Cirrus@Austlit

'Miss Matilda Hayward has a wedding to plan and while ordering her bridal bouquet in Bridal Lane, she finds a note in her sample bouquet requesting a liaison. Matilda innocently believes the note is a mix-up and now two people in love might believe the other person has abandoned them. She engages her brother, Daniel, to attend the liaison with her and to advise of the mix-up, but the young paramour rushes off and is later found beaten and bruised in a lane off Bridal Alley by Matilda's fiance, Detective Thomas Ashdown, and his partner, Detective Harry Dart.

'When a respected lacemaker is also found murdered in the same laneway, the note takes on a new significance. Matilda is assigned to write the obituary for the Women's Journal with her illustrator friend, Miss Georgina Urry. It is not long until she finds herself in danger and in the middle of a mystery and a murder case, much to her fiance's displeasure. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot before Matilda makes it to the altar!' (Publication summary)

'Miss Matilda Hayward has been assigned her first book review for the Women's Journal newspaper and she is very much enjoying Mr Linton Turner's novel, The Pyjama Girl Mystery, until it comes to life. When a young lady is found murdered and left on the church steps dressed only in blue satin pyjamas - just like in the plot of the novel - the author immediately comes under suspicion. But no one can identify the victim. Matilda's beau, Detective Thomas Ashdown, is on the case, and with his partner, Detective Harry Dart, they hire a talented mortician, Miss Phoebe Astin, to illustrate the deceased lady for identification purposes. After Matilda and her friend, Miss Georgina Urry, make Phoebe's acquaintance, the three ladies find themselves unwillingly caught in a battle of words and hearts between an author and a poet with deadly intent. There is secrecy, danger, and love afoot!' (Publication summary)

'Sam Garson had a fur ball stuck in his throat. He blamed his best friend, Dan Lin, who had a problem of a different kind - feathers that sprouted from his ankle. Dan, in turn, blamed the book of 'Extraordinary Science Potions'; a well-kept secret until Dan stumbled upon it and somehow doomed himself and his best friend to morphing. Yes, morphing - Sam into a cat and Dan into a crow - uncontrollably and when least expected. Now the class bully, Jonathan Bell, has got a copy and all the teachers have disappeared from Weatherly Heights School for the Extraordinary. Things are going from bad to worse!' (Publication summary)

'Sophie Carell is making a name for herself and it is not on the stage or screen where she once planned a career. Accepting the cursed glasses bequeathed by her Great Aunt Daphne that gave her the gift of clairvoyance, Sophie has helped Detective Murdoch Ashcroft close several cases and her skills are in demand.

'But Sophie has to decide - will she continue auditioning and acting, or will she fill Great Aunt Daphne's shoes, including helping to solve the cold case mysterious death of a beauty queen?

'Trouble brews around Sophie as her protector, the handsome and powerful, Lukas Lens, is not sure he can fulfil his role, and the brooding Detective Murdoch Ashcroft looms as her potential enemy.

'Friends and enemies cross lines in the second volume of The Clairvoyant's Glasses.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Jesse Clarke's 10-year school reunion boasted a few shocks - and that didn't include Jesse running a publicity and private investigator business. The talk of the reunion was Alex Bryson, the overweight kid who transformed himself thanks to winning a place on the TV reality program, Lose it! But a week after the reunion, Alex is dead. That's not the only reunion that's taking up Jesse's time. At a client's family reunion and birthday celebration, a very expensive Titanic relic goes missing - a Titanic Mourning Bear. And now T-Bear, as he is known, is showing up all over the country! With support from her boyfriend Dominic, along with business partner Ed, Police Officer Jason, and Jesse's enthusiastic best friend, Melanie, Jesse is back solving mysteries while juggling publicity clients include Mona and her choir, again.' (Publication summary)

'Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career, after all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women's Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting 'Freak Show' and to interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for help to her escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But then the giantess's husband, along with the owner of the Freak Show, Mr Alfred E. Burnham, is murdered. The giantess is a likely suspect.

