How to Send a Message

The image of the book cover for How to Send a Message by Caimh McDonnell is a yellow background with a series of "lines" of images down the page.

4 black emoji styled human figures
An off white panel with How to Send in uneven red lettering
Then the silhouette of a dog to the left of a red figure (same as the black ones), with a black figure then holding a gun to the red one's head
Then an off white panel with A Message in the same uneven red lettering
Then 4 full black emoji styled human figures, with another panel at the bottom with the author's name in it.

This is a collection of short stories that is exclusively available to members of Caimh's mailing list.

The collection features an eclectic mix of seven stories that range in genre from crime thriller to romantic comedy to sci-fi. Two of the stories feature Detective Bunny...Read more

Madame Brussels

The book cover of Madame Brussels by Barbara Minchinton with Philip Bentley has the tagline 'The life and times of Melbourne's most notorious woman' 

The image is of a woman in an elaborate period dress, leaning against the bottom of a stairway.

A must-read biography of an enigmatic personality who helped shape early Melbourne

Madame Brussels, the most legendary brothel keeper in nineteenth-century Melbourne, is still remembered and celebrated today. But until now, little has been known about Caroline Hodgson, the...Read more

Cold Case Investigations

The book cover of Cold Case Investigations by Dr Xanthe Mallett has the tagline 'With one of Australia's leading minds in forensic anthropology and criminology'

The image is of a blonde woman sitting with her hands held together in front of her knees. She's looking straight at the viewer, and there is a wisp of smoke behind her.

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

Last One To Leave

The book cover of Last one to Leave by Benjamin Stevenson includes the tagline 'A twisty mystery' at the very top of a blue green solid background with a stylised "house" in the middle with lights showing in all the windows, and a round "sticker" to the right of that saying that "By the author of the bestselling Everyone on this Train is a suspect (including the eagle that features on that book cover).

The background is divided into two blue green sections, the title of the book in large slanted yellow lettering at the top, and the author's name at the bottom in white. The penguin logo is at the top left.

How far will they go to win the prize?

Seven strangers are invited to compete to win a clifftop mansion. The rules are each contestant must have at least one hand in contact with one part of the house at all times. The last one to take their hand off, wins the...Read more

What

The cover for John Cooper Clarke's What is teal greenish in colour with a solid background of colour and a series of black shapes around the edges, forming a sort of frame for the figure of Clarke who is stretched out in a step with his face towards the viewer. He's, well, thin, very very thin. Of course wearing black and sunglasses.

Dr John Cooper Clarke's dazzling, scabrous voice has reverberated through pop culture for decades, his influence on generations of performance poets and musicians plain for all to see. In WHAT, the original 'People's Poet' comes storming out of the gate with an uproarious new collection,...Read more

The Mystery of the Crooked Man

The book cover of The Mystery of The Crooked Man is a white background with a male caricature figure at the bottom right all in red, he's wearing a coat with the collar turned up, a hat pulled down low and only has one hand. To the left of him in the other corner is the figure of a woman in a black coat and blue leggings. Between them is a small skyline made up of high buildings with lots of windows. The title of the book is down the middle of the cover in blue lettering that looks a bit like writing. There is a Pushkin Vertigo logo top right, and the tagline 'For Agatha Dorn, whodunits are a deadly serious affair'. "deadly" is in red and a different font.

Meet Agatha Dorn, cantankerous archivist, grammar pedant, gin afficionado and murder mystery addict. When she discovers a lost manuscript by Gladden Green, the Empress of Golden Age detective fiction, Agatha's life takes an unexpected twist. She becomes an overnight sensation, basking in...Read more

We Are the Stars

The book cover of We Are the Stars by Gina Chick has the subtitle 'A misfit's story of love, connection and the glorious power of letting go'. The image is of Gina's smiling beautiful face looking upwards to the right. There is a blurred tree in the background, Her hair is swept back and her shoulders slightly bare.

Gina Chick, the inaugural winner of Alone Australia, tells the story of her extraordinary, indomitable life in one of the most powerful, moving memoirs you will ever read.

From day one of her wildly unconventional...Read more

A Stroke of the Pen

The cover for A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett, with the tagline 'The Lost Stories'. The background of the book is black with the author's name at the top in silver, the boot title in gold in the middle, and the tagline in silver at the bottom. Surrounding the text are two vines with candles in elaborate holders, pens, swords, and dragons interwoven through them. There's a lute and a small gnome at the bottom. The gnome is holding a light candle, wearing a blue outfit with bright red boots. There is a foreword by Neil Gaiman

Far away and long ago, when dragons still existed and the only arcade game was ping-pong in black and white, a wizard cautiously entered a smoky tavern in the evil, ancient, foggy city of Morpork...

