Updates - 3rd to 17th May

There's no such thing as safety in numbers ...

Rachel and Rory Sullivan decide to celebrate making it through a difficult year by taking their teenagers, Emmet and Bridie, to their first stadium concert. By the end of the night, one of the four has vanished without a trace.

As the police investigation intensifies, suspicion is cast on the remaining family members. Everyone has been deceiving one another, but who is to blame for what went wrong? The passing of each hour amplifies their terror that life will never be the same again.

One of Us is Missing is a dark domestic thriller about the dangers lurking right in plain sight.

The chin tattoo confirms the victim is Maori. The whorls of ink from her lower lip to her chin—the moko, is worn only by Maori women. So, her ethnicity is a given. Finding who murdered Huia Coburn, and dumped her body in the volcanic rock pool at the base of Mason’s Rock waterfall has now fallen to DI Nyree Bradshaw.

From the strangely unsympathetic parents, to the belligerent boyfriend on home detention for drugs, it seems everyone has something to hide and no one is telling the truth.

Then Nyree discovers six-year-old diabetic, Lily Holmes is missing, last seen in the victim's care. Now, Nyree must now find the killer to save Lily.

She has already failed her own son. She cannot fail this child.

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 road that Hawkins should have been patrolling, had he not been busy bedding the local schoolteacher.

Detectives arrive from Sydney and the disgraced Hawkins, a traumatised veteran of the Boer War, comes under fierce scrutiny. With his honour and sanity at stake, he becomes hell-bent on finding the murderer. But as ever darker secrets are revealed about the people he thinks of as friends, Hawkins is forced to confront an uncomfortable question: who is paying the price for the new nation's prosperity?

A woman wants her errant husband tracked, an undocumented Cambodian girl is found dead, the city’s two biggest criminal societies vie for power, a loan shark wants his money back, and a corrupt cop is pulling strings from the shadows. It’s just another day in Hong Kong.

Former cop Galahad Jones’ struggling business as a private investigator was on life-support. With no friends to speak of and a gambling debt that, if called in, could see him floating face down in Hong Kong harbour, things weren’t good.

Reluctantly taking a job to investigate a cheating husband, Galahad is suddenly catapulted into the deadly world of Hong Kong’s criminal underbelly. Conspiracy and betrayal reign as he finds himself in a life and death chase through the mean streets of Kowloon and The Island to bring down a human trafficking ring and, hopefully, keep his head on his shoulders in the process.

With the help of his apprentice, Joey Loh, and mysterious girlfriend Angel Yeung, Galahad must confront his past, Hong Kong triads and official corruption to free the girls and clear his murdered father’s name. Dark forces are arrayed against him and Galahad is never quite sure who is friend and who is foe.

One thing is for certain... Galahad Jones will do whatever it takes, no matter the personal cost.

Melbourne 1925. Jasper Fitzalan Howard is found stabbed to death in his room at the exclusive Hotel Windsor. In a bizarre twist, he is clutching a tarot card, the Ten of Swords, in his hand. Initially, the police identify him as a wealthy investor and a cousin of the Duke of Norfolk, but Reggie da Costa, The Argus’s celebrated crime reporter, uncovers a web of lies and deception surrounding Howard’s carefully constructed façade. And, as the truth emerges, that Howard is a confidence man, swindling wealthy businessmen whilst blackmailing their wives, Reggie embarks on a hunt for his killer.  

Sometimes you must shine a light on the dark places to see what was always there​.

Winter Robins is a happy enough child, growing up in the north of England, with parents who love her and the constant companion of a twin brother, but a cold wind blows through when her mother dies. Her father turns to the bottle, her grandmother struggles to cope, and she and her brother are sent to live in Western Australia with family their mother had never mentioned.

Although Winter quickly settles in Australia and comes to love her life and the people in it, she notices strange happenings in the shadows of her new home. When a news story prompts her to look back as her past, she begins to wonder whether things were as idyllic as she had thought at the time.

As she uncovers secret after secret, she realises a much darker narrative may have been – and perhaps still is – playing out ...

