Buderim Library
Top 50 Books You Can’t Put Down – Get Reading is back with the ultimate guide to the best Australian reads.
Alan HunterBook 10 in the Chief Inspector George Gently case files finds Gently dodging bullets when he investigates the murder of a trucker who died in a hail of gunfire. Murdered in a lonely lay-by in the heart of the countryside, the trucker is identified as a Polish immigrant. Was this a revenge killing, a quarrel over money, an underworld execution or something even more sinister?
Alan HunterA long-dead climber who comes in from the cold brings murder to the mountain air.
Mountaineer Reginald Kincaid was believed to have died during an expedition to climb Mount Everest. It comes as a shock to his fellow climbers when he turns up again 22 years later and the mystery is compounded by the death of Arthur Fleece, Kincaid’s climbing partner on the Everest attempt.
Fleece falls to his death on Mount Snowdon in an apparent accident, but the feud that had developed between Fleece and the resurrected Kincaid sparks a murder investigation for George Gently with a ‘dead’ man as the prime suspect.
Lori PatrickThis is Lori Patrick’s life story, starting with a dairy farming childhood during World War II. Lorie moved to the bright lights of Ipswich and into the family of her future husband, Barrie.
Barrie Patrick’s father was the editor of The Queensland Times newspaper. After they wed Lori and Barrie went in search of success in outback Queensland where they worked as a ringer and governess, and later went on to buy the famous Blue Heeler Hotel in Kynuna.
They overcame adversities to put Kynuna on the tourist map. This all came to an end when they buried their 20-year old son who was killed by a drink driver. This tragic event was too much and they returned to south-east Queensland. Following Barrie’s death, Lori went to to travel the world.
Graeme DavisonIn 1839, Hampshire yeoman John Hewett died prematurely and left his wife and eight children to manage on their own. Times were tough, and after their landlord put their farm up for sale, Jane Hewett emigrated to Australia with all her children in 1850. Graeme Davison traces the lives of two generations of the Hewett family, setting them in their historical context in both the UK and Australia.
With scant family records, he draws on the full array of public records available in both the UK and Australia, showing as he works how a master historian weighs the evidence and pulls the story together. Throughout he reflects on the meaning of family history, but with a light touch that doesn’t get in the way of the story.
Through the Hewett family, he paints a picture of colonial Australia: migration of free settlers taking over from the convict period, the work available to men and to women, the gold rush, the rise of the railways, growth of farming. The rise and fall of family fortunes reflects the turbulent growth of the colonies during this period. He writes, “I did not look for skeletons in my family’s cupboard, but once the cupboard was open, they simply fell out.”
Alwyn Torenbeek‘It doesn’t matter if there are four thousand people watching or just four – you’re a horseman, roughrider, entertainer. At that moment, rodeo has you bitten and it doesn’t let you go. You just want another ride. I remember them all and how it all started.’
Alywn Torenbeek’s – the Kokotunga Kid – left his outback hometown at fourteen, looking for adventure. He took with him a bushman’s spirit, an uncanny natural ability for horseriding and a determination to succeed. By the time he was 21, he was a national and international rodeo champion. When fate put an end to his roughriding career, Alwyn went on to be a stockman, drover and station manager. A devoted family man, he was encouraged to take up endurance riding by his great friend, the legendary R.M. Williams, and is still competing more than four decades later.
A riveting tale of adventure, romance, tradegy and mateship. Alwyn’s story is also a tribute to the outback and the characters who make it special. From Winton to Wanganui, this is the ride of a lifetime.
Kooshyar KarimiIn fundamentalist Iran, new life sometimes means certain death. When Leila comes to see Doctor Karimi, both are in danger. Born in a slum to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, Kooshyar Karimi has transformed himself into a successful doctor, an award-winning writer, and an adoring father. His could be a comfortable life but his conscience won’t permit it: he is incapable of turning away the unmarried women who beg him to save their lives by ending the pregnancies that, if discovered, would see them stoned to death.
