Cirrus@Austlit

'When you can fake anything, how do you know what’s real?

'Harlow Close has made a career as an influencer uncovering the secrets of Winnipeg, dubbed ‘North America's strangest city’. The region is renowned for its sub-zero temperatures, dropping to minus 40 degrees – sometimes for months at a time. Yet, it’s not just the frigid winters and geographic seclusion that render Winnipeg peculiar.

'When Harlow’s father mysteriously disappears amid a particularly brutal cold snap, suspicions of foul play arise. It’s not like Scott to miss phone calls – and he’s been even more cautious since that time he was catfished by a romance scammer. Unhappy with the pace of the police investigation, Harlow launches her own search, enlisting her sister Blaise’s reluctant help.' (Publication summary) 

'Is it paranoia - or is someone watching?

'For years, Reagan Carsen has kept her life offline. No socials. No internet presence. No photos. Safe.

'Until the day she stumbles on a shocking murder in a Sydney laneway. The victim looks just like her.

'Coincidence?

'As more murders shake the city and she's increasingly drawn out from hiding, Reagan is forced to confront her greatest fear.

'She's been found.

'A riveting psychological thriller drawn from true events, Dark Mode delves into the terrifying reality of the dark web, and the price we pay for surrendering our privacy one click at a time.'  (Publication summary)

'Anna Downes’s first novel is a thriller that poses uncomfortable questions about families.'

'After spending her twenties working abroad and travelling solo, Canadian Ashley convinces her career-oriented boyfriend Steve to relocate to sunny, carefree, no-worries Australia for a year. An anxious dreamer, Ashley longs to bathe in the national characteristics of her chosen new home and feel the way Australians do.

'Newly married, the couple move to Sydney. Steve struggles to find work and Ashley fears he will come to regret both the move and the marriage, especially after she loses her wedding rings on Bondi Beach. But when Steve lands a great job, he shockingly announces he wants to stay in Australia, making Ashley realise how out of place she feels.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'How do we talk about grief? Chloe Higgins’s memoir reveals her response to the loss of her sisters, and the impact of that loss on her parents. ' 

'Who is Evie? JP Pomare’s taut debut thriller has already been shortlisted for crime writing awards.'

'In the opening essay of The World Was Whole, Fiona Wright connects our bodies and our living spaces, and the way we strive to feel at home – ‘comfortable and comforted’ – in each. This is a book about the complexities of home, about being unhomed, about the body as home, and about the spaces we work to make home, our dwellings and our neighbourhoods. When life is marred by unbelonging and grief, it is the habits and routines of being homed that bring comfort and even joy.'  (Introduction)

'I've never understood why Australians bother with the drop bear myth. It's like a morgue trying to freak out visitors with a plastic fly in the complimentary punch bowl. If Aussies want to freak out foreigners, they can simply relate their own everyday encounters with deadly creatures, such as finding a funnel-web spider submerged in an air bubble in their swimming pool, or discovering a brown snake in their washing machine, or being bitten by a redback spider at the age of three and taken to the GP's office to be told, 'It's probably fine. ' These are all actual experiences Australians have related to me, unsolicited.'  (Publication abstract)

'Katherine Collette’s Germaine may not be ‘good with people’ but The Helpline charms and delights.'

'Yak on Track shares McNeice’s 16-day trekking adventure in Bhutan, while offering a traveller’s insights into the country’s history and culture.'

'Borne out of a manuscript longlisted for the 2017 KYD Unpublished Manuscript Award, Ashley Kalagian Blunt’s My Name Is Revenge is out this month with Spineless Wonders. In December 1980, two men shot a Turkish diplomat near his home in Sydney, and vanished. From this assassination in Australia, one of a series of international terrorist attacks, Kalagian Blunt’s novella traces back to the streets of 1920s Berlin and the Armenian genocide of World War I. The following is an extract from one of three companion essays.' (Publication abstract)