AustLit

'A bankrupt husband. A marriage on the rocks. A cop more sexy than the legal limit.

'Just when Ellie Cummins is free to shed her corporate wife image, she finds the body of a young woman in an apartment she’s been hired to re-design. Her fledging business depends on this contract, so she tries to ignore the long-buried grief the trauma exposes.

'When Ellie learns that her daughter has a personal connection to the victim, and the police have no leads, she and friends Cass and Kandy decide to investigate the murder. But Brisbane’s alleyways are dark and their detective skills dubious, so how far will they go for justice?

'Kandy once lived a hard life on the streets, but will uncovering her husband's secret life destroy all she’s achieved since then? And solid, dependable Cass isn’t as content with her life as she seems.

'And is the cop who responded to their call more interested in Ellie than the investigation?

'For the three friends, it's a time of change and self-discovery. And the realisation that life, like love, doesn’t play fair.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Martin Carter is having a crook day. His home life's a misery, he's been retrenched by the bank and everyone's forgotten his birthday. But a million-dollar payroll, a pistol, and a split-second decision change everything. Hurtling north on a motorcycle with the intriguing Faith, Martin encounters a mysterious hit-man, a new-age bikie gang, a reclusive media mogul, and the booby-trapped mountain hideout of an old schoolmate. With Faith's help he learns about love again, along with some bitter truths about instant coffee, brown suede shoes, and the legendary Great Aussie Truck-stop Breakfast.' (Publication summary)

'Scarlet Stiletto; the Fifteenth Cut showcases the 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize and category-winning stories of the 2023 Scarlet Stiletto Awards. The Fifteenth Cut coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Scarlet Stiletto Women's Crime and Mystery short story competition run by sisters in Crime Australia. Fifteen rivetting, intriguing, creepy, mysterious, hard boiled and cozy crime stories for your reading pleasure.' (Publication summary)

'The Nosy Detectives agency is like no other.

'For a start, one of the detectives is a dog called Monty, a rescued Golden Retriever with a heart of gold and a super-smart nose.

'Monty’s human is Rose Sidebottom, an ex-copper, with an uncanny ability to know when a suspect is lying.

'And Ollie Fernsby is a teenage super-geek and inventor of the rat-cam. They make a great team.

'There is just one problem – no clients.

'Then one day, Phyllis O’Neal, a grumpy grandmother from the village of Nether Wallop, offers them an unsolved cold case they can’t refuse: who really lit the fire that killed Tony and Marie Toyne? The surviving son and only witness, Finn, hasn’t spoken since that terrible night.

'Monty sets out to locate a forgotten second witness, a dog called Panda, who might recognise the arsonist if she had a good sniff. The tricky case gets harder when Rose is distracted by a handsome fire-scene investigator.

'Can Monty get Rose back on track? Is Tiffany the giant cat friend or foe? And why is the whole village lying about the night of the fire?

'Can the pawfect murder be solved in Louisa Bennet's The Nosy Detectives?' (Publication summary)

'In the frosty Melbourne winter, milliner sleuth Catherine Kint looks for distraction in a night at the circus.

'When tragedy strikes, she and her barman Boris are drawn into a new mystery.

'As they draw back the metaphorical curtain, they’re confronted with a troop in chaos, a culture of secrecy and a family in crisis.

'Add in hula hooping thugs, a desperate suspect and a nihilistic bully and you have a recipe for carnage even Catherine can’t control.

'Oh, and then there’s Boris’ love life – send in the clowns, in Silks' (Publication summary)

'One story. Twenty writers. Your choice.

'Murder You Wrote: An Interactive Mystery is a choose-your-own-investigation murder mystery set in remote Tasmania, a world of stunning beauty, dark history and deadly creatures.

'You are a retired police detective invited to speak at a crime fiction writers festival.

'You are looking forward to a weekend with some of Australia's bestselling authors.
'You're staying in a convict-built country manor house along with five other guests of the festival. The other guests don't exactly get along.

