Cirrus@Austlit

'After inheriting a less-than-glorious empire within the Tert, Parrish Plessis–coup leader, bodyguard, and overall dangerous vixen–has her hands full, and her head even fuller. She's still under a blood debt to the Cabal Coomera. She's trying to take care of the growing population of stray social castoffs who have come to her for protection. And the nasty high-tech parasite her treacherous ex-lover hit her with is about to turn her into something much less than human...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two centuries of Australian history are chronicled in a story that ranges from the earliest days of transported convicts to the events of the twentieth century'  (Publication summary)

'The Specter of Fear...

'...seemed to lovely Alicia Baker to lurk in every shadowy passageway at Ravenswood, the English manor house where she had come to catalog a valuable collection of manuscripts.

'After only one night in the gloomy mansion, Alicia could not believe how, on the long ride here, she and handsome lawyer James Montague had laughed over his description of the Black Baron, the legendary resident ghost. Alicia was no longer laughing, for now she knew that the tale of the Black Baron was true. He had already claimed at least one victim: and if dear, loving, protective James did not soon return to recue her from this accursed mansion, Alicia, too, would fall prey to the monstrous ghost at Ravenswood!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lovely American Mandy Kessler had come to the Julevin castle to do research for her master's thesis on composer Max Julevin. Everyone told her she was wasting her time; there was nothing new to learn about Julevin or his music. Even fellow student Ross Martin, who was in love with Mandy, thought she was crazy to choose Julevin for study.

Yet Mandy had stumbled across hints that Julevin might not have been the actual creator of his famous operas, and now she was determined to find out the truth. But what Mandy could not know was that although Julevin was long dead, his spirit still ruled at the castle. And Mandy's search for long-buried secrets might lead her so far along the terrifying path to darkness that there could be no turning back...' (Publisher's blurb)

'Beautiful Jody Fastier came to the Scotish Highlands as understudy to the star in a lush historical film. However, right from the start, the movie seemed sure to fail, as one misfortune after another took its toll. But it wasn't until the crazy old man who lived in the nearby castle started shooting at Jody that she realized just how big a mistake her coming to Scotland had been.

'Still, if old Hamish MacDonald had not chased Jody across his property, she never would have met his handsome nephew Duncan. And when trouble really began, when the specter of death spread its stark shadow over the entire movie crew, loving, concerned Duncan was the only one to whom Jody could turn for help. Yet could even Duncan protect Jody from her fate, from the terror of a desperate race through the mountains, stalked by the black-cloaked figure of doom...?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'An inheritance from an uncle she had never known brought lovely Paula Forbury on an unexpected journey to beautiful Hawaii, land of sun, surf, and romance. And the island magic seemed to cast its spell on Paula from the moment handsome attorney Stephen Bradford picked her up at the airport and whisked her away to the isolated plantation that now belonged to her.

'But if Stephen was everything she could have wished for in a man, her uncle's estate was the exact opposite of all her fanciful dreams. Dark and decaying, the mansion seemed shrouded by an oppressive evil. If not for Stephen's reassuring presence, Paula wouldn't have spent even one night in the old house. Yet she stayed on, ignoring her fear, telling herself there were no such things as devil spirits -- until, cut off from the outside world and her last hope of safety, she could no longer deny the frightening, deadly truth...!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The drumming of the guns continued, with bursts of great intensity. It was as though a gale streamed overhead, piling up great waves of sound, and hurrying them onwards to crash in surf on the enemy entrenchments. The windless air about them, by its very stillness, made that unearthly music more terrible to hear.

'First published anonymously in 1929 because its language was considered far too frank for public circulation, The Middle Parts of Fortune was hailed by T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound, by Lawrence of Arabia and Ernest Hemingway, as an extraordinary novel. Its author was in fact Frederic Manning, an Australian writer who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and who told his story of men at war from the perspective of an ordinary soldier.' (Publication summary : Text Classics)

'When handsome Paul Acton asked her to marry him, it was the happiest day in Samantha Walton's life. Yet Samantha couldn't know that her love for Paul would soon lead her along a mazelike road of evil deceit to Finisterre -- the prisonlike mansion now owned by the Actons but once a home for the hopelessly insane.

'Samantha didn't want to be separated from Paul at all, but when he received an excellent job offer, his mother asked Samantha to come to Finisterre. There she wouldn't be as far from Paul and at the same time could help the family by putting their collection of rare books in order. And so Samantha entered the Acton mansion, little realizing that once she passed between its high, forbidding gates she might never leave again... '

Source: Publisher's blurb.