February / March update in case anybody else does the "Easter is for planning what to read next (as well as catching up on the things you still haven't read)" thing.
There's some tantalising new releases around at the moment, hopefully something for every sort of reader. Another long list of releases so a two part newsletter again. Click here for the Other Places listing.
Reviews
On the review side of things, as always I've caught up a bit but am still magically somehow behind. Review embargoes still in place but of the ones mentioned to keep an eye out for The Shark by Emma Styles and Shellybanks by Louise Milligan are now live. In the keep an eye out for list there's still No Good Deed by Katherine Kovacic and Redbelly Crossing by Candice Fox, with Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan to be added.
In the these have been reviewed now and you really should be reading them list there is Old Games by Fiona Hardy, Black Velvet and Vengeance by Deborah Challinor, Bang! by Taliyah Stone and Dark Desert Road by Tim Ayliffe. In the YMMV category - I really liked (eventually) One True Word by Snæbjörn Arngrímsson and then there was Left Behind by Martine Kropkowski that went places I wasn't expecting and remain somewhat conflicted by.
Finally a note about two books - Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne didn't get a fair go from me, and Bloom by Mary Fowler was most unexpected and very moving.
Just Finished Pile
Just finished The Retired Assassin's Guide to Country Gardening by Naomi Kuttner and The Vanishing Place by Zoe Rankin and am nearly there with Three Reasons for Revenge by Dervla McTiernan.
Current Reading Pile
Next Up on the reading piles are What You Don't Know by Sandi Wallace, The Girl from Sarajevo by Stef Harris then The Afterlife of Harry Playford by Steve Carroll and Bella Donna by Jill Johnson. And a heap of other things - keep your fingers crossed for some time over Easter - no fires / maybe a rainy day (naaa that would be expecting too much).
Recent Arrivals / Upcoming Releases (Australia / NZ)
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Sun, 01/02/2026
What does a pile of clothes left on a deserted beach tell you? It's a cold midwinter Monday. Seaweed and shells litter the flat expanse of sand. There is a light wind, the sea more disgruntled than choppy, the tide out. And there amongst it, the neat pile of clothes. Almost like a coded message waiting to be deciphered.' Queenscliff, Victoria, 1951: A man has disappeared, leaving only a pile of neatly folded clothes on a beach. Missing, presumed drowned. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 24/02/2026
On the thirtieth anniversary of John Howard coming to power, a searing analysis of the untouchable prime minister: how the ‘great economic manager’ sold our future. John Howard is often revered as one of the great Australian prime ministers (1996–2007): economically prudent, politically astute, ‘relaxed and comfortable’ with Australia’s identity, venerated by the Liberal Party and grudgingly admired by the left. Why then – just twenty years after his government ended – are we in such a mess? Read more
Region: New Zealand
Publication Date: Sun, 01/03/2026
Sometimes death is just the beginning ... Late 1872. When twenty-five-year-old Sydney undertaker Tatiana Crowe travels to Auckland to embalm the body of Evan Hunter's father events go horribly wrong, leaving Tatty stricken. Back at home, Tatty has some enormous decisions to make, but finds herself facing challenges both personal and professional. When bodies start to go missing, seemingly snatched from the funeral train en route to the cemetery, it looks like someone is targeting Tatty's business and everything she holds dear. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Thu, 12/03/2026
The Fairchild family have it all. At least that's what anyone watching the family of billionaires board the opulent Titan Pacifica would think. But as Sydney Harbour Bridge starts to disappear in the rear-view window of the luxury liner, so too does any pretence that this is a happy family. Unbeknownst to his children, CEO and patriarch Irving had planned to use the cruise to reveal his long-awaited succession plans. As glasses clink and elaborate dinners are served to the most notorious of Sydney's elite, it will soon become all too clear that...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 31/03/2026
(There are 8 books in total coming out at roughly the same time according to the publisher's website so I'll list the first here and you can follow the link for the entire series).
