Cirrus@Austlit

'Hair stylist Kit Cooper is at the top of her game. She does the shows in Milan and Paris, tends to pop stars and celebrities, and has styled enough campaigns and magazine covers to last a lifetime. But Kit is ambitious. Restless. She can't help asking: what's next?

'One day, frustrated she can't find the perfect product for a look, she wonders ... could she make it herself?

'THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON takes Kit from idea to founder of a highly successful hair-care company. Amid spreadsheets, influencers, product launches and a parade of potential investors, Kit is juggling an eager young team, needy family members, a charismatic but unreliable romantic partner, single parenting and far too many school WhatsApp messages. She is certain, positive, things will calm down soon, because how can life possibly keep going at this pace?

'As the founder of Go-To Skincare, Zoë Foster Blake has learned a lot in her decade of business. THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON blends her love of fiction with the knowledge she has acquired in business, entrepreneurship, and mergers and acquisitions. Part entertainment, part founder insight, THINGS WILL CALM DOWN SOON is an entirely new breed of illuminating storytelling.' (Publication summary)

'A gripping, haunting work about the reverberations of a serial killer's crimes in the lives of everyday people.

'In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged with a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims' families, but its impact travels even further - into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes.

'Highway 13 takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more: through the investigation of the aftermath of this violence across time and place, from the killer's home town in country Australia to the tropical Far North, and to Texas and Rome, McFarlane presents an unforgettable, entrancing exploration of the way stories are told and spread, and at what cost.

'What damages, big and small, do these crimes incur? How do communities make sense of such atrocities? How does the mourning of families sit alongside the public fascination with terrible crimes? And can we tell true crime stories without putting the killers at the centre of the story?

'From the acclaimed author of The Sun Walks Down and The Night Guest comes a captivating account of loss and fear, and its extended echoes in individual lives.' (Publication summary)

'Katy Sweeney is determined to find her sister. A year earlier, just three weeks into a solo vanlife trip, free-spirited Phoebe vanished without a trace on Western Australia’s remote and achingly beautiful Coral Coast. With no witnesses, no leads, and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up.

'Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy starts to retrace her steps, searching for the clues that the police have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and what danger did they pose? Was she as happy as her sun-bleached, lens-flared photos seem to suggest?

'Then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, a young woman on the run from her own dark past—and very recent present. And as Katy realizes that Beth might be her best and only chance of finding the truth, the two women form an uneasy alliance to venture forth into increasingly wild territory to find out what really happened to Phoebe in this breathtaking but maybe deadly place, and how her fate connects them all.

'Anna Downes takes us on a twist-filled journey into the dark side of solo female travel, in this gripping novel that explores what drives us to keep searching for those we have lost, the family bonds that can make or break us, and the deception of memory.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'An epic romantic adventure of love and courage that pays tribute to our brave Gallipoli heroes of World War One.

''Fans of Natasha Lester and Victoria Purman will adore...' Better Reading

'1914- Brothers Thom and Archie Hogan are the best of friends who love nothing more than tinkering with their father's old bi-plane, with shared dreams of soaring over the wheatfields after a hard day at work on the land. But matters of the heart come between them when Molly James arrives in town.

'Beautiful and headstrong, Molly captures the attention of the two young men, both of whom compete valiantly for her affections. However when war strikes and the brothers rush to enlist, and Molly answers the call to nurse in London, nothing is a game any more.

'Archie and Thom are sent to the Middle East and Europe where war takes to the skies for the first time. There they battle against legendary foes, including the Red Baron, in a desperate quest for survival even as a battle of hearts wages below. Tension between the trio looks set to implode...and at the going down of the sun, who will return home safely to claim Molly's heart?

'Based on a true story of the author's grandfather's wartime experiences,_x202F_At the Going Down of the Sun_x202F_explores the intense bond between soldiers and brothers fighting in war, and a love with the power to tear them apart.' (Production summary)

'1917: America’s declaration of war against Germany gives Grace Winter, a keen-eyed New York Times investigative reporter, a much sought after opportunity to make her mark on the Western Front, albeit in ways she had never expected. But by 1918 the gruesome reality of trench warfare has set in, and an invisible new enemy – The Spanish Flu – is killing allied soldiers in their droves.

'Father Jude is no ordinary priest. He’s proven himself as fearless on the battlefield as any soldier, and as compassionate as any man of the cloth. He is willing to put himself in the line of fire to save the souls of young men on both sides of the barbed wire. But things get complicated when he renders assistance to the sharp-witted war correspondent, Grace.

'As their mission to filter secrets back through enemy lines become increasingly perilous, so too does their attraction. And when Grace catches the priest taking an obsessive interest in a tiny silver music box gifted to her by an unknown soldier, she suspects the good Father may be keeping a devastating secret. Grace must trust her instincts and make an impossible choice, between the life of one man and the lives of many men.

'Set against the backdrop of World War One and spanning three continents, this is a heart- stopping story of forbidden love and courage that explores the nature of faith, the quest for redemption and the true meaning of grace.' (Publication summary)

'A serial killer is roaming the outback roads of Australia's top end in Kerry McGinnis's new rural mystery

'‘There’s a killer roaming the roads and you're out here on your own, picking up strangers …’

'When Emily’s beautiful cousin Aspen goes missing somewhere in the Outback, no one seems to take it seriously, not even the police. After all, Aspen has a history of drug use and a string of broken relationships to her name. Emily knows that her disappearance is totally out of character, even for the family’s wild child, so she books a flight to the Northern Territory to find her.

'Emily’s search takes her south of Darwin to every road stop and tourist trap she can find, but the only person who turns up is the last person she expected to see, her ex-husband Ben. But there is a violent killer on the loose, a man the media have dubbed ‘The Outback Killer’ – and after two brazen attempts on Emily’s life, it soon becomes clear that someone wants Emily gone too, someone who is willing to do anything to stop her following Aspen’s tracks.

'Set in the bustling streets of Darwin and in an alternative-lifestyle commune outside of Tennant Creek, and told with McGinnis’s trademark colourful and poetic style, this is a gripping tale of the danger and lawlessness of Australia’s wild and remote places.' (Publication summary)