Cirrus@Austlit

'Paige White kayaked across the lake each morning at dawn. Someone was watching her. Many someones watched her online. But was anyone with her the day she was found?

'Paige White's beautiful life is documented closely for her thousands of followers: lakeside picnics with her daughter, sunny afternoons in the family van, and romantic dinners with her husband. So when she posts an ominous image, and her body is shortly after discovered in the lake, everyone immediately wonders - suicide or foul play?

'Paige finds herself suspended in a strange, idyllic place that resembles her most 'liked' Instagram post, forced to watch as life continues without her.

'When Paige's death makes national news, Jane Masters, a journalist who was close to Paige in childhood, reluctantly travels home. Struggling with the morality of covering her friend's death, Jane will confront the town she left behind and the dark undercurrents that she's always known run underneath.'  (Publication summary)

'A remote French island. A crumbling villa. A reclusive film star. And an inheritance Saskia never expected. The stunning new novel from the critically acclaimed author of The Beautiful Words.

'Saskia Wyle spent one sultry European summer on Île de Re when she was nineteen. The bright salt flats and sun-soaked beaches are now a distant memory, and one she made herself forget after an unspeakable tragedy.

'But the French heiress she befriended over twenty years ago has left half of her magnificent home to Saskia and the other half to Felix Allard, the now-reclusive film star living on the island. How did Simone Durant die? Was it the family curse that haunted her? And why has she included Saskia in her will after all this time?

'Saskia returns to the place of dry-stone walls and ancient olive trees to find that Simone has left her another unexpected gift - a manuscript written in French. Like the lyrical language embedded somewhere in Saskia's subconscious, she must find a way to understand what Simone is telling her. As Saskia once again falls under the island's spell, she must reckon with her past to save what is most precious to her.' (Publication summary)

'Two best friends, one summer night, and twenty years of silence ... what happened at the lighthouse?

'The stunning, haunting new novel from the author of The Lost Summers of Driftwood.

'Sylvie is a lover of words and a collector of stories, only she has lost her own. She has no words for that night at the lighthouse when their lives changed forever. What happened to cleave her apart from her best friend and soulmate, Kase?

'Sylvie yearns to rekindle their deep connection, so when Kase invites her to the wild Tasmanian coast to celebrate her 40th birthday, she accepts - despite the ghosts she must face.

'As Sylvie struggles to find her feet among old friends, she bonds with local taxi boat driver Holden. But he is hiding from the world, too.

'Through an inscription in an old book, Sylvie and Kase discover their mothers have a history, hidden from their daughters. As they unpick what took place before they were born, they're forced to face the cracks in their own friendship, and the question of whether it's ever okay to keep a secret to protect the person you love.

'Vanessa McCausland's enthralling new novel is about betrayal and forgiveness, the stories we tell, and the healing power of words.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Beautiful, beguiling and treacherous ... Big Little Lies meets Picnic at Hanging Rock in a secluded valley over the Blue Mountains.

'Four women and their children are invited to the beautiful but remote Capertee Valley for a much-needed holiday.

'Once home to a burgeoning mining industry, now all that remains are ruins slowly being swallowed by the bush and the jewel of the valley, a stunning, renovated Art Deco hotel. This is a place haunted by secrets. In 1948 Clara Black walked into the night, never to be seen again.

'As the valley beguiles these four friends, and haunts them in equal measure, each has to confront secrets of her own: Nathalie with a damaged marriage; Emmie yearning for another child; Pen struggling as a single parent; and Alexandra hiding in the shadow of her famous husband.

'But as the mystery of what happened seventy years earlier unravels, one of the women also vanishes into this bewitching but wild place, forcing devastating truths to the surface.' (Publication summary)

'She remembered this part of the trip during the day time. Her sisters on either side in the back. The sunlight flickering through branches was like looking through a kaleidoscope. How could that be so long ago? How could so much have gone wrong?

'Phoebe's life has fallen apart and there's only one place left to go. Alone and adrift after a failed marriage proposal, she flees Sydney to her family's abandoned holiday cottage.

'On the slow-moving river Phoebe is confronted with the legacy of her older sister's suicide, a year before. Why did Karin leave a note written in flowers and walk into the water?

'Phoebe's childhood love, Jez, has moved back to the beautiful old house, Driftwood, one jetty down. He's married now and the home has become a refuge for an unlikely little community.

'As the river begins to give up its secrets, Phoebe finds herself caught up in old feelings and new mysteries.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.