Humidity

The image of the book cover for Humidity by Dan Kaufman has a drawing of a town pub, The Iron Castle. It's a two story wooden building with a verandah and balcony. There's a Hotel sign on the side, and it's a combination of green posts, white and tan coloured walls. There's an electricity line running in front, a TV aerial on the roof, and a white dog walking down a red dirt road. The I in the title of the book is a cricket bat.

Welcome to an Aussie town where the violence is rampant and the humidity’s hell

Ben doesn’t like being a nude model in a small country town. Then again, the local footballers don’t like their girlfriends ogling Ben.

Broke and desperately lonely, Ben...Read more

Boney Creek

Book cover for Boney Creek by Paula Gleeson with the tagline "A Thriller".

The image shows a typical rural weatherboard small church in the distance, on dry red dirt, with a couple of dead saplings at the forefront and a small what looks like stone building off to the right. There's a really big sky above it, which is slightly hazy brownish yellow, with lots of black birds circling overhead.

When several small-town locals die under mysterious circumstances, an aspiring journalist is determined to prove the connection between them, only to discover the dangerous secrets they left behind.

Boney Creek is a dying town where not a lot happens. The...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

Opal

The book cover of Opal by Patricia Wolf includes the tagline 'A small town. A brutal murder. A killer among them.' and the notation 'A DS Walker Thriller'

The image is looking down onto a small town with houses and fences, dry red all around, and a few dirt roads throughout. There's a build up of grey / black clouds overhead with the glow of red sun off to the left.

A small mining town. A brutal double murder. A killer among them.

DS Lucas Walker is off duty. He's supposed to be showing his little sister Grace the Australian outback, on her visit from Boston, but instead they're headed out...Read more

Southern Aurora

The book cover for Southern Aurora by Mark Brandi includes the tagline 'Bestselling author of Wimmera and the Rip' and the quotes 'Literary crime fiction at its best' Books+Publishing on Wimmera and 'Clarity amid the darkness ... a reminder of the novel's capacity to create empathy' Weekend Australian on The Rip

The image is of a young boy in a singlet and jeans standing with his back to the viewer, and hands resting against his hips. He's looking out over dry brown grass towards a pale blue, cloudy sky. There is another tagline at the bottom 'small-town life is unforgiving when you're from the other side of the tracks'

The unforgettable new novel from the Dagger award-winning author of Wimmera. A novel that shows small-town life is unforgiving if you're from the other side of the tracks.

"We always listen out for the train when we're down in the cutting because sometimes...Read more

The Crag

The book cover for The Crag by Claire Sutherland includes the tagline 'Sometimes the truth is just out of reach ...' and a quote 'I devoured this thrilling crime novel ... a gripping, vertigo-inducing read.' Hayley Scrivenor

The image is of a female climber hanging from a horizontal rock crag out from the rock wall. She's high up above a lake and flat plain farming land. The sky is cloudy white and grey beyond her.

Will the mountain give up its secrets? While walking on an isolated track in the windswept Wimmera, rock-climber Skye discovers the body of a young woman. The body has injuries that suggest a rock-climbing accident, but it's been found more than 5km from the nearest cliffs at Mount Arapiles...Read more

Broken Bay

Image of the book cover for Broken Bay by Margaret Hickey includes the taglines 'Where truth is dead in the water' and 'Author of Cutters End and Stone Town'

The image is of a sinkhole filled with deep blue water, it has high surrounding vertical edges, sitting in the middle of dry paddocks with a small row of trees beside it. Off into the distance there's a small hill and the sky above is dark blue and cloudy.

Old loyalties and decades-long feuds rise to the surface in this stunning crime novel, set in a spectacular Australian landscape known for its jagged cliffs and hidden caves.

Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti has taken a few days’ holiday in Broken Bay at precisely the wrong time....Read more

The Fall Between

The image of the book cover for The Fall Between by Darcy Tindale includes the tagline ' Not every secret can be swept away', and the quotes 'Rural noir at its very best.' Candice Fox and 'Stunning! A thrilling debut.' Margaret Hicky

The image is of a gravel road winding it's way down the left of a post and wire fence on the edge of a brown paddock with grass blowing in a breeze. There's a windmill and water trough on the right, and hills in the distance.

On a hot November morning, the first body lies in a cattle trough . . . It will be another two hours before rigor mortis sets in. Until then, the slim fingers will float below the water’s surface, gently bobbing, beckoning Detective Giles to come and find her.

Detective Rebecca...Read more

Bone Lands

The image of the book cover for Bone Lands by Pip Fioretti includes the tagline ' A One-Man Police Station. Three Murders. A Past That Will Not Stay Buried'.

The image is stark, with bones lying on dry red dirt at the bottom, dry grass above, with a rider on a horse in the centre distance. There's a single scrubby tree and a square brick building to the right. Overhead the sky is dirty yellow and red, heading to dark grey at the top.

'Isn't it your job to stop people being murdered?'

1911, on a winter's night in arid New South Wales wool country, mounted trooper Augustus Hawkins discovers the bodies of three young people. They are scions of the richest family in the district, savagely murdered on a...Read more

Darkness Runs Deep

The image of the book cover for Darkness Runs Deep by Claire McNeel includes the tagline 'In this small town's worst moment, with the community come together - or be driven apart? '.

A night scene of a light up rutted, gravel road with small scrubby bush beside it, the sky overhead is filled with stars.

In the darkest hour, a blood-soaked teenager flees the rural Gerandaroo football oval. Eight months later, Bess, a young teacher, returns home to Gerandaroo. A childhood game of dare with her former best-friend forces Bess to form a women's footy team to play against Denby, a rival town....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

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

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