Humidity

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 06/11/2024 - 10:51am by Karen

The image of the book cover for Humidity by Dan Kaufman has a drawing of a town pub, The Iron Castle. It's a two story wooden building with a verandah and balcony. There's a Hotel sign on the side, and it's a combination of green posts, white and tan coloured walls. There's an electricity line running in front, a TV aerial on the roof, and a white dog walking down a red dirt road. The I in the title of the book is a cricket bat.

Welcome to an Aussie town where the violence is rampant and the humidity’s hell

Ben doesn’t like being a nude model in a small country town. Then again, the local footballers don’t like their girlfriends ogling Ben.

Broke and desperately lonely, Ben...Read more

The Hitchhiker

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 30/10/2024 - 1:31pm by Karen

The book cover of The Hitchhiker by Gabriel Bergmoser has a yellow "sticker" on the front that says Bestselling Author, Must-Read Suspense, with part of the book cover and the title of The Caretaker in the middle. There's also a quote at the bottom 'I haven't found a cat-and-mouse game this captivating since Misery.' Jack Heath, author of Kill Your Husbands. The image is of a long, rough country road with electricity poles running alongside it, and a rail crossing right in front. There are fields off to the side, and a car barely visible through the dust it is kicking up. Overhead, a cloudy, grey and white vast sky.

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

Everyone on this Train Is A Suspect

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 22/10/2024 - 3:45pm by Karen

The book cover for Everyone on this Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson is a white background with a greyed out train line joining the words of the title: Everyone - grey with a poison bottle with an orange label as the o On this - grey with a wedgetail eagle in flight to the left, holding a burning twig in its talons Train - large orange lettering with go fast echoes Is A - grey letter slightly smaller Suspect - grey lettering with the U showing signs of fire on the inside lines. The Author's name is at the top of the book directly under the line 'The International Bestseller'

When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously,...Read more

Boney Creek

BOOK ADDED: Fri, 18/10/2024 - 4:24pm by Karen

Book cover for Boney Creek by Paula Gleeson with the tagline "A Thriller". The image shows a typical rural weatherboard small church in the distance, on dry red dirt, with a couple of dead saplings at the forefront and a small what looks like stone building off to the right. There's a really big sky above it, which is slightly hazy brownish yellow, with lots of black birds circling overhead.

When several small-town locals die under mysterious circumstances, an aspiring journalist is determined to prove the connection between them, only to discover the dangerous secrets they left behind.

Boney Creek is a dying town where not a lot happens. The...Read more

Opal

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 03/10/2024 - 11:59am by Karen

The book cover of Opal by Patricia Wolf includes the tagline 'A small town. A brutal murder. A killer among them.' and the notation 'A DS Walker Thriller' The image is looking down onto a small town with houses and fences, dry red all around, and a few dirt roads throughout. There's a build up of grey / black clouds overhead with the glow of red sun off to the left.

A small mining town. A brutal double murder. A killer among them.

DS Lucas Walker is off duty. He's supposed to be showing his little sister Grace the Australian outback, on her visit from Boston, but instead they're headed out...Read more

Kill Yours, Kill Mine

BOOK ADDED: Tue, 17/09/2024 - 1:00pm by Karen

The book cover for Kill Yours, Kill Mine by Katherine Kovacic includes the tagline 'Men Get Away with Murder all the time. Now it's our turn.' The image is black with an outline of a woman highlighted by reddish / pink lighting around the contours of her shoulder's, hand, face and hair. She has a finger held up to her lips in a classic "shoosh" pose. The title of the novel is in bright yellow lettering over the woman's image and there are little puffs of yellow what looks like smoke coming off some of the lettering.

Mia's grief counselling practice, The Pleiades, is named for the seven sisters from Greek mythology who were the companions of the Goddess of the Hunt—and who, in some stories, die of grief or are killed to be saved from attackers.

Mia has been gathering broken women together for...Read more

The Hunted

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 22/08/2024 - 1:12pm by Karen

The book cover for the audio version of The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser includes the tagline 'Nowhere to run Nowhere to Hide'. The image is of a hot, firey red and yellow cloudy sky with nothing but an electricity line running through it and a few birds flying around.

Where does the adventure end . . .
and the nightmare begin?

Frank owns a service station on a little-used highway. His granddaughter, Allie, is sent to stay with him for the summer, but they don't talk a lot.

Simon is a...Read more

The Outback Court Reporter

BOOK ADDED: Thu, 20/06/2024 - 4:52pm by Karen

The image of the book cover for The Outback Court Reporter by Jamelle Wells has a photo of the author sitting on a bench in front of brick wall that has a sign saying 'Walgett Court House 1880 / Office of The Clerk of the Local Court & Chamber Magistrate / Monday to Friday / 9.30am to 1:00pm - 2.00pm (and the rest is obscured)' She is wearing sunglasses, looking towards the right, has a pile of papers in her hands / on her knee with a hat and bag either side of her on the wooden bench

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

Bone Lands

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 08/05/2024 - 5:30pm by Karen

The image of the book cover for Bone Lands by Pip Fioretti includes the tagline ' A One-Man Police Station. Three Murders. A Past That Will Not Stay Buried'. The image is stark, with bones lying on dry red dirt at the bottom, dry grass above, with a rider on a horse in the centre distance. There's a single scrubby tree and a square brick building to the right. Overhead the sky is dirty yellow and red, heading to dark grey at the top.

'Isn't it your job to stop people being murdered?'

1911, on a winter's night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a...Read more

Tags: 

Crime Fiction

#AusCrime

Stone Town

BOOK ADDED: Wed, 24/05/2023 - 4:23pm by Karen

The book cover for Stone Town by Margaret Hickey includes the tagline 'Where land is the new gold and people will die for it.' The image is looking out across a dry, ripe looking field of grain to a small stone building on the left and more open fields and trees to the right. The sky above is dusty brown and yellow. There's a quote at the top of the image 'Astonishingly assured crime .. A pitch perfect outback noir'. Weekend Australian on Cutters End

Stone Town is captivating new rural crime drama from the author of the bestselling Cutters End.

With its gold rush history long in the past, Stone Town has definitely seen better days. And it’s now in the headlines for all the wrong reasons . . .

When three teenagers...Read more