NEW RELEASES

January 2013

The Dunbar Case by Peter Corris (pub. Allen & Unwin) Publisher’s Synopsis : This wasn't Hardy's usual brief--uncover the mysteries of a nineteenth-century shipwreck--but he could do with an easy case and the retainer was generous. But is it ever that simple? Not with a notorious crime family tearing itself apart, and an undercover cop playing both sides against the middle. These and an alluring but fiercely ambitious female journalist give Hardy all the trouble he can handle. 'Ever feel manipulated?' Hardy asks. The body count mounts up as he pushes closer to the truth about the mystery and the loot.

Strikeforce Lightning by Mark Aitken (pub. Allen & Unwin) Publisher’s Synopsis : His war is over and former special forces captain Gerry Gallen is enjoying the relative peace of running a cattle ranch in Wyoming. But when he's asked to lead a team to Jordan to retrieve his war-time sergeant, he agrees. Landing in Amman, Gallen re-enters a world of Arab gangsters, American mercenaries and the constantly shifting loyalties of the CIA. And watching over his every step is the lethal presence of Hamas - a daily reminder that Gallen is working under the constant threat of death. Nothing about the gig is what it seems and as Gallen realises that his former boss has stolen $3 million dollars from some powerful locals, the spectre of Iraqi aggression rears its head. But why are neo-Baathists chasing Gallen? And what do they want with the cargo he is carrying? Hunted, beaten and trapped, Gerry Gallen is a man running two races... Can he break clear before lightning strikes?

December 2012

Paving the New Road by Sulari Gentill (pub. Pantera Press) Publisher’s Synopsis : It’s 1933, and the political landscape of Europe is darkening. Eric Campbell, the man who would be Australia’s Führer, is on a fascist tour of the Continent, meeting dictators over cocktails and seeking allegiances in a common cause.  Yet the Australian way of life is not undefended.  Old enemies have united to undermine Campbell’s ambitions.  The clandestine armies of the Establishment have once again mobilised to thwart any friendship with the Third Reich. But when their man in Munich is killed, desperate measures are necessary. Now Rowland Sinclair must travel to Germany to defend Australian democracy from the relentless march of Fascism. Amidst the goosestepping euphoria of a rising Nazi movement, Rowland encounters those who will change the course of history. In a world of spies, murderers and despotic madmen, he can trust no-one but an artist, a poet and a brazen sculptress.

Hunter: Intrepid 2 by Chris Allen (pub. Momentum Press) Publisher’s Synopsis :  Alex Morgan – policeman, soldier and spy for Intrepid, the black ops division of Interpol – is on the hunt for Serbian war criminals. But these guys were never going to let it be that simple. An assassination attempt is made on the presiding judge of the international tribunal. Days later, the judge’s daughter, the famous and beautiful classical pianist Charlotte Rose, vanishes in mysterious circumstances. The girl is not just a pretty face and the daughter of a judge, however. She’s also the goddaughter of Intrepid’s veteran commander, General Davenport. It’s up to Morgan and the Intrepid team to track the kidnappers and the missing woman before the very fabric of international justice is picked apart at its fraying edges.

