Cirrus@Austlit

'A female detective sails close to the wind when a murder is discovered.

'Detective Veronika Pope is enjoying an idyllic holiday at a beach house on the Coral Sea, when her detective partner asks for help with a cold case.

'Arthur Tetley has been missing for ten years. When his body is found wrapped in plastic and buried in the rainforest, the marks it bears are hard to misread.

'The business tycoon met a horrific end at the hands of someone who clearly wanted him to suffer in death.

'Detective Pope has a hunch someone close to the victim knows more than they’ve let on. Yet the past has been buried deep, and few people want it to surface.

'In her quest to find answers, Pope is forced to confront memories of her own which, like the victim, might better have been kept unearthed.' (Publication summary)

'When detectives try to close a missing persons case, a small town’s twisted secrets begin to unravel…

'A couple disappear in a region of the outback known for its gold mining. Some three years on, there is still no trace of them.

'Detective Veronika Pope is handed the cold case. It’s cold only in name. When she turns up to the godforsaken town where the couple were last seen, the heat is sweltering; suspicion simmering.

'The detectives stay in the same seedy hotel as the couple did. The townsfolk aren’t welcoming. Nobody wants the cops probing into their affairs.

'From what Pope can gather, the missing duo were the perfect couple. Loving. Happy together. The picture of marital bliss.

'Assuming a murder but missing a motive, the detectives do make progress. They might even find the bodies, as the trail is hot. Almost too hot to touch.

'Pope is in serious danger of getting burned…'  (Publication summary)

'Detectives dig deep to discover what happened to a lost bride

'After travelling to the breezy seaside town of Seabreak with her new husband to meet his twin brother, Jane Wilson vanishes without a trace.

'There is never any sign of her again, and despite blame initially being cast on the husband, with no evidence of a crime, nothing is done.

'Years later, Detective Inspector Veronika Pope and her team at the Special Crime Squad reinvestigate the disappearance.

'What really drove Jane to return to the town? And what made sure she would never leave?

'Detective Pope is convinced the town and its windy dunes hold the secrets, but she is faced with the grim determination of others to keep them buried forever…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Following a home invasion, a woman begins to wonder if her perfect life was a lie.

'Beth Jacobsen wakes up in the middle of the night to a home break-in and is held at knife point.

'Her faithful dog is injured when trying to fend off her attackers. Not so heroic is her husband, Marty, who seems to freeze and resign to whatever fate awaits her.

'Although they fight off the intruders, things are just about to get a whole lot worse.

'Marty makes a revelation that means they can’t go to the police. Rather they’ll head, with a new set of troubles, to secluded White Mist Lake Retreat.

'Yet instead of finding tranquillity and a chance to heal there, Beth will be forced to confront a sickening truth and the danger following in its wake.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A householder who is clearing out the loft comes across a carefully concealed box containing a video camera.

'When he plugs it in, unsure due to its age that it will even play, what he sees there has him immediately calling the police.

'Senior Sergeant Veronika Pope and her team in the Special Crime Squad study the footage of the torture of four individuals held captive, all physically and mentally abused.

'Assured this is no hoax, although all indications are that this happened long in the past, the team races to trace the identity of the victims.

'Someone got away with murder once, will Sergeant Pope permit them to do so again?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When Amy and her boyfriend Zane move into a house together, she hopes they can put their rocky past behind them.

'She gets a job and befriends the older couple who live in the house next door. Amy is impressed by their sophistication, wealth, and love for one another and in turn they somewhat adopt her when Amy’s relationship with her boyfriend deteriorates rapidly.

'Jobless, often absent and clearly up to no good, Zane is jealous and increasingly abusive. His hold over the shy Amy has been strong, yet cracks are beginning to show.

'When a policeman knocks on her door one innocuous day, it is the start of series of events that will make the two households clash together in a fatal entanglement.

'Zane will see an opportunity and greed will get the better of him, but are their new neighbours quite the easy targets they appear to be?

'Amy is in the middle of it all and someone is going to get killed.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Jackie and Dursha are two friends in dead-end jobs. They supplement their income by selling pics of themselves as stock photos online.

