The Serpent's Sting

'It was suffocatingly hot, and the audience of howling children was viciously indifferent to the violence being done to my integrity as an artist by every ghastly syllable I was obliged to utter and by every mincing step I was obliged to take. As the foul smell of the ancient wig I was...Read more

Shore Leave

It is Fremantle in 1989 and Frank Swann is at home, suffering from an undiagnosed and debilitating illness.

When Frank is called in to investigate an incident at a local brothel, it soon appears there is a link between the death of two women and the arrival of the US nuclear-...Read more

Everyone In This Bank Is A Thief

Ten suspects. Ten heists. A puzzle only Ernest Cunningham can solve.

I’ve spent the last few years solving murders. But a bank heist is a new one, even for me. I’ve never been a hostage before.

The doors are chained shut. No one in or out. Which...Read more

Cop Out

Bryce Darcy, partner in a successful family business, has been murdered. His sister has confessed and DI Carol Ashton is informed that it's a shut case. Yet, Carol discovers that the dead man was a member of a support group for married gay men, and that the Darcy family seethes with secrets...Read more

The Fourth Season

When the body of young female environmental activist and science student, Laila Fanshaw, is found floating in Lake Burley Griffin, private investigator Sandra Mahoney's life is turned upside down, not least because her partner, Ivan, was in love with Laila. Ivan is a suspect and has no...Read more

The Big Ask

Murray Whelan is in trouble. A disastrous election is looming, and his days as advisor to Angelo Agnelli, minister for transport, may be numbered. His son, on loan to his ex-wife, is missing and may be in danger. His ex-fling, Heather, is prowling for his inner prince. And on an icy...Read more

Blood Born

For pathologist and forensic physician Dr Anya Crichton, the death of a gang rape victim hours before she is due to give evidence at trial is more than only a tragedy. The psychotic Harbourn brothers, the girl's accused attackers, now look like getting away with two horrific crimes....Read more

Nemesis

A DANGEROUS CHASE. A SADISTIC KILLER.

DS Lucas Walker is on assignment for the AFP, and it couldn't be more personal. This is his last chance to take down Stefan Markovich - the Vandals leader who tried to have him killed after Walker uncovered...Read more

Kingdom of the Strong

Darian Richards is an ex-cop, a good one. He did whatever it took to solve a crime and stop the bad guy. Whatever it took! But after sixteen years as the head of Victoria's Homicide Squad, he'd had enough of promising victims' families he'd find the answers they needed. He had to walk away...Read more

The Square Up

Everybody carries emotional baggage throughout their lives…and most resolve their issues.

But what if one individual won’t let go of a longstanding grudge…and enacts a murderous revenge scheme.

Detective Inspector John Mahoney is confronted with a serial killer...Read more

After the Flood

A violent death by crucifixion near a remote north-west station has Detective Inspector Dan Clement and his Broome police officers disturbed and baffled. Other local incidents—the theft of explosives from a Halls Creek mine site, social justice protests at an abattoir, a break-in at a...Read more

Best Served Cold

After failed attempts to make a different future, Brad Chen returns to the Australian capital to reprise his role as the city's number one murder investigator. Where others see mere coincidence in the deaths of three friends, Chen soon sees clear and sinister purpose. His efforts to bring...Read more

Death at Victoria Dock

A very young man with muddied hair, a pierced ear and a blue tattoo lies cradled in Phryne’s arms. But sadly it’s not another scene of glorious seduction—this time it’s death. Outraged by this brutal slaughter, Phryne promises to find out who is responsible. But Phryne doesn’t yet know how...Read more

Disguising Demons

The dead body of a Buddhist monk is found at the bottom of a cliff early one morning in a small town in Australia’s Far North Queensland. Four months later with the killer still at large, Dusty Kent, investigative journalist renowned for her ability to solve cold cases, is called in....Read more

The Orchard Murders

In 1944, in the outer-Melbourne suburb of Nunawading, a brutal triple murder heralds the return of a long-forgotten cult. A man named Anthony Prescott has declared himself the Messiah and has promised his followers immortality. There are those who believe him and who are ready to kill in...Read more

Those Who Perish

Caleb Zelic can't hear you. But he can see everything.