November 2012

	Defender: Intrepid 1 by Chris Allen (pub. Momentum Books) Publisher’s Synopsis :  When an intelligence agent is brutally murdered and the president of a small African country is put in danger, Morgan is sent in on his first solo mission. His cover is to evacuate a group of aid workers, with the help of the beautiful but distant Arena Halls, before the country is swept by civil war. But his true mission is much darker. A spy has gone rogue – and there’s more at stake than the guy’s career in the Secret Intelligence Service. A heart-pounding, no-holds-barred chase from the dark heart of Africa to the crystalline waters of Sydney culminates in a fight to the death to stop a vicious renegade intelligence officer and uncover the shadowy conspiracy behind him. Can Morgan stay alive long enough to save the girl, save himself and bring them all to justice?
	Cyanide and Poppies by Carolyn Morwood (pub. Pulp Fiction Press) Publisher’s Synopsis : When reporter Edward Bain is found dead in his office at The Argus newspaper, Eleanor Jones realises that this is murder. Eleanor, no longer a nurse, now writes film reviews for the newspaper, but she still knows the signs of violent death. She also knows the mark that war can leave on the living; her brother, Andrew, continues to face daily battles with shell-shock. But instead of getting rest and quiet, Andrew’s out with glamorous clairvoyant, Nadine Carrides, on the streets of Melbourne - streets that are turning ugly as the police call a strike and the city fills with lawless crowds. Could this looting and chaos be a smokescreen behind which the killer is unleashing a more personal anger? As potential witnesses are attacked, Eleanor is drawn into the investigation, in an uneasy alliance with Inspector Pearce, a man who doesn’t believe in coincidences. Then, an arrest is made for Bain’s murder, and it would seem that the mystery has been solved. But Eleanor is aware that many carry secrets - secret losses, secret desires - and that some people are fiercely protective of such secrets. With events building to a dangerous conclusion at the Melbourne Cup ball, Eleanor will have to face events from her own past in order to bring a killer to justice.
	Dark City Blue by Luke Preston (pub. Momentum Books) Publisher’s Synopsis : A fistful of people are murdered, fifteen million dollars is stolen and detective Tom Bishop is stuck in the middle. When he hits the street, every clue points in the same direction – his colleagues in a police department demoralised by cutbacks and scandals. Hunted, alone and with no place left to turn, Bishop embarks on a hellish journey down into the gutters where right and wrong quickly become twisted and problems are solved with gunfire and bloodshed. Over the next two days, Tom Bishop will be cornered. He will be beaten. He will bust into prison. He will shoot at police. He will team up with violent criminals. He will become one of them. He will break every rule in the book, chasing a lead nobody else will go near down a rabbit hole of corruption, murder and buried secrets. Will Bishop become the very monster he set out to destroy?
	Dark Heart by Tony Park (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis :  Lawyer Mike Ioannou is dead after a hit and run in Thailand. A home invasion threatens the life of medico Richard Dunlop. In Johannesburg, a carjacker nearly kills photojournalist Liesl Nel. Unrelated incidents in a dangerous world, or something else entirely? Australian war crimes prosecutor Carmel Shang joins the dots. All three victims are linked by a photograph that was clutched in the hand of a dying man nearly twenty years ago. The picture holds a clue to how madness gripped a country resulting in a million people losing their lives. Carmel has to not only confront the perpetrators of the unprecedented slaughter, but Richard and Liesl, the two people she never wanted to see again. Richard was the UN military doctor she was in love with in Rwanda, and Liesl was the woman who came between them. Now they are thrown together again, desperately trying to find out why the photograph is making them the targets of an assassin. In a quest that takes them from South Africa's Kruger National Park to Zambia, Australia, and back to Rwanda, where it all began, they find that amidst the indestructible majesty and beauty of Africa, yesterday's merchants of death are dealing in a new currency – illegal traditional medicine and the barbaric live trade in endangered African wildlife; businesses they're prepared to kill for to protect.

October 2012

Blackwater Moon by B. Michael Radburn (pub. Pantera Press) Publisher’s Synopsis : Andy Walker, son, lover and an ex-soldier, knows tragedy is only ever a heartbeat away. When an inmate escapes from the prison farm upriver and abducts Nathan, a child Andy has vowed to protect after losing his own son years before, Andy Walker discovers that the escapee is a dark figure from his past, the devil who changed his life, the man who introduced him to 'The Game'. 'Blackwater may keep just one more secret...'

Sisters of Mercy by Caroline Overington (pub. Bantam Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : Snow Delaney was born a generation and a world away from her sister, Agnes. Until recently, neither even knew of the other's existence. They came together only for the reading of their father's will - when Snow discovered, to her horror, that she was not the sole beneficiary of his large estate. Now Snow is in prison and Agnes is missing, disappeared in the eerie red dust that blanketed Sydney from dawn on September 23, 2009. With no other family left, Snow turns to crime journalist Jack Fawcett, protesting her innocence in a series of defiant letters from prison. Has she been unfairly judged? Or will Jack's own research reveal a story even more shocking than the one Snow wants to tell?