'You awake to discover the homestead is cut off. Overnight, storms flooded the only road out, the internet is down... and a world-famous writer is missing.

'You discover his body in the library.

'Certain that one of the four remaining guests was responsible for his death, you decide to investigate.

''Which suspect will you interrogate first?

'Which clues will you follow?

'Can you solve the case?' (Publication summary)
 

'Two Melbourne TV journalists are on a well-earned holiday, travelling New Zealand in a motorhome. Will they survive a monster storm and a killer on the loose?

'Kim Prescott survived a killer's bullet in Melbourne but can't shake the PTSD. For Jo Trescowthick the trip is a chance to confront family demons. The third in the Melbourne Spotlight series finds Kim and Jo on a road trip from Auckland on the north island to the tourist mecca of Queenstown in the deep south; Rotorua mud pools, Kaikōura whale watching, the stunning Marlborough Sounds. They won't make it.

'Debt-ridden South Island fisherman and ex-con Gordie Tulloch is offered the deal of a lifetime. Is it legal? He doesn't care. All he has to do is survive the storm approaching the Shaky Isles. But Gordie's every move is under scrutiny by a man whose own secrete are about to spill into public view.

'And then of course Mother Nature has her own agenda. Cyclone Gita is on a serpentine path of destruction through the tropics that will see her smash into New Zealand.

'The cyclone, the motorhome, the fisherman, and the watcher all face an unexpected rendezvous in Kaikōura.' (Publication summary)

'The Diemen Alexander is Jurassic Park meets ET in the best possible way. It's fast paced, thrilling, funny, and fantastical. I loved it.' - Alison Goodman
When tender-hearted geeky teenage Luke rescues a lizard in a thunderstorm on kunanyi, he has no idea it will have a mind of its own.

'Or eat quite so much. Or grow so fast.

'Or resemble Tasmania's lost dinosaur.

'Suddenly Alexander the lizard becomes an immensely valuable object, sought by cold-blooded and violent people.

'Luke's brains and compassion won't be enough to protect Alexander - something his anarchic sister Gatta could have told him - not even with help from the fearsome Shona, paleogeologist and AFLW Goddess.

'Meanwhile Alexander - teeth, claws and appetite - is growing, changing and learning to communicate.

'Can Luke find his own ferocity and ruthlessness to counter the odds stacked against them?

'A sci-fi romp through present-day Hobart - featuring zoology, comparative anatomy and venture capitalism - that asks deeper questions about human responsibility towards animals, the earth and each other, and the truth that power goes to the person most prepared to wield it.

'The Diemen Alexander is an adventure full of narrow escapes and fail-to-escapes, an XH Holden ute, shameful misuse of really excellent whisky, and a distressing amount of fast food.' (Publication summary)

'Thirty years of silver blades, scarlet stains and the most elegant of heels.

'Thirty years of slipping in the knife, tightening the noose, measuring out the poison.

'Thirty years of whispered threats and tangled plots, of murder and mayhem.
For thirty years, the annual Scarlet Stiletto women's crime and mystery short story competition - run by Sisters in Crime Australia - has uncovered dreadful deeds, righteous revenge, deadly high-jinks and wicked shenanigans, all while shining a light on the emerging and seasoned talent of Australian women who've taken to a life writing crime.

'Celebrate this great competition's 30th anniversary with the gorgeous pearls that are the Scarlet Stiletto's First Prize winners, from 1994 to 2023, and discover why it's criminal what a girl has to do, to get a good read.' (Publication summary)

'A driver picks up a hitchhiker from the side of a road; a restorer develops an unusual bond with a cursed doll; a visit to the cabin in the woods goes terribly wrong...

'We all know how these stories end - or do we?

'In This Fresh Hell, every story begins with a well-known horror trope but ends with a twist, bringing new life and unexpected resolutions to old ideas. Fears are interrogated, ghosts re-examined, and monsters reconfigured.

'From chilling to quirky, these stories will appeal to dedicated horror fans and those dipping into the genre for the first time.

