Thomas play in her disappearance? And why does he claim he can’t remember?
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Sent to a psychiatrist by Church authorities to recover his memories, Thomas’ life and world unravel in ways he could never have foreseen, shaking the very foundations of his faith, his loyalty to the Catholic Church and the vocation he had chosen.
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This compelling and timely novel explores the underpinnings of a deeply conservative Australian Catholic community in the 1950s whose outward piety hides a shameful underbelly that dares not be exposed.
Chester Jones drives his new car to the forested slopes of the Dandenong Ranges in Victoria, Australia, in order to deliver an extravagant gift to a client after cinching a massive business deal.
On the side of the road he discovers something that will change many lives, most particularly that of his and his wife’s...
In the meantime, a shark-eaten body of a woman is washed up on a beach by the Great Ocean Road and Detective Bruce Nash is called in to investigate. A few days later the forensic pathologist breaks news to the detective that will change the course of the investigation.
Nash eventually retires to the Dandenong area without having ever solved the case. On a walk one day, Bruce is shocked to see someone that is a carbon copy of the woman that washed up on the beach years before.
Will You Keep Me Tomorrow will take the reader on a journey of wealth, romance and murder across the globe.
Los Angeles is a city under siege.
When Detective Addison Mowbray begins investigating the murders of two young women in the Hollywood Hills, he can’t imagine where the case will lead. He suspects the crimes were inspired by an occult fascination due to some missing body parts and the inverted Christian cross branded on the victims’ breasts. But apart from Addison’s temperamental partner, Jed, the only other person keen on them pursuing that line of investigation is Lilly Coniglio, a medical examiner from the Coroner’s Department.
The LAPD is already under immense public pressure due to all the bad press another killer—a vigilante—has brought to their door: it’s been over a year since the first organized crime figure showed up full of holes, with a plastic police badge beside his body. As Addison and Jed navigate a murky, disturbing occult landscape in search of answers, they uncover something even more terrifying than a killer hiding in the shadows... an organization so vile and powerful that it changes their lives forever.
Set against a backdrop of urban bleakness and social inequality, Sons of Brutality combines deeply flawed protagonists with human monsters, integrating strong dialogue, violent action, and gripping suspense.
A young Asian woman lies in a pool of blood in a Cairns motel...
Transferred to hospital, she dies before she can tell her story. Detective Cass Diamond and her team are soon on the case.
The third Cass Diamond mystery explores sex trafficking and abortion, teenage emotions and adult mischief, in a story as densely branched as the rainforest itself.
Caroline de Costa holds her readers captive until the very last word.
Set in the early 70s when Las Vegas was growing, Elvis, Sinatra, and Liberace were its star performers. The mafia-controlled casinos were fighting new laws to keep their illegal operations alive.
Jack Ross, a renowned mob boss ousted from his previous position of power following his release from prison, is exiled to Las Vegas after reluctantly agreeing to an unprecedented business transaction arranged by his friend Willie Shinronski.
Willie’s brother, Albin Shinronski, a discharged Vietnam combat-chopper pilot is befriended by Jack Ross. A profound friendship and trust develops based on a ‘do what you have to do’ attitude.
Luca Lorenzo, the East Coast Mafia Capo, fears Jack Ross may return. He instigates a plan to retire Jack once and for all.
Two fictional families entwined in the history of one of the most unique places in the world, Las Vegas, is as much a study of individuals as it is a page turner.
In 1992, toddler Yasmin Munoz went missing from a rainforest picnic spot near Cairns. No trace of her has ever been found.
Yet in 2012 Andrew Todd, a wealthy businessman and former mayor of Cairns, dies, and leaves in his will directions for a search for the missing child, who if she is still alive must now be a young woman. Cairns detective Cass Diamond is soon asked to help with the search. But Cass sometimes exceeds professional boundaries…
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Weaving together a story of race, ethnicity, environmental politics and intrigue, Caroline de Costa sets her heroine in the lush rainforest, the sparkling seas and the solitary inland country of North Queensland that she knows so well.
The story twists and turns, leaving the reader guessing, then guessing again…
Hey guys, I’m Kat Crowe, and I wanna tell you about the time I spent in California which ended abruptly when someone was murdered in my store.
Maybe moving out west from Arkansas wasn’t the best move. But before everything went south, I had a lot of fun tending my magical plants and catching some waves in my spare time.
I never imagined things could go so wrong... or that I’d find myself caught up in a mystery where everyone was a suspect.
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1916, the Western Front.
There are some crimes that transcend the horrors of war, and the rumour of a soldier being found in no man’s land crucified to a church door threatens to cause a mutiny in the trenches.
