The Bat

The book cover for The Bat by Jo Nesbo includes a black "sticker" circle with the note - The First Harry Hole Thriller in it. The image is of a man with his back to the viewer, walking through dry red dust with a blue cloudy sky above, birds flying above, and a building off in the distance. The tagline 'Over 14 Million Books Sold Worldwide' is at the bottom

HARRY IS OUT OF HIS DEPTH.

Detective Harry Hole is meant to keep out of trouble. A young Norwegian girl taking a gap year in Sydney has been murdered, and Harry has been sent to Australia to assist in any way he can.

HE'S NOT SUPPOSED TO GET TOO INVOLVED....Read more

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When It Rains

The book cover for When It Rains by Dave Warner includes the notation 'A Dan Clement Novel' and 'From the Winner of the Ned Kelly Award for Best Fiction'.

The image is looking straight down on a body of water which has a crocodile swimming in it to the right hand side / top of the book. The water is slightly swirly with reeds t the left. The author's name is in large white lettering, and the book title in slightly blue lettering just below that

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

Expectant

The book cover for Expectant by Vanda Symon has the notation 'A Sam Shephard Thriller' and the tagline 'A pregnant woman murdered  The killer ready to strike again  And the lead detective is expecting her first baby ...'.  There's also a red "sticker" at the bottom which contains the words 'New Zealand's modern Queen of Crime' Val McDermid

The image is looking across a shoreline with water right up to the edge. There's a walk way along the top which has brightly lit lighting all the way along, reflecting red down into the water's edge. There's a small hill in the distance with buildings on it, and a blue, heavy looking sky above.

A killer targeting pregnant women.

A detective expecting her first baby…

The shocking murder of a heavily pregnant woman throws the New Zealand city of Dunedin into a tailspin, and the devastating crime feels uncomfortably close to home for Detective Sam Shephard...Read more

17 Years Later

The book cover for 17 Years Later by J.P. Pomare with the taglines 'Who really killed the Primrose family?' and 'Bestselling author of The Wrong Woman'

The image is of a large, stately looking multi-storey house with elaborate verandahs, porches and decorations. There are large wrought iron gates slightly open in front with a figure walking away from the viewer between the gates and the entrance steps to the house. The colour scheme is greyed out, and there is a quote at the bottom 'A rare talent who continues to turn out crime masterpieces. Herald Sun'

Is the truth sometimes best left buried?

A crime masterpiece by bestselling author J. P. Pomare

The violent slaughter of the wealthy Primrose family while they slept shocked the nation of New Zealand and scarred the small idyllic rural town of...Read more

The Caretaker

The book cover for The Caretaker by Gabriel Bergmoser includes the taglines 'From the Bestselling Author of The Hunted' and 'She thinks she's safe. She thinks she's alone. She's wrong.' There's a quote at the bottom 'Straight-ahead, no holds barred brutal crime thrillers with an Australian feral tang' The Australian.

The image is of the end of a ski lift (where the chairs go around to head back down a mountain) with a few chairs visible, and a wooden shed / control box beside it. Behind that is a view of sky, grey, cloudy, and the hint of hills far off in the distance.

An isolated, empty ski resort in the off-season. A woman who doesn't want to be found. A man who may not be who he appears to be. A game of cat and mouse - with deadly consequences. On the run from a controlling husband and his underworld associates in Melbourne, Charlotte has adopted a new...Read more

Dark Arena

The book cover for Dark Arena by Jack Beaumont includes the quote 'Dark Arena is as real and as deeply disturbing as a world I once knew' Ant Middleton, former UK Special Forces and the tagline 'The Frenchman Returns'.

The image is of a man standing in a classic stance, holding a gun in his hands, one knee slightly bent, he's in shadow. In the background there's a snowy piece of ground with a few stubby trees and an elaborate building beyond, with minarets on the roof.

The Frenchman returns in Dark Arena, a super-charged espionage thriller from Jack Beaumont. When an agent of the Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) is brutally murdered in front of his family, the "Company" swings into action, determined to track down the killers. Meanwhile,...Read more

Black Widow

The book cover of Black Widow by Christopher Brookmyre (audio version) with the tagline 'She's on Trial for his Life' / 'A Jack Parlabane Thriller'

The image is of a woman in a red coat, her long black hair blowing in the wind. She's got her back to the viewer, seated on a wooden park bench looking towards a foggy sky with the outline of trees visible.

