Cirrus@Austlit

'If Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club kissed under the mistletoe...

'My name's Ernest Cunningham. I used to be a fan of reading Golden Age murder mysteries, until I found myself with a haphazard career getting stuck in the middle of real-life ones. I'd hoped, this Christmas, that any self-respecting murderer would kick their feet up and take it easy over the holidays. I was wrong.

'So here I am, backstage at the show of world-famous magician Rylan Blaze, whose benefactor has just been murdered. My suspects are all professional tricksters- masters of the art of misdirection.

'THE MAGICIAN
THE ASSISTANT
THE EXECUTIVE
THE HYPNOTIST
THE TWIN
THE COUNSELLOR
THE TECH

'My clues are even more abstract- A suspect covered in blood, without a memory of how it got there; A murder committed without setting foot inside the room where it happens; And an advent calendar. Because, you know, it's Christmas.

'If I can see through the illusions, I know I can solve it.

'After all, a good murder is just like a magic trick, isn't it?' (Publication summary)

'We've all filled up at a servo, but what's it like behind the counter, late at night, as a plethora of unhinged and maniacal souls totter in through the parting glass? David Goodwin worked the graveyard shift for six years in his home suburb of Werribee, and this is his hilarious and darkly mesmeric account of what happens behind the anti-jump wire.

'Most of us have done our time in the retail trenches, but service stations are undoubtedly the front line, as Melburnian David Goodwin found out when he started working the weekend graveyard shift at a servo in his home suburb of Werribee.

'From his very first night shift, Goodwin absorbed a consistent level of mind-bending lunacy over his six years: giant shoplifting bees, balaclava-clad assailants hurling water bombs of different-flavoured cordial through the sunroof of a BMW blasting Roxette's Joyride, and synchronised anarcho-goths high on MDMA loosing large rats in the store from their matching Harry Potter backpacks.

'Goodwin grew to love his servo, assuming the role of nocturnal ringleader of the depraved halogen circus, handing out free pastries and slurpees as he grew a backbone and finally became street smart.

'From psycho meatheads on a steady a diet of homemade speed and strong psychedelics to guitar-strumming, self-appointed mystics trying to grift their way to a better world, the creatures that tottered through the parting glass proved that servos will always attract those a few litres short of a full tank.

'For anyone who's ever toiled under the unforgiving fluorescent lights of a customer service job, Stale Sausage Rolls is a side-splitting and darkly mesmeric coming-of-age story from behind the anti-jump wire that will have you gritting your teeth, then cackling at the absurdity, idiocy and utterly beguiling strangeness of those who only come out at night.' (Publication summary)

'The gut-wrenching, heroic story of how one of Australia’s finest surfers overcame brain injury and despair to win an Olympic medal.

'On the morning of 10 December 2015, Australian surfer Owen Wright entered the water at Pipeline, Hawaii, on the eve of an event that, all going well, could have made him a world champion. But after being pounded by a set of monstrous waves, he was later that day fighting for life en route to a O’ahu hospital, where scans revealed extensive brain trauma. In this inspirational memoir, Wright chronicles the events leading up to that fateful day, as well as the months and years that followed as he battled to regain, firstly, basic functioning, and eventually the capacity to compete again at the apex of surfing.

'Against the Water carries the reader back to Wright’s boyhood in the tiny New South Wales South Coast town of Culburra, where his father, Rob, determined to raise champions, turned family life into a kind of boot camp. While eccentric, the father’s methods bore fruit: the Wrights of Culburra would become Australian surfing royalty. Wright’s story lays bare the complex relationship with his father – the adoration, the fight for independence, the fallings out, the reconciliations, the poignant denouement. It also captures Wright’s life-altering love for Kita Alexander, the beautiful songstress who abandoned a blooming career to help nurse a broken man she’d known for a few short months back to health.

'Told in a spare, intimate style, Against the Water is the moving account of an athlete who refused to accept that his best days were behind him. Owen stopped at nothing not only to rebuild his identity but to construct a better one – he’s now a husband, father, dutiful son and an Olympic medallist in a sport whose spirit courses through his veins. Against the Water also raises fundamental questions around family and competition. What, ultimately, is our duty to our children? At what point does bravery become folly? How much should we sacrifice for the sake of another? Once read, Wright’s story will not be forgotten.' (Publication summary)

'Ernest Cunningham returns in a deliciously witty locked room (train) mystery.

'When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.

'The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:

the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer.

'But when one of us is murdered, six authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.

'Or commit one.

'How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder.

'Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up.

'The thing is, us Cunninghams don’t really get along. We’ve only got one thing in common: we’ve all killed someone.

My brother.
My step-sister
My wife
My father
My mother
My sister-in-law
My uncle
My stepfather
My aunt
Me'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Cocaine. Construction. Corruption.
'The unholy trinity. 

'Self-made property mogul Tina Leonard has already lost her business, her home and custody of her children because South East Banking Corporation left her bankrupt. Now it appears she is being framed for the murder of her banker Oliver Randall, a senior executive of the corporation. Her motive? Revenge for ruining her life and her business.

'When maverick lawyer Peter Tanner is brought in to represent Tina, he bends the law to learn the truth. Was the real killer employed by the bank to silence Randall, who knew too much about their corrupt clientele and business dealings?

'As Tanner digs deeper the truth is harder and harder to find. Drug dealers and dodgy cops are a breed apart from corrupt corporate bankers, who’ll do anything to keep their names in the clear.

'Who really silenced Randall? Tanner gets more than he bargained for as he tangles with craven bent banks and a client who can't talk, and danger lurks far too close to home.' (Publication summary)
 

'How far would you go to save a friend?

'When Melissa Cheung’s husband is arrested in China for corruption, her first call is to Peter Tanner.

'As a criminal defence barrister, Tanner often crosses paths with some of the most evil but wealthy members of the nation’s underbelly. Melissa’s phone call takes Tanner away from drug dealers and crooked property developers into the highest end of corporate corruption – mining companies trying to cover up environmental disasters and families at the top of the rich list who think they’re above the law.

'As he pursues those who had Cheung incarcerated, Tanner unearths cover-up after cover-up, putting his life and those of others in danger as he tries to bring the perpetrators to justice.' (Publication summary)