To placate the troops, allied HQ orders four soldiers pulled from the ranks of each army to investigate the crime and bring the perpetrator swiftly to justice. What a Canadian ex-Mountie, an Australian beat cop, a constable from Scotland Yard, and their military intelligence commander discover will not only save the lives of the comrades, but may well save the entire war.
Full of factual events and historic occurrences, Golgotha looks into one of the darkest events to occur during the First World War.
‘There are gods here on earth, Magnus. But not all of them know they are gods. Some are lucky enough to be born knowing what they are. Others have to figure it out for themselves along the way.’
Magnus, a hired killer desperate to atone for the things he has done, is visited by the ghost of his first hit, a mysterious man named Byrd. Byrd offers Magnus redemption, a journey into the lives of the people left behind after he killed their loved ones.
Byrd tells him it is not too late to save these lost souls. One of these souls is Sam, slowly destroying herself after the murder of her fiancé.
As Magnus and Sam drift closer together, the world around them begins to fall apart, and Magnus realises the one soul he wishes most to save may just end up saving him.
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With eight full page illustrations by Australian artist and graphic designer Megan Haering.
1881 - London.
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A series of murders around Whitechapel have two very old friends investigating the deaths. Soon they're joined by Arthur Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker - and all end up fighting for their survival as an ancient horror rises and threatens to destroy the world.
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Book one in a brand new series out now!
Twisters is a new collection of flash fiction from Australian author Kathleen Ryder.
Here she has assembled a collage of stories that reveal an utterly original voice, where each story is a single moment, to be discovered, shared, and savoured.
Twisters is an unforgettable look at the lives we live, those we invent, and those we wish to forget.
When the only suspect in a violent homicide commits suicide, it seems like case closed. But Detective Gabriel O’Connor suspects a deeper mystery...
His investigation draws him to a young fortune teller, Ezra, who seems to know more than she is letting on. They discover the murder is only the beginning of what lies in wait – an ancient, formless presence, its will set to one purpose: to black the light of humankind and cast the world into eternal darkness.
Gabe and Ezra soon find themselves at the centre of a universal conflict between an immense evil and a race of powerful beings sworn to destroy it. Together, they must find the strength, in each other and in themselves, to survive. For within them lies the power to save the human race.
A terrifying, visceral journey into the dark reaches of the soul, Fabel is a story of love, sacrifice, and the brutal beauty of mortality. Fabel was shortlisted for the 2017 ACT Writing and Publishing Awards, where it received Highly Commended status.
When Adelaide is rocked by an earthquake, no one is left more shaken than David Burrows.
A recently completed apartment building suffers severe structural damage and collapses, leaving 26 people dead and countless injured. The building should never have collapsed and sparks a furore of condemnation by the press and public alike. David receives an alarming phone call from Alice Springs where the steel used in the construction was manufactured and the race is on across the country to uncover the truth.
As the plot unravels we learn that the failure of the structure is the result of something far more sinister.
A cry for help!
A cross-country dash pilots Mason and his trusted canine Mali to Airlie Beach and the tropical coast of the Whitsunday Islands, North-Queensland, Australia… where the hunt for a psychopathic serial killer begins… Mason soon discovers a spate of horrific crimes link back to a past he had tried so desperately hard to forget.
A traumatic loss… a tragedy that would impact the remainder of his adult life!
An excellent example of a time-honoured English village murder mystery with a lively young heroine pitting her intellect against an evil killer, both bent on solving the riddle of an ancient garden. An inventive puzzle glazed with wit and the first of the Belinda Lawrence series.
The old lady's body lay at the foot of the stairs. The police believe it was an accidental fall that killed great-aunt Jane.
Young Australian, Belinda Lawrence is convinced it was murder and when she inherits her great-aunt's ancient cottage and garden on the outskirts of Bath, England, she finds herself deep in a taut mystery surrounding her legacy.
A second vicious murder by a ruthless killer intensifies the tension and Belinda, now under threat herself, is befriended by two charming men - her neighbour Jacob and real-estate agent Mark Sallinger.
But can she trust them? And what interest has befuddled antique dealer Hazel Whitby in the cottage?
Neighborhoods in Boston in during 1960s were in the grip of Irish and Italian gangs.
Willie Shine was a young gambler with an ambitious proposal to open a nightclub. Permission from gangster boss Jack Ross was needed. What could go wrong?? Club Cargo became the in-place to be in Boston until is was attacked in a drive-by shooting. Who was to blame? Who would benefit? Willie was left without knowing who or why as he followed a trail of deception to an unexpected showdown.
An insight into the world of gangsters, gambling, trust, deception, and revenge, written with the slang, the music, and the values of the era.
It seemed like the perfect vacation. Val’s boyfriend proposes — at last — and the romance-challenged slug can’t even get that right.
So, she’s off with BFF Stella on their long-delayed Down Under trip of a lifetime. When their psychedelic RV breaks down in West Australian wine country, they have to get work fast.