Diana Jager is clever, strong and successful, a skilled surgeon and fierce campaigner via her blog about sexism. Yet it takes only hours for her life to crumble when her personal details are released on the internet as revenge for her writing.

Then she meets Peter. He's kind,...Read more

Want You Gone

The book cover of Want You Gone by Christopher Brookmyre (audio version) with the tagline 'The New Jack Parlabane Thriller' and 'Praise for Chris Brookmyre' that includes the quotes 'Exceptionally good' Guardian / 'A stand-out thriller' Renee Knight, author of Disclaimer

The image is a black background with a central "oval" in which there's a female figure standing against a city skyline. She's wearing a coat, with her hands in her pockets, turned slightly to the right. She throws a long shadow and the sun is glaring behind her, the overwhelming tone is blue.

What if all your secrets were put online? Sam Morpeth is growing up way too fast, left to fend for a younger sister with learning difficulties when their mother goes to prison and watching her dreams of university evaporate. But Sam learns what it is to be truly powerless when a stranger...Read more

Quite Ugly One Morning

The book cover of Quite Ugly One Morning by Christopher Brookmyre. There's an unreadable (in this image) quote from Val McDermid at the bottom, the background is pale blue green and the title is in large Purple and white lettering down the page with a spill of, presumably blood, coming from the top on the right hand side. It splatters a bit across some of the letters.

Quite Ugly One Morning is the book that made Christopher Brookmyre a star in his native Britain, establishing his distinctive, scabrously humorous style and breakneck, hell-for-leather narrative pacing. The novel that won the inaugural First Blood Award for the best debut crime novel in the...Read more

Crossing the Line

The book cover for Crossing the Line by Nick McKenzie includes the tagline 'The explosive inside story behind the headlines' and a note after the author's name 'Walkley Award-Winning Investigative Journalist'

The background of the image is textured black / grey with, at the top left, an image of the upper body of Roberts-Smith in full uniform, hands in his pockets he's smiling slightly. Lower down, on the right, there's an image of the same man, in a blue suit, white shirt, no tie, head down he's looking towards the ground, worried or frowning expression on his face.

War is brutal—but some lines should never be crossed. In mid-2017 whispers of executions and cover-ups within Australia's most secretive and elite military unit, the SAS, reached Walkley Award-winning journalist Nick McKenzie. He and Chris Masters began an investigation that would not only...Read more

I Am Behind You

The book cover for I Am Behind You by John Ajvide Lindqvist is an upside down view of an old rounded style plain metal caravan sitting on a pale patch of ground with a sky "above" it and flying birds. The right way up the title of the book has wisps of smoke curling around it, with the author's name at the bottom of the image.

Molly wakes her mother to go to the toilet. The campsite is strangely blank. The toilet block has gone. Everything else has gone too. This is a place with no sun. No god.

Just four families remain. Each has done something to bring them here - each denies they deserve it. Until...Read more

Flawed Hero

Book cover of Flawed Hero by Chris Masters with the tagline 'The definitive story of the case against Ben Roberts-Smith VC', the subtitle 'Truth, Lies and War Crimes' and the note after the author's name 'Australia's most respected investigative journalist'

The image is of Ben Roberts-Smith in full uniform holding a slouch hat that he's looking down towards, the background is white.

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

22 Dead Little Bodies

The book cover of 22 Dead Little Bodies has two taglines 'The No 1 Sunday Times Bestseller' and 'A Logan McRae and DCI Steel Story'.

The image has a textured blue / green background with a 4 black birds flying around.

A short novel from the No. 1 bestselling author of CLOSE TO THE BONE and A SONG FOR THE DYING, featuring his most popular characters, Acting DI Logan McRae and DCI Robert Steel.

CID isn’t what it used to be…

It’s a been a bad week for acting Detective Inspector Logan McRae. Every...Read more

Stone Town

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

1Q84

The book cover for IQ 84 by Haruki Murakami has the taglines 'National Bestseller' and 'A Novel'. The image is of the face of a woman, up very close with a wash of shading over the top, the title of the book is spread across the image, in relief so that parts of her image are more clearly visible.

The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.

A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver’s enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 —“Q is...Read more

The Last Day of Christmas

The book cover for The Last Day of Christmas by Chris Brookmyre includes the subtitle 'The Fall of Jack Parlabane' and the tagline 'Her Girt Could Get Her Killed'. The image is black on the top, under the author name and title, then a shot of a woman in a shortish black coat, with long black hair walking away from the viewer. There is snow falling, and she's on a walkway with a lot of old street lights down the left.

