Cirrus@Austlit

'Being born on the last day of the year has never done Eve Anderson any favours, but this year her birthday set off a series of rolling explosions rather than fireworks.

'An affair with a married man just crashed and burned, her career is in tatters, and now there's a phone call from her mother that she can't ignore.

'Eve is forced to slink back to the outback town she ditched at 18 and face the family she's actively ignored since, the teenage love she never forgot, and the pub (or is that "family home"?-you say potato, I say "po-taa-to"!) that holds too many of her secrets.

'Packed with heart, humour, and romance, get ready to fall in love with New Year's Eve.'  (Publication summary)

'Sex drugs and Rock & Roll.
No worries mate I’ve got the lot.
Meet Mr Hedonistic.
He loses it all only to discover what life means to him.
This Australian finds death the best time of his life.

'Thoughtful and compelling Australian literary fiction…' (Publication summary)

'Adeline Black cannot have magic. Magic is frivolous and dangerous…and outlawed. And yet, when she finds her feet unexpectedly leaving the pantry floor, there’s no denying that something magical is happening.

'Banished by her grandmother to live with her family in Clamory, where magic is everything, Adeline must learn to control and hide her power in order to go home. At least, that’s the plan, before the Council realises she has rare magic. Rare magic that could help heal the crystal caves of Clamory, the source of the power.

'Helped by her cousins, new friends and a catafly called Liquorice, Adeline must find her purpose in a dying magical world. But how can she do that when she doesn’t know who to trust?'  (Publication summary)

'LightWorkers live among us, tasked with keeping Earth from falling into darkness. Alex is a Genie, but ever since granting his first wish, being a LightWorker has been a struggle. Jason is a Hero who loves flexing his muscles to all the non-LightWorker kids at school. Serena is not your average Siren, she's a hacker with a mission. When Alex's parents leave to visit the Home Star off-world, a world-ending vision plagues his mind: the portals are closing! But why now? Who would want to cripple their connection off-world? And why won't the Council listen to them? Friendships are tested and doubts soar as Alex, Jason and Serena try to stop the portals closing, and somehow keep attending school.'  (Publication summary)

Given a chance to shine, Beat is promoted to dean of Turalong Music School. But her role is not what it seems. Fine tuning this institution is like playing a cracked violin with broken strings.

She’s determined to revive the school’s reputation despite gender bias, staff conflict, betrayal, a famous composer’s ghost and a predatory university.

'Beat loves the wild mashes of sound: trumpets, electric guitars, flutes and saxophones which blaze all day and night, but she’s barely able to keep the school together let alone her home life on her beloved hobby farm.

'Keen to unify her squabbling colleagues from opposite musical traditions, she puts a fresh spin on programming to show audiences something new: a combined Beethoven and rock festival.

'Music or politics? What will be her magnum opus?'  (Publication summary)

'Fifteen-year-old Miles just wants to surf, but in the New South Wales coastal tourist-drawn town of Ulladulla, things are far from idyllic. Hidden beneath the surface of pristine beaches and a laid-back community is an underbelly of crime, racism and rage.' (Publication summary)

'You can't choose your relatives... Thanks to Freya's long lost great grandmother, a bloody war is knocking on Blackwood's door - a war that could destroy everything Freya has grown to love. But Blackwood and its residents are more than Freya first thought them to be. And when your crackpot ancestor is on the warpath, there is no better time to call in favours. Will Blackwood prove itself a force to be reckoned with or will it crumble?'  (Publication summary)

'Trained as a spy since childhood, Issanka uses her powers over light and sound in service of the higher castes.

'A caste-less urchin herself, Issanka knows she must be careful never to get too involved in citizen business. But when the newly crowned King sends an army to tour the country, Issanka no longer has a choice.

'The journey will take her to a city of wealth and mystery, where the line between castes is no longer clear, and where Issanka must step out of the shadows if she is to survive.'  (Publication summary)

'Sisters Fin and George navigate their love/hate relationship growing up in a highly dysfunctional family. Their father Victor moves them to an isolated rural property outside Brisbane where his dreams to create an idyllic rural retreat crumble while his family tiptoe around his unpredictable moods. Fin leaves the moment she can and becomes a compassionate palliative care nurse, helping people to leave this world but unable to bring her own child into it. George has the opposite problem and turns to Fin whenever she runs into difficulties. When Fin, close to forty, falls in love with Anthony, her biological clock is ticking. Will she fulfill her dream of parenthood, or will her family's needs once again prevail? 'Steinbauer family history was rewritten even while it was happening until it became difficult to recall which bits were fabricated or embellished.'' (Publication summary) 

'After a traumatic car accident, Ava Durant wakes up in hospital not remembering how she got there. However, that's not all she's forgotten. The last ten years of her memory are gone and she's not a thirty-year-old woman anymore, she's forty. Struggling to come to terms with everything she's lost, she tries to live in her new reality but everything is foreign and unfamiliar. Her husband has gone, her friends are different and life is unrecognisable. In order to move forward she has to go backwards to unearth her forgotten past and the secrets that have shaped her.

