Cirrus@Austlit

'Melbourne, the spring of 1923.

'When reporter Edward Bain is found dead in his office at The Argus newspaper, Eleanor Jones realises that this is murder.

'Eleanor, no longer a nurse, now writes film reviews for the newspaper, but she still knows the signs of violent death. She also knows the mark that war can leave on the living; her brother, Andrew, continues to face daily battles with shell-shock.

'But instead of getting rest and quiet, Andrew's out with glamorous clairvoyant, Nadine Carrides, on the streets of Melbourne - streets that are turning ugly as the police call a strike and the city fills with lawless crowds. Could this looting and chaos be a smokescreen behind which the killer is unleashing a more personal anger? As potential witnesses are attacked, Elanor is drawn into the investigation, in an uneasy alliance with Inspector Pearce, a man who doesn't believe in coincidences.

'Then, an arrest is made for Bain's murder, and it would seem that the mystery has been solved.

'But Eleanor is aware that many carry secrets - secret losses, secret desires - and that some people are fiercely protective of such secrets.

'With events building to a dangerous conclusion at the Melbourne Cup ball, Eleanor will have to face events from her own past in order to bring a killer to justice.'

'Melbourne, 1919.

'Death upon death.

'Nurses returned from the Great War are once again risking their lives, this time putting themselves in the firing line of a deadly disease: the Spanish 'Flu.

'On the frontline is Sister Eleanor Jones. Her family torn by death and shell shock, Eleanor does what she can for the sick, among them the likeable Jimmy Cotton, in the temporary hospital hastily set up in the grand Melbourne Exhibition Building.

'But there is one death that she cannot prevent.

'A death unlike all the others on the makeshift ward.

'Poison.

'Hiding behind the gauze masks designed to stop infection, someone is intent on adding to the death toll.

'When Jimmy Cotton disappears, Eleanor cannot help getting involved in the investigation. As she studies her fellow nurses, the orderlies, and the patients, she finds that the war has left people damaged in many ways.

'She is not the only one with an unbearable, secret grief.

'The War has taken so many things from Eleanor, including her dream of becoming a writer. But perhaps she can turn her talent for the dramatic, her wit and her imagination, towards [sic] creating a trap to reveal a killer ...'

Source: Back cover blurb.

'I remember screaming very loudly. In TV shows, that's where the ad break comes in, while some ninny is screaming her head off. No ad breaks in real life, though.'

'Lissa Wilson has seen more than enough death in her family, so when people start being savagely killed whenever she has a night out in Melbourne with her beautiful new boyfriend, she's determined to investigate and to make the killing stop. Even when she realises the murders must be the work of a vampire.

'Things have been looking up for this librarian and 21st century geekgirl, but the murders make her remember why she prefers books to people. People leave you. People can die.

'She finds herself teaming up with the painfully awkward Gary to get to the undead heart of the matter. But there are more challenges in store than Gary's appalling fashion sense.

'The idea of living forever can be a big temptation for someone who has lost so much.'

Source: Back cover blurb.

'1543. Japan. A strange realm of wealth and warriors, it was said, perched on the fiery, grumbling edge of the world.

'Tomodachi is Japanese for "friend'"and that's just what young Daniel Marlowe is going to need, shipwrecked and separated from his father in a Japan torn by civil war.

'But Kenji also has a problem that only a trusted friend could help with.

'He has fled an obligation with a deadly stain on his samurai honour, and must reach his far-off castle home. In his path lie brigands, warlords and their feuding armies. And worse. Temptations and lessons, on the hard road to wisdom.

'So begins an unlikely friendship, a dangerous journey, and a series of gripping adventures across a beautiful land haunted by the shadow of the sword.' (From the publisher's website.)