'A Slender Man offers help to a boy in trouble; a haunted house is reluctant to terrify its new residents; a heartbroken influencer is challenged on a luxury cruise from hell.

'Writers from Australia and around the world reignite and subvert horror tropes in 19 genre-bending stories:

'Eugen Bacon, Elle Beaumont, Katya de Becerra, Jason Franks, Raymond Gates, Narrelle M. Harris, Sarah Glenn Marsh, Greg Herren, Claire Low, Annie McCann, Chuck McKenzie, L.J.M. Owen, Gillian Polack, Tansy Rayner-Roberts, Clare E. Rhoden, Candace Robinson, Sarah Robinson-Hatch, Claire L. Smith, C. Vonzale Lewis, and A.J. Vrana.' (Publication summary)

'In Narrelle M Harris' She-Wolf of Baker Street, Audrey Hudson takes the lead in this contemporary, paranormal take on the residents of Baker Street.

'After Sherlock Holmes “rescues” Audrey Hudson from a kidnapper, she offers him her upstairs flat in exchange for solving the unsolved murder of her family in Edinburgh. Sherlock’s being forced to theorise without data, however – he doesn’t know his new landlady and her late family are werewolves.

'There’s a lot he doesn’t know about his attractive new flatmate, John Watson, too.

'Momentum is added to the case as Sherlock’s investigations suggest a much bigger mystery is at play, involving a disturbing case on Dartmoor with a Greek interpreter; Sherlock’s agoraphobic sister, Myca; Audrey’s long-dead love, Ruby Stockton; and the fate of Great Britain’s mystic heart.

'Will Holmes be able to unravel the mysteries that have haunted Audrey’s life? And can Audrey protect her new pack, or is she about to lose those she loves once again to unknown enemies?' (Publication summary)

'Blind barrister Tom Challinor's plans for a well-earned week off are dashed by an attempted murder linked to a Sydney escort agency.

'Sonya and her sassy friend Avril are workers in that niche-market agency where the workers are all people with disability, amputees, chair users, or people of short stature. Their eager customers style themselves 'devotees'.

'Meanwhile, bizarrely-mutilated dolls are turning up on the doorestep of a women's refuge.

'As Tom investigates an underworld of desire, entitlement, and exploitation the menace of predatory passion clamps tight around Avril and Sonya, and young women start to disappear.' (Publication summary)

'Scarlet Stiletto: The Fourteenth Cut - 2022 features twelve award-winning stories from the 29th annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards.

''Crime and mystery short stories of startling originality; and a grim warning of what evil lurks in Australian suburbia.' - Kerry Greenwood

'The Scarlet Stiletto series of eBooks – the First to the Fourteenth Cuts – feature superb collections of spine-chilling crime and mystery short stories, by Australian women writers, curated from 29 years of the Scarlet Stiletto Awards hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia.' (Publication summary)

'Quiet, unassuming Meg Thorne is practically invisible. But this retired philosophy professor has plenty of opinions – like, why do people dismiss little old ladies as harmless?

'Meg and her two friends, the tough-as-nails Dorothy Arden and the boisterous Lila Gatti, have decided to be a Force for Good with their Grey Ghosts Agency: because little old ladies can go undercover where other detectives can’t.

'Their new case is the infiltration of Sunnyvale Residential and Care Home to learn why their client’s mother, Sara, is suddenly so afraid but won’t talk. It’s Meg’s job to check into Sunnyvale for ‘a short rest’ and uncover the truth.

'Meg will have to confront her own fears of ageing while also investigating why Sara’s friend Jenny is being held in isolation, why an old enemy is popping up, what one of the other residents knows about the fate of Lila Gatti’s disabled son, and whether the other residents are truly prepared for Meg’s timely lecture on philosophy and responsibility.

