Petronella McGovern When careers counsellor Suze and her family are kidnapped from their home during a bushfire emergency, she thinks it’s the end—until the van crashes and sends her two weeks back in time. But only Suze remembers the terror that came before. Is it all in her own mind? Then it happens again. And again. With every loop, her world twists into a new version of itself. Suze must work out why this is happening and who is behind the kidnappings. But she’s running out of time to save her family and wake up in a world she recognises.
Margaret Hickey Detective Constable Sally White knows how easily hikers can go missing in Victoria’s high country. But there’s something about the disappearance of Louis Taylor, a young man lost up Mount Viking, that’s not sitting right with her. Louis was an aspiring journalist, researching the illegal tobacco trade – also known as chop chop – that was once so prevalent in the area. And the last person he interviewed before his hike has just met a gruesome end . . .
But with no other leads, and with the search winding down, Sally is forced to accept the young man died in a tragic accident. Until she learns of another missing person case that bears striking similarities. Astrid Marlowe, a young lawyer, vanished in the same mountains two years before. Were Louis and Astrid simply unlucky hikers lost in the treacherous terrain? Or did they both stumble into something – or someone – they shouldn’t?
Susannah Glenn Flying runs in Charlotte Clarke’s blood. As the daughter of a scenic flight owner, her life is spent soaring over Sydney’s glittering harbour—until a series of devastating tragedies sends her crashing to earth. First, her beloved grandmother and father, then her boyfriend, Connor, whose seaplane vanishes without a trace. Haunted by his mysterious disappearance and convinced she’s being watched, Charlotte flees to a quiet coastal town and hits rock bottom, saved from a storm by a mysterious fisherman. But the calm is an illusion. Her paranoia peaks when she spots a man she believes is Connor, only to be told she’s mistaken…As she uncovers shocking secrets about those she holds closest, Charlotte realises her life isn’t the only thing at risk. The truth about her past could be deadly.
Matthew Frank Lucinda Drummond, art history expert, was beautiful, clever, successful and loved. When she is found at the bottom of her museum’s Tulip Staircase during the pinnacle event of her career, people are as shocked as they are suspicious. Who could have wanted her dead?
Detectives Joe Stark and Fran Millhaven are quick on the case, leading them into a world of high art and extravagant wealth that proves far more twisted than they could have imagined. As the bodies begin to mount, and the case grows ever more complex, Stark and Fran must race discover the perpetrator – before the next victim falls . . .
Marg Mason Sophie Pattison loves books. And as well as a dream job at a local book festival, she has a husband she adores, a lifelong best friend, Emma, and a brother she’s always been close to. Which makes you wonder why since Christmas Sophie has been living alone, estranged from Emma, avoiding her brother, and about to be fired. Now it feels like the only thing she has left is reading. When Sophie re-discovers an author she first read in her twenties, the words on the page reach her in a new way—becoming both solace and company. Devouring every one of her novels, Sophie begins to dream of meeting her, knowing she never will. But what if she did? What if, by then, the author feels like a friend? What if, for Sophie, it feels almost like love?
In this much anticipated novel, Meg Mason captures the heartache and dark humor of our relationships in all their complexity, giving us a story about the power of connection and an ode to the inexplicable nature of the human heart.
Lisa Moule In Greengully, the perfect suburb with perfect parents, nothing is quite as it seems. Chrissy, the teacher who always has the answers, can’t understand why her clueless male colleague just scored the job she deserved. Jenny, the perennial class mum, is desperate to hide her son’s escalating behaviour from the other parents. Estelle insists her daughter Harmony is a delight—despite mounting evidence to the contrary. And Viv, the quiet one, carries a secret so dark it could destroy everything she loves.
As friendships strain and facades crack, the Greengully school year exposes the lies we tell ourselves and the masks we wear for others. Sharp-eyed and utterly relatable, it What would happen if we all stopped pretending everything was fine?
Rachel Hawkins When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge mountains. In the aftermath of her death, that estate—along with a nine-figure fortune and the complicated legacy of being a McTavish—pass to her adopted son, Camden.
But to everyone’s surprise, Cam wants little to do with the house or the money—and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Instead, he rejects his inheritance, settling into a normal life as an English teacher in Colorado and marrying Jules, a woman just as eager to escape her own messy past. Ten years later, Camden is a McTavish in name only, but a summons in the wake of his uncle’s death brings him and Jules back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but coming home reminds Cam why he was so quick to leave in the first place. Jules, however, has other ideas, and the more she learns about Cam’s estranged family—and the twisted secrets they keep—the more determined she is for her husband to claim everything Ruby once intended for him to have.
Richard Osman At sunrise, high in the Italian hills, a body is found on the steps of a beautiful private villa. On the body is a threatening note, signed by a mystery man. Back at We Solve Murders HQ, Amy, Rosie, and Steve leap at the chance to take on their first proper case. So what if their new client seems to have his own reasons for avoiding the police? All they need to do is uncover who left the note, and then find them. Simple.
But once they start digging, the suspects keep piling up: there’s Sweden’s most-wanted criminal, a canny ex-wife and a fierce business rival – yet the murderer keeps evading them. And as the trio chase a villain through the shadows, danger travels closer to home . . . Between Italy and Palm Springs, via Barcelona and Steve’s village pub, can the team catch an elusive killer who knows EXACTLY where to hide?
Katherine Kovacic Rena and Tom have been planning this trip for just the two of them, retired, setting out into remote bush country to enjoy nature’s dramatic beauty–and each other’s company. When Tom dies unexpectedly just before they are to depart, Rena almost cancels, but there’s nothing left at home but painful memories. She hits the road in her kitted-out truck, vowing to follow the itinerary she and Tom had mapped, hoping the trip will at least distract her from her devastating loss.
Not far from her first planned stop, Rena notices a fire burning some distance off the highway. Being a good citizen, she ventures off road, and is horrified to find a vehicle consumed by flames, with what’s left of the driver still inside. When she learns that the victim is a fellow geologist–a less-than-reputable character whom she hadn’t seen in 20 years–Rena begins an unofficial and unwelcome investigation fraught with deceit, diamond theft, and murder. Had her old colleague found a new pipeline for the rare and valuable pink diamond, and been killed for it? And if Rena doesn’t mind her own business, will she be next?
Dinuka McKenzie Devika is living her best life, moving out of home in her final year of university. Close to the beach and away from her mother. Independent and self-sufficient, just like Kalyani. There’s just one awful secret that Kal can never find out about.
Kalyani has it made. A new job. A unit she can afford, and her little sister as her roomie. She’s finally achieved the life she’s always wanted. Except for the one big thing she’s yet to confide in Devi. A truth that gets harder to reveal the longer she waits. When their lives are torn apart by betrayal, and Kal refuses to forgive her sister, Devi must peel back everything she thought she knew to rediscover Kalyani, lie by lie and secret by secret.