'A sharp examination of what it looks like to be a woman in today's society, this book is for anyone who's woken up at forty and wondered what has happened to their life.'  (Publication summary)

'Manny never asked to be different, to have a power that could bring the dead back to life. But when he resurrected his dead goldfish as a child, he knew he was cursed with an inexplicable power. Decades later, he's working in a Brisbane hospital, surrounded by a cast of oddball characters who make his ordinary life feel anything but. His doomsday-prepping aunt, his unravelling housemate, and his new animal-activist girlfriend who's immune to pain quickly complicate his life. Things take a sinister turn when a nefarious individual starts hunting him down, determined to uncover his secrets.' (Publication summary)

'Finding a good short story collection is like uncovering a vein of untapped jewels. This one especially has some real gems between the pages. Hold your breath and dive in. The pathways are divergent.

'This year’s Sydney Hammond Memorial Short Story competition yielded 160 entries, sharing a diverse range of perspectives, ideas and writing styles.

'The collective stories in Detour [sic] offer a cultural representation of the human experience of 2022/2023.' (Publication summary)

'Brisbane. Pre Expo ’88. Rosanna walks into Anna’s art therapy. She is delusional. Prostituted. Homeless. The government deems her unfit for parenting. Caught up in Brisbane’s underbelly, she fights to reclaim her children. As Rosanna’s story unravels, Anna’s past begins to reveal itself.

'An elusive familiarity haunts their relationship. What ties these two women together?

'Rosanna is a deeply Australian story of hidden truths within the glory of our wild landscapes. It illuminates the healing force of sisterhood. Holds the charm of Celtic folklore. Shows the power of our human will to regain dignity out of the destruction of culture.' (Publication summary)

'The only good thing about Lexi’s barista job is her work wife, Linh. Even her burgeoning relationship with single father, Ethan, is growing cold before it’s had time to sizzle. And why can’t Lexi shake the feeling that Ethan’s not over his wife?

'When a mysterious friend from Lexi’s past emerges in startling circumstances, she glimpses the world of camming. Ditching espressos for the express lane to sexual empowerment and financial freedom, Lexi is lying to everyone, including herself.

'When Lexi meets Travis, a charming cybercrime cop free from emotional baggage, her new life shapeshifts at a dizzying rate. Lexi becomes ensnared and, this time, no amount of lying can set her free.' (Publication summary)

'It’s 1850 and New South Wales, Australia is awash with gold. Bushrangers are in the press, their names on everyone’s lips: Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner, John Peisley, Dan Morgan, Captain Thunderbolt. They roam free, uninhibited, spending big in the shanties. The girls love them, these wild boys.

'Teenager, Larry Cummins, decides to throw his hand in with them. He’ll think about consequences later.

'Bail the coach. Grab the bank’s cash. Scarper. Take the bullets, the whips, societal stings. If you weaken you die…

'A tale of adventure, love, tragedy and redemption, touchingly told by Larry Cummins’ great-grandson, multi-award-winning author, Peter Long.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

(Publication summary)

'A killer on the run.

'A deadly ultimatum.

'A thirty-year mystery.

'A detective seeking justice.

'A national manhunt for the killer Kaleb Carmichael is stretching police resources to its limits. He is out there, waiting, watching – on a relentless quest for revenge. He strikes again, toying with police. Detective Sergeant Jarrod O’Connor’s world implodes following a personal tragedy. Grappling to cope with his loss, he is forced to take extreme action to protect his family. How far will he go to keep them safe? What lines will he cross to see justice served? Carmichael reaches out with a promise and an ultimatum; seek revenge or suffer retribution. O’Connor must decide, forced with a choice – kill or be killed.' (Publication summary)

'A dead girl. An online predator. A shocking series of revenge murders. A new evil has emerged from the shadows.

'Detective Jarrod O’Connor returns in this captivating sequel to ‘The Angels Wept’. Disillusioned by the relentless caseload of child abuse cases, endemic social issues and a broken justice system, O’Connor questions if he can really make a difference. 

'A teen goes missing and her body is discovered in a dry creek bed. The investigation exposes the sordid underbelly of online child exploitation. O’Connor and his team must go deep undercover to flush out the killer. However, what they uncover is far more disturbing than they ever imagined. 

'A predator is out there, killing indiscriminately. What first seems like a series of unrelated murders, becomes a pattern of connected revenge killings. The ghosts of a past investigation come back to haunt O’Connor and he almost pays with his life. O’Connor must confront an unyielding killer whose version of justice forces him to question his own moral compass.' (Publication summary)

'Book 1 in the Detective Jarrod O'Connor series. A death pact and shocking betrayal. A deluded killer. A small town detective pushed to the brink.Set in the rural Australian town of Lockyer, Detective Sergeant Jarrod O'Connor is thrust into a baffling double homicide case. When a couple is gunned down inside their idyllic country homestead, three children barely escape with their lives and hold the key to breaking the case wide open. In search of a motive, O'Connor discovers there are others who share the killer's twisted delusions and taste for immortality. Tormented by his own demons, O'Connor forms a strong bond with the children who he must protect at the risk of placing his own family in danger. As O'Connor pieces together clues, he is drawn closer to a deadly confrontation and thrilling climax.' (Publication summary)