Archive | New Releases

Michael Trant
Someone is stalking gold hunters. Now a bushman is stalking them . . . Terry Drage is not the first amateur gold prospector to rock up to the Murchison Hotel, brag about an exciting discovery – and then vanish into thin air. But Gabe Ahern is determined he will be the last.

No one knows the land around the remote Western Australian town of Cue better than Gabe – a wild dog trapper who’s in his element in the bush. Feeling responsible for his friend’s fate, he races there to join the search.

But it won’t be an easy ride. For a start the local cops seem sure Terry going missing is nothing more than a tragic accident. It’s down to Gabe to spot the sinister pattern of disappearances and deaths in recent years.

Plus, the last time Gabe was in his old home town it was under the very worst of circumstances. And now, to stop a killer, he’ll need to confront the ghosts from his past . . .

Nicci French
Nancy North is ready to put her life back together. After suffering a psychotic break that ruined friendships, stalled her fledgling restaurant, and forced her to move out of her comfortable flat, she’ll do anything to get back to normal. She and her partner Felix—who has been a saint through her recent troubles—move into a new flat for a fresh start.

Nancy is taking her pills, seeing her therapist, and avoiding unnecessary stress. She’s doing absolutely everything right, but something is still very, very wrong. On the first day in the new flat, she hears them again; the mysterious voices that triggered her first episode. It could just be the unfamiliar sounds of water in the pipes, or the screaming baby across the hall, but deep down she knows something more sinister is going on. Her fears are confirmed when the young woman in the downstairs flat, Kira, is found dead. Felix, her neighbors, and even the police insist it’s a tragic suicide, but the pieces aren’t adding up for Nancy. Can she trust her own instincts, or is it all in her head?

Meanwhile, Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor has misgivings about her colleagues’ investigation of Kira’s death. The boys club at the top seems intent on closing the case as quickly as possible, especially since the only person who thinks it could be anything other than suicide is known to be unreliable. But Maud knows what it’s like to be dismissed as an over-emotional woman and isn’t so quick to discount Nancy’s claims. As tensions reach an explosive breaking point, the line between fact and delusion becomes dangerously blurred, but Maud will stop at nothing to ensure that the truth comes to light.

Rachel Johns
When serial dater Winifred Darling – Fred – is asked to be the maid of honour at her mother’s sixth wedding, she’s determined to do everything in her power to stop it. As the author of a forthcoming book called 21 Rules for Not Catching Feelings, she knows better than most about the perils of falling in love.

On arrival at the island wedding destination, Fred is delighted to discover that the groom’s hot muso son Leo is just as set against the wedding as she is. Together, they come up with ‘Operation Break-Up’ to prevent their parents from making what they believe will be a catastrophic mistake.

But as Fred and Leo get to know each other better, their unexpected feelings for each other create further complications, and Fred is forced to rethink her own rigid rules about romance and family. Maybe not every relationship has to play by the book, and could Fred become the star in a romcom of her own?

A heart-warming friends-to-lovers romance about the magic and mayhem of weddings – and what happens when everything you thought you knew about love is turned upside down.

Mandy Robotham
London, 1952. Seven years after the chaotic aftermath of World War II, London has is coming alive again, with jazz clubs and flickering cinema awnings lighting up the night sky. But for widowed Helen ‘Dexie’ Dexter, she’s still a woman in a man’s world. She longs to prove herself as an officer in the London Metropolitan Police, yet she’s stuck intervening in domestics and making tea for her male colleagues.

Then Harri Schroder arrives, seconded from Hamburg to the Met. Haunted by the loss of his wife and child, Harri is unlike any man Dexie has ever known. Compassionate and sharp-witted, he sees her not as a threat, but as an intelligent, canny officer full of potential.

And when Harri is tasked with hunting down a Nazi war criminal-turned-respected-businessman, with connections to the upper echelons of British society, it’s Dexie he turns to for help.

But as their bond deepens, a deadly fog engulfs London. Dexie and Harri must expose the fugitive before he vanishes, risking everything for justice – and each other…

Geoff Parkes
‘She wasn’t the first and she wouldn’t be the last; swallowed into the deep, dark recesses of the King Country bush, never to be seen again.’ It’s January 1983. During his university summer break, Ryan Bradley returns to the remote town of Nashville in New Zealand’s rugged King Country.

