The lady of the loch

Elena Collins
‘Although I believe I will die here in this castle, my spirit will never be silent.’
Ravenscraig Castle, Scotland. 1307

When the castle she works in is sacked by the army of Prince Edward of England, kitchen maid Agnes Fitzgerald manages to escape north of Inverness to throw herself at the mercy of the Lord and Lady at Ravenscraig Castle.

Although safe for now, the people of Scotland are fighting hard for their independence, and the threat of the English hangs heavy over the land. But when Agnes spies Cam Buchanan swimming in the loch, her mind turns away from war and towards love. Agnes even dares to dream of a happy future, until she learns that Cam must go and fight alongside Robert de Brus.

Present day

Twins Leah and Zoe need a change, so caretaking at Ravenscraig Castle is the perfect opportunity to get away from it all. Surrounded by rugged Highland countryside, and bordered by a loch, the picturesque setting is everything they dreamed of. But the locals are reluctant to visit Ravenscraig, and there are whispers of ghosts and lost souls. The sisters quickly dismiss such superstition, but soon the overwhelming sadness they feel coming from the tower grows too hard to ignore.

Can the sisters finally right the wrongs of seven hundred years of heartbreak, seven hundred years of betrayal…

Brisbane and World War II

Barry Shaw
Brisbane and World War II is the Brisbane History Group’s 24th volume of papers. The volume is divided into three sections. The first focuses predominantly on the home front, the second on front line activity and the third on various ways in which the war is recorded and remembered.

Written by amateurs, professionals and academics, the book presents a fascinating insight into Brisbane’s contribution during and after the tumultuous years of World War II.

Gone

Glenna Thomson
A missing girl … a cold case … a sister who won’t give up … ‘I was there on the day Rebecca disappeared. I watched her hurry away. If I close my eyes I can still see her…’

When Rebecca Bundy fails to return home after the last day of school in 1984 her father reports her missing. But the teenager has run away before and recently she’s been bragging about going to Queensland, so the police tell the family to wait it out.

Days pass. Rumours swirl. A man seen loitering near the bus stop might have followed her. Was there something going on between Rebecca and a male teacher? What about the sheep farmer on Glen Lochan Road where she babysat? And why is her boyfriend, the rough cattle guy Bull Tennant, so sure something sinister has happened?

Then a shocking murder-suicide at a local farm diverts police attention and Rebecca’s disappearance all too quickly becomes a cold case.

But her younger sister Eliza has never forgotten, and for almost forty years she’s been looking for answers.

Twenty seven minutes

Ashley Tate
Phoebe Dean was the most popular girl alive and dead. For the last ten years, the small, claustrophobic town of West Wilmer has been struggling to understand one thing: Why did it take young Grant Dean twenty-seven minutes to call for help on the fateful night of the car accident that took the life of his beloved sister, Phoebe?

Someone knows what really happened the night Phoebe died. Someone who is ready to tell the truth.

With Phoebe’s memorial in just three days, grief, delusion, ambition, and regret tornado together with biting gossip in a town full of people obsessed with a long-gone tragedy with four people at its heart—the caretaker, the secret girlfriend, the missing bad boy, and a former football star. Just kids back then, are forever tied together the fateful rainy night Phoebe died.

The accident

Fiona Lowe
A terrible crash… but the facts don’t add up. Worlds converge and two women’s lives are torn apart when a devastating accident uncovers a shocking web of lies. Freya thought she could relax when Ryan’s best mate Jamie got engaged to her best friend Hannah. Two couples, four friends – what could be better than that? But a day before the wedding Freya’s torn between keeping the peace or blowing it up.

Hannah’s perfect wedding is hours away and she’s daydreaming of a honeymoon in Tahiti and starting the family she longs for when she hears the first-responder sirens. Is it a grass fire? Worse? And why aren’t Ryan or Jamie answering their phones?

When a car veers off the road with devastating consequences, the small wheatbelt town of Garringarup is left reeling, but no one’s world is more shattered than Hannah and Freya’s. As disturbing details surrounding the accident emerge and questions pile up, ugly secrets rise to the surface.

Mystery, lies and scandal – it’s soon obvious nothing is as it seems in this small town…

Ten seconds

Robert Gold
After a tense birthday celebration in Haddley, journalist Ben Harper watches his boss, Madeline, get into the car that has come to collect her. He walks home, never imagining that by the next morning, Madeline will be missing.

To find Madeline, Ben will have to return to the now infamous murder case that made her journalism career over a decade ago. A case which, Ben quickly discovers, was never as simple as it seemed.

But time is of the essence, and soon it’s not just Madeline’s life on the line . . .

Glenrock

Lee Christine
When Justice Maurice Tempest is murdered in the Glenrock State Conservation Area in Newcastle, local detective Senior Sergeant Callan O’Connor is the first on the scene. News of a second body, found in the same location days later, makes what had looked like a revenge killing into so much more.

Angela Avery, formerly a political journalist, is spending a lot of time at the Hunter Valley Prison interviewing a soon-to-be-released forger, Benjamin Reid. When O’Connor’s investigation reveals an interest in Ben, Angela is determined to protect both her source and her fledgling relationship with O’Connor.

Meanwhile, two young, female lawyers have disappeared after making a devastating discovery in an upcoming case. Can O’Connor unravel the connections before the body count rises further? And how much does Angela Avery really know?’…

Three-inch teeth

C.J. Box
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage—killing, among others, the fiancee of Joe’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a list of six names tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him the people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property.

Targeted are a judge, the county prosecutor, his lawyer, a prison guard—and both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett. Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates devises a method of violence identical to the bear killings and sets out to methodically check off his list.

The stolen hours

Karen Swan
It’s the summer of 1929 and Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear he can’t support her past the coming winter. On the small, Scottish island of St Kilda, her options are limited. But the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on distant Harris also in need of a spouse. A plan is hatched for Donald to chaperone Mhairi and make the introduction on his final crossing of the year, before the autumn seas close them off to the outside world.

Mhairi returns as an engaged woman who has lost her heart – but not to her fiancé. In love with the wrong man yet knowing he can never be hers, she awaits the spring with growing dread, for the onset of calm waters will see her sent from home to become a stranger’s wife. When word comes that St Kilda is to be evacuated, the lovers are granted a few months’ reprieve, enjoying a summer of stolen hours together. Only, those last days on St Kilda will also bring trauma and heartache for Mhairi and her friends, Effie and Flora. And when a dead body is later found on the abandoned isle, all three have reason enough to find themselves under the shadow of suspicion . . .

The Stolen Hours is Book Two in Karen Swan’s bestselling Wild Isle Series.

Cell

Stephen King
Where were you on October 1st at 3:03 pm? Graphic artist Clay Riddell was in the heart of Boston on that brilliant autumn afternoon when hell was unleashed before his eyes. Without warning, carnage and chaos reigned. Ordinary people fell victim to the basest, most animalistic destruction. And the apocalypse began with the ring of a cell phone…


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