Cirrus@Austlit

'The unlikely sighting of Germans in 1915 Fiji turns deadly in this charming follow-up to A Disappearance in Fiji.

'Sergeant Akal Singh, an unwilling transplant to Fiji, is just starting to settle into his life in the capital city of Suva when he is sent to the neighbouring island of Ovalau on a series of fool's errands. First: investigate strange reports of lurking Germans, thousands of miles from the front lines of World War I. Second: chaperone two strong-willed European ladies, Mary and Katherine, on a sightseeing tour. And third: supervise the only police officer currently on Ovalau, a teenage recruit with a penchant for hysterics.

'Accompanied by his friend Constable Taviti Tukana - who has come to visit his uncle, a powerful chief - Akal sets out to deal with these seemingly straightforward tasks. Instead, the two police officers become embroiled in a growing number of local controversies, among them the gruesome death of an unpopular shopkeeper and the imprisonment of a group of European sailors in Taviti's uncle's village. To add to Akal's woes, Katherine, an aspiring journalist, harbours an agenda of her own. As tensions mount, will Akal be able to keep her - and himself - out of trouble?

'Nilima Rao's critically acclaimed debut, A Disappearance in Fiji (2024), was winner of the 2024 American Library Association Reading List for Mystery Fiction and appeared in multiple US best-of-year roundups (being named as an Amazon Best Debut of the Year and culture website CrimeReads' Best Historical Fiction of the Year).' (Publication summary)

'Alice Montgomery goes missing in 2015.

'Seven years later, her best friend Hannah is bouncing from job to job, house to house, forever feeling the need to outrun something, but unsure what. With the niggling need to move nipping at her heels, Hannah decides to return to her hometown for the first time since she left, to help her mum after surgery. The relationship is long-fractured, broken apart by grief after the suicide of Hannah's father when she was eleven.

'When Hannah hears that Marnie Montgomery, Alice's mum, has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, she is seized by terror that she will never get closure for her friend's disappearance. An addict and recluse, rumours have long-since dogged Marnie - rumours that she was responsible for her daughter going missing.

'Marnie insists she had nothing to do with Alice's disappearance and points a finger instead at a teacher, Rachel Olney, who is nursing broken dreams and haunted by a single bad decision she made long ago.' (Publication summary)

What You Into? is Josh Fox's memoir detailing his slide into addiction to casual sex, hook-ups, and dating apps.

'Fox, a radio producer for a successful morning breakfast show, was happily married: then his partner announced an unforeseen split, and Fox spiralled into the world of Grindr hook-ups and, soon after, sex addiction. Fox documents this journey diary-style, chronicling the weird, wacky and at times dark world of casual sex.

'In a gritty but humorous story, Fox navigates his grief and anger through the consumption of men, only to discover he is being equally consumed by the process. This is a story about all of us: the push and pull of addiction, and the desire to feel alive and to be healed through destruction.' (Publication summary)

'From the author of the international bestsellers, Outback and Paradise, Patricia Wolf returns to the red dirt of Australia in this compelling sequel.

'DS Lucas Walker's half-sister Grace is visiting from Boston, and he is determined to finally prioritise family over work and spend a week introducing her to her Australian family. Plans change, however, when he discovers that his cousin Blair needs help to return home from a tiny, remote opal mining town, so he and Grace set off on a rescue mission to Kanpara. A life- changing opal discovery, murder, floods and vigilantes turn the planned overnight visit into a week of intrigue and danger, giving Walker no choice but to step in and help.' (Publication summary)

'After nearly twenty-five years as a cop dealing with drug dealers and gangs, a life he so vividly recorded in The Cop Who Fell to Earth, Craig Semple was forced to stop and reassess his life when he could no longer out-run the symptoms of PTSD. His recovery led him to set up his own business, Mentality Plus, providing mental health training to staff and leaders, often in traditionally male-dominated industries.

'In this practical book, he distils everything he learned as he recovered his own mental health and puts this experience and his skills in leadership, effective communication, emotional intelligence and conflict resolution to work to provide help to those who may find it difficult to make that first step towards recovery from stress and trauma. Down-to-earth, accessible and honest, this book can and will change lives.' (Publication summary)

'From the early spark of passion and unflinching devotion to the art of singing, this book is a first-hand account of the dedication, hard work and extensive skill base required to survive life in an opera chorus. How did a shy little girl from Hamilton, New Zealand, find herself performing on one of the world's most iconic stages, the Sydney Opera House?

'This honest and hilarious insight into the life of an opera chorister is filled with backstage antics, onstage disasters and the long road to success, shining a light on a section of the opera industry people know very little about.

'Along the way, Katherine shares her journey with legends of the stage such as Dame Julie Andrews, Jonas Kaufmann, Sigrid Thornton, Nicole Car, Anthony Warlow, Graeme Murphy, Neil Armfield, Simon Phillips, Reg Livermore, Todd McKenney and Dame Malvina Major.

