Cirrus@Austlit

'1 body in a cow paddock. 1 bus. 1 canine terrorist. 2 rebel uprisings. 2 troubled relationships. 3 tense residents. 1 confused mahjong group. It is just One thing after another for the group to deal with, and then there are the other big questions causing unrest.

'Was the bowling green a mistake? Is the pool shaping up to be a white elephant? Why are regular happy hour sessions on hold, and why have mahjong mornings been cancelled? The Merivale Retirement Village mahjong players are searching for answers and hoping things will return to normal sometime soon.

'Life in the Village is never dull, but does it have to be so complicated?'  (Publication summary)

'Marion Dawson and the Merivale Retirement Village's mahjong team have had a busy year. The Village's expansion program has seen them help turn a number of projects into a reality. New library, new bowling green, new theatre, new residents, and new friendships are among the outcomes, along with crime which almost destroys one of the team's pet projects.

'You are invited to meet some of the new residents, watch new friendships develop, and enjoy their Christmas festivities.' (Publication summary)

'This is a story about friendship, jealousy, life in the close confines of a retirement village, and of a disparate group of people brought together by their love of playing mahjong. After one of their playing venues closes down for a couple of weeks, the group finds itself missing a key player.

'Alice Logan, realising the closedown is an opportunity for a long-overdue vacation, makes a last minute booking on a cruise. The mahjong players are concerned when she fails to return by the time regular mahjong sessions recommence. A couple of close friends discover no one has heard from Alice since their last games before the closedown, and Alice's little dog, Chester, is now without his adoring mistress for over a month. Convinced Alice's vacation has not gone to plan, and something is amiss, they decide to investigate her apparent disappearance.

'Their search soon takes them into unfamiliar territory interstate. It results in a world they only know about through the media becoming all too real. That world comes too close to home for comfort, when a sample of it arrives on their doorstep.' (Publication summary)

'After five people are poisoned at a company's pre-Christmas party, the police have local coffee shop proprietor, Cara Ballard, in their sights as the prime suspect. Their investigation focuses on proving her guilty rather than investigating other avenues. They show no interest in investigating two earlier attacks on Cara's coffee shop, one of which left a staff member seriously injured, and refuse to accept all the incidents might be linked.In a bid to ensure a thorough investigation and to prove her innocence, she engages private investigator, Sonoma (Sonny) Whittington, to undertake an independent investigation into all three incidents. Finding a motive or any other connection linking all three incidents proves difficult. In searching for potential motives that connect to the coffee shop as well as the Christmas party, Sonny must dig into the backgrounds of a number of people. As a result, Sonny twice finds her life on the line.'  (Publication summary)

'After a number of years of working every waking hour as a way of dealing with the grief in her life, private investigator, SONOMA (Sonny) WHITTINGTON, takes time out and heads to England for a term of study at a university there. Those studies unexpectedly take her to work for a brief period on an archaeological dig site on the island of Crete. What she imagines will be a pleasant sojourn on a Mediterranean island turns into an adventure beyond her wildest imagination when Sonny and her supervisor, TROY DONALDSON, become aware of strange boats that visit their bay in the night.

'Sonny's idyllic stay on Crete turns into a nightmare that takes her and her supervisor across the Mediterranean on the trail of stolen artefacts. Bodies begin littering the murky illegal trafficking world she and Troy find themselves drawn into. To avoid becoming part of that growing body count, they race across Sicily in a bid to outrun their pursuers. But the threat to their lives follows them.

'All Sonny wants is to return to her 'real' life. Who can they trust, and who is not what they purport to be? Sonny's intuition and gut instinct must find the right answer to these questions if they are to avoid becoming a part of an ancient solution.' (Publication summary)

'Suspicious their husbands were straying, two wives went running to Private Investigator, Sonoma Whittington, to investigate. While each case had some unusual aspects, both seemed likely to be straightforward investigations... that was until one of those clients disappeared. Sonoma found herself working well outside her original briefs to find the missing client from one of the cases, and in wading through some unusual aspects to get to the bottom of her second case. How could she be so wrong in her initial assessment of those cases? So many questions; so few answers, but every answer sucking Sonoma deeper into a murky underworld.' (Synopsis)

'A girl has gone missing.

Police believe she is having a good time after a weekend away from home at a music festival. They have heard it all before after such festivals and are not interested, believing she will go home when she is ready.

'In desperation, the girl’s parents engage Private Investigator, SONOMA (Sonny) WHITTINGTON to look into what they believe is the disappearance of their daughter, SARAH SINCLAIR, sometime during the festival.

'Sonny soon discovers more than one girl associated with the festival disappeared over that weekend.

'What is it about that festival? What happened to those young women? Is there something about the festival, or about the women themselves that connects their disappearances?

'In the course of her investigation, Sonny experiences first-hand what happened to the women when she too disappears. An overheard suggestion that her life expectancy might shorten dramatically stirs Sonny into action, but she must rely on all her wits and nerve to avoid that situation .' (Publication summary)