'There is no doubt the truth would have been concealed and our concerns buried without Nick McKenzie's relentless pursuit of justice.' SAS Afghanistan veteran

War is brutal. But there are lines that 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 reveal shocking truths about Ben Roberts-Smith VC but plunge the reporters into the defamation trial of the century.

For five years, McKenzie led the investigation, waging an epic battle for the truth to be acknowledged. His fight to reveal the real face of Australia's most famous and revered SAS soldier and examine evidence of bullying, intimidation, war crimes and murder would take him across Australia and to Afghanistan.

As he unearthed the secrets Ben Roberts-Smith had thought he'd long ago buried, McKenzie had to deal with death threats, powerful forces intent on destroying his career and attempts to silence brave SAS soldiers, who had witnessed their famous comrade commit unspeakable acts. McKenzie would break the stories that proved the man idolised by the public, politicians, the media and leading business leaders was a myth.

His efforts would help deliver justice to Roberts-Smith's victims and their families.

Be careful who you love …

It’s the year 2000 and while Bunny McGarry is theoretically on sabbatical from the police, he just can’t help sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong.

Rosie Flint is an old acquaintance of Bunny’s whose boyfriend mysteriously disappears off the face of the Earth. What starts out as a simple missing person’s case soon gets a whole lot more complicated when it emerges that the boyfriend is not who he claimed to be and there are some rather sinister people showing an unhealthy interest in Rosie.

Bunny is only trying to help a friend but it’s just a matter of time before he finds himself at loggerheads with his colleagues on the force, having to reassess some events from his past and unwittingly involved in a major political coup.

He won’t be able to do this alone, so it is a good job he can call upon a certain band of kick-ass nuns to do what they do best. And he might even find a use for a twelve-year-old boy who is desperate to escape from an Irish language summer school.

Firewater Blues is the sixth book in McDonnell’s critically acclaimed bestselling and increasing inaccurately titled Dublin Trilogy. It mixes high-octane thrills with distinct Irish wit.

Two spies and a private eye are asked to protect a social media influencer. What could possibly go wrong? Crockett, Ben, and Ronnie reluctantly accept an off-book mission from the Australians. They’re tasked with protecting a young social media influencer with an exceptional memory and to escort her safely to court to testify. Crockett has an extra job on his list; he’s supposed to recruit the woman for his intelligence agency but he’s not sure that is wise, or that the woman will be able to transition from ‘social media influencer’ to a career within the intelligence community. The more time they spend with ‘Alex the influencer’ the less she seems suited to anything except taking selfies and tantrums. The more time they spend with ‘Alex the influencer’ the more they suspect something is off about Alex. If that isn’t enough, Ronnie’s cousin Donald suspects something dreadful has happened to their neighbours and manages to drag Nana and the Cronies of Doom into his conspiracy theory, despite Ronnie’s many misgivings. Meanwhile, the team navigates through dangerous situations arising from an unknown number of assailants, raising the stakes with each passing moment. Will they be able to protect Alex and uncover the truth before it's too late?

Populist political parties are increasing their influence across the world. It couldn’t happen in New Zealand, could it?

Journalist Grace Marks is investigating two unrelated stories – New Zealand’s alt-right, and the emergence of a new organisation, ProtectNZ. When she finds ‘dead man’s hand’ stuck to her front door with a knife, it’s obvious she’s ruffling some feathers.

Hiding in New Zealand after a mission went sour, former US agent Marla Simmons learns Grace is in danger and wants to help, but finding out who’s orchestrating the threats won’t be easy.

The two stories collide as Grace and Marla’s investigations deepen. When a body is found, the question is not only who killed them and why, but who
was the victim?

As the ProtectNZ juggernaut steamrolls towards the election, Grace and Marla race to expose those pulling the strings. The voting public need to know the truth. 

All Bunny McGarry wants is a spot of breakfast and a decent cup of tea. So imagine how annoyed he gets when two masked men attempt to rob the New York diner he is in? Unfortunately, dealing with that problem just leads to a whole lot more. One of the diner’s other customers isn’t who she appears to be, and the odds aren’t great that she is going to live to see another breakfast.