'Through the endless auditions, stage fright, life-changing encounters, heartbreak, pandemics and a refusal to throw it all away, this book proves that the joy of music can conquer all.' (Publication summary)

'Based on a true story. Sarah Evans takes us from the pitiless streets of eighteenth-century London to the convict village at The Rocks in Sydney and a rural farm on the Hawkesbury.

'As a poor, illiterate young woman, Sarah becomes entangled in a web of cruelty and corruption where powerful men rule and the law disregards women. Raised to believe she has no rights at all, not even to justice. Sarah meets a group of political rebels while she is a prisoner and is introduced to the concepts of liberty and equality. Despite what life throws at her, she learns her own value and begins to fight for her rights, supported throughout by the street network of women. When she is accused of murdering her own child and faces the death penalty, they don't let her down.

'In the end, it is the power of thoughts and words that shapes her life, not the hardship she has known, and friendship that teaches her the most important kind of freedom: liberty of mind. 'Is that not every woman's right?' (Publication summary)

'Sydney, Australia. The body of a young woman is found in a food court, and detective Jackie Rose is tasked to investigate. Is this a drug murder, or something else?

'Cape Town, South Africa. Another young woman falls off the radar after leaving to study in Australia. Detective Schalk Lourens, who has been wrongly accused of war crimes, decides to visit Australia and while he's there, see if he can find her.

'Schalk and Jackie join forces and, in a trail that stretches across the world, find themselves up against an enemy more powerful and depraved than they could imagine. Their own futures, and those of hundreds of others, hang in the balance. ' (Publication summary)

'Kharkiv, Ukraine, 2019: Ongoing clashes between Ukrainian nationalists and pro-Russian activists make this city a deadly destination.

'However, Matt Latham - Australian foreign correspondent and reluctant spy for ASIS (Australia's secret service) - isn't too picky with the work he accepts, as long as the money is right. When offered a lucrative assignment to interview a reclusive Russian billionaire in Kharkiv, he jumps at the chance. But an explosion at the club where they were to meet leaves Matt hospitalised and his interpreter, Katya Fomina, dead.

'Was it just another random act of violence in this strife-torn region?

'Released from hospital, Latham travels to Katya's Ukrainian village to meet her parents and pay his last respects. There, he learns of his interpreter's fruitless search for her missing younger sister, Nadiya, and discovers that Katya led a double life.

'Picking up the threads of Katya's investigation, Latham becomes a man on a mission. And his search for Nadiya will propel him across Europe and ever deeper into a murky world of double agents, illegal arms shipments, drug running and human trafficking.

'Shadow Lives tells a tale of loss, betrayal, and revenge. Of a flawed man's attempt to help a broken family and, in the process, set a small corner of the world to rights ... Will it also help him break free of the shadows shrouding his own life?' (Publication summary)

'Handywoman Barb Young has lived in the sleepy coastal town of Bullford Point for over fifty years —and frankly, in that time, not much has happened, unless you count that business where a bush turkey managed to board the ferry a couple of years ago.

'When Joe Griffiths returns from Sydney after six years of drug addiction, jail and, eventually, rehab, Barb offers him a job, hoping to help him turn his life around. However, when another new resident of Bullford Point is murdered, Joe becomes the prime suspect.

'Barb thinks the police have got it wrong, but the more she tries to find the truth and clear Joe's name, the more confusing things become. Is the murder connected to the developers circling the waterfront home Joe inherited from his parents? Or to the true crime podcast he has been making about the death of his ex-girlfriend, seven years previously? And what was the information the murdered woman had been trying to horse-trade with police? ' (Publication summary)

'Inspired by real events and people, Murder in Punch Lane is a dark and gripping crime novel that maps the sins and secrets of nineteenth-century Melbourne.

'Melbourne, 1868.
When dazzling theatre star Marie St Denis dies in the arms of her best friend, fellow actress Lola Sanchez, everyone believes it was suicide by laudanum overdose. Everyone except Lola. On the brink of stardom herself, she risks everything by embarking on a quest to find Marie's killer.

'When journalist Magnus Scott, writing as 'the Walking Gentleman', publishes a compassionate obituary about her friend, Lola decides to seek his help. A fraught attraction develops between these two amateur detectives from opposite sides of society, and their volatile relationship soon begins to compromise their investigation.

'Lola keeps a secret from Magnus. She traverses the corrupt underbelly of the brash young metropolis just as he does, but disguised as a boy, entering dangerous, forbidden spaces where the lives of the rich and privileged intersect with the city's underclass and outsiders: bohemians, theatre folk, prostitutes, down-and-outs and opium addicts.

'Neither are prepared for the truths they will uncover about the powers that rule Melbourne – or the consequences for their own lives. And now they must race to find the murderer before the city destroys them both.' (Publication summary)

'In the heart of western Sydney, three generations of men in a family of champion boxers are trapped in a cycle of violence.

'Ted 'Little Boy Blue' Taylor has replaced his estranged father Ron - a disgraced former heavyweight champion on the cusp of an unexpected comeback - as the darling of Australian boxing. But after two uninspiring losses, he is failing to live up to the expectations that have always weighed so heavily upon him.