September 2012

Death By Beauty by Gabrielle Lord (pub. Hachette Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : How far would you go to look young and beautiful? A young woman is attacked, she claims, by a vampire. Two more are found dead and hideously disfigured. A journalist goes missing after visiting Sapphire Springs Spa. And it's up to Gemma Lincoln, PI, to find out what is going on. In her first week back on the job after maternity leave, finding a balance between investigating brutal crimes, caring for baby Rafi and making time for herself and Mike is all too much. Something has to give, but not while a third woman's life is in danger. As she moves closer to tying the crimes together, Rafi disappears. Facing a mother's worst nightmare, Gemma discovers what she is prepared to do to save her son.

 

August 2012

	Pink Tide by Jarad Henry (pub. Australian Scholarly Publishing) Publisher’s Synopsis : After a series of harrowing and life-changing cases in St Kilda—Head Shot & Blood Sunset—DS Rubens McCauley is burnt out and on the edge. Addicted to prescription medication, running away from too many years on the front line, he finds himself wandering the shores of Jutt Rock—a small town on Victoria’s south-western coastline—in search for the quiet life. And, for a while, he finds it. Every day, as the sun sets over the ocean, the brilliant wash of colour reflects on the shoreline—a Pink Tide. A picture-perfect respite; no crime, no stress. But after McCauley’s nephew and his mate are brutally bashed while walking home from a party, McCauley realises that the Pink Tide has another meaning. With one victim dead and his nephew clinging to life in hospital, he knows he must act. In hunting down the attackers, his faith in the criminal justice system and in human decency itself is severely tested.
	Say You’re Sorry by Michael Robotham (pub. Sphere) Publisher’s Synopsis : When Piper and her friend Tash disappeared, there was a huge police search, but they were never found. Now Tash, reaching breaking point at the abuse their captor has inflicted on them, has escaped, promising to come back for Piper. Clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin and his stalwart companion, ex-cop Vincent Ruiz, force the police to re-open the case after Joe is called in to assess the possible killer of a couple in their own home and finds a connection to the missing girls. But they are racing against time to save Piper from someone with an evil, calculating and twisted mind...
	Thirst by L.A. Larkin (pub. Murdoch Books) Publisher’s Synopsis : Antarctica is the coldest, most isolated place on earth. Luke Searle, maverick glaciologist, has made it his home. But soon his survival skills will be tested to the limit by a ruthless mercenary who must win at any cost. The white continent is under attack. The Australian team is being hunted down. Can Luke stay alive long enough to raise the alarm? Can he avert a global catastrophe? The countdown has begun. T minus 5 days, 2 hours and 53 minutes...
	The Midnight Promise by Zane Lovitt (pub. Text Publishing) Publisher’s Synopsis :  John Dorn is a private investigator. Just like his father used to be. It says ‘private inquiry agent’ in John’s yellow pages ad because that’s what his old man called himself, back before his business folded, his wife left him and he drank himself to death. But John’s not going to end up like his father. He doesn’t have a wife, or much business. He doesn’t really drink, either. Not yet. In each of these ten delicious stories Zane Lovitt presents an intriguing investigation filled with humour and complex, beautifully observed characters. At their centre is John Dorn, solving not so much crimes as funny human puzzles; but the crimes, and the criminals, are forever lurking nearby, taunting him from the city’s cold underworld.
	Harry Curry: The Murder Book by Stuart Littlemore (pub. Harper Collins Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : The renegade barrister Harry Curry and his elegant partner, Arabella Engineer, return with more thrilling spanner-in-the-works criminal trials, every one of them in defence of clients charged with murder. Meet the multiple murderer seeking a discounted sentence because he confesses to killings about which the police are clueless. Pity the fisherman who hated the sea, driven to let loose at his landlord with a rifle, plugging him ten times. And share the sadness of a shaken-baby case, where Harry, ever the iconoclast, takes on the conventional wisdom of self-serving medical experts. Throughout these cases and more, the Curry-Engineer relationship waxes and wanes: Harry sells his Erskineville terrace and retreats to a farm on the Far South Coast; Arabella is showered with high-paying civil work and looks set for a life on the District Court bench. Harry′s visits to Sydney are few and far between, and Ms Engineer begins to find excuses not to catch the little plane down to Merimbula ... Is it Harry′s fate to die an eccentric gentleman farmer? Will Arabella decamp with a suitable Indian boy? Can the pair-aided and abetted by faithful solicitor David Surrey-rediscover the spark that brought them together? Perhaps they will-if Wallace Curry QC, from the fastness of his top-end retirement facility, lends a hand ...
	Ghost Money by Andrew Nette (pub. Snubnose Press) Publisher’s Synopsis : Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of an unstable coalition government scrambling to gain the upper hand. Missing in the chaos is businessman Charles Avery. Hired to find him is Vietnamese Australian ex-cop Max Quinlan. But Avery has made dangerous enemies and Quinlan is not the only one looking. Teaming up with Heng Sarin, a local journalist, Quinlan’s search takes him from the freewheeling capital Phnom Penh to the battle scarred western borderlands. As the political temperature soars, he is slowly drawn into a mystery that plunges him into the heart of Cambodia’s bloody past. Ghost Money is a crime novel, but it’s also about Cambodia in the mid-nineties, a broken country, and what happens to people who are trapped in the cracks between two periods of history, locals and foreigners, the choices they make, what they do to survive.