'Matilda enlists the help of her lawyer brother, Amos, to prove the giantess is no killer and to free her from a life of exploitation. But close family friend, Detective Thomas Ashdown - who might just have feelings for Matilda despite having known her since childhood - would prefer Matilda was nowhere near his murder case. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Miss Matilda Hayward has a nose for a story which serves her well as a writer for the Women's Journal newspaper. Her beau, Detective Thomas Ashdown, is not quite as enthusiastic about her role. When Matilda's brother, Elijah, takes up a doctor's position at the Asylum for the Insane, she volunteers, seeking more life experience to improve her writing. Joined by her illustrator friend, Miss Georgina Urry, the two ladies are thrust into the mystery of several strange asylum deaths as patients believe they can fly. When Thomas is sent to investigate, their worlds collide. Now the race is on to find the sinister threat dwelling inside the dark and gloomy walls of the asylum. There is secrecy, danger, and love afoot!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Holly Hanlon was having a sea change. Leaving the city for a new life in a seaside village was just what she needed to find her feet after a nasty break-up.

'Holly found things - or rather they found her - so nobody was surprised when she opened her small business: Missing Me – Lost, Found and Broken. But finding love and finding The One was a whole different matter.

'Unbeknownst to Holly, her new abode in Findlater Lane came with a housemate – Sergeant Alexander Austen – a handsome ghost who thought he knows best.

'Was Holly afraid? Not in the daylight hours, when she was happy to help him pack up and move on. Up until now, the Sergeant had done a reasonable job of scaring off potential tenants, and he anticipated getting rid of Holly would be no problem.

'And so, Holly and the Sergeant were both calling Findlater House home. For now.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Grave Tales: Melbourne Vol. 1 visits eleven Melbourne cemeteries to tell the stories of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events that made local and national headlines. They may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses that still exist, but now lie in the cemeteries of Melbourne. 'Grave Tales' reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places. Written by Logie-award winning journalist Chris Adams and author/journalist Helen Goltz, this is the seventh book in the 'Grave Tales' biography/history series.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'What made them do it? What were they thinking? Was it nature or nurture, that is, were they born evil or were they the products of their environment? And why are we so fascinated with crime?

'Journalists Helen Goltz and Chris Adams have been spoilt for choice selecting stories for the fifth Grave Tales book and the first Grave Tales: True Crime volume.

'As our nation developed, the bush prospered and the cities grew, these were some of the terrible crimes that took away our innocence, crimes destined never to be solved that live on in our history… crimes that confound us with their cruelty, stagger us with their brilliance and amaze us with their sheer audacity.

'Grave Tales: True Crime Vol. 1 features those people who were often unwilling participants in the events that would make local and national headlines at the time.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events are captured in 'Grave Tales: Queensland's Great South West'. Visiting cemeteries from Ipswich to Augathella, 'Grave Tales: Queensland's Great South West' tells the stories of everyday people who willingly or unwillingly, were participants in events that made local and national headlines.

'They may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses as exist now in towns and cities along the way, and finished their days in cemeteries in Queensland.

'These are tales of early settlement, unsolved murders, love lost, mystery, tragedy, health epidemics, scandal and sacrifice. Grave Tales reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places.

'This is number six in the awarded and popular Grave Tales series, this book travels from Ipswich to Augathella including Gatton, Toowoomba, Nobby, Goondiwindi, St George, Roma and Charleville.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'Meet the people who were often unwilling participants in the events that made headlines. In cemeteries throughout Australia, gravestones hint at our history – tales of early settlement, unsolved murders, love lost, mystery, tragedy, health epidemics, scandal and sacrifice. 'Grave Tales' reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places.

'Journalists Helen Goltz and Chris Adams have taken a walk through some of Sydney’s oldest cemeteries to get an insight into the incredible lives of personalities that may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses as exist now, or unexpectantly came to rest, in Sydney.

'Using gravestones as their starting points some highlights include:

• 'The story of Henry O’Farrell, our first would-be assassin who in 1868 tried to kill Queen Victoria’s son. He failed and was executed with indecent haste, despite the fact he had long been suffering from a mental breakdown.
• 'The story of Australia’s own ‘Titanic’ – the tragic deaths of all but one of the 122 passengers of the ‘Dunbar’, which crashed and sank as it pulled into Sydney Heads, at the end of its long journey from London. The sole survivor, James Johnson was found clinging to the rock ledges of The Gap amidst the debris of body parts in the sea below.
• 'The unremarkable grave of Patrick Brady – the man linked to the bizarre Coogee Shark Arm Murders of 1935 which gripped the country and remain unsolved today.

