Cirrus@Austlit

'Ismay Deagan has one wish in the world – to leave Ireland and join her brother, Bram, in Australia. But her father has other ideas and orders her to marry their vicious neighbour Rory Flynn, even though she can’t stand him.

'After Rory brutally attacks her, Ismay runs away, disguising herself as an impoverished young widow. When she meets Adam Tregear on the ship, she finally starts to believe her dreams of future happiness may come true.

'Before she reaches Australia, however, she’s flung into adventures in Suez, Ceylon and Singapore. Dare she tell Adam the truth about who she really is? Does he have secrets of his own? Or will her past catch up with her and ruin her new-found happiness?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Singapore in the 1860s is exotic and yet terrifying for a penniless Englishwoman, alone and vulnerable after her mother's death. Too pretty to obtain a governess's job, Isabella accepts an offer from a Chinese merchant, Mr Lee, to teach him English and live with his family.

'Two years later Bram Deagan arrives in Singapore, determined to make his fortune as a trader. Mr Lee sees a way to expand his business connections to Australia and persuades Isabella to marry Bram.

'They set up a bazaar in Fremantle, much bigger than the shop Bram had originally planned.He has help from other people, but the ideas are his and Isabella's.

'But the past casts a long shadow, and Bram and his wife face unexpected dangers. Will they find a way to achieve their dream of a successful trading business? And can they find happiness and love with each other?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In 1866, and the Blake twins face a dilemma. Maia is not only a homebody, but in love with her employer, and though he’s already married, she refuses to leave him and the isolated homestead in Western Australia. Xanthe isn’t happy there and has to separate from her twin for the first time in their lives. She’s eager to travel, but in 1866 that isn’t easy for a young woman on her own.

'Fate brings Xanthe more than the opportunity to travel, a man to love - but there are problems, because he's above her in status and must think of his family inheritance. Maia has to face the wife of her beloved, a strange, twisted woman, who can be dangerous.

'Will the twins find happiness with the men of their choice or will Destiny play more cruel tricks on them?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Someone once told me that you have two families in your life - the one you are born into and the one you choose. Yes, you may get to choose your partner, but you don't choose your mother-in-law. The cackling mercenaries of fate determine it all.

'From the moment Lucy met Diana, she was kept at arm's length. Diana is exquisitely polite, but Lucy knows, even after marrying Oliver, that they'll never have the closeness she'd been hoping for.

'But who could fault Diana? She was a pillar of the community, an advocate for social justice, the matriarch of a loving family. Lucy had wanted so much to please her new mother-in-law.

'That was ten years ago. Now, Diana has been found dead, leaving a suicide note. But the autopsy reveals evidence of suffocation. And everyone in the family is hiding something...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A chilling thriller set in the Australian Outback, from the pen of the world's bestselling writer, James Patterson and co-written with award-winning crime writer Candice Fox. The Australian Outback is the perfect hunting ground . . .

'Detective Harriet Blue needs to get out of town, fast.

'With her brother under arrest for a series of brutal murders in Sydney, Harry's chief wants the hot-headed detective kept far from the press. So he assigns her a deadly new case - in the middle of the Outback.

'Deep in the Western Australian desert, three young people have disappeared from the Bandya Mine. And it's Harry's job to track them down.

'But still reeling from events back home, and with a secretive new partner at her side, Harry's not sure who she can trust anymore.

'And, in this unforgiving land, she has no idea how close she is to a whole new kind of danger . . . ' (Publication summary)

'When Fleur receives word of a sudden inheritance from an aunt she never knew, it couldn't come at a more opportune moment. Her relationship with her beloved husband is crumbling, and she's caught in the middle of a serious family rift. Consulting her aunt's long-lost diary, Fleur decides to follow her footsteps on a voyage of historical discovery down the coast and through the Gulf Country to find out more about the secrets of her family's past. ' (Publication summary)

'For Cassandra, reunited with the man she loves, the Swan River Colony is a refuge and her twin sisters are also happily settled. But Pandora, the youngest, is so desperately homesick for England that when an opportunity arises to go back to Lancashire, she takes it.

'The way home, though , will be even harder than the voyage to Australia, and it’s a race against time across rough country to catch the ship, with Zachary’s help. When she gets home, a devious enemy is waiting to trap her and prevent her taking charge of her family’s inheritance.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Nurse Elena Fabrizia and handsome doctor Lyle Macallister fall in love at the end of the war. Lyle goes home to break up with his Scottish sweetheart, but she tells him she’s pregnant. So he marries Millie and breaks Elena’s heart. Elena also discovers she’s having Lyle’s baby. Keeping the secret from everyone but her mother, she goes along with her father’s plan to marry an older Italian man. She passes the baby off as his and they all go to live in the Australian outback town of Winton. In a loveless marriage, on an isolated and unprofitable cattle property, life for Elena is unbearable. Meanwhile in Scotland, Lyle’s life is also tragic when he loses his only son with Millie. To escape, he takes up a position as a flying doctor in Australia where Elena’s first born is suffering a mystery illness. Lyle treats the boy, unaware that he’s his own flesh and blood. It’s jealous Millie who discovers the truth about the boy and destroys many lives before Lyle and Elena find each other again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'England, 1941: Lara Penrose is a young teacher who is transferred to Australia as a "punishment." She finds herself in a remote town near the idyllic tributary of the Mary River. At first Lara is delighted, until she learns the river is home to hundreds of crocodiles who frequently besiege the hamlet, keeping the villagers in fear. The young teacher soon takes matters into her own hands by hiring a crocodile hunter. She gets wrapped up in his charm, which starts to put her already delicate relationship with Dr. Jerry at risk.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'1920. Having disobeyed the wishes of her aristocratic family, Lulu Pearson, a young and talented Tasmanian sculptress, finds herself alone in London in the wake of the Great War. The future is looking bright until, on the eve of her first exhibition, Lulu learns she has inherited a racing colt called Ocean Child from a mysterious benefactor, and she must return to her homeland to claim him.