'Dangers lurk in Sunnyvale, but nobody counted on an unfolding global pandemic being one of them. Will Meg be able to leave with the truth, or will she be trapped in a lockdown with those who mean her harm?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'All the corvids – the rooks and ravens, jays and jackdaws, crows and magpies – have the best collective nouns. A parliament and a party. Tidings and titterings, bands and trains. An unkindness.

'Clamour and Mischief brings a veritable storytelling to these corvidae, this bird family known for intelligence, cunning and connection with folklore and urban legends. Our storytellers come from around the world and include award-winning and shortlisted writers, as well as fledgling authors in their professional debut.

'This anthology’s sixteen striking stories, edited by Narrelle M Harris, are imbued with the humour, darkness, wisdom and magic of the birds which inspired them. Take them as a jest, a guide, or a warning – but don't, whatever you do, ignore them!'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Mike Crowe doesn't believe in ghosts, but it seems there's one ghost that believes in him. Can he escape the attention of a psychopath long enough to help her?

'A not-exactly legal PI, Crowe is blackmailed into tracking down a serial killer known as The Scavenger. At the same time, he finds himself increasingly plagued by visions - and eventually visitations - of a young girl he failed to save from being murdered a decade before.

'Are these things connected?

'Crowe must scavenge through the debris of a world going to pieces around him - at first just to survive and then to find the answers to questions he'd rather hadn't been asked.' (Publication summary)

'Damnation Games is a smart and scary anthology of crime and mystery stories all with a supernatural or horror bent. From heists interrupted by ghosts and gangster organisations infiltrated by monsters to cops investigating inexplicable crimes and PIs dragged into occult madness - these mysteries will chill you to the bone.

'The anthology, from Clan Destine Press, showcases the breadth and depth of modern dark fiction writing in a collection of stories from some of the biggest names in the horror world, including international bestsellers and award winners.

'Within these pages you'll find tales of theft and murder, of crooked cops and honest cons, of the lengths some people will go, and through them all lurks a shadow of the weird, the cosmic, the supernatural, the unexplainable. Do you dare engage in these Damnation Games?

'Damnation Games features 18 all-new stories by a crew of acclaimed dark fiction writers including Kaaron Warren, Aaron Dries, Joanne Anderton, Dan Rabarts, Maria Lewis, Robert Hood, Alan Baxter, Gemma Files, Gemma Amor, Kyle Lee Ward, Philip Fracassi and more. Many of the contributors are finalists or winners of various awards including the Aurealis, the Ditmar, the Australian Shadows, and the Bram Stoker.' (Publication summary)

'Dark Deeds Down Under features a star-filled southern constellation of antipodean crime writers.

'This crime and thriller anthology, from Clan Destine Press, showcases the breadth and depth of modern Australian and New Zealand crime writing in a collection of brand-new short stories from some of our brightest storytelling talents: international bestsellers, award winners, and fresh voices.

'Dark Deeds Down Under features some of crime fiction's most beloved 'characters', including Garry Disher's Hirsch, Kerry Greenwood's Corinna Chapman, Vanda Symon's Sam Shephard,

'Sulari Gentill's Rowly Sinclair, and Shane Maloney's first Murray Whelan tale in 15 years.

'Joining the Dark Deeds crew with series or new characters are Alan Carter, Nikki Crutchley, Aoife Clifford, Helen Vivienne Fletcher, Lisa Fuller, Narrelle M Harris, Katherine Kovacic, RWR McDonald, Dinuka McKenzie, Lee Murray & Dan Rabarts, Renee, Fiona Sussman, Stephen Ross, and David Whish-Wilson.

'The anthology concept was to cross-pollinate stories, and characters, from authors with long-running series, with thrilling tales from newer writers known for series or standalone mysteries.

'Many of the contributors have been shortlisted for or have won a variety of awards including the Ned Kelly, the Davitt, the Ngaio Marsh and the Aurealis.

'The Commissioning Editor of the series is Craig Sisterson, founder of New Zealand's Ngaio Marsh Awards, international crime reviewer, and author of the non-fiction Southern Cross Crime.' (Publication summary)