Local hero Tim helps out but, just when Val’s falling for his surfer-boy charms, he gets himself in big, big trouble. Are Val’s dubious detective skills enough to outwit mobsters, bikie gangs and drug dealers so she can save the man she loves?
If you like a fun, mystery-romance in the style of Ann Charles, Vanessa Gray Bartal, Jenna Bennett or Amanda M Lee, you’ll love Meet Me at the Hanging Tree.
Which colour death would you fear the most?
Nine detective stories where colour plays a role in the mystery. Some of the stories include:
Blue Bloods - A high school awards ceremony turns to tragedy when the audience turns blue as they die.
The 11th Killer - A serial killer’s hair colour could be the key to their capture.
Storyteller - An arsonist traps people in burning buildings, just to write a story about the rescuers.
Black Death - After a body is dumped in public, working out how the victim died is harder than decoding the intended message.
Fear the Red Man - An incident with the Red Man haunts Detective Thomas, but may also be the key to solving a new case.
Praise for Robert New’s Books: “A super sleuth” (Peter Lingard, Author) “Thrilling mystery” (SC Karakaltsas, Author) “Grippingly readable” (Sara Stuart, Author) “Interesting and authentic twists” (Robert Sayegh, Author)
Celebrant-Sleuth Quinn is a problem-solver extra-ordinaire officiating at weddings, commitments, naming days and funerals... plus the occasional murder scenario.
Regional country- town -based, plus exotic wedding settings like outback's ‘The Ghan’ train en-route for Darwin. Celebrant referrals from local funeral arranger as Quinn is respected and reliable with good ‘legal paperwork’. To give gravitas, adapts Albert Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ quotes…but with a humorous spin.
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Quinn’s Theory of Soul-Mates - The number of times the word soul-mates is used in public is in reverse proportion to the number of months the relationship lasts.
She crafts eulogies to die for, and appreciates technical help from long-term partner Art whose ‘drone’ photographs important clues.
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Each chapter of ‘Celebrant Sleuth; I Do or Die’ is self contained, but a regular cast of eccentric locals including Ever-Rest Retirement Village residents and Bea the florist with Apology Bouquets thrive in new stories.
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‘Wed Then Dead on The Ghan’, an Agatha Christie role- play which ends in real death, is a mini sequel currently being adapted for screen and others are planned.
A murder. A missing manuscript. An undying love.
Thisbe Chisholm wants to be a writer. It’s 2007, a time of digital revolution and skyrocketing property prices, but she’s an old-fashioned girl. She doesn’t even own a mobile phone. She has no stars-in-her-eyes desire for fame, to see her name on the cover of a book, either. She longs only to tell of the stories written on her heart. While her best friends, Penny and Jane, and her darling boyfriend, John, seem set for stellar careers in their chosen fields, Thisbe works nights as a hostess at a glitzy harbourside Sydney club – a job she despises but it’s paid the rent for the last three years since university graduation. Just as she completes her novel, though, she is brutally killed at the end of John’s street.
Who murdered Thisbe? What will become of her novel?
Joey was a poker player with a history who found the Mystical Glasses that allowed him to win at cards.
He enjoyed taking down the casinos and spending their money. Life was good for Joey and his female friend.
Then it all changed from fun to living in fear.
Stalked by a psychopathic killer out for revenge and the glasses, Joey was now faced with staying alive. A crime thriller with characters from today’s headlines where the innocent and the guilty change places to satisfy their own ambitions.
Jack Kregas with personal knowledge as a poker player and casino client is evident in this crime fiction thriller. Familiar locations authenticate the story line with twists and turns astonishing the reader.
Joey Moretti had been on the run for years wandering aimlessly.
By chance, he met a Native American who invited him to his home on a reservation. It brings change to Joey’s life that rekindles his spirit, bestows him with love, peace, and fulfillment.
Alex is a car thief who is also on the run for double crossing the wrong people. He changed professions becoming a manager in an Indian casino.
An unimaginable event occurs that shatters lives.
Was it an accident or was it something else? Joey has no choice but to become the face of Innocent Retribution
Get out and don’t look back.
That had been Ray Leeton’s way of doing things ever since he had escaped the small town of Lofts Creek where he had grown up. But after fifteen years he’s back, returned to attend the funeral of his Aunt Lucy, the woman who raised him. It was to be a quick visit. But there’s something going on, something that doesn’t sit right.
Families are being pulled apart. Kids being taken in by the local so-called orphanage at an alarming rate. The land is going to pot, polluted and ignored. And there are too many people who seem to want Ray and his partner, Marcy, dead or gone. There’s also the matter of the murder rap that continues to haunt him, that may well still see him end up in jail. The urge is to run, again. Like he always does.