 

July 2012

	Burning Lies by Helene Young (pub. Penguin Australia ) Publisher’s Synopsis : Lies, all lies. It didn't matter how attractive he might be. She didn't really know this man . . . He was living a lie and she didn't know why. Kaitlyn Scott is searching for the truth about her husband's death, even if that means revisiting the most painful day of her life. But what she uncovers is a criminal willing to stop at nothing to keep his secret. Ryan O'Donnell, an enigmatic undercover cop, is investigating arson attacks when he is drawn into Kaitlyn's world. He tries to fight his attraction for her, hoping the case might put his own demons to rest, but it only threatens to push him over the edge. With Kaitlyn and Ryan on a collision course, the arsonist seizes the chance to settle some old scores. As the Atherton Tableland burns, the three of them are caught in a fiery dance of danger and desire, and not everyone will come out alive.
	Cold Grave by Kathryn Fox (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : Forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton needs a break. Cocooned from the world aboard a luxury cruise ship, nothing can interrupt time with her precious six year old son. Peace is shattered when the body of a teenage girl is discovered shoved in a cupboard, dripping wet. With no obvious cause of death and the nearest port days away, Anya volunteers her forensic expertise. She quickly uncovers a sordid pattern of sexual assaults, unchecked drug use and mysterious disappearances. With crew too afraid to talk, she is drawn into the underbelly of the cruise line, its dangerous secrets and the murky waters of legal accountability. Shadowed by a head of security with questionable loyalties, Anya can trust no one. Her family's lives depend on what she does next. One thing is certain. There is a killer on board.
	War Lord by David Rollins (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : A $15 million ransom. A plane down in the remote swamps of Darwin. A new partner who plays by the rules. Returning from an enforced sabbatical after his partner Anna's death, Special Agent Vin Cooper feels compelled to help an acquaintance of hers – Vegas showgirl, Alabama Thornton. Alabama's boyfriend, Randy, was on a plane that's gone down and she's just received a gruesome ransom demand. But Vin's favour quickly spirals into a full-blown multi-agency screw-up. Not only was Randy hiding high-level secrets, he is also connected to a stolen nuclear weapon. Vin and his straight-laced new partner Kim Petinski chase leads from Darwin to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, and then further still into Tanzania. As their investigation hits dead ends, and dead bodies, an alarming possibility arises: the missing warhead is in the hands of Benicio von Weiss. Von Weiss is a major international arms dealer on every watchlist that counts; he's also a man of diverse tastes, including snakes and Nazi memorabilia. And he has an obsession: vengeance against America. If von Weiss is involved, all bets are off. With the threat of a plutonium mushroom cloud hanging over his head, Vin will risk his job – and his life – to bring the war lord to justice.