One of those women is 22-year-old Leila. Beautiful, intelligent, passionate, she yearns to go to university but her strictly traditional family forbids it. Returning home from the library one day – among the few trips she’s allowed out of the house – she meets a handsome shopkeeper, and her fate is sealed. Kooshyar has rescued countless women, but Leila seeks his help for a different reason, one that will haunt him for years afterwards and inspire an impossible quest from faraway Australia.
Spellbinding and heartbreaking. Leila’s Secret shows us everyday life for women in a country where it can be a crime to fall in love. But for all its tragedy, this unforgettable book is paradoxically uplifting, told from the heart of Kooshyar’s immense sympathy, in the hope that each of us – and the stories we tell – can make a difference.
Paul DaveyUnfolding like a political thriller, Joh for PM reveals for the first time the details of the campaign that rocked Australian politics.
In 1987 the Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, launched an audacious bid to break the federal Opposition Coalition, replace Ian Sinclair as National Party leader, and become Prime Minister himself. Trench warfare waged between the Sinclair and Joh forces during one of the most bizarre and divisive periods in Australian politics. In Joh for PM National Party insider Paul Davey reveals what went on behind closed doors in top-level internal meetings and the strategies aimed at thwarting the Joh campaign and reuniting the party at state and federal levels.
Vikki PetraitisBrilliant and heroic, the police dogs and handlers of the Dog Squad put themselves on the front line every day to fight crime and keep citizens safe.
Meet Ruger, the go-get-’em police dog that bit through a couch to catch a cat burglar, and Butch, the courageous dog that put its life on the line to take down a man armed with a knife. There’s Michelle, the police detective turned Dog Squad handler, whose expertise as a trainer earned her an unbeatable two-dog tracking team; and there’s digger, the police dog so loyal it stood guard over its handler, Gary, after he was gunned down by Mad Max.
These stories of the Victoria Police Dog Squad’s courage in the face of danger give a rare insight into the high-octane world of police dog work, and into the bond that exists between a police dog and its handler. Handlers share stories of training some of the best and brightest canine cadets, then taking them out onto the job – where dogged pursuits save lives.
Simon MawerAn historical thriller that brings back Marian Sutro, ex-Special Operations agent, and traces her romantic and political exploits in post-World War II London, where the Cold War is about to reshape old loyalties
As Allied forces close in on Berlin in spring 1945, a solitary figure emerges from the wreckage that is Germany. It is Marian Sutro, whose existence was last known to her British controllers in autumn 1943 in Paris. One of a handful of surviving agents of the Special Operations Executive, she has withstood arrest, interrogation, incarceration, and the horrors of Ravensbrück concentration camp, but at what cost? Returned to an England she barely knows and a postwar world she doesn’t understand, Marian searches for something on which to ground the rest of her life. Family and friends surround her, but she is haunted by her experiences and by the guilt of knowing that her contribution to the war effort helped lead to the monstrosities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. When the mysterious Major Fawley, the man who hijacked her wartime mission to Paris, emerges from the shadows to draw her into the ambiguities and uncertainties of the Cold War, she sees a way to make amends for the past and at the same time to find the identity that has never been hers.
A novel of divided loyalties and mixed motives, Tightrope is the complex and enigmatic story of a woman whose search for personal identity and fulfillment leads her to shocking choices.
James Phelan‘Jed Walker is right there in Reacher’s rear-view mirror.’ Lee Child, international bestselling author. Jed Walker is the man you want watching your back.
A sinister group code-named Zodiac has launched devastating global attacks. Twelve targets across the world, twelve code-named missions. Operating distinct sleeper cells, they are the ultimate terrorist organisation, watching and waiting for a precise attack to activate the next group. It is a frightening and deadly efficient way to stay one step ahead. And cause the most chaos.
For ex-CIA operative Jed Walker, chaos is his profession. On the outer, burned by his former agency, he is determined to clear his name. Stopping Zodiac is the only way. Desperate to catch the killers and find the mastermind, he can t afford to lose the next lead, but that means that sometimes the terrorists have to win. Ultimately, it all comes down to Walker: he s the only one who can break the chain and put the group to sleep . . . permanently. It s exactly eighty-one hours until deadline.