Archive | New Releases

David Cameron
Anzac Day 2024 represents the 73rd anniversary of the critical battle of Kapyong (23 to 25 April 1951) This book for the first time tells the full story of the Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and American units involved. Fewer than 1,000 Australian and Canadian infantrymen, supported by New Zealand artillery and 15 American Sherman tanks fought off an entire Chinese Division of over 12,000 men and contributed significantly to defeating the great Chinese August offensive.

The battle of Kapyong was fought during a heavy downpour in mountainous terrain, with Chinese units infiltrating the Australian lines which extended for seven kilometres. Given the small number of men involved and the long defensive line, several strong points were quickly established. The Australians almost alone, but with support from New Zealand gunners and some American tanks, for the first 24 hours held back the Chinese and were at times surrounded by large numbers of Chinese who launched ongoing human wave attacks against their isolated positions — but the line held with Australians leading bayonet counter charges against the Chinese. Within 24 hours, Canadian troops were committed to the battle and for 12 hours also faced significant attempts by the Chinese to surround their position – they too held their ground.

Andrew Faulkner
Beginning on Gallipoli’s fatal shore, Guts Glory and Blunder follows the Anzacs to the Somme trenches and the race to the Hindenburg Line. This is a story of the 50th Battalion’s uncommon valour in its fiercest battle.

How ordinary men performed superhuman feats despite a flawed plan, ‘friendly’ fire, enemy atrocities—a POW massacre and human shield tactics—and a combat mutiny. How a larrikin private was awarded a Victoria Cross for one of the most audacious stunts in the history of the medal. Guts Glory and Blunder is a story of how the diggers prevailed against all odds.

Anne Manne
A searing expose of institutional child abuse, and the remarkable story of the survivors who would not be silenced. For many years, Newcastle was the centre of an extensive paedophile network run by members of the Anglican church — and protected by parishioners and community members who looked the other way.

In this gripping book, Anne Manne reveals how this network was able to avoid detection for so long, and how its ringleaders were finally exposed and brought to justice. At the centre of the story is a survivor, Steve Smith, who endured years of childhood abuse but refused to be silenced.

Drawing on extensive research and interviews with survivors, clergy, police and others, Manne explores how the network operated and how it became entrenched in the upper echelons of Newcastle society. She offers deep insights into the minds and strategies of abusers, and pays tribute to the victims and their tireless struggle for justice. Child sexual abuse has previously been thought of as an individual crime; Manne pioneers an examination of it as part of a network.

Neil Lancaster
She was taken against her will. On her fifteenth birthday, trafficking victim Affi Smith goes for a run and never returns. With a new identity and secure home in the Scottish Highlands, she was supposed to be safe…

She escaped once.

With personal ties to Affi’s case, DS Max Craigie joins the investigation. When he discovers other trafficking victims have disappeared in exactly the same circumstances, he knows one thing for certain – there’s a leak somewhere within law-enforcement.

She won’t outrun them again.

The clock is ticking… Max must catch Affi’s kidnappers and expose the mole before anyone else goes missing. Even it if means turning suspicions onto his own team…

Lee Child
Reacher takes a stroll through a small Wisconsin town and sees a class ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. A tough year to graduate: Iraq, then Afghanistan. The ring is tiny, for a woman, and it has her initials engraved on the inside. Reacher wonders what unlucky circumstance made her give up something she earned over four hard years. He decides to find out. And find the woman. And return her ring. Why not?

So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness.

The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes. Turns out the ring was just a small link in a far darker chain. Powerful forces are guarding a vast criminal enterprise. Some lines should never be crossed. But then, neither should Reacher.

Lee Child
March 1997. A woman has her throat cut behind a bar in Carter Crossing, Mississippi. Just down the road is a big army base. Is the murderer a local guy – or is he a soldier? Jack Reacher, still a major in the military police, is sent in undercover. The county sheriff is a former US Marine – and a stunningly beautiful woman. Her investigation is going nowhere. Is the Pentagon stonewalling her? Or doesn’t she really want to find the killer?

The adrenaline-pumping, high-voltage action in The Affair is set just six months before the opening of Killing Floor, and it marks a turning point in Reacher’s career. If he does what the army wants, will he be able to live with himself? And if he doesn’t, will the army be able to live with him?

Is this his last case in uniform?

Fiona McCallum
Beneath the facade not everything is as it seems… A moving and suspenseful story of family dynamics, obsession and the power of true friendship from Australia’s master storyteller, Fiona McCallum.

On the surface Natasha and Mitchell live an idyllic life in the Adelaide Hills with their two daughters and kelpie cross. While both have busy careers, they ensure time is spent with family and friends.

Natasha, an aspiring interior designer, has started her own homewares shop and is excited to develop her business further. Mitchell, on the other hand, is becoming more withdrawn. Is he pressured by work, having a mid-life crisis or hiding something from his family?

Jesse, a charismatic new locksmith in town, offers to help Natasha with client leads. She welcomes the assistance and distraction. But is Jesse all he makes out to be?

Who ultimately is looking out for whom, and who is hiding from the truth?

Julia Levitina
In the Soviet Union, a young woman must risk all in a daring bid for freedom … Moscow, 1983. Twenty-one-year-old Ella dreams of playing Natasha Rostova in War and Peace at the Moscow Theatre Academy. But when she meets her good friend Vlad outside a city synagogue, Ella finds herself in the middle of a protest and attracts the glare of the KGB.

Labelled a traitor, she must withdraw from the academy and she soon yearns to escape the cruel and oppressive Soviet regime. However, her hopes of leaving the country are smashed when her husband, Roman, is sentenced to two years’ labour camp.

As she looks for another way out, Ella is drawn into a dangerous game of cat and mouse with a KGB general, who has the power to secure her freedom. Will she risk everything and leave behind those she loves to pursue a life in the West?

Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. He’s just an ordinary guy trying to live a quiet life in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death.

But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope.