Cirrus@Austlit

'It's been three years since Bo Sullivan lost her dream job as one of the producers of the hit wildlife docu-series, Wild Hearts. Three years since her twin brother Max started battling cancer and she returned home to Lord Howe Island and put her life on hold. Three years since Griffin Marr, one-time crush and partner-in-crime, stole her job to become the lead producer of Wild Hearts.

'With Max now in remission, and Bo with a surprise podcast hit on her hands, it's time to start living again. Especially when Wild Hearts, now struggling in the ratings, comes to Lord Howe Island to film a special series on its unique environment and wildlife. This is the chance Bo's been waiting for – get her job back, broadcast the plight to extend the island’s marine conservation area, and get revenge on Griffin, all in one fell swoop.

'But with Bo’s experience as a producer, she should know that there’s always more to the story than meets the eye. Maybe the Wild Hearts job isn’t the quite the dream scenario she thought it was. And maybe Griffin isn’t the villain she’s assumed him to be. As Bo and Griffin work together behind the camera to produce the special, she realises that maybe there’s room to rekindle the old magic between them as well – and this time, not just for Wild Hearts.'  (Publication summary)

'Eva Kavinsky wakes in a dark cellar, with no memory of how she got here. Imprisoned with her, seemingly at random, are four men. The only way out is the trapdoor in the ceiling – and it's locked.

'The single clue about what brings them all here is a cryptic message sprayed onto one wall. Connect the dots. Repent. A camera fixed high above reach is livestreaming this whole nightmare to the world. What confessions are they meant to make to their unseen audience?

'With only a single lighter between them and the cellar steadily filling with water, Eva races to discover what connects her to the four men. But nobody here is who they claim to be. And in this dark place, secrets and lies are so much easier to tell than the truth that could destroy them all.' (Publication summary)

'A murder made to look like an accident. A disgraced cop trying to forget his past.

'Nash Rankin is a disgraced cop trying to escape his past – his career was destroyed when he chose to take justice into his own hands. Now he’s living a quiet life in a small town caring for the local wildlife and trying to stay away from trouble.

'Jesse Redpath has a new job in a new town, Satellite – the stormy weather that greets her first few days on the new beat seems like a sign for what’s to come. A local has died in what seems like an accident, but Jessie isn’t so sure that ‘accident’ wasn’t planned. All evidence seems to point to Nash, but Jesse’s not sure about that either.

'Seems like Nash has enemies. And what looks like a close knit community might just be cover for dark secrets.' (Publication summary)

'Sometimes there may be more to things than meets the eye.

'Germany, 1933. Anna Winter returns home to find her father mysteriously disappeared and a note he’s left warning her of grave danger. She flees overnight, taking her precious doll collection with her, and sets sail for Australia to lose herself in the outback. She lands a job at the Birdum Hotel and carves a new life, hiding her past from the world – until a chance encounter with an eccentric stranger, Alter Mayseh, changes everything.

'Australia, 1938. A Yiddish poet fleeing persecution, Alter has seen the writing on the wall for his people. Armed with a letter of introduction from Albert Einstein, he manages his own escape from Europe and arrives in Australia in search of a safe place to call home. When fate leads him to Anna, he’s convinced he’s found his future with her. But a disturbing clue to her dark past threatens to unravel the delicate life she has built on top of the secrets left behind.

'Shifting in time and place, Doll’s Eye weaves an intriguing story of love, loss and survival against a backdrop of war and displacement. Evocative and compelling, it brings into question the gap between what we see, and what we don’t.' (Publication summary)

'Jessie Else disappeared the summer the Lambs came to Magpie Beach. Not that the two events were connected at all, in reality; only in my own head, in my own world. They marked for me the end of a certain quiet time and the start of a more complicated living.

'Magpie Beach is a quiet seaside town, full of small-town prejudices and small-town cliques. Meg, Rosemary and Lily are all outsiders. Meg and Lily because they came to Magpie Beach to escape their former lives, Rosemary because her upbringing was the subject of much local gossip and upturned noses. The three women come together as friends, partly because their homes are so close together on the outskirts of town—and partly because their neighbours treat them with such suspicion.

'When Jessie Else, all of 9 years old, goes missing—it’s easy to see why this small band of outcasts are first on the list of suspects—but what they didn't realise is that Jessie’s disappearance is only the beginning of their troubles. Soon all those secrets they’ve been trying to hide are going to be uncovered—and nothing will ever be the same again.'  (Publication summary)

'When Adam Lawson’s wrecked car is found a kilometre from Daisy Baker’s body, the whole town assumes it’s an open and shut case. But Jesse Redpath isn’t from Canticle Creek. Where she comes from, the truth often hides in plain sight, but only if you know where to look.

'When Jesse starts to ask awkward questions, she uncovers a town full of contradictions and a cast of characters with dark pasts, secrets to hide and even more to lose.

'As the temperature soars, and the ground bakes, the wilderness surrounding Canticle Creek becomes a powderkeg waiting to explode.

'All it needs is one spark.'

Source : publisher's blurb