'The abandoned Red Water Hotel is the perfect location for a shoot. But when they enter the decrepit building, Dursha begins to feel a strange presence. Jackie dismisses her concerns and they head further in.

'Strange moths have clustered, and the light filtering through has an eerie shimmer. The young women see a telephone number scrawled on the wall.

'By now Dursha is totally creeped out. But Jackie is already calling it...'

Source : publisher's blurb

'BEAST contains two horror stories by best-selling Australian author Anna Willett, available on Kindle and in paperback:

'LAST CALL

'Jackie and Dursha are two friends in dead-end jobs. They supplement their income by selling pics of themselves as stock photos online.

'The abandoned Red Water Hotel is the perfect location for a shoot. But when they enter the decrepit building, Dursha begins to feel a strange presence. Jackie dismisses her concerns and they head further in.

'Strange moths have clustered, and the light filtering through has an eerie shimmer. The young women see a telephone number scrawled on the wall.

'By now Dursha is totally creeped out. But Jackie is already calling it...

'THE WIDOW

'Dan decides to go to a party held by an old friend. It’s a no-good group, but it might help him put his worries aside. His life is spiralling and he has a serious toothache to add to his woes.

'At the party he strikes up a conversation with an enigmatic man who has excellent whiskey, and promises him a quick way to make money.

'In all honesty, Dan just wants enough cash to pay for a dentist, but he journeys with his new friend to a house deep in the country. The hazy plan is to rob it of a known stash of money.

'It sounded good in theory, but now his friend is nowhere to be seen and Dan is stuck inside the house, face to face with the widow who lives there...'

Source : publisher's blurb

'She takes your dreams, and then your life...

'A NAIL-BITINGLY SCARY SUSPENSE THRILLER

'Sightings of a strange girl on the outskirts of the small Australian town of Thorn Tree coincide with the outbreak of a deadly sickness.

'The girl appears in people’s nightmares, beckoning them into nothingness.

'Maggie’s café lies at the heart of the town, and she quickly becomes embroiled in the unfolding events.

'As more people she knows succumb to the illness, Maggie will have to act fast to root out its cause.

'Maggie believes that if she understands the girl’s story and finds her, she can save her friends and herself.

'But maybe she too has merely been lured into the pest’s evil embrace.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'When Lucy Hush’s brother is framed for murder, the race is on to find the real culprit.

'Tim Hush is a drifter who prefers the solitude of the vast Australian wilderness to human company. But he falls for an attractive woman he meets by chance when camping on a beach.

'Soon, however, he will find himself in custody for her murder.

'Knowing that her brother’s mental health is unstable, but equally sure this gentle soul could never harm anyone, investigative journalist Lucy heads to the small coastal town of Savage Bay.

'Exonerating her brother will entail piecing together the truth about what happened that one fateful evening when Faith Alison was killed in her home.

'Aided by Damon, her dependable boyfriend, Lucy begins to get noticed by the townsfolk. But not all of them will welcome her presence.

'Trying to help her brother will put her in danger. Was Lucy right to have such trust in him? And when she does discover the truth, will it be too late to put things right?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A woman alone. Watched. But by whom, and why?

'When schoolteacher Jackie Winter inherits her beloved aunt’s house, she discovers that her close relative had been keeping a terrible secret.

'As Jackie is drawn into her aunt’s past, all that was certain begins to fray. But she is destined to not experience this alone. Someone is watching her every move.

'Then, there is a murder near the house. A cruel killing. Suddenly Jackie finds herself in the frame.

'Trying to keep one step ahead of the police, Jackie turns her attention once more to the past, now certain there’s a link between her aunt’s secrets and the shadowy figure that plagues not only her days but also her nightmares.' (Publication summary)
 

'A troubled past resurfaces when an investigative journalist agrees to help find a missing child.

'The Australian bush is unforgiving, and there is not much hope when a four-year-old boy, Clem, apparently disappears into it without a trace. When the police begin to suspect the boy’s step-father, his lawyer hires Damon, a specialist private investigator, to help defend him.