 

June 2012

A Stranger In My Street by Deborah Burrows (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher’s Synopsis : It's January 1943. Australia is at war and Perth is buzzing. US troops have permanently docked in the city in what local men refer to bitterly as the American occupation, and Perth women are having the time of their lives. The Americans have money, accents like movie stars, smart tailored uniforms and good manners. What's more, they love to dance and show a girl a good time, and young women are throwing caution to the wind and pushing social boundaries with their behaviour. Not Meg Eaton, however. The war has brought her nothing but heartbreak, stealing her young love eighteen months ago. Until, in the middle of a Perth heat-wave, she meets her lost lover's brother, Tom – standing over a dead body in her neighbour's backyard. Suddenly, Meg finds herself embroiled in the murder mystery, and increasingly involved with Tom Lagrange. But is he all that he seems? And what exactly was his relationship with the dead woman?

The Life by Malcolm Knox ( pub. Allen & Unwin) Publisher’s Synopsis :  He looked into the Pacific and the Pacific looked back into him. The Life tells the story of former-world-champion Australian surfer, Dennis Keith, from inside the very heart of the fame and madness that is 'The Life'. Now bloated and paranoid, former Australian surfing legend Dennis Keith is holed up in his mother's retirement village, shuffling to the shop for a Pine-Lime Splice every day, barely existing behind his aviator sunnies and crazy OCD rules, and trying not to think about the waves he'd made his own and the breaks he once ruled like a god. Years before he'd been robbed of the world title that had his name on it - and then drugs, his brother, and the disappearance and murder of his girlfriend and had done the rest. Out of the blue, a young would-be biographer comes knocking and stirs up memories Dennis thought he'd buried. It takes Dennis a while to realise that she's not there to write his story at all.

 

May 2012

	Silent Valley by Malla Nunn (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : A remote town. A girl of rare and exquisite beauty. A murder that silences a whole community. The body of a seventeen-year-old girl has been found covered in wildflowers on a hillside in the Drakensberg Mountains, near Durban. She is the daughter of a Zulu chief, destined to fetch a high bride price. Was Amahle as innocent as her family claims, or is her murder a sign that she lived a secret life? Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate. He must enter the guarded worlds of a traditional Zulu clan and a white farming community to gather up the clues Amahle left behind and bring her murderer to justice. But the silence in the valley is deafening, and it seems that everyone – from the uncooperative local police officer, to the white farm boy who seems obsessed with the dead girl – has something to hide. With no cause of death and no motive, Cooper's investigation is blocked at each turn. Can he tough it out, or will the small-town politics that stir up his feelings about the past be more than he can bear?
	Hell's Fury by P.D. Martin (pub. Amazon Digital Services) Publisher's Synopsis : She lies in an Afghani prison cell, disowned by the CIA and regularly tortured. Seven months into her prison term, a lone operator stages a daring extraction. But who is Decker, the mysterious man behind her rescue? He claims to represent The Committee, an international group made up of ex-professionals from the CIA, FBI, Interpol, MI5, Scotland Yard, Mossad and ASIS; a private organization that serves and protects where the current intelligence or justice agencies fall short. Decker also claims to know her long-dead father, and brings to the table an offer she can't refuse; "Go on one mission, and I'll tell you about your father's secret life." Her assignment: John Hope. Her orders: kill him.
	Running Dogs by Ruby J. Murray (pub. Scribe Publications) Publisher's Synopsis : Jakarta, 1997, and the city is on the verge of a revolution. Even the Jordan children — Petra, Isaak and Paul — can feel it coming, shaking the edges of their privileged, protected expat world. Years later, Diana, an Australian development worker, moves to Jakarta and becomes entwined in the powerful Jordans’ adult lives. As the monsoon descends, and the Jordans begin to fall apart, Diana sinks into the half-light of their past, where rumour and religion define the contours of the real, and the rules of the game change according to who is playing.
	The Betrayal by Y.A. Erskine (pub. Bantam Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Tasmania is in the grip of one of the longest, bleakest winters on record and it's particularly icy at the Hobart Police Station. Of the many golden rules in policing, one is especially sacred: what happens at work stays at work. So when a naive young constable, Lucy Howard, makes an allegation of sexual assault against a respected colleague, the rule is well and truly broken. Soon the station is divided. From Lucy's fellow rookies right up to the commissioner himself - everyone must take a side. With grudges, prejudices and hidden agendas coming into play, support arrives from the unlikeliest of corners. But so too does betrayal ...
	Blackwattle Creek by Geoffrey McGeachin (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : It's September 1957, two days before the VFL grand final, and Detective Sergeant Charlie Berlin finally has some time off. But there's no rest for this decent if damaged man, still troubled by his wartime experience as a bomber pilot and POW. A recently widowed friend asks a favour and he's dropped into something much bigger than he bargained for. When he uncovers dubious practices at a Melbourne funeral parlour, it's quickly obvious that anyone asking questions is also asking for trouble. His offsider is beaten and left for dead, witnesses are warned off, Special Branch is on his case, and even Berlin's young family may be at risk. His pursuit of the truth leads him to Blackwattle Creek, once an asylum for the criminally insane and now home to even darker evils. And if Berlin thought government machinations during World War II were devious, those of the Cold War leave them for dead . . .