It’s a bittersweet he’s working long, punishing hours as a wool-presser, he needs to sell his late mother’s house, and he’s increasingly feeling like an outcast in his childhood town. But mostly he’s haunted by memories of Sanna Sovernen, a Finnish backpacker and his secret lover, who worked with him in the shearing shed the summer before – then vanished without trace.

Now Sanna’s sister Emilia has arrived from Finland, determined to get answers – and as he’s the workmate who reported Sanna missing, she wants Ryan’s help. Because Emilia knows her sister was not the first female traveller in the area to disappear . . .

Paul A. MacNamara
Inside Juvie plunges readers into the eye-opening journey of Tommy, a former state school teacher now navigating the tumultuous world of juvenile detention. Transitioning from teaching adults in prisons to stepping into classrooms within youth incarceration facilities is a far cry from the predictability and safety of traditional education.

Amidst the chaos, violence, and fleeting moments of connection, Tommy rides a gritty roller-coaster, encountering unexpected breakthroughs amidst the turmoil. The stories are both heartbreaking and compelling: a 12-year-old who has never known the security of three meals a day, a young detainee who waits in vain for a mother’s visit that never comes, and the frightening escalations of violence that trigger duress alarms, security guards and devastating consequences.

With a candid blend of darkness, hope, and humour, Inside Juvie explores the intricacies of the youth justice system. It sheds light on the harsh realities, diverse backgrounds, and daunting challenges faced by incarcerated youth, as well as the teachers who strive to reach them. This book promises readers a compelling journey through the often overlooked and misunderstood realm of juvenile detention.

Richard Goding
When Richard Gosling’s young daughter faced emergency surgery, a colleague carelessly asked what would happen if she died. In that moment, Richard was forced to picture his own daughter’s funeral, and the people who are there to help families after the worst has happened.

Aged 40, Richard left his job in the public service and started preparing coffins, driving hearses, assisting in the mortuary and bringing in the deceased from hospitals and nursing homes, slowly working his way up to become operations manager of a venerable Sydney funeral home.

After the Worst Has Happened lifts the curtain on a world we all try to avoid but must pass through. It shows the lighter side of death amid all its other facets, as Richard steers families through heartbreak, anger and grief while holding space for love and acceptance. Ultimately, it’s about how extraordinarily beautiful it can be to spend a daily life surrounded by our final rite of passage.

Susan Duncan
From the author of the bestselling Sleepless in Stringybark Bay, this new book celebrates life, love, community and the power of forgiveness. When former journalist turned café owner Kate Jackson abandons her six-month-old baby and disappears without a word, the quirky offshore community of Cook’s Basin quickly steps in to salvage a delicate and difficult situation. But even the best intentions can go horribly awry.

Relationships are tested, loyalties divided and the future of the beloved Briny Café, the beating heart of the community, comes under threat. It takes a group of bossy retirees to navigate the brittle twists and turns of the grim past to point the way towards a hopeful future.

Wrapped in the colourful culture of a boat-access community, Finding Joy in Oyster Bay, the final book in the Cook’s Basin series, celebrates life, love, community and the power of forgiveness.

Jessica Dettmann
Family is forever, and there’s nothing you can do about it. The charming, hilarious and all-too-relatable new novel from the author of How to be Second Best Molly’s a millennial home organiser about to have her first baby. Obviously her mum, Annie, will help with the childcare. Everyone else’s parents are doing it.

But Annie’s dreams of music stardom have been on hold for thirty-five years, paused by childbirth then buried under her responsibilities as a mother, wage earner, wife, and only child of ailing parents. Finally, she can taste freedom.

As Molly and her siblings gather in the close quarters of the family home over one fraught summer, shocking revelations come to light. Everyone is forced to confront the question of what it means to be a family.

This Has Been Absolutely Lovely is a story about growing up and giving in, of parents and children, of hope and failure, of bravery and defied expectation, and the question of whether it is ever too late to try again.