THE BUILD UP - Phillip Gwynne
Pan Macmillan - Scheduled for release 1 August, 2008
For Detective Dusty Buchanon, a female cop in the very male world of the Northern Territory Police Force, it always pays to expect the unexpected. When the body of a young Thai prostitute is found in a billabong near a camp of disaffected Vietnam Veterans, Dusty knows this is what she's been looking for – a spectacular case to get her back on top after the debacle of an infamous British backpacker murder trial that almost destroyed her career.
But when the body disappears and her colleagues turn against her, Dusty gets help from an unlikely source: a handsome German bird-watcher holidaying in the Northern Territory, who just happens to be a cop. And soon, the case becomes much more than just another step on her career ladder...
Set against Darwin's hustling, exotic melting pot of people and cultures, Phillip Gwynne has written a truly page-turning crime thriller with an unforgettable hero.
Inside Their Minds : Australian Criminals
by Rochelle Jackson
Allen & Unwin , 01 Aug 2008.
He is 29 years old and commits his horrendous crime alone. He is an underachiever, unskilled, doesn't have a regular job and he is now a mass murderer. What made Martin Bryant go on a brutal killing spree at Port Arthur taking the lives of 35 people?Working with a leading Australian forensic psychologist, investigative journalist Rochelle Jackson takes us deep into the minds of eight of the country's most notorious criminals:
* serial killer, Ivan Millat
* female sex offender, Karen Ellis
* serial arsonist, Peter Burgess
* armed robber and escapee, Brenden Abbott
* child killer, Kathleen Folbigg
* murderer, Matthew Wales
* and gangland warlord, Carl Williams.
She probes their motivations, delves deep into their pasts and unlocks the dark side of their humanity.Inside Their Minds is a penetrating, forensic and revealing investigation of the criminal mind.
The Life and Death of Laura Friday and of Pavarotti Her Parrot
by David Murphy
HarperCollins New Zealand (HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand)) , 01 Aug 2008, Published in New Zealand.
In Bullock, a proud little town somewhere on the coast, they do things differently. It's probably something to do with the way their pioneering ancestors survived months at sea by ingesting seed of hemp, a wondrous medicinal herb they've grown ever since. And when a local man accidentally cuts off his penis, only to be saved by a selfless transplant offer from his transgender brother, the international media come swarming. Fitz Kennedy, Cub reporter for the Bullock Telegraph, loses his scoop and his heart to Frankie Wilton, the scheming femme fatale sent to cover the story for the London tabloids. His revenge is sweet when he turns her into the heartless assassin Laura Friday, who with her parrot, Pavarotti, feature in his first novel. The book is an overnight success. And that's when the fun really starts.
The Ringmaster
by Vanda Symon
Penguin Books (NZ) (Penguin Group (NZ)) , Aug 2008,
After the events described in Vanda Symon's debut crime novel Overkill, our hero Sam is now training to be a detective at Dunedin Central. The novel begins with the brutal murder of a young female student, one of a number of vicious murders in the region. Being on the lowest rung of the ladder, Sam finds herself assigned not to the murder enquiry but to the local visiting circus, which is being harassed by animal rights activists. Meanwhile, a stalker has been trashing her car and is getting nasty...Sam finds herself at the very centre of the murder investigation when she realises that the itinerary of the touring circus matches precisely the locations of the unsolved murders around the country. The murders seem to correspond with the presence of the circus in town. Sam's insight is a break-through, and soon the investigation centres on the circus and its abrasive owner Terry Benjamin. But when another young Dunedin student is murdered, the killer is now revealed to be much closer to home. Who else is on the murderer's list? The killer is now on Sam's tail and she's in great danger.
Ice: The Inside Story of Ice in Australia
by Malcolm Knox
Allen & Unwin , 10 July, 2008
An act of violence while on crystal meth seems to burst boundaries; the perpetrator keeps on hitting and hitting, not knowing why, just going on beyond any purpose or restraint, repeating the action as mindlessly as playing cards or popping Sudafeds out of blister packs.Crystal methamphetamine. Crystal meth. Crystal. Ice. A drug that came out of nowhere and instantly turned things upside down: for users, their families, police, healthcare workers and victims of the random, hyper-violent crimes that are the mark of ice. Nearly 1 in 10 Australians have tried ice.Scatteredis the word coined by some users to describe the trance-like ferocity that can accompany an ice binge, escalating common crime to a terrifying level of violence.
According to support workers on the front line, official statistics have yet to recognise that users have trebled over the last two years and hospital admissions for ice-related psychosis more than doubled.
Walkley award-winning journalist Malcolm Knox examines the ice problem in Australia from the points of view of users, dealers, police, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists and families affected by the drug.Each story he tells goes beyond the statistics and headlines to explore the human cost of ice and to consider its future in Australia.
'I don't know in the time I've been a policeman, which is 41 years, of a greater scourge on the community. The physical and mental manifestations of ice are absolutely horrific. It has the potential to destroy generations.' - Former NSW Police Commissioner Ken Moroney
Still Missing
by Scott Bainbridge
Penguin Books (NZ), 04 Aug 2008,
Each year hundreds of New Zealanders mysteriously go missing, vanishing from their homes and families, their cars and workplaces seemingly without a trace. Many will remember the publicity surrounding particular cases, but this book gives insider information into the background of all involved, the searches, suspicions, police theories, photos and other evidence.
The Tall Man : Death and Life on Palm Island
by Chloe Hooper
Hamish Hamilton (Penguin Books Australia) , 30 Jun 2008,
In November 2004, in the small township of Palm Island in the far north of Queensland, Detective Hurley arrested Cameron Doomadgee for swearing at him. Doomadgee was drunk. A few hours later he was dead, his liver (according to the inquest) so badly damaged it was almost severed.