‘You’re a politician, a public figure. What on earth were you thinking?’
Up-and-coming junior minister Gregory Buchanan has had a portrait painted of himself by the acclaimed artist Sophie White — a painting she intends to enter in this year’s Archibald Prize....Read more
A vengeful sociopath hatches a murderous plot … but can he control its aftermath?
Sydney, 1973
Ned Paine is a discontented man. Full of resentment for his estranged wife Norah, the self-obsessed Sydney antique dealer fantasises about a life free from her shadow....Read more
Why would my best friend want to destroy my life?
Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in a small town in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they've always had a close - sometimes too close -...Read more
The Driver:
Ahead he could see only the stretch of unending road, on either side brown-scorched plains of dirt and scrub, above it all a soaring blue sky and blinding sun. Desolation that looked, to him, a hell of a lot like freedom. He wasn’t playing by anyone’s rules anymore....Read more
Every now and then, when the planets align in just the right way, a book comes along that changes everything. An author sweats and toils to birth a tome with such colossal cultural impact, it has the power to retune the entire world to a whole new frequency. This is absolutely not one of...Read more
Millions have been entertained by the viral video of a man being arrested after a ‘succulent Chinese meal’. But when Mark Dapin investigated, it emerged that this man's story went to the heart of the Australian underworld. A true crime cult classic in the making....Read more
Wealthy drug-company mogul Duncan Hamilton is on the run - wanted for the murder of a high class Polynesian hooker. Her funeral, on a wet winter's day, is the beginning of his quest for the real killer. Hamilton's transformation from fugitive to hunter sends him on a dangerous trail from...Read more
Introduction by Adrian McKinty
Pat Carson’s old eyes were on me, looking for something.
‘Man is born unto trouble,’ he said.
I said, ‘As the sparks fly upwards.’
Deep lines at the corners of his mouth. ‘Know your Job. Soldier. Policeman....Read more
Andy Walker, son, lover and an ex-soldier, knows tragedy is only ever a heartbeat away.
When an inmate escapes from the prison farm upriver and abducts Nathan, a child Andy has vowed to protect after losing his own son years before, Andy Walker discovers that the escapee is a...Read more
Cooper Bartholomew's body is found at the foot of a cliff.
Suicide.
That's the official finding, that's what everyone believes. Cooper's girlfriend, Libby, has her doubts. They'd been happy, in love. Why would he take his own life?
As Libby searches...Read more
It was quite silent in the scrub. No breeze stirred the leaves and no bird moved, except for the kite hawks wheeling silently, eternally, high in the hot air.
She smelt her attacker before she saw him.
A heavy stench hit her with such force that she started with...Read more
Four children by her father.
Thirty years of horrific sexual abuse.
In March 2009, Joseph Fritzl was sentenced to life in jail for the systematic imprisonment, torture and rape of his daughter Elisabeth over 24 years, fathering seven children. The case shocked the...Read more
Organised crime in Australia is more reckless and more violent than ever before. Controlled by a new wave of gangland bosses, it has broken old taboos and formed alliances that would have once been unthinkable.
So who now holds the power? There are the Middle Eastern gangs...Read more
A fugitive in the present. A runaway in the past.
Eliza Carmody returns home to the country to work on the biggest law case of her career. The only problem is this time she’s on the ‘wrong side’ – defending a large corporation against a bushfire class action by...Read more
How could police lose three children? Three missing children. A wild storm. A long way from home. Melbourne journalist Georgie Harvey is on hand when three children disappear from a police-run camp in the Dandenong Ranges. When Daylesford cop John Franklin hears the news, he is on...Read more
On 7 February 2009 Sergeant Roger Wood found himself at the epicentre of the worst bushfire disaster in Australia's history. Black Saturday.
Wood, who's a country cop with twenty years experience—and also a raucous, meditating, horse-riding vegan—was the only officer on duty in...Read more
'Crime's not a woman's business, Joanie. It's not some bloody game.'
In the murky world of Kings Cross in 1932, aspiring crime writer Joan Linderman and her friend and flatmate Bernice Becker live the wild bohemian life, a carnival of parties and fancy-dress artists' balls....Read more
There are so many ways to kill a friendship . . .
You’re lying, sprawled at the bottom of the stairs, legs bent, arms wide.
And while this could be a tragic accident, if anyone’s got a motive to hurt you, it’s me.
Bec and Izzy have been best friends...Read more
Darwin, Summer, 1963.
The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland. He didn't need a coroner to tell him this was a bad death. He didn't know then that this was only the first...Read more
'So you believed the alleged rapists over the alleged victim?' Jane's voice took on an indignant pitch. 'Girls lie sometimes.' I nodded. 'And rapists lie all the time.'
When Senior Detective Antigone Pollard moves to the coastal town of Deception Bay, she is still in shock and...Read more
One fine March day in 1868, gunshots rang out at a society charity event in Sydney's harbourside suburb of Clontarf. In the aftermath, Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh - son of Queen Victoria - lay close to death, while the assembled crowd seized and beat his attacker, Irish-born Henry James O'...Read more
The shocking story of the case against Australia's most highly decorated soldier, Ben Roberts-Smith VC MG, and the defamation trial of the century.Chris Masters is joint winner of the 2023 Walkley Honour for Media Freedom for his investigation of the Ben Roberts-Smith story ...Read more
One of Australia's most experienced court reporters goes on a judicial road trip.
Outback Court Reporter is a sometimes funny, sometimes tragic look at the comings and goings on inside the country courtrooms dotted across Australia.
From the case of the stolen cat flap...Read more
SEVEN STRANGERS SEEKING REFUGE.
BUT DANGER IS EVERYWHERE THEY TURN...
When Jess accepts an offer to caretake a luxury property in the Australian outback, the isolated, all-inclusive solo trip is just what she needs.
But Jess isn't as alone as she thinks....Read more
To rogue ex-cop Jack Carlin, running a thug out of town and giving his stolen money to a kid struggling to escape the criminal lifestyle is all in a day’s work. Until it turns out the money belonged to a dangerous drug cartel seeking revenge against anybody who might have been involved in...Read more
It was just supposed to be a family vacation.
A terrible accident changed everything.
You don't know what you're capable of until they come for your family.
After moving from a small country town to Seattle,...Read more
In 1963—a year of race riots in the United States and explosive agitation for civil rights worldwide—the Indigenous people of the Northern Territory were yet to be recognised as full adults. Almost to a person, they were classed as wards of the state, unacknowledged as having any ownership...Read more
It’s not only the guilty who have something to hide.
When charity worker Cate and website designer Rory, a married couple in their thirties, return from their European holiday, they make a nightmare discovery. Their credit cards...Read more
Adelaide has developed an eerie reputation for bizarre and horrific murders - even Salman Rushdie has called it a place "where things go bump in the night".
After the revelations of the so-called "bodies in the barrels" murders, in which twelve people were murdered and many of...Read more
Some of Australia's most bizarre crimes had their genesis over a seemingly innocent meal in a city restaurant. This is a collection of the best known, written by two of Australia's leading crime reporters, Jennifer Cooke of The Sydney Morning Herald and Sandra Harvey. Colourful racing...Read more