Snowy London, a few days before Christmas, and a civil servant realises she has a chance for revenge.

Kendra has spent her whole life struggling against the Etonian powers-that-be, so when she realises her boss is up to no good, she turns whistleblower, calling a journalist who...Read more

Cutters End

The book cover for Cutters End by Margaret Hickey includes the tagline 'A Desert Highway. A Remote Town. A Murder that Won't Stay Hidden.'

The image is looking out across a dry, brown patch of grass with a single, scrubby tree to the left. In the distance there's low bush, and a cloudy yellowish / dusty looking sky.

A scintillating crime thriller, set in the South Australian outback town of Cutters End. A mysterious death on New Year’s Eve 1989 leads to a shocking murder investigation 32 years later...

A desert highway. A remote town. A murder that won’t stay hidden....Read more

Boiling a Frog

The image of the book cover for Boiling a Frog by Christopher Brookmyre with the tagline 'Riddled with humour and political satire. The Times'. It has a green background with a downward line that's forming a spiral after substituting as the i in Boiling.

Jack Parlabane, the investigative journalist who is not averse to breaking the law for the sake of a good story, has finally been caught on the petard of his own self-confidence and is experiencing accommodation courtesy of Her Majesty. The fledgling Scottish parliament is in catatonic...Read more

Country of the Blind

The image of the book cover for Country of the Blind by Christopher Brookmyre. It has a yellow background with a large key above Country, then a keyhole as the o in Of, and a small shadow coming off the N in Blind.

The murder of a media mogul in his country mansion appears to be the result of his disturbing a gang of would-be thieves. The robbers are swiftly caught, but when they are unexpectedly moved to a different prison they escape. Back in Edinburgh, a young solicitor reveals to the press that...Read more

Bitter Wash Road

The book cover of Bitter Wash Road by Garry Disher showing a dried out wheat field with two tyre tracks running through it, echoed by a hint of light against a dark cloudy sky. There's a quote 'Bitter Wash Road is superb.' The Australian.

When Hirsch heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate the gunfire he finds himself cut off without back-up. A pair of thrill killers has been targeting isolated farmhouses on lonely backroads, but Hirsch’s first thought is that ‘back-up’ is nearby—and about to put a bullet in him. That’s...Read more

A Dead American in Paris

The book cover for A Dead American in Paris by Seth Lynch has the tagline 'The Salazar Mysteries' and a quote 'A real insight into the minds and lives of the post war Paris years ....'

The image is a drawing of a man in evening suit on the right, he has slicked back hair and is in profile. In the background is the Eiffel Tower, and there are explosions of light in the sky.

Arty Homebrook lived and died in a world of sleaze which stretched from Chicago to Paris but never beyond the gutter. He'd been sleeping with Madame Fulton, which is why Harry Fulton promised to kill him. So far as the Paris Police are concerned it's an open and shut case. Harry's father...Read more

The Water's Lovely

The Book cover for The Water's Lovely by Ruth Rendell includes the tagline 'Can you bury a secret so deep that the truth will never surface?' 

The image is of slightly moving water, coloured deep reds and browns, with the distorted reflection of somebody in the centre.

'Weeks went by when Ismay never thought of it at all. Then something would bring it back or it would return in a dream. The dream began in the same way. She and her mother would be climbing the stairs, following Heather's lead through the bedroom to what was on the other side, not a...Read more

Attack Of The Unsinkable Rubber Ducks

The image of the book cover for Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks by Christopher Brookmyre with the quote from the Daily Telegraph. It has a pale green background with a yellow plastic / fake duck with a target on it, in the centre of the title.

Do you believe in ghosts? Do we really live on in some conscious form after we die, and is that form capable of communicating with the world of the living?...Aye, right.

That was Jack Parlabane's stance on the matter, anyway. But this was before he found himself in the more...Read more

Be My Enemy

The image of the book cover for Be My Enemy by Christopher Brookmyre with the quote 'Hiaasen is one of Ameria's finest satisits, Brookmyre is Britain's Observer'. It has a purple background with the title down the page, cracked like a mirror.

It was a junket, a freebie. A 'team-building' weekend in the highlands for lawyers, advertising execs, businessmen, even the head of a charity. Oh, and a journalist, specially solicited for his renowned and voluble scepticism - Jack Parlabane. Amid the flying paintballs and flowing Shiraz...Read more