'Ted's battles are not isolated to his sport: a painful history of alcoholism, domestic abuse and ties to the underworld of boxing has a firm hold on the Taylor family. Generational trauma and guilt are not Ted's only inheritance. Now he is silently enduring the effects of years of concussions - in the ring, and in childhood at the hands of his father - which are threatening to end his career prematurely.

'Ted is trained by his grandfather, a Vietnam vet seeking escape from his demons through drinking and gambling. Pop manages to find a certain peace in his love for his sport and his grandson, although he is unknowingly causing damage by trying to protect Ted from the father-son showdown that the industry is baying for.

'When someone from the world beyond boxing enters his life, Ted begins to see a new, more hopeful future for himself - but only if he has the courage to walk away from his family's volatile legacy. By finding the strength to choose, can he free them all?' (Publication summary)

'What happens when your great Australian dream gets washed away? And then tries to drag your marriage down with it?

'Lismore resident Rob – a happily married empty-nester, enjoying his late middle age – has always defined himself by the quality of the roof over his head and the state of his family life. Solid. Safe. Stable. But when the 2022 flood hits, he and his wife Sal find themselves homeless, their lives now the very opposite of secure and predictable.

'While government and insurance investigations drag on, Rob and Sal are left with no choice but to rent while they wait to find out the fate of their badly damaged home. After a mix-up with contracts, they reluctantly agree to share a home unit in Ballina with strangers – a slightly older hippy couple, also impacted by the floods, who couldn’t be more different from their new flatmates. A two-bedroom, one-bathroom flat with very thin walls. Surely they can stick it out ... they’re all grown-ups, right? What follows are six awkward yet entertaining months spent dealing with one another’s personal quirks while waiting for life to get back to normal.

'Only life has bigger plans for all four of them.'(Publication summary)

'We first meet Molly Darrow in 1789 in Lancashire, England, where she is living unhappily with her grandmother. Head strong and tomboyish, she evades a threatened assault by dressing as a boy and fleeing on a stolen horse. Her new-found freedom is short lived, however, when she is arrested for theft while trying to sell the horse. Originally given the death penalty, her sentence is reduced to transportation and her true identity is unveiled when she boards the ship bound for Australia.

'On the voyage Molly reunites with the deeply traumatised Aliza, with whom she had bonded while awaiting sentence in prison and strikes up an unlikely friendship with the young first mate, Angus Thistle, a trader when on land, who is impressed by the teenager's strength, sharp intelligence, and commercial sense. When Molly and Angus reconnect after their arrival in Sydney, their friendship deepens and they marry, despite Molly's doubts that a freeman would ever consider a convict as a wife.' (Publication summary)

'In the 1960s, off the Far North Queensland coast, a tropical island in the Coral Sea hides dark secrets behind its primordial wonder.

'Tallula (Tally) Ramsey has grown up barefoot, wild and free on the island purchased by her maternal grandfather – a paradise with two faces: an idyllic honeymoon resort for the rich and famous; and an untamed coastline with steeply rising peaks covered in impenetrable jungle. She has always known she will one day become the Mistress of Dara Island in her mother Nerissa’s stead. A belief founded on her mother’s promise. But as she matures, her determination and wilfulness bring her into conflict with her ruthless father, ‘Bullshark’ Richard Ramsey, a powerful figure feared by everyone, including his wife. Ultimately, Tally must face the heartbreaking realisation that her promised future is slipping from her grasp.

'After a sudden disappearance from the island, Talley embarks on a desperate search that leads her deep into Dara’s treacherous wilderness, a journey that will challenge all her assumptions about herself, her home and the people she loves.' (Publication summary)

'Taking the reader from Victoria’s wild shipwreck coast to the artists’ studios of revolutionary Paris and the bloody battlefields of Flanders, this sweeping novel reimagines the volatile history of the beautiful and enigmatic young woman immortalised in one of Australia’s most iconic paintings. Created in Paris in 1875, Chloé, Jules Lefebvre’s depiction of a naked water nymph, was brought to Melbourne’s Young & Jackson Hotel in 1909, where it has hung ever since.

'In this passionate, luminous retelling, Katrina Kell seeks to unlock the riddle behind the girl on the canvas, known to history only as Marie. In doing so, she weaves the compelling story of an incandescent spirit – a woman with the strength to defy the boundaries of class and convention in order to survive, and an enduring power to influence the lives of others across time and distance.' (Publication summary)

'Jack Harris, the disgraced son of Australia’s most powerful business tycoon, has just been exiled to Byron Bay as a junior journalist at his father’s smallest regional newspaper, The Beacon. His arrival coincides with the disappearance of the newspaper’s editor, Patrick O’Shaughnessy, while out on his morning surf. When Patrick’s body is discovered in the ocean, with a severed leg, it appears certain that he’s fallen victim to a shark attack. 

'But when rumours emerge that Patrick was about to publish an explosive article – its subject unknown – Jack begins to suspect his death is not what it seems.' (Publication summary)