A truly unmissable, beautifully illustrated...Read more

Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder

The book cover of Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder by Kerryn Mayne with the tagline 'Can she trust her memories?'. There's a quote at the top 'A book you will devour.' Sally Hepworth.

The book cover is red, with the caricature of a female figure with her head forwards, hands over her eyes. She has a lot of wavy black hair and is wearing a yellow top and shoes, and black skirt. The title of the book is very large below that figure in white lettering.

Lenny Marks is excellent at not having a life.

She bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns thirty-six copies of The Hobbit (currently arranged by height). The closest thing she has to a...Read more

Profile K

The book cover of Profile K by Helen Fields is a blue background with a blue and white fingerprint in the middle, with the figure of a woman in a short coat walking away. The taglines on the cover are 'He's going to kill you.' to the left and 'He just doesn't know it yet.' to the right at the bottom. The word "Profile" is in white lettering, and the 'K" is large and yello.

Midnight Jones is an analyst trained to understand the human mind. But everything changes when, in the course of her work, she discovers Profile K’s file – because K stands for killer, and she knows that someone more dangerous than she could have ever imagined walks among them....Read more

Life & Crimes

The book cover for Life & Crimes by Andrew Rule with the tagline 'True stories from Australia's underbelly', with a quote at the top: '...one of the most compelling storytellers in Australian journalism' Australian Media Hall of Fame.

The cover is mostly black, with the title of the book in large yellow solid lettering, and the quote / tagline in white. There is the figure of a man in a suit and tie on the right, with a blackout line across his eyes.

Journalist and podcaster Andrew Rule brings us eighteen Australian crime stories that have fuelled fears, fired outrage and broken hearts and dreams. Among them are events so infamous that a word or phrase propels us back to a time and place. The disappearance of the Beaumont children from...Read more

A Town Called Treachery

The book cover for A Town Called Treachery by Mitch Jennings has the image of a child kneeling on the floor, drawing or writing with a pencil in their hand. The tagline 'A deadbeat dad. A curious boy. A journo drowning in the past. ... And a town full of secrets.' There's also a quote from Malcolm Knox 'One of A Kind'. 

The image is orange and brown in town with a large window above the child glowing golden brown / orange.

A brutal murder in a town called Treachery? It's a story most journos would kill for, but for Stuart Dryden, it's a major inconvenience. He didn't take the gig at the local rag for its bustling crime beat. He'd sacrifice a career-making story for happy hour at the pub, but not even he can...Read more

Make-Up For Murder

Image of the book cover for Make-Up For Murder, in which the same nun as the earlier covers is standing in front of another elaborate building, this time it's mauvish with a pale orange sky. Underneath her is a panel with a big old TV camera and lights, with somebody standing behind the side on view of the camera, a lot of makeup brushes and makeup towards the bottom left, and a woman's face, half visible, looking distressed.

Mother Paul, the incomparable nun-detective, is faced with her most perplexing case when a former pupil at her convent school is murdered at their annual reunion.As a schoolgirl Maisie Ryan was often bullied by her peers, but a decade later she’s a TV star, the glamorously...Read more

Faculty of Murder

Image of the book cover for Faculty of Murder. This time the nun is, again in full habit, with the cross around her neck and glasses on. She is standing in front of a building with a tower, and the sky is greenish whilst the building is brown. There's the stylised image of a girl with closed eyes and flowing hair in a greenish background at the bottom, looking for all the world like somebody who is floating.

Faculty of Murder is set at Brigid Moore Hall, a girls' hostel in the University of Melbourne, where "freshettes" are shocked by a new arrival, Judith Mornane, who announces that she intends to discover her sister's murderer. Her sister, Maureen, had mysteriously disappeared from the hostel...Read more

Reservation for Murder

The book cover for Reservation for Murder by June Wright - Mother Paul Investigates is made up of a drawing of a nun in full habit, with a cross around her neck. She is wearing glasses and standing between the outline of a convent type building and a wrought iron fence. There's a skull showing behind the fence. The sky is orange, the building teal green and the fence (and the nun's face) are also slightly orange. It's a caricature.