'Baffled by the news, Lulu boards a ship to Tasmania to uncover the truth behind the strange bequest, but it seems a welcome return is more than she can hope for. Unbeknownst to Lulu, more than a few fortunes ride on Ocean Child's success – it seems everyone from her estranged mother to the stable hands has a part to play, and an interest in keeping the family secrets buried. ' (Publication summary)

'Bittersweet is an enthralling tale of women - and of love.

'This is the story of two sets of twins, Edda and Grace, Tufts and Kitty, who struggle against all the restraints, prohibitions, laws and prejudices of 1920s Australia. Only the submissive yet steely Grace burns for marriage; the sleekly sophisticated Edda burns to be a doctor, the down-to-earth but courageous Tufts burns never to marry, and the too-beautiful, internally scarred Kitty burns for a love free from male ownership.

'Turbulent times, terrible torments, but the four magnificent Latimer sisters, each so different, love as women do: with tenderness as well as passion, and with hearts roomy enough to hold their men, their children, their careers and their sisters.' (Publisher's blurb)

'Holloman, Connecticut, 1969. A very rare and lethal toxin, extracted from the blowfish, is stolen from a laboratory at Chubb University. It kills within minutes and leaves no trace behind -- unless a doctor knows what to look for -- and worried biochemist Dr. Millie Hunter reports the theft at once to her father, Medical Examiner Dr. Patrick O′Donnell.

'Patrick′s cousin Captain Carmine Delmonico is therefore quick off the mark when the bodies start to mount up. A sudden death at a dinner party followed by another at a gala black-tie event seem at first to be linked only by the poison and Dr. Jim Hunter, a scientist on the brink of greatness and husband to Millie. A black man married to a white woman, Dr. Jim has faced scandal and prejudice for most of his life, so what would cause him to risk it all now? Is he being framed for murder -- and if so, by whom?

'Carmine and his team of detectives must navigate the competitive world of academic publishing, fraught with politics and prestige. The stakes are high: an amazing art collection, a large inheritance, old and upstanding local families, a gold-digging wife, jealous relatives and a young couple′s future.' (From the publisher's website.)

'Ruby and her new husband James brave a long and treacherous journey to start their new life in Australia. Meanwhile, there are other new arrivals to Australian shores: a Tahitian with a mysterious past, a naive young schoolmistress, and an English aristocrat, all unaware that their destinies are irrevocably intertwined.' (Publication summary)

'The year is 1967 and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on. On a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut, home to prestigious Chubb University and armaments giant Cornucopia, chief of detectives Captain Carmine Delmonico has more pressing concerns than finding a name for his infant son: twelve murders have taken place in one day, and Delmonico is drawn into a gruesome web of secrets and lies.

'Supported by his detective sergeants Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall, and new team member the meticulous Delia Carstairs, Delmonico embarks on what looks like an unsolvable mystery. All the murders are different, and they all seem unconnected. Are they dealing with one killer, or many? How is the murder of Dee-Dee Hall, a local prostitute, related to the deaths of a mother and her disabled child? How is Chubb student Evan Pugh connected to Desmond Skeps, head of Cornucopia? And as if twelve murders were not enough, Carmine soon finds himself pitted against the mysterious Ulysses, a spy giving Cornucopia′s armaments secrets to the Russians. Are the murders and espionage different cases, or are they somehow linked?

'As the overtaxed police force contends with small town politics, academic rivalry, and corporate greed, the death toll mounts, and Carmine and his team discover that the answers are not what they seem -- but then, are they ever?'  Source: www.harpercollins.com.au/ (Sighted 17/03/2010).

'The fifth book in the epic Masters of Rome series. Gaul. 54 BC. Julius Caesar sweeps across Gaul, brutally subduing the united tribes who defy the Republic. But, at home, his enemies are orchestrating his downfall and disgrace. Vindictive schemers like Cato and Bibulus, the spineless Cicero, the avaricious Brutus. Even Pompey the Great, Caesar's former ally. But all have underestimated Caesar. And when the Senate refuse to give him his due he marches upon his own country, an army prepared to die for him at his back. For rome is his destiny - a destiny that will impel him triumphantly on to the banks of the Rubicon, and beyond, into legend, as the noblest Roman of them all.' (Publication summary)