Cirrus@Austlit

'Opening with armed guards enforcing draconian checkpoints and permits, Claire Corbett’s second novel initially seems to depict a dystopian near-future. But Watch Over Me is in fact set in the present. The fictional city of Port Angelsund has been occupied by a foreign army, known as Garrison, because of its location near a valuable reserve of natural energy at the Scandinavian gateway to the Arctic Circle.' (Introduction)

'The spa town of Daylesford in country Victoria has long been a favourite getaway for Melburnians in search of revivification. But seldom has it crossed any sort of literary radar (although it boasts one of the nation’s most charmingly situated second-hand bookshops). Enter Daylesford local Greg Pyers with a debut crime fiction set in the gold rush era of the 1850s-60s.' (Introduction)

'Robert Newton is a Melbourne-based firefighter and author. Mr Romanov’s Garden in the Sky (Penguin, 218pp, $17.99) begins as a gritty re­imagining of his experience 25 years ago when called to an emergency in a Melbourne housing commission tower. The sight of a small girl in pyjamas waiting beside her drug-overdosed mother has haunted him since, and is now re-created in 13-year-old Lexie.' (Introduction)