Archive | New Releases

Leonie Kelsall
Once upon a time, Natasha believed in love. At nineteen, her heart was captivated by a man who promised her the world, only to vanish, leaving her to carry the weight of shattered dreams – and the child she never expected.

A decade later, Natasha is focused on providing love and stability for her daughter, determined to break the cycle of poverty and trauma that haunted her own childhood. As they ease into the peaceful rhythms of Settlers Bridge, Natasha is drawn to the local mechanic, Hamish, whose quiet strength stirs feelings she hadn’t thought she would ever experience again. Yet, despite this connection, Natasha can’t shake the belief that moving on from her first love is impossible.

When her history and future abruptly collide, dividing the town that seems to provide sanctuary, Natasha must decide if she has the courage to take the path that offers love … or whether the echoes of her past will destroy everything she has built.

Kerry J. Donovan…
Ryan Kaine is on the run… A seemingly routine operation ends in tragedy when eighty-three civilians are killed in an aircraft explosion. Kaine, a highly decorated former Royal Marine, becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt; the police want him on terrorism charges, and a sinister organisation wants him dead.

In a desperate attempt to prove his innocence, Kaine is forced to rely on two women he barely knows — a country veterinarian who treats his wounds and an IT expert with a dark secret of her own.

Kaine must battle his overwhelming guilt, life-threatening injuries and strong moral code as he hunts for the people who turned him into a mass-murderer.

Using his skill in combat, gut instincts, and new-found allies, can Kaine uncover the truth and find redemption before the net finally closes?

Kate Kemp
It’s the height of summer in Australia, 1979, and on a quiet suburban cul-de-sac a housewife is scrubbing the yellow and white checkered tiles of the bathroom floor. But all is not as it seems. For one thing, it’s 3am. For another, she is trying desperately to remove all traces of blood before they stain. Her husband seems remarkably calm, considering he has just murdered their neighbour.

As the sun rises on Warrah Place, news of Antonio Marietti’s death spreads like wildfire, gossip is exchanged in whispers and suspicion mounts. Twelve-year-old Tammy, an amateur observational scientist, is not alone in feeling determined to find out what happened. There are secrets behind every closed door in the neighbourhood, and the identity of the murderer is only one of them . . .

Geoffrey Blainey
In the bestselling Black Kettle and Full Moon , master storyteller Geoffrey Blainey takes us on another absorbing journey – a guided tour of a vanished Australia. Covering the years from the first gold rush to World War I. Blainey paints a fascinating picture of how our forebears lived – in the outback, in towns and cities, at sea and on land.

He looks at all aspects of daily life, from billycans to brass bands, from ice-making to etiquette, from pipes to pubs. The engaging text is further brought alive by an evocative selection of contemporary illustrations by artists such as Julian Ashton. This is Geoffrey Blainey doing what he does best, bringing to life for the modern reader, the sighs and sounds and smells of another time.

Meni Caroutas
Eighteen missing people, multiple families grieving, and one person looking for answers in this forensic and moving re-examination of some of Australia’s most heartbreaking missing persons cases. Every 14 minutes in Australia, someone vanishes. Of the 38,000 missing persons reported each year, most return. But for the families of those who don’t, it’s a nightmare they never wake up from.

There are currently 2600 long-term missing Australians. On top of that, 700 unidentified bodies lie in morgues and unmarked graves across the country, silent mysteries waiting to be solved.

In this powerful and gripping collection of real-life cases, Meni Caroutas – a former cop turned investigative journalist – reviews old evidence, hunts new leads and recounts shocking developments surrounding the disappearance or murder of 18 people. From the baffling case of a deceased newborn sent in the mail from Melbourne to Darwin, to the haunting abduction of 16-year-old Gordana Kotevski in 1994, and the chilling possibility of a 14-year-old girl falling victim to notorious serial killer Ivan Milat, these are cases that have left behind shattered parents, traumatised families and grieving friends still searching for answers.

Liz Cameron
As an 18-year-old on a gap year in Canberra, Liz Cameron was approached at a shopping centre by a woman who, unbeknown to her, was a recruiting agent for Providence, a Christian cult that originated in South Korea and currently operates in 72 countries. As a new adult, Cameron was struggling to navigate the world and her identity, and as cults do, so skillfully, they took advantage of her vulnerability.

After months of indoctrination, things escalated – Cameron moved in with the cult, was cut off from friends and family, and was eventually appointed to the status of ‘bride’ to the cult’s serial rapist leader, Jeong Myeong Suk (JMS). She travelled to South Korea to visit JMS in prison and stayed at the cult’s extravagant, secretive compound. Upon her return to Australia, Cameron was controlled and starved, and underwent a severe physical and mental decline. It was only through the intervention of her parents and professional deprogrammers that she was able to make it out alive. In Cult Bride, Cameron takes us behind the scenes of a terrifying cult to show us how they operate in plain sight – and how we can unpick the systems that enable them to prey on vulnerable people.

Nick Ardley
Nick Arley, a 55-year-old public servant from Canberra, sets out on a motorcycling odyssey to break a Guinness World Record crossing all ten of Australia’s deserts. His motorcycling journey began racing around paddocks on an old Honda. From the moment he first rode a motorbike at age eleven it was destined to become a lifelong obsession. Speed and adventure were never far from his mind. The working week was all suits and ties, nine-to-five; but, come the weekend, things were very different.

The desert started calling, the bikes got bigger and the rides longer, evolving into multi-state odysseys crossing the country. The danger was real, with exceptional skill and planning required, but these were the foundation for his greatest the fastest crossing of all ten Australian deserts, unaccompanied, on a motorcycle.

Chasing a Guinness World Record and needing to cover 5500 kilometres over less than twenty-nine days, Nick, with just his Suzuki motorbike for company, set off on an insane trek across Australia’s ten harsh and isolated deserts, pushing himself physically, mentally and emotionally, completely alone and unassisted.

Harrison Christian
The story of the voyage that changed human understanding forever. In 1831, Charles Darwin set out on an expedition to South America, brought along as a gentleman companion for Captain Robert FitzRoy. Initially conceived as a Christian mission, the voyage would change drastically as the Beagle sailed through the Pacific, with Darwin’s observations becoming the building blocks of his revolutionary theory of evolution.

This theory put the rational, scientific Darwin at odds with the deeply religious FitzRoy, who would go on to publicly denigrate Darwin and his heretic ideas. Unbeknownst to FitzRoy, his young friend’s intellect would one day tower over the voyage and his own career.

Karin Slaughter
Welcome to North Falls—a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think. Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites. For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend’s daughter needed help—and now she must bring her home.

But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did. Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?

Meg Bignell
Callie March is fascinated by human absurdity, including the habits of the upper class. So when she pushes her screen-addicted teenage son to join a local rowing club, she is thrilled to discover a whole new world of odd behaviours, irrational obsessions and riverside rooting.

Thrust into a support crew and a very silly uniform, Callie has inadvertently volunteered for a season of pre-dawn parenting, endless fundraising, and pandering to insufferable dickheads. But she also finds friendship, intrigue and lust, while her son might just find love.

Callie is torn between enchantment and repulsion, until a trail of corruption and scandal leads to deep suspicion. There’s something fishy in the rowing shed, and Callie is determined to find out what lurks behind the closed doors of this sports club. In doing so, she will rock the boat – or better still, capsize it altogether.

This novel is set in northern Tasmania. It contains profundity, profanity, heart-ache, bum chafe, terrible winners and very good losers.