But he’s sick of running, sick of always turning his back. He’ll stay, poke around a bit. It might be the making of him. It might be the death of him.
The lost Tomb of the First Emperor of China is about to be found. But this powerful Taoist sorceror is not ... quite ... dead.
Love Indiana Jones? Love Jack Burton? Then you will love this.
Jeremy Wang is still smarting from being academically disgraced by his room mate, Brett East. But now Jeremy needs to enlist Brett’s help - because he’s found something... a clue. A clue to unravel one of history's greatest mysteries.
Where is the Tomb of the First Emperor of China? A fiend so foul, he slaughtered entire civilisations in his insane quest to conquer the known world and form the mighty empire that bears his name to this day.
To discover the Elixir of Life and defeat Death herself. To rise again and conquer Heaven.
The goddesses must be appeased!
Nine naked hysterical women appear out of nowhere triggering a spate of bizarre deaths in the town of Didymus. Detective Hubert Maimone must find the shadowy mastermind behind these deaths... that all lead back to him.
Do you love to read? But have no time to read? Then you will love Sophrosyne. Ten commute-length stories and a BONUS hidden story.
A Curse will be invoked. A new king will restore an ancient realm. A sacred stone will untie a kingdom.
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Duleep Singh wants to rob a thief. A thief who stole his people’s most sacred relic. And that thief is a fallen empire.
Major Robert Campbell wants to right an ancient wrong. But his window of opportunity to change the world is closing fast. Cassandra wants to live up to her namesake, the soothsaying Trojan princess. She knows how to untie the kingdom.
Fans of political thrillers will love The Untied Kingdom.
Corruption, greed, torture, and murder behind a hotel/marina project have triggered a kidnapping.
With no certainty that payment will end the conflict, Joey and Mira become reluctantly involved. Aided by the most unlikely allies, they formulate a clever strategy to resolve the dangerous situation.
Readers met Joey Moretti in Mystical Glasses and Innocent Retribution discovering he is a man with distinctive talents and the ability to deal with unpleasant tasks.
In Contested Ransom, we see more of Joey Moretti being tested to the limit.
Joey Moretti’s life is never easy.
The Moretti group of companies is under an attack by unknown sources. When Mira and his new baby are the target of violence, it all becomes personal.
Who is behind these actions? Who can be trusted? How to protect himself and his family?
Joey and his friend follow leads from Aruba to New York trying to uncover the answers to these questions. The deeper they dig, the more shocking the information becomes.
Betrayal, torture, and revenge are old friends of Joey’s but is he getting too old for more upheaval? Is it time for him to let it go and disappear into the sunset?
Explore the world on the other side of the street!
Entering the tunnels is easy, but Ripley and Gabriela soon discover that reaching the surface again will be the greatest challenge they have ever faced...
Who are the mysterious tunnel dwellers and why have they founded an underground community of their own? Who is the tunnel runner and why is he so determined to kill anyone who ventures too close to the Chambers?
As they unlock the secrets of this subterranean society, Ripley and Gabriela will also discover the answer to a mystery of their own – one that has haunted Gabriela since childhood.
How far will a woman go to understand?
At dawn on the outskirts of Paris in 1869, Hortense Kinck lies buried alive and surrounded by five of her children. Violently attacked, tormented and trapped, she sifts through the truths and deceits of her marriage to self-made industrialist, Jean Kinck.
Why had he lied?
France, snug in the prosperity of Napoleon III’s Second Empire, is shocked by the vicious destruction of the bourgeois Kinck family. Under pressure from his superiors, the Chief of Police, Monsieur Claude, must unravel the baffling connections between the family and a mysterious young man, Jean-Baptiste Troppmann, a cold case, a famous palmist and France’s rising tide of dissatisfaction with the Emperor Napoleon III.
The Cast of a Hand is an unforgettable love story and a murder mystery based on one of the most shocking crimes of 19th century Paris. GS Johnston’s razor sharp prose interweaves and cross-pollinates the two narratives, both desperately trying to arrive at the truth.
Slick Morrison appeared with Joey Moretti in Contested Ransom. He changed careers and is back with his own brand of justice!
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Slick Morrison is a peaceful man with a dubious background. Defenseless people being taken advantage of annoys him. Changing careers to become a licensed private investigator, he intends to help those who others would not.
At a dog boarding establishment where hardly anything is at it seems, a young boy dies in suspicious circumstances. The police are not interested in another Mexican drug death.
Kira Kozlov is running scared. Her Russian diplomat husband who is being deported for espionage has threatened to kill her. Fearful of more abuse and ultimately dying, she asks Slick to help her. Slick and his partner, Charlie Hill, ex police dog squad, agrees to investigate.
Little do they realize how much they will have to bend the law to bring justice to their clients.Does Slick’s justice get results?
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