 

April 2012

In Her Blood by Annie Hauxwell (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : It's not that easy to kick the money habit. After the world meltdown forces London's bankers to go cold turkey, people look elsewhere for a quick quid: the old fashioned East End. So when investigator Catherine Berlin gets an anonymous tip-off about a local loan shark, the case seems straightforward – until her informant is found floating in the Limehouse Basin. In another part of town, a notorious doctor is murdered in his surgery, and his entire stock of pharmaceutical heroin stolen. An unorthodox copper is assigned to the case, and Berlin finds herself a reluctant collaborator in a murder investigation. Now Berlin has seven days to find out who killed her informant, why the police are hounding her and, most urgently of all, where to find a new – and legal – supply of the drug she can't survive without.

 

March 2012

	Scared Yet? by Jaye Ford (pub. Random House Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : When Livia Prescott fights off a terrifying assault in a deserted car park, the media hail her bravery. And after a difficult year - watching her father fade away, her business struggle and her marriage fall apart - it feels good to strike back for once. But as the police widen their search for her attacker, menacing notes start arriving. And brave is not what she feels any longer ... Someone has decided to rip her life apart, then kick her when she's down. But is it a stranger or someone much closer to home? In fact, is there anyone she can now trust? When her family and friends are drawn into the stalker's focus - with terrifying consequences - the choice becomes simple. Fight back, or lose the people she loves the most...
	The Mistake by Wendy James (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Jodie Garrow is a teenager from the wrong side of the tracks when she falls pregnant. Scared, alone and desperate to make something of her life, she adopts out the baby illegally – and tells nobody. Twenty-five years on, Jodie has built a new life and a new family. But when a chance meeting brings the adoption to the notice of the authorities, Jodie becomes caught in a nationwide police investigation, and the centre of a media witch hunt. What happened to Jodie's baby? And where is she now? The fallout from Jodie's past puts her whole family under the microscope, and her husband and daughter must re-examine everything they believed to be true.
	A Dissection of Murder by Felicity Young (pub. Harper Collins Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : A woman. A doctor. A beastly science. At the turn of the twentieth century, London′s political climate is in turmoil, as women fight for the right to vote. Dody McCleland has her own battles to fight. As England′s first female autopsy surgeon, she must prove herself as she also proves that murder treats everyone equally... After a heated women′s rights rally turns violent, an innocent suffragette is found murdered. When she examines the body, Dody is shocked to realise that the victim was a friend of her sister -- fuelling her determination to uncover the cause of the protester′s suspicious death. For Dody, gathering clues from a body is often easier than handling the living -- especially Chief Detective Inspector Matthew Pike. Pike is looking to get to the bottom of this case but has a hard time trusting anyone -- including Dody. Determined to earn Pike′s trust and to find the killer, Dody will have to sort through real and imagined secrets. But if she′s not careful, she may end up on her own examination table ...
	Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitter's Institute by Maggie Groff (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : When a secretive American cult moves to the Gold Coast, freelance journalist Scout Davis's investigative antennae start quivering. She sets out to expose the cult's lunatic beliefs and bizarre practices, but when she learns the identity of a recent recruit, her quest becomes personal. And dangerous. The cult isn't the only case on Scout's agenda. Someone is cutting up girls' underwear at an exclusive school and Scout agrees to look into it. And the sinister secret behind the vandalism is not nice. Not at all. But Scout has her secrets too. In the dead of night she sneaks out with an underground group of yarn bombers to decorate the locality with artworks. The next mission ticks all the right boxes – it's risky, difficult and extremely silly. However, not everyone is amused, and Scout has a sneaking suspicion that the local police sergeant, Rafe Kelly, is hot on her tail.
	The Broken Ones by Stephen M. Irwin (pub. Random House Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : It's the near future and the world has descended into chaos. On the surface, everything looks the same yet the unthinkable has happened...the dead have risen. Everyone is haunted by a dead relative, friend, spouse, or stranger, and these spirits are unshakable, silent and watching. No one is safe. Governments the world over fail to deal with the epidemic, they begin to lose control of their economies and their resources. Their people. Crime is rife, and murders commonplace. But who is responsible: the ghosts or the people? Finding out is where Detective Oscar Mariani comes in, although it s nearly impossible to run a department when you can t even see half the suspects. His strike rate is embarrassingly low. Then he stumbles into a case that cuts through his apathy and depression, a case that suggests a ritualistic, brutal serial killer attracted to innocent young women at work and one that, unfortunately for Mariani and his less jaded partner, implicates those in high places. However, if he can solve it, and keep alive himself, he may be able to exorcise his own ghostly shadow, a dead young man who might just have something to say. Mixing police procedural, suspense and horror, Stephen M Irwin's new book is a compelling, knuckle-whitening ride.
	The Prodigal Son by Colleen McCullough (pub. Harper Collins) Publisher's Synopsis : Jim and Millie Hunter have it all: good looks, brilliant minds, and a meteoric rise to fame. Dr Jim Hunter is a genius biochemist, and author of a smash-hit science book that is propelling him to the top. His wife Millie, is a blonde bombshell and fellow scientist, researching rare poisons derived from puffer fish. They seem to have it all, but others in their academic circle have got the knives out, jealous of their success - and their inter-racial relationship arouses prejudice. So when a double murder is perpetrated, using poison stolen from Millie′s research lab, Captain Carmine Delmonico of Holloman Police must race to find the killer before they can claim their next victim. The pool of suspects is small, but nobody is talking. Have two men died to safeguard the publication of Jim′s book - or do rivalries and betrayals run deeper than that?

