The Men Who Killed the News

The image of the book cover for The Men Who Killed the News by Eric Beecher includes the tagline ' The inside story of how media moguls abused their power, manipulated the truth and distorted democracy'.  The image is white, with the author's name at the top, and the book title in large letters down the page (black - The Men Who / switching to red for Killed for News). There are images of various men around the edges, Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch being two of the most instantly recognisable. The others are possibly Robert Maxwell, William Randolph Hurst and I think it could be Elon Musk.

Crikey owner and ex-News Corp and Fairfax editor lifts the lid on the abuse of power by media moguls – from William Randolph Hearst to Elon Musk – and on his own unique experience of working for (and being sued by) the Murdochs.  

What’s...Read more

The Forever War

The image of the book cover for The Forever War by Nick Bryant includes the tagline 'America's Unending Conflict with Itself'.

The image is of a roughly drawn version of the stripes on the American flag at the top, and a shot of the Capital Building with rioters in front of it.

The Forever War tells the story of how America's political polarization is 250 years in the making, and argues that the roots of its modern-day malaise are to be found in its troubled past.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the American...Read more

Opus

The image of the book cover for Opus by Gareth Gore includes the tagline 'Dark Money, A Secretive Cult, and its missing to remake our world'.

The image is of a hand drawn black cassock with white buttons, and the dog collar portion normally at the top in the middle of the neck band is a banknote.

A thrilling exposé recounting how members of Opus Dei—a secretive, ultra-conservative Catholic sect—pushed its radical agenda within the Church and around the globe, using billions of dollars siphoned from one of the world’s largest banks.

For over half a...Read more

Mean Streak

The book cover for Mean Streak by Rick Morton has the tagline 'A moral vacuum & multi-billion dollar government fraud'. The image is made up of a series of blocks stacked on top of each other of decreasing height as they go upwards. There are ladders to go from one level to the next with the bottom being very high. There are people climbing the ladders or standing on the various levels. The book and author's name are shown on the side of the blocks.

It includes the notation 'Bestselling author of One Hundred Years of Dirt'

Robodebt was a new debt-creation system that was used to illegally pursue close to half a million Australian welfare recipients for fake debts generated by the thousands. It was described by the Royal Commission's report as a 'massive failure of public administration' caused by 'venality,...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

Lies and Deception

The image of the book cover for Lies and Deception by Laraine Stephens includes the tagline ' a reggie da costa mystery '. The image is a wide red textured background with a tarot card in the centre - its got the title the Ten of Swords. There are ten gold and black and white swords sticking out of the back of a figure lying face down.

Lies + Deception = Murder

Melbourne 1925. Jasper Fitzalan Howard is found stabbed to death in his room at The Hotel Windsor. In a bizarre twist, he is clutching a tarot card, the Ten of Swords, in his right hand. Initially, the police identify him as a...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

A Deadly Game

The image of the book cover for A Deadly Game by Laraine Stephens is a drawing of a man in silhouette, he's wearing a long coat, grey tie and hat on an angle. There's a  1940's style car behind him, and it is all laid out on a textured pale blue background.

A secret life exposed

Melbourne, 1925. Reggie da Costa, The Argus ’s celebrated crime reporter, takes a break from investigating gangland crime to assist Ruby Rhodes, whose identical twin sister has died in mysterious circumstances. Together, they investigate how Katherine...Read more

Deadly Intent

The image of the book cover for Deadly Intent by Laraine Stephens is a drawing of an art deco style 2 story terrace house with elaborate ironwork and a spiked fence. There's a white 1940's style car out the front.

It is October 1923. What looks like a routine report, on the heavy rains battering Melbourne, becomes another case of murder for The Argus’s celebrated crime reporter, Reggie da Costa, devotee of fashionable suits and flamboyant automobiles. A flooded basement hides a ghastly secret: the...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

The Death Mask Murders

The image of the book cover for The Death Mask Murders by Laraine Stephens is a shot of some stone steps, from the bottom looking up past a wrought iron gate to a cloudy sky. The colour scheme is greys, dark and white.

Death is just a close shave away.

It is February 1918. Somewhere in the bayside suburbs of Melbourne, the Death Mask Murderer is lurking, engaged in a ritualistic killing spree: shaving the heads of young women, strangling them and creating a gruesome...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

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