'No stranger to missing person cases, Damon agrees to let his partner, Lucy, interview the family. There she finds a strong connection to the boy’s mother, and determines to find Clem no matter the cost. Having lost her own parents young, and nearly lost her brother, she hopes it will help her to exorcise her own demons.

'Refusing to believe that Clem is dead, Lucy begins a search that will take her into the seedier side of a rural community with many secrets. In so doing, she will stumble across criminal activity that will put her in serious danger.

'But it will also stretch her fledgling relationship to Damon, the only person she has ever really trusted. Can she find Clem? Can she find an inner peace? Can she let Damon in?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Cruelly imprisoned in her own home, a successful novelist must use all of her imagination to stay alive.

'Recovering from a road accident that has left her half-blind and in a wheelchair, Belle Hammer is alone in her secluded house set in a sprawling ten-acre plot, deep in the forests beyond Perth, Australia.

'Her husband having left on a work trip, and living miles away from urban centres, Belle has only a few neighbours. And one of them, the creepy retired lecturer Arthur Howell, she doesn’t trust one bit .

'Was it Howell who was seen in the grounds of her house? Did he make the noise she hears in the inaccessible first floor of her home?

'Unable to travel, Belle is cut off from the world. Her only hope is the home care assistant her husband arranged for her.

'But all is not as it seems. Left to the mercy of a woman she increasingly fears, Belle’s world starts to close in on her.

'It will take all of her wits and courage to understand why she is being victimised and survive the ensuing ordeal. If she does.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A young drifter is in deep trouble, his sister is his only hope...

'Lucy’s younger brother has gone missing. When she sets out to find him, the trail takes her to Night Town. It’s a rural backwater deep in the forests of south western Australia.

'Lucy tries to enlist the help of the local police, but she is met with hostility. She befriends a man who might help her cause. Yet he is not quite who he says he is.

'As the locals begin to resent her presence in the town, danger quickly mounts. The town has secrets and they seem to centre on the enigmatic Samuel Nightmesser, its wealthy benefactor.

'What connects her missing brother to this grim boondock? And why do the townsfolk want rid of Lucy?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When a young girl is abducted by a notorious serial killer, a woman risks her own life trying to save her.

'Mina is struggling to come to terms with her past. Having led a reclusive life, shunning human contact, she decides to take on a local college course to help get her life back on track.

'However, when a young girl who tries to befriend her is abducted by a serial killer, Mina feels responsible. She refused to wait with the girl for her mother to pick her up. And she shrugged off the youngster’s fears.

'Now Mina cannot rest until she finds out what happened. But as she probes into the events of that evening, her own nightmares start to return. She has put herself in danger, one that leads to an increasingly tense standoff with a cruel and vicious man who will stop at nothing.

'Can she find the strength to stand up to her demons, past and present? And will she do so, even if it means risking everything?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A young woman is forced to face up to the truth of her past...

'Gloria is heading to meet her friend Rhetty in a bar. Once close, the two friends have drifted apart. Rhetty is different now, a shadow of her former self, and it all goes back to an incident that occurred four years ago.

'They meet at the same bar as always. It’s a sleazy venue. Gloria is uncomfortable there. She has a recollection of something terrible happening at the place, but can’t recall any details.

'Rhetty is agitated. She tells Gloria something that can’t be true. That another acquaintance of theirs, a bolshie woman called Joanna, is back on the scene. It can’t be true because Joanna died four years ago.

'What is Rhetty trying to achieve when she convinces Gloria to return to where Joanna died? And why is Gloria, despite her reservations, ready to go along with her? Why did Joanna die, and how is it possible she could return?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A weekend away feels like a perfect opportunity for Caitlin to build bridges with her husband after the loss of their baby. Unfortunately, their holiday getaway is not what it seems when they find a man held hostage in the cellar. When the house owner turns up, armed and dangerous, it becomes a battle of wits and Caitlin will have to quickly decide whom she should trust in order to survive.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.