 

February 2012

 

	Miles Off Course by Sulari Gentill (pub. Pantera Press) Publisher's Synopsis : In early 1933, Rowland Sinclair and his companions are ensconced in the superlative luxury of The Hydro Majestic - Medlow Bath, where trouble seems distant indeed. And then Harry Simpson vanishes. Croquet and pre-dinner cocktails are abandoned for the High Country where Rowland hunts for Simpson with a determination that is as mysterious as the disappearance itself. Stockmen, gangsters and a belligerent writer all gather to the fray, as the investigation becomes embroiled with a much darker consipiracy. Murder, Treason, Trespass, Kidnapping, Betrayal... Again, Rowland Sinclair finds himself in the middle of it all.
	Silent Fear by Katherine Howell (pub. Macmillan Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : On a searing summer's day paramedic Holly Garland rushes to an emergency to find a man collapsed with a bullet wound in the back of his head, CPR being performed by two bystanders, and her long-estranged brother Seth watching it all unfold. Seth claims to be the dying man's best friend, but Holly knows better than to believe anything he says and fears that his re-appearance will reveal the bleak secrets of her past – secrets which both her fiance Norris and her colleagues have no idea exist, and which if exposed could cause her to lose everything. Detective Ella Marconi suspects Seth too, but she's also sure the dead man's wife is lying, and the deceased's boss seems just too helpful. But then a shocking double homicide related to the case makes Ella realise that her investigations are getting closer to the killer, but also increasing the risk of an even higher body count.
	The Cartographer by Peter Twohig (pub. Harper Collins Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Melbourne, 1959. An 11-year-old boy witnesses a murder as he spies through the window of a strange house. God, whom he no longer counts as a friend, obviously has a pretty screwed-up sense of humour: just one year before, the boy had looked on helplessly as his twin brother, Tom, suffered a violent death. Now, having been seen by the angry murderer, he is a kid on the run. With only a shady grandfather, a professional standover man and an incongruous local couple as adult mentors, he takes refuge in the dark drains and grimy tunnels beneath the city, transforming himself into a series of superheroes and creating a rather unreliable map to plot out places where he is unlikely to cross paths with the bogeyman.