June Wright had already published three popular mysteries by the time she created her most memorable detective, the Reverend Mother Mary St Paul of the Cross. The kindly Mother Paul may seem vague and otherwordly, but little escapes her attention―she has a shrewd grasp of everything that’s...Read more

Naked City

The book cover of Naked City by John Silvester is made up of a city street slightly in darkness because of a bright glowing sun in the background. There are two figures in the middle, both of them are standing in the middle of tram tracks, wearing coats, and they are looking towards each other, hands touching ? maybe a handshake. 

The tagline is 'True Stories of Crimes, Cock-ups, Crooks & Cops'. The title of the book is in large red letters at the bottom, with the author's name under that. 

There are two quotes 'No journalist has done more to explain the world of crime, the justice system and the politics of Law and order' Australian Media Hall of Fame and 'He brings to life the characters of the good guys, the villains and the victims.' Graham Perkins, Australian Journalist of the Year Award

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

We Solve Murders

The book cover for We Solve Murders by Richard Osman (audio version) is a white background with the author's name in large lettering at the top, book name at the bottom in large black lettering, and the tagline '#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of The Thursday Murder Club'. 

To the left of the cover there's a half orange sphere, with the barrel of a gun across the bottom of it, and a cat sat at the top just in front of the gun sight. The cat and the barrel are glowing slightly orange as well.

Steve Wheeler is enjoying retired life. He does the odd bit of investigation work, but he prefers his familiar habits and routines: the pub quiz, his favorite bench, his cat waiting for him when he comes home. His days of adventure are over: adrenaline is daughter-in-law Amy’s business now...Read more

Gunnawah

Image of the book cover of Gunnawah by Ronni Salt with the multi line tagline of:

It's 1974 in the Riverina.
The weather is hot.
But the body in the Murray River is stone cold ...'

The image is a wide flat river with blue green water reflecting the cloudy sky above. There is a line of Mallee gums on the far bank, and a large bird standing no top of a tree stump in the water.

It's 1974 in the Riverina

The weather is hot

But the body in the Murray River is stone cold . . .

A captivating and compulsive crime thriller about guns, drugs and a young woman dead on the...Read more

The Chilling

Image of the book cover for The Chilling by Riley James with the tagline 'Winter in Antarctica. Going outside can kill you. But so can staying in.' The image is a snowy view of somebody rugged up walking away at the top, and a sled or similar at the bottom. It's all in white and grey's, and there are two quotes 'One hell of a ride' Margaret Hickey and 'You won't be able to put it down' Chistian White

An isolated research station. A storm approaching.
There's nowhere to run. But so much to hide.

Keen to flee the wreckage of her marriage, Australian scientist Kit Bitterfeld accepts a coveted winter research position at Macpherson...Read more

Guilty by Definition

The cover of the audio version of Guilty By Definition by Susie Dent includes the notation 'The debut novel from...' above the author's name. The quote at the bottom is 'A tantalising mystery for word sleuths and crime fans alike' Janice Hallett.

The cover has a background image of crowded bookshelves, in the gloom, with a book open on its back, pages sitting up slightly in the middle.

An anonymous letter arrives at the offices of the Clarendon English Dictionary containing a challenge for the team of lexicographers working there. It's clear that's it's not the usual run-of-the-mill, eccentric enquiry. The letter hints at secrets, lies and a year. 2010. For Martha...Read more

A Line to Kill

The audio book cover for A Line to Kill by Anthony Horowitz includes the tagline 'New York Times bestselling author of magpie murders & the word is murder' at the very top of a red background. In the centre of the image is an Ace of Spades white card with the title of the book across the middle and a single red slanted mark that looks a bit like a stylised cut across the middle of it. Below the card is a black fountain pen.

When ex-detective inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England, they don’t expect to find themselves in the middle of murder investigation - or to be trapped...Read more

Find Us

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There is a small yellow backpack – contents strewn around it, abandoned on a suburban footpath. There are the tracks of tyres coming to an end at a crippled stop sign.

Anyone walking past can feel the prickle on the back of their necks that tells them something happened a...Read more

The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone

The book cover for The Bookshop Detectives: Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward includes the quote 'A page-turning joy, bursting with intrigue, fun and humanity.' Charity Norman at the top beside the Penguin Logo.

The cover looks like the front of a red shop with black windows / panelling and the title of the book in the main "window" and the author's names in another "window" directly above that. There are books in the window, flowers in a planter box at the front and the back half of a grey dog with a white tip on his tail to the right.

“When we opened Sherlock Tomes people warned us that we’d made a terrible mistake. People warned us that e-readers were taking over. People warned us that we’d never compete with the evil Amazon. The one thing they didn’t warn us about was the murders…”

Introducing......Read more