A brutal murder. A missing athlete. A detective with everything to prove. Working his first homicide case since relocating from the United Kingdom, Detective Sergeant Jack Lisbon must prove he's got what it takes to perform in the heat of tropical Northern Australia. A mutilated body washes up on the edge of a mangrove forest with wounds in keeping with a frenzied crocodile attack, which, to begin with, seems a straightforward incident—death by misadventure. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 31/03/2026
A wickedly twisty and atmospheric thriller set at a writers' retreat in the South of France, The Writers Retreat is Knives Out meets Anna Downes’ The Safe Place from an exciting new voice in the thriller/mystery space. Welcome to The Writers Retreat – a creative haven for writers to hone their plotlines and sharpen their characters while soaking up the Provençal atmosphere. But this year’s retreat offers something different, as...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 31/03/2026
A cosy crime/mystery novel from the beloved author of Tuesday Evenings with the Copeton Craft Resistance and The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch-Up . Something is amiss at the Paradise Heights Miniature Railway. And this suits Fleck Parker just fine – she’s on the hunt for a new puzzle to solve. Expensive equipment and supplies have disappeared and nobody knows why. Who could possibly wish harm on a community group delivering Sunday afternoon fun on a fleet of jolly...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 31/03/2026
Glamour, intrigue and two women who will gamble their lives to survive ... the compelling new Tasmanian historical fiction from a bestselling Australian author. December 1939: The grand opening of Australia's most glamorous and talked about hotel, the Wrest Point Riviera. The equally glamorous Sabine Winters, recently arrived in Hobart from the Continent, anticipates a safe port from the storm that rages in Europe along with a few select items of jewellery to add to her (stolen) collection. What she doesn't expect is to be...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 31/03/2026
Welcome to Shellwater Bay ... where the sea is calm, the scenery perfect ... and three women are quietly planning a revolution. Joany appears to have the perfect life, but behind closed doors, she's hiding a dangerous secret. Heather thought her marriage was rock-solid until her husband demands a divorce. Steph is raising kids with a man who thinks 'helping out' means calling his mother. Bonded at their gym by sweat and fury, the three women start asking the hard About the relationships they're in, the rules they've obeyed, and the silent bargains they've made to...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 28/04/2026
New graduate Fei Fei Chou is an outlier at her prestigious law firm.
She's too quiet.
She wears too much makeup.
She’s only here because the boss has a thing for Asians.
But Fei isn’t here to climb the corporate ladder – she’s here for revenge. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 28/04/2026
A propulsive thriller about a writer who gets caught up in the case of a missing woman, for fans of Lisa Jewell, Paula Hawkins and Ruth Ware. After suffering a loss, Janine and her husband Kamal need a fresh start. They leave their family and everything they know in Manchester and move to Bamblethorpe, a picturesque Lancashire village where they expect nothing but peace and quiet. It’ll be just what Janine, a thriller writer, needs to work on her next manuscript. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 19/05/2026
After walking away from traditional journalism, Danny Boyd is recruited to The Open—a covert investigative unit hunting the world’s darkest criminal networks. She proves herself quickly, until a mission against Kronos, a brutal trafficking syndicate, blows her cover. Ordered to stand down, Danny refuses. Children are still vanishing. Kronos is still out there. ...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Wed, 20/05/2026
DS Lucas Walker is back home in Queensland, following the dramatic fallout from his last case. He is just getting to grips with his new role in the small outback town of Katima, when the body of an unknown young man is found hanging from a tree in the park. What at first looks like a tragic suicide soon has Walker's detective instincts on alert, and he and his young partner throw themselves into the case - discovering a connection with an unsolved death. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 26/05/2026
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing ... The town of Hopeville is thrown into chaos when the body of Silas Ziccone, president of the notorious bikie gang the Outcasts,is found next to his abandoned car on a dirt road. Evidence suggests Silas was not alone when he was murdered, but there are no witnesses and the locals aren’t talking. When Silas’s son Anton steps into his role determined to get revenge on those responsible police fear an all-out bikie war. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 26/05/2026
From award-winning, bestselling writer Leah Swann comes a lyrical, powerful, dark and devastating novel. once you start reading, you will not be able to put this novel down. Jack Wolfe, a difficult, complicated old man, retreats to a remote family shack in the Otway Forest near the Great Ocean Road to grieve his wife's death in a car crash where he was the driver. It's cold, with endless wind and rain, and the bush shack is basic. Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 26/05/2026
A wickedly dark police procedural with a hint of the supernatural, this crime novel is Dinuka McKenzie meets The Bluffs. When Detective Sergeant Anastasia Brown is sent to investigate a grizzly murder in a small NSW town, she welcomes the chance to run from heartbreak and humiliation. But she quickly discovers that this is no ordinary murder. A popular doctor's body has been found on the mountain, chained and burned, with arcane symbols carved into the soles of his feet - and the boy who found him swears he saw a ghost lingering...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Tue, 02/06/2026
Who doesn't want to curl up with this fabulous lead character and a great supporting cast in a setting made for some murder and crime solving? When historian Rose McHugh is left a mysterious bequest after the death of the reclusive heiress of Thornwood Park, she's excited to visit the estate. But when Rose realises she may have found evidence of women going missing, she delves deeper. During World War II, the nearby Robertson Hotel housed trainees of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force, who often attended lavish parties thrown by Thornwood's wealthy...Read more
Region: Australia
Publication Date: Thu, 13/08/2026
THREE YEARS MISSING. When Pete vanished into the rugged wilderness of Tasmania’s Abel mountains, it only took a few weeks for the official search to be called off. He’d been warned, they said. Mount Mercy takes people.
TWO SISTERS SEARCHING. Brought together by their mother’s dying wish to find their brother once and for all, estranged sisters, Hallie and Gertie, head back to Mount Mercy. Their first step: to find the Peakers, an isolated and mysterious commune, who were the last people to see...Read more