Cirrus@Austlit

'Five women reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking along the muddy track. Only four come out the other side.

'The hike through the rugged Giralang Ranges is meant to take the office colleagues out of their air-conditioned comfort zone and teach resilience and team building. At least that is what the corporate retreat website advertises.

'Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a particularly keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing bushwalker. Alice Russell is the whistleblower in his latest case - in just a matter of days she was to provide the documents that will bring down the company she works for.

'Falk discovers that far from the hike encouraging teamwork, the women tell a tale of suspicion, violence and disintegrating trust. But does it include murder?' (Publication summary)

'Wall Street star consultant Stella Sartori is very good at her job. So good, in fact, that she can't help but follow up a casual remark made during a routine company assessment. It leads her to a dusty old contract in the archives and within hours she is running for her life, taking the file and its cryptic contents with her.

Fellow Australian Jack Rogers is sent in for damage control, but when he finds Stella's notes, he realises she has stumbled onto a devastating secret. Suddenly, it's vital that he finds her before some else does.

Relentlessly pursued across the country, Jack and Stella uncover a shocking trail of corruption and murder dating back forty years, with an explosive secret at its heart. If they can prove their suspicions correct, they'll survive. But with the contract in their hands, the past threatens to destroy them.' (From the publisher's website.)