Caleb's addict brother, Anton, has been missing for months, still angry about Caleb's part in his downfall.

After almost giving up hope of finding him, Caleb receives an anonymous message alerting him to Ant's...Read more

The Green Mill Murder

In a jazzy 1920s Melbourne, the Green Mill is the hottest dancehall in town. But the glamorous Miss Phryne Fisher finds there are hidden perils in dancing the night away - like murder, blackmail and young men who vanish.Read more

Mischance Creek

Hirsch is checking firearms. The regular police all weapons secured, ammo stored separately, no unauthorised person with keys to the gun safe. He’s checking people, too. The drought is hitting hard in the mid-north, and Hirsch is responsible for the welfare of his scattered flock of...Read more

Silent Fear

On a searing summer's day paramedic Holly Garland rushes to an emergency to find a man collapsed with a bullet wound in the back of his head, CPR being performed by two bystanders, and her long-estranged brother Seth watching it all unfold.

Seth claims to be the dying man's...Read more

Between the Devlin And The Deep Blue Seas

Les Norton's apartment block in Randwick was proving to be nothing but trouble, full of mayhem and murder. It seemed the longer he owned it the more money he lost. But while he's trying to solve his financial problems, Les still has time to fight hate-crazed roadies, sort out a drug deal...Read more

Crocodile Tears

Detective Philip ‘Cato’ Kwong is investigating the death of a retiree found hacked to pieces in his suburban home. The trail leads to Timor-Leste, with its recent blood-soaked history. There, he reunites with an old frenemy, the spook Rory Driscoll who, in Cato’s experience, has always...Read more

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Heroin Annie and other Cliff Hardy stories

He's a one-man army for $125 a day, plus expenses, and Hardy was finding his fee harder to earn all the time.

From reformed junkies to high fashion models, from radical politics to corporate, every type of face with every type of problem eventually walked through Hardy's door....Read more

When It Rains

For Broome detective Dan Clement, it seems that crime is as plentiful as wet season rain. When his sergeant is beaten up, and a woman is brutally assaulted, it seems like the same two suspects are behind both incidents. But when a woman' s hand is discovered in crocodile-infested waters,...Read more

Blood Moon

My name is Dirk Roe and for your information my brother was almost beaten to death last night.’

Challis glanced at Roe’s they were well kept and unmarked. He shifted his gaze to the man’s face, which wore the sour look of someone who’d once been admired and was waiting for it to...Read more

Cold Justice

A teenage girl stumbles across the body of her classmate, Tim Pieters, hidden amongst the bushes. His family is devastated, the killer is never found.

Eighteen years later, political pressure sees the murder investigation reopened. Detective Ella Marconi tracks down Georgie Riley...Read more

A Deadly Game

A secret life exposed

Melbourne, 1925. Reggie da Costa, The Argus ’s celebrated crime reporter, takes a break from investigating gangland crime to assist Ruby Rhodes, whose identical twin sister has died in mysterious circumstances. Together, they investigate how Katherine...Read more

The Freezer

In the endless tracts of the New South Wales bushland Ranger Cal Nyx finds a dead body under unusual circumstances. It soon becomes apparent this is a historic death. Growing attention on the crime puts the blowtorch to a murderer who’s managed to evade justice. For now.

...Read more

Snapshot

On Saturday evening she’d watched Robert have sex with five women. She’d had sex with two men. And now it was Tuesday morning and she was driving along the highway with her seven-year-old daughter.

Sex with strangers on a Saturday, family outings in the station wagon on Tuesday...Read more

Amongst the Dead

Failed Shakesperean actor and would-be private investigator Will Power's unique detective skills are, once again, in demand.  The Japanese army is rampaging through the islands of the South Pacific and Australia's front line of defence is a top-secret, crack division of men embedded deep in...Read more

Consolation

Winter in Tiverton.

Constable Paul Hirschhausen has a snowdropper on his patch. Someone is stealing women’s underwear, and Hirsch knows enough about that kind of crime—how it can escalate—not to take it lightly.

But the more immediate concerns are a call from the high...Read more

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