Cirrus@Austlit

'The violent slaughter of the Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation.

'Their young live-in chef, Bill Kareama, was swiftly charged with murder and brought to justice. But the brutal crime scarred the idyllic town of Cambridge forever.

'Seventeen years later, true-crime podcaster Sloane Abbott tracks down prison psychologist TK Phillips. Once a fierce campaigner for an appeal, TK now lives a quiet life with Bill's case firmly in his past. As Sloane lures a reluctant TK back into the fight, evidence emerges that casts new light on the Primroses - and who might have wanted them dead.

'While the list of suspects grows, Bill's innocence is still far from assured. What will it cost Sloane and TK to uncover the truth?' (Publication summary)

'Eva Kavinsky wakes in a dark cellar, with no memory of how she got here. Imprisoned with her, seemingly at random, are four men. The only way out is the trapdoor in the ceiling – and it's locked.

'The single clue about what brings them all here is a cryptic message sprayed onto one wall. Connect the dots. Repent. A camera fixed high above reach is livestreaming this whole nightmare to the world. What confessions are they meant to make to their unseen audience?

'With only a single lighter between them and the cellar steadily filling with water, Eva races to discover what connects her to the four men. But nobody here is who they claim to be. And in this dark place, secrets and lies are so much easier to tell than the truth that could destroy them all.' (Publication summary)

'As the third wave of the virus hits, all inhabitants of Melbourne are given until 8pm to get to their homes. Wherever they are when the curfew hits, they must live for four weeks and stay within a 5km radius. When Lou’s son Samuel doesn’t arrive home by nightfall she begins to panic.

'He doesn’t answer his phone. He doesn’t message. His social media channels are inactive. Lou is out of her mind with worry, but she can’t go to the police, because she has secrets of her own.  Secrets that Samuel just can’t find out about.  Lou must find her son herself and bring him home.

'A fast-paced psychological thriller for fans of Tell Me Lies.'  (Publication summary)

'IT WAS A TRAGIC ACCIDENT. WASN'T IT? A private investigator returning to the hometown he fled years ago becomes entangled in the disappearance of two teenage girls in this stunning literary crime thriller.

'Reid left the small town of Manson a decade ago, promising his former Chief of Police boss he'd never return. He made a new life in the city, became a PI and turned his back on his old life for good.

'Now an insurance firm has offered him good money to look into a suspicious car crash, and he finds himself back in the place he grew up - home to his complicated family history, a scarring relationship breakdown and a very public career-ending incident.

'As Reid's investigation unfolds, nothing is as it seems: rumours are swirling about the well-liked young woman who crashed the car, killing her professor husband, and there are whispers about a second local student who has just disappeared.

'As Reid veers off course from the job he has been paid to do, will he find himself in the dangerous position of taking on the town again?'  (Publication summary)

'A conversation between crime authors Ruth McIver and J.P. Pomare to celebrate the launch of McIver's new novel, I Shot the Devil.' (Production summary)

'Ever have the feeling you're being watched? A smart, unsettling, unputdownable literary thriller from the award-winning, critically acclaimed writer

'Lina and Cain are doing their best to stay afloat. Money has been tight since Cain returned from active duty, and starting a family is proving harder than they thought. Putting Lina's inherited lake house up for rent at weekends seems like the solution to at least one of their problems. The secluded house is more of a burden than a retreat, anyway, and fixing up the old place makes Cain feel useful for once. But letting strangers stay in their house might not be the best idea. Someone is watching - their most mundane tasks, their most intimate moments - and all the things Lina and Cain want to keep hidden will be exposed.

'A darkly riveting psychological thriller from the bestselling author of Call Me Evie, In the Clearing and Tell Me Lies.' (Publication summary)

'Psychologist Margot Scott has a picture-perfect life: a nice house in the suburbs, a husband, two children and a successful career.

'On a warm spring morning Margot approaches one of her clients on a busy train platform. He is looking down at his phone, with his duffel bag in hand as the train approaches. That's when she slams into his back and he falls in front of the train.

'Margot's clients all lie to her, but one lie cost her family and freedom.

'A fast-paced psychological thriller for fans of The Silent Patient.' (Publication summary)

'Amy has only ever known what life is like in the Clearing. She knows what's expected of her. She knows what to do to please her elders, and how to make sure life in the community remains happy and calm. That is, until a new young girl joins the group. She isn't fitting in; she doesn't want to stay. What happens next will turn life as Amy knows it on its head.

'Freya has gone to great lengths to feel like a 'normal person'. In fact, if you saw her go about her day with her young son, you'd think she was an everyday mum. That is, until a young girl goes missing and someone from her past, someone she hasn't seen for a very long time, arrives in town.

'As Amy and Freya's story intertwines the secrets of the past bubble up to the surface. This rural Aussie town's dark underbelly is about to be exposed and lives will be destroyed.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'How do perspective, memory and the demands of genre alter the way we write about real-life settings? Is a ‘true’ depiction of place even possible in fiction?'

"Don't trust him. It wasn't me.

"It couldn't have been me.

"Meet Evie, a young woman held captive by a man named Jim in the isolated New Zealand beach town of Maketu. Jim says he’s hiding Evie to protect her, that she did something terrible back home in Melbourne.

"In a house that creaks against the wind, Evie begins to piece together her fractured memories of the events that led her here.

"Jim says he’s keeping her safe. Evie’s not sure she can trust Jim, but can she trust her own memories?"

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It is at these boundaries, the rough torn edges of art and artist that we understand our subjects best. A Writing Life: Helen Garner and Her Work by Bernadette Brennan is a remarkably shrewd study of Garner’s work knitted with a tender representation of her personal life. Brennan dives into the murky grey depths that separate ‘literary critique’ and ‘biography,’ choosing instead the more ambiguous denomination of ‘literary portrait.’ This bifurcation of sub-genres might seem like literary posturing; such distinctions are often made by marketing teams as opposed to the author themself. However the language we use to segment books into genre is significant for readers and thus important to authors in terms of distribution and readership.'   (Introduction)

'Thrust into the heaving metropolis of Delhi, I shed flight fatigue and took up that strange energy, a sort of heightened awareness that travellers feel when they arrive somewhere new. I stared out at everything as we jerked along in a beat-up Honda driven by Sam, our host and friend.'