Cirrus@Austlit

'Set in an imagined Middle Ages where belief in magic and demons is unquestioned, 'The Devil’s Saint' is a tale of witchcraft, superstition and intolerance. It tells the story of 16-year-old Sidonia, daughter of an alleged witch, and Gervais, son of the Lord, Count Arnold. Their passion faces seemingly insurmountable obstacles, including black magic, an evil step-mother, and blind prejudice.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Ramble House ed.)

'Here are short stories representing the best from Cosmos magazine over the past years. Collected and introduced by Damien Broderick, the diverse stories here are, in his words, "heartwarming, some heartbreaking, a few are very funny, a few quite disturbing. All have at least a tincture, or even a heavy dollop, of science in the telling—if only metaphorically."' (Publication summary)

'Somewhere something is waiting inside a stone. Somewhere several somebodies are looking for it. Somewhere a particular someone is waiting for it to be found so he can be released into a cataclysmic future. And somewhere else again, unreliable psychic Avril Audette and disaffected occult investigator Rupert Firth are joining a group attempting to validate the supernatural. This optimistic enterprise will lead the pair into a complex game of chance, skill and manipulation played by a coterie of otherworldly beings who rewrite the rules of reality on an hourly basis. Before they know what’s what (not something for which either has a natural talent), Avril and Rupert become involved in a scramble for the cryptic crystal known as First Frost, the possession of which will decide the destinies of worlds. In doing so, they are forced to cope with distractingly high levels of mutual attraction and the intermingling of their fates with those of a telekinetic amnesiac, a punk Valkyrie, a retired stuntman and his deceased relatives, the only living Elvish spin doctor, NASA, the staff of a very nice Indian restaurant, and the would-be assassins of a fellow traveller named Pherel. And then things get a bit complicated for everybody. For everybody, that is, except a something that somewhere waits inside a stone.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'It’s a strange world out there. But it’s stranger still a few blocks away in 'A Dimension Down the Road Everything is more numinous, more elusive, more … well, more sort of wibbly. Collected here for the first time are five glimpses into the said Dimension, lovingly carved into fun-sized chunks by William Tevelein, acclaimed creator of The Casting of the Golden Dice, for connoisseurs of the ethereal, the phantasmagorical and the very slightly silly. In the first glimpse into this unknown realm, William Blake’s inquiry into the early years of a well-known Messiah is answered, once and for all. In the second, a ghost of the living proves to be much more trouble than the common-or-garden dead variety. The third glimpse hangs around in a pub for a while and catches its breath, before the fourth pits ogres against nuns in a life-or-death struggle over tea and biscuits. The final piece acquaints us with the creator of the universe (well, one of them), and at absolutely no added cost, the nature of reality is conclusively established. There’s a bit of magic in everything, but there’s absolutely oodles of the stuff in 'A Dimension Down the Road'.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Robert Morte, writer of radio thrillers and detective novels, decided to take a sea voyage through the Barrier Reef islands to get away from fictional clues and crime. Alas for his hopes! Morte and his wife Jane encountered a cargo of mystery far stranger than any he could possibly conceive from his own fertile mind.'

Source: Publisher's blurb (Ramble House edition).

'In the 1930s [sic] suspense novel the private investigator is hitting the bottle a little too hard and consequently having trouble keeping his wife, Elizabeth, content. But when a major case of murder snares him it adds just the right amount of danger to save his marriage. All he has to do is find out who strangled the Greek, Cassamatis, with a silken cord and determine whose bullet is found lodged in the back of a sultry dame. All in a day's work for the PI and his friend, Chief Inspector William Read.'

source: Publisher's blurb (Ramble House edition).

'Described as the "Extraordinary Case of Sound Without Sight," this is an involved story of three murders, the first of which was committed In a locked broadcasting studio during the production of a radio play. The plot is ingenious and its Investigators are led on many false trails before arriving at the solution. Interesting details of radio production are given by Mr. Afford, who, by the way, is a playwright employed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.'

Source:

'Book Reviews in Brief', The Argus, 4 December 1937, p.17 [weekend magazine].

'Freelance sleuth Jeffery Blackburn is called in by friend Rollo Morgan when there is a strange death at Rochester House, mansion home of occult scholar Cornelius Rochester. Blackburn learns of a set of mannikins modelled on the occupants of the house. Before long, it becomes clear that whoever receives 'their' mannikin will certainly die. Everyone in the house is a suspect.'

Source: Publisher's blurb

'Written by Max Afford in 1942, this is a classic impossible crime novel about a villain dressed as an owl terrorizing a quaint village.'

Source : publisher's blurb