January 2012

	Comeback by Peter Corris (pub. Allen & Unwin) Publisher's Synopsis : Cliff Hardy has his PI licence back - but does he still have what it takes to cut it on the mean streets of Sydney? Cliff reckons the skills are still there, if a little rusty, and actor Bobby Forrest's case looks promising. Bobby's a nice-enough guy, but why is he being stalked by a red-hot brunette? And why did he have to go online to find a date? When Bobby is murdered, it comes as a shock. Cliff's only solid lead is a white Commodore, the most ubiquitous car around. When a surprising connection with his own past surfaces, Cliff is forced to put some of his skills to the test. But is he heading in the wrong direction? Somehow he has to put it all together without losing his licence again, but in true Hardy fashion he's managing to find his way into trouble, not out of it.
	After the Darkness by Honey Brown (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Thrilling, stylish and strikingly atmospheric, After the Darkness is an extraordinary psychological suspense that examines the very moral codes by which we live.  In the fluid boundary between good and evil, where do we draw the line? It's only by chance that Trudy and Bruce Harrison notice the isolated ocean view gallery on their way home from holiday . . . It's not listed on any tourist pamphlet.  There are no other visitors.  Within the maze of rooms the couple begins to feel uneasy.  They are right to.  The next few hours will rip them from their safe, comfortable existence forever. Bruce and Trudy escape from the gallery, bruised and brutalised.  But a man is dead.  Was someone else there that day?  Did the attack even happen the way they remember it?  Their doubts grow until they can no longer trust anyone, not even each other.  There is no return from the dark places their fear will push them.
	Murder and Redemption by Noel Mealey (pub. Harper Collins) Publisher's Synopsis : In an empty land, there′s a lot of space to hide a body ... Having survived a brutal childhood in Bindoon orphanage, a tour in Vietnam and a spiral into alcoholism, Syd Fielding is now a detective sergeant in Geraldton. But when two men from the same cargo ship are murdered, he is drawn into the murky world of drug trafficking through WA′s mining towns. His investigation takes him alarmingly close to home and he is forced to realise that even the people he loves may not be what they seem ... Moody and atmospheric, this novel takes us across the vast expanse of Western Australia, against a canvas of red iron ore mines, green seas, bulk carriers, ports, brothels, drugs and gangland violence.
	The Rook by Daniel O'Malley (pub. Harper Collins Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : ′Dear You, The body you are wearing used to be mine.′ So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by corpses -- all wearing latex gloves (and startled expressions). With no memory of who she is or how she got there, the only way she can discover her identity and escape those who want to destroy her is to follow the instructions in a series of letters left behind by her former self. She learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in the Checquy, a secret government agency that protects the world against supernatural threats while keeping the populace in the dark. In her quest to save herself and unmask a traitor, Myfanwy must learn to harness her own rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability, and thwart a conspiracy more vast than she could ever have imagined.
	The Ionia Sanction by Gary Corby (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : ATHENS, 460 B.C.  Life's tough for Nicolaos, the only investigating agent in ancient Athens.  His girlfriend's left him and his boss wants to fire him.  But when an Athenian official is murdered, the brilliant statesman Pericles has no choice but to put Nico on the job. The case takes Nico, in the company of a beautiful slave girl, to the land of Ionia within the Persian Empire.  The Persians will execute him on the spot if they think he's a spy.  Beyond that, there are just a few minor problems. He's being chased by brigands who are only waiting for the right price before they kill him. Somehow he has to placate his girlfriend, who is very angry about that slave girl. He must win over Themistocles, the military genius who saved Greece during the Persian Wars, and then defected to the hated enemy. And to solve the crime, Nico must uncover a secret that could not only destroy Athens, but will force him to choose between love, and ambition, and his own life.

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