This Thursday temptations post is upcoming releases, or books that are out now.
No One to Fear
Private investigator Nomi Pace and her research assistant, Simon Noone, have an unusual partnership: She hunts murderers. He was one.
It’s 1987, Christmas in Manhattan, five years since a head injury wiped Simon’s memories of his life as a serial killer. He’s retreated into a quiet, careful existence, but it’s hard to atone for a past he can’t recall.
Nomi and Simon are deep in a complex missing persons investigation when a new case opens: Police officers are turning up dead, the crime scenes brutal, theatrical, and horribly familiar. Each recreates a murder Simon committed. And he’s been waking up in strange places with bloody hands and no recollection of what he’s done.
As Nomi and Simon race to uncover the truth, she wants to believe in the man he’s become. But Simon isn’t so sure. Is someone copying his old sins—a secret only Nomi knows—or is his killer instinct worming its way back to the surface?
The Worst Thing I've Ever Done
It's an ordinary Tuesday morning when Ruby Williams' name starts trending online.
She's uploaded an interview that has outraged journalist Felicity Cartwright, a social media personality who has built her profile by policing exactly what women are allowed to say and how they're allowed to say it. Ruby is at the centre of a brutal public shaming, watching on in horror as her reputation is torn apart.
At first Ruby thinks she can get on top of it if she can just explain herself better. But she soon realises she'll never be able to placate the tsunami of strangers baying for her blood.
The vitriol pouring in through her phone cracks open a visceral, personal shame from her past that she's refused to face. Because the worst thing Ruby's ever done is not defined by this interview, but by a single, chilling scream.
With skilful empathy, Clare Stephens holds a mirror to online personas versus actual lives, exploring what is truly important in a noise-ridden world competing for our attention.
The Cross
In the dying days of 1974, a mysterious yellow sports car speeds into the quiet Riverina town of Gunnawah. While the locals are initially intrigued by the stranger in their midst, nobody is prepared for what comes next.
At the town's only newspaper, the Gunnawah Gazette, cadet journalist Adelaide Hoffman starts looking into a proposed new resort development on the banks of the Murray. Her street-smart boss, Valdene Bullark, and Val's long-time friend, Wayne Trevaskis, have been around the block and they're pretty sure something shady is going down. Meanwhile, the town's only cop, raw recruit Jack Overlund, is about to learn the stranger has brought more than an oversized ego to the town.
Over the years, the echoing, heat-rimmed days of the Riverina have concealed a lot. A secretive priest. A pregnant teenager. The dark shadows of the Nugan Hand Bank. A faded TV star. A deadly shame. When big city money arrives and long-buried secrets threaten to surface, some will be forced to deal with their past and others will have to grapple with their future.
The richly comic and deeply dark companion novel to Gunnawah, The Cross is set in a time of football, meat pies, Gough Whitlam and shag-pile carpet. A quintessentially Australian crime story of ratbaggery, religion and revenge that deftly blends gripping crime with acerbically funny, moving and distinctly Australian characters.
Inlet Bridge
When the police won’t believe you, what can you do but take matters into your own hands.
On Victoria’s secluded west coast, Sarah and husband Ewen walk across a narrow bridge at dusk. Behind them, a truck rattles onto the bridge. Moments later Sarah finds herself fighting for her life as she’s dragged on the inlet tide out to sea. She makes it to shore but discovers both Ewen and the truck have disappeared. The police are called, and a search follows, but Ewen remains missing. Without evidence the police are sceptical of Sarah’s story and wind down their efforts. But Sarah is desperate to find her husband.
She contacts her brother Harry for help. A former soldier, Harry is determined and resourceful, but he is also a damaged individual with a penchant for violence. Hinton is a master of character, and from the outset of Harry and Sarah’s investigation, their relationship, while rich with shared upbringing and affection, is fraught with complex emotions. Their life-risking discoveries of corruption in a town whose inhabitants hold their secrets close makes for a crime thriller that deftly underscores the bonds of family.
Inlet Bridge is brimming with page-turning tension, provocative dialogue, gallows humour and a final twist that will turn your understanding of the story on its head.
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