Ice Cold

Andrea Maria Schenkel's first novel, THE MURDER FARM won considerable acclaim for its clever orginality. While it's not exactly factual, it's not entirely fiction either. Rather it's the fictionalised story of a real case cleverly interwoven with witness statements taken at the time of the...Read more

Bleeding Heart Square

It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone.  But as she flees her abusive marriage there is only one person who she can turn to - the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at no...Read more

A Clear Case Of Suicide

Laurence Deegan, QC, had just won his latest case. At fifty, already a distinguished and famous barrister, he seemed set to become a judge at an early age. That same evening, his triumph still fresh, he ran his bath, got into it and slit the veins in both wrists. Why had he done it? His...Read more

King Solomon's Carpet

Living in a school-turned-boarding house, Jarvis encounters a cast of bizarre characters--including hawk trainer Jed, Jasper and the truant boys, and Alice, who has abandoned her babyRead more

Cruel to be Kind

Laura Ritchie's husband is killed crossing a busy road. Mike Mackman, though exonerated of blame, is desperate to put things right. It's not long before Laura is trapped in a spiral of unease and fear as the insistent Mike passes the point where desire to protect becomes obsessive need to...Read more

Anatomy of a Scandal

Rich, gorgeous, popular and charismatic would describe the James we meet in the heady years of his enviably sparkling youth.  It is easy for James’ friends and family to see where such was a charmed young man will end up.  Some people were always meant for the heights.

Not so...Read more

Between the Lies

What would you do if you woke up and didn't know who you were?

Chloe Daniels regains consciousness in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
She doesn't recognise the strangers who call themselves family. She can't even remember her own name...Read more

Sheerwater

Ava and her two young sons, Max and Teddy, are driving to their new home in Sheerwater, hopeful of making a fresh start in a new town, although Ava can't help but keep looking over her shoulder. They're almost at their destination when they witness a shocking accident - a light plane...Read more

City of Animals

At Sydney's Royal Prince Albert Zoo, fear is mounting. First a curator is found dead in a giraffe enclosure, then three endangered animals - part of a controversial shipment from Burma - are brutally slaughtered.

TV Producer Nikiya Adams arrives at the zoo to research a new...Read more

The Fatal Flaw

Norfolk Island, Easter Sunday, 2002 ... the first murder in 150 years and everyone is a suspect ... 

Easter Sunday, 2002. On sleepy Norfolk Island, the faithful are returning from morning service at St Barnabas Chapel, while tourists...Read more

Naked City

John Silvester has been reporting on crime from the cop stations, courthouses, back alleys and gangster mansions of Melbourne for forty years. His contact book is a who's who of both sides of criminal justice, and the shadowy worlds between. He is the trusted confidante of cops, criminals,...Read more

Leave the Girls Behind

Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender—and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald...Read more

Cold Case Investigations

From the disappearance of the Beaumont children to the abduction of William Tyrrell to the double murder of Karlie Pearce-Stevenson and her daughter Khandalyce, Xanthé is determined to expose the truth to maximise dignity for both deceased victims and those left behind.

Xanthé...Read more

The Rip

A young woman living on the street has to keep her wits about her. Or her friends.... but when the drugs kick in that can be hard.

Anton has been looking out for her. She was safe with him. But then Steve came along.

He had something over Anton. Must have. But he had a...Read more

Missing, Presumed Dead

It was the double murder case that gripped Australia, and former Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC is finally able to share all the shocking details.

Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan were both happy, healthy, affluent, middle-class women from conservative, loving...Read more

1984

'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.'

Winston Smith works for the Ministry of truth in London, chief city of Airstrip One. Big Brother stares out from every poster, the Thought Police uncover every act of betrayal. When...Read more

Mami Suzuki: Private Eye

Beneath the sheen of its orderly streets and obedient populace, all is not well in the port city of Kobe. Business is as brisk as the Haru-ichiban spring breeze for Mami Suzuki, hotel clerk by day, private investigator by night.

Who's stealing from Japan's biggest pearl trader?...Read more

A Killer Harvest

Joshua is convinced there is a family curse. It's taken away his biological parents, robbed him of his eyesight, and is the reason his father Logan, the detective who raised him, is killed while investigating the homicide of a young woman. The suspect, Simon Bowers, is killed by Logan's...Read more

Breakers

Seventeen-year-old Tyler lives in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived areas. Coerced into robbing rich people’s homes by his bullying older siblings, he’s also trying to care for his little sister and his drug-addict mum. On a job, his brother Barry stabs a homeowner and leaves her for dead,...Read more

The Foster Mother

There's a world of difference between a mother and a psychopath. But sometimes, it's hard to tell them apart...

When a young mother abandons her baby in a crowded park, Nora steps in to take her place. Little does Nora know that this act of kindness will plunge her into a...Read more

He Went Back for His Hat

A judgement to remember.

Having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.’

Justice Michael Lee with an introduction by Chanel Contos

On 15 April 2024 Justice Michael Lee delivered his judgement...Read more

Paper Cage

Masterton isn’t a big town. The community’s tight, if not always harmonious. So when a child goes missing it’s a big deal for everyone. And when a second kid disappears, the whole town’s holding their own children that little bit tighter.

Lorraine doesn’t have kids, but she has...Read more

Lowbridge

Where everybody knows everyone, how can somebody just disappear?
A missing girl. Decades of silence. A secret too big to bury.

1987: It’s late summer and a time of change when 17-year-old Tess Dawes leaves the local shopping centre in...Read more

Duck Season Death

June Wright wrote this lost gem in the mid-1950s, but consigned it to her bottom drawer after her publisher foolishly rejected it. Perhaps it was a little ahead of its time? Because while it’s a tour de force of the classic country-house murder mystery, it’s also a delightful romp, poking...Read more

Wimmera

In the long, hot summer of 1989, Ben and Fab are best friends.

Growing up in a small country town, they spend their days playing cricket, yabbying in local dams, wanting a pair of Nike Air Maxes and not talking about how Fab's dad hits him or how the sudden death of Ben's next-...Read more

Crime Scenes Stories

Is there really such a thing as an innocent person?

Teachers, cops, mothers, wives, everyone has their breaking point; that moment where it could go either way. From the prostitute with no way out, to the bitter author, and a cop who just wants his leave, the characters in this...Read more

Sawbones

They call him Sawbones:  a serial killer touring America, kidnapping young women.

The FBI are trying to catch him - but they're getting nowhere.

The latest victim is Laura Jones, 16, blonde, pretty ... and the daughter of one of New York's biggest gangsters.  Laura...Read more

Crime Fiction Since 1800: Detection Death Diversity

Since its appearance nearly two centuries ago, crime fiction has gripped readers' imaginations around the world. Detectives have varied enormously: from the nineteenth-century policemen (and a few women), through stars like Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple, to newly self-aware voices of the...Read more

A History of Crime: The Southern Double-Cross

The most dangerous people are those with the most to lose.

It is 1887. The young colony of New Zealand is in the grip of a deep depression. Insolvent speculators conspire with corrupt politicians while Maori land slips from the hands of its owners.

Into this...Read more

Furey's War

Jack Furey is a decent man caught up in an indecent time.

Retired police sergeant Jack Furey is celebrating his 100th birthday, and he’s not happy about it. Unable to speak following a stroke and estranged from his son, all he wants is to reunite with his beloved, late wife....Read more

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