'Also featuring missing person Juanita Nielsen, poet Dorothea Mackellar and ‘Mr Eternity’ Arthur Stace, the book paints an incredible picture of Sydney’s past; history colliding with the now. These are just some of the stories and personalities featured in the Grave Tales series.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'‘Grave Tales: Bruce Highway’ will give forgotten events, heroes and victims life again by tracing the journeys that lead to their final resting places.

'Stories like how two nurses in Maryborough in 1905 gave their lives to save a town from an outbreak of pneumonic plague; the unsolved mystery of how Mollie Thompson’s body ended up in an impossibly hard to reach water reservoir; the migrant who created his dream and shared it with generations; the mother and her five children who lost their lives in the Mackay cyclone; how gold fever saved the state from going broke; why the first person to be hanged in Rockhampton gaol was a bent cop; the inscription on a tree on the Sunshine Coast that reflects a tumultuous sea journey; and the 13 RAAF members who came to rest permanently in Townsville, to name a few.

'‘Grave Tales’ features people who willingly or unwillingly were participants in events that made headlines. These people may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and the same houses as exist now in the cities and towns along the Bruce Highway.

'Grave Tales is researched and written by journalists, Helen Goltz and Chris Adams; between them they have years of experience in newspapers, radio and television production and reporting.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'In cemeteries throughout Australia, gravestones hint at our history – tales of early settlement, unsolved murders, love lost, mystery, tragedy, health epidemics, scandal and sacrifice. Grave Tales reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places.

'Grave Tales Brisbane Vol. 1 visits five Brisbane cemeteries and tells of the everyday people who may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses as exist now, or finished their days in Brisbane. Willingly or unwilling, they were participants in events that made local and national headlines.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

'In cemeteries throughout Australia, gravestones hint at our history – tales of early settlement, unsolved murders, love lost, mystery, tragedy, health epidemics, scandal and sacrifice. Grave Tales reveals more than the headstone can ever convey by tracing the tumultuous journeys that lead to these final resting places.    

'Grave Tales: Great Ocean Road Country – Geelong to Port Fairy visits established cemeteries and burial places off-the-beaten-track to feature people who willingly or unwillingly were participants in events that made local and national headlines. They may have lived in the same suburbs, streets, and even the same houses as exist now, or unexpectantly came to rest between Geelong and Port Fairy.

'Meet the ladies of the lighthouse who led an isolated life; the unionist shot in an affray; the stage actor whose career ended too soon; the men who sighted the fabled Mahogany Ship; the two survivors of a shipwreck that everyone wanted to see married, but it wasn’t to be; the inventor of the Ute and what inspired his unusual design; and the lady who rests in a ‘donated’ isolated beach grave.

'These are just some of the stories from the grave in the second book in the Grave Tales series incorporating Geelong, Lorne, Apollo Bay, Cape Otway, Loch Ard Gorge, Warrnambool, Tower Hill and Port Fairy.'

(Source: publisher's blurb)

Journalists, Helen Goltz and Chris Adams have between them spent many decades in the print and electronic media working for network television,  radio, and state and community newspapers. With a joint love of history, digging for a good story and storytelling, they have collaborated to create a series of books that brings our history to life again.

(Source: publisher's website)

'On Valentine’s Day 1900, three schoolgirls and a teacher disappear while on a school outing at Hanging Rock in Victoria.

'What became of the missing girls and their teacher?

'Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock detailed the tragedy, and the author left strict instructions for the final chapter not to be printed until her death.

'Many Australians remember the 1967 book and 1975 film; many high school students studied it as part of their school curriculum. But was the story real? And did the secret chapter released after Joan Lindsay's death cast a new light on the fate of the missing ladies?' (Publication abstract)

'In her wildest dreams, Ophelia Montague never imagined she would leave the city, her friends, her school and move to a seaside village. But when her parents die in an accident, that's just where she finds herself - ensconced in a rambling house on the beach, with her uncle, Sebastian, his boarder-19-year-old Adam Ferrier, and two Great Dane dogs named after shipwrecks. By the ocean's edge she meets Jack Denham who seems to command the sea and the moon-and if he has his way-Ophelia, too.' (Publication summary)