Frank Winter is an ex-cop, a former hard-boiled Boston detective with a soft centre living in curmudgeonly retirement with his beloved dog, Dolly. But when his daughter's killer is released on parole, Frank's back, a man on a mission, and it's yesterday once more. But first, Frank's got a bunch of favours to call in.

Throw in a rookie minder cop who's great with computers but scared of guns, and help from the desirable Destiny, whose past is even murkier than Frank's... hell, you just know things will go according to plan.

After a brutal wildfire tears through the town of Jasper in the Californian sierras, a body is discovered in a shed. It looks like an open-and-shut case of accidental death - until further investigation reveals that the victim was locked in from the outside.

Years after leaving Jasper, Detective Alex Markov has been sent back under the shadow of an LAPD corruption investigation. She is convinced that the man, a family friend, was murdered opportunistically under the cover of the fire. As the smoke clears, it reveals a town corrupt to its core - but exposing that corruption could destroy Alex and the people she loves. Will she ignore the crookedness and deceit, or face the consequences of pursuing an inconvenient truth?

An isolated, empty ski resort in the off-season. A woman who doesn't want to be found. A man who may not be who he appears to be. A game of cat and mouse - with deadly consequences. On the run from a controlling husband and his underworld associates in Melbourne, Charlotte has adopted a new identity and found a job as an off-season caretaker in a tiny, deserted alpine resort. Some dangerous people are looking for Charlotte and so she's lying low, tending to the lodges, happy to be alone, but jumping every time a floor creaks or the wind whistles through the empty buildings. She's trying to convince herself she's okay, that she got away. But then strange things start happening around the resort. And Charlotte starts to realise that every escape route is being sealed off, one by one. From Gabriel Bergmoser, the master of propulsive, page-turning storytelling, The Caretaker will have readers second-guessing themselves at every turn. What's real and what isn't? Who's dangerous and who isn't? And who will survive? A menacing, nail-biting, nerve-racking psychological thriller.

Alec de Payns, espionage operative of the Y Division of the DGSE, France's famed foreign intelligence service, is tasked with tracking down an agent of influence sending highly classified material against the Kremlin to embassies all over Europe.

A deadly conspiracy is aligning the West against Russia. But who is behind it? And to what end?

The clues lead to a secret meeting of businessmen, terrorists and mercenaries on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, which de Payns must infiltrate. What he discovers sets off a Europe-wide manhunt in a desperate scramble to prevent an international catastrophe.

Former DGSE spy Jack Beaumont's Dark Arena is another chillingly plausible thriller delivering all the taut plotting, superb action and authentic spycraft that made The Frenchman a critically acclaimed bestseller.

Jane Halifax is back in a twisted story of betrayal, where the formidable forensic psychiatrist will discover that the only person you can trust is yourself. A near-fatal car accident left Jane Halifax in a coma, and when she wakes, she has no idea who she is … Initially comforted by unlikely specters of past cases, Jane has no memory of the accident and is unaware of everyone else’s the police, who believe she was deliberately run off the road; the lawyer, whose files were in her car at the time of the accident -- files he never should have given her; her neurosurgeon, who fears a relapse; and her partner, Tim, who is slowly realizing Jane remembers nothing of the last two years -- including their relationship. A young woman named Luna is the only one who seems able to bring Jane back to the present. Linked to a thirty-two year old case from Jane’s past, Luna has a quest of her own she can only solve with Jane’s help. But if Jane wants to help her, she first needs to heal, and discovers there are things other than the car accident hampering her recovery …

For fans of Stephen King and Stranger Things.

Two eyes bore into him from across the room. They're not her eyes. They're the same colour and shape, but they're not her eyes. 'I see you.' 

Silas didn't have a happy childhood. Aunt Bunny made sure of that. But out of money and almost out of time, Silas and his girlfriend Rose are forced to return to his childhood home.Back to the darkness, back to the woods, where addiction and hedonism are disguising something much more sinister ...Plagued by strange, unnerving events, Silas is drawn back into the family by an ancient presence deep in the woods. It will not let him go, and neither will Bunny.

A haunting psychological-supernatural thriller that delves into the role that addiction plays in family dysfunction, and how it inevitably changes everyone around it. A chilling, page-turning tale about love conquering most ... but not all.