Cirrus@Austlit

'On a warm moonstruck night Elise stood at the bedroom window staring down at the shadowy garden below. The bright moonlight made the garden look like a stage: the flat green lawn and the black shrubs surrounding it like cardboard cut outs. A flicker of movement at the edge of the lawn drew her eye. A man, keeping in the shadows as well he might. Next, a flutter of white as Sylvia crossed the lawn, leaving a line of bare footprints on the dewy grass.

'Elise wanted to stop looking but she stayed where she was at the window, her hand clutching the edge of the heavy curtain. She saw the man step out of the shadows and open his arms, enveloping Sylvia in his embrace. Elise sighed and let the curtain drop into place. She knew it would end badly. She’d known it all along. Not just for the girl wrapped in the arms of her lover. For both of them.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The crash of a rock against glass smashes Cassie’s familiar world. The air outside Arcadia is poisonous, or so she’s been told. Is it better to risk a quick death outside the dome or to suffer a slow decline within? Paul has been told the old dome contains biological hazards that threaten the lives of the people of Rangelands. But Cassie is just an ordinary girl, or as ordinary as any girl can be who has lived her whole life locked away inside an ancient dome. With all the obstacles thrown into their path, it seems impossible Cassie and Paul will find a way to be together. But sometimes the power of love can surprise us all. '

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Investigating a polluted lake seemed easy enough when Zoe first heard about it in Australia. But Kenya is a dangerous place and not just because of the unsafe drinking water and the malaria-carrying mosquitoes. There are secrets here worth killing for and people who will lie to get what they want. Zoe’s latest adventure takes her on a breathtaking journey through Kenya from a coffee plantation at the edge of the Rift Valley to a refugee camp on the Somali border and a village in the Masai Mara. On the way she makes a discovery that will change her life forever. But first she has to escape her pursuers and find her way back to Australia alive.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In the dying days of the Roman republic, Military Tribune Marcus Fabius Aquila of the VIIth Legion drops a silver coin on the ramparts of Cado’s Burg, a hilltop fortress in south west Britannia. What is he doing there - a Roman soldier - eighty years before Britannia is invaded by the troops of the Emperor Claudius? In 1966, some two thousand years later, the coin is discovered by Lynette Mason, a seventeen year old girl volunteering on an archaeological excavation during her summer holidays. Lynette becomes involved with a postgraduate student on the dig. It is an encounter that changes her life forever. Lynette’s coin has the potential to rewrite the history of Britain. When it is brought to the attention of a professor at Lynette’s local university, the race is on to find the coin and reap the academic rewards. But the person who wants it most of all is someone Lynette hoped she would never see again in her life.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Zoe Carter never saw it coming. As the glass front of her helicopter explodes and her leg is torn to pieces, she is tumbled into a nightmare in which her life is threatened by an unknown foe. Rescued from certain death in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, Zoe is determined to discover the identity of her assailant. With death snapping at her heels, Zoe pursues her enemy across three continents, seeking to uncover the deadly secret that is taking the lives of the people around her. How many lives will be lost before Zoe tracks down the murderer? And, when the trap is set, who will be caught?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Zoe Carter stares in horror at the pool of blood lying in the dust at her feet. She has come to the camp site at the bottom of the Mitchell falls, deep in the remote Kimberleys in Western Australia, to meet her boyfriend Martin. But where is he? And where is his boss, the archaeologist Dr Dirk Smithers? Somewhere in this vast, ancient landscape a killer lurks, a killer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. But what is there in the Kimberleys that’s so precious it’s worth killing for? Zoe’s search for the answer takes her from the Mitchell plateau to Darlington Station, a million acre cattle property in the heart of the Kimberleys, and to Broome where she discovers there is more than one person seeking the prize. But who will get there first? And, at the end of the search, how will Zoe escape from a situation that threatens not only her own life but Martin’s too?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lily and Xander should never have met. She is the daughter of a peasant farmer living in the shadow of the ruined palace of Mycenae. He is heir to the mighty city of Carcemish, part of the ancient Hittite empire. But the empire is crumbling and Xander has lost his inheritance to an invading army. Lily knows Xander as a sailor, a pirate, an adventurer. She gives him her heart when she is fifteen and just coming into womanhood and great beauty. In return she receives a piece of amber; a mysterious red-gold stone that echoes the colour of her hair. From that day forward Lily and Xander share an enduring love as they struggle to survive in a world torn apart by warfare and bloodshed. Separated from Xander by treachery and betrayal, Lily clings to the hope that one day the piece of amber will draw them back together again.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Who is Collette? A teenage hippy chick with a baby on her hip living in a northern NSW coastal town. A runaway from her home in the hills. Now she is drifting, collecting men as she goes. But who is she really? Whether she means it or not, Collette changes people's lives. Dissatisfied university student Michael O'Shea, the father of her child. Frank Duncan, the drunken ex-TV star, who hides a shocking secret. Collette's own mother, Nina, still living the hippy dream at Hill End. Even the land itself will not stay the same.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When the bad fairy Sisygambis escapes from the museum, Briony and Gryff decide to send her far away where she can't cause any more trouble. Petra Petal tells them about the Land of the Lotus Eaters which is the home of all fairies. The Land of the Lotus Eaters is a beautiful island where time doesn't work properly. Lotus flowers smell sweet but they are dangerous. If you eat them you forget who you are and where you come from. Don't eat the flowers, Briony!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The bad fairy Sisygambis lives in a sandalwood box on the dressing table of the princess Roxane. Princess Roxane's dressing table is set in the window of her bedroom high up in her father's fortress. The fortress is in a lonely valley on the very edge of the ancient Persian empire. So how does the sandalwood box end up in Briony's house in 21st century Brisbane? And how does Miranda end up inside the box? It is up to Briony to rescue her. Again! After all her adventures, going into the sandalwood box is just about the scariest thing Briony has ever done.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'What are dragon's tears? They look like tiny pearls and they are the most precious substance on the face of the earth. What do they do? They make you feel brave when you are stuck in the smelly cave of the bad, black dragon Grendel. But Briony will need more than a pocketful of tears to get her out of this mess. It's a good thing she has her very own dragon to come to the rescue.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Tez and his girlfriend, Mig, watch in horror as the Old Man flings a newborn baby into the sea. Mig knows the children wrongly made must be destroyed so the god will return his power to the world, but she is approaching womanhood and fears for the fate of her own babies. Short-sighted but far-seeing, Tez has no time for gods of any kind. He and Mig set out for a derelict city seeking the source of the power that turns the lights on at night. If he can take this power to the Old Man, maybe he will be able to save Mig's babies from the sea. (Publication summary)

'Gryff the dragon doesn't like getting wet, doesn't eat food and doesn't understand human behaviour. He and Briony are supposed to be a team. Briony makes wishes and Gryff grants them. Or, at least, that's the general idea. The trouble is Briony knows nothing about dragons and hasn't a clue how to wish properly. It isn't going to be easy ...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.