AustLit

'It all began in Brighton. Now there is a killer on the loose. Scotland Yard's brightest talent is chosen to head up the high profile taskforce, a DCI who must confront his own past as the body count rises. There are few leads and Jack Hawksworth can only fall back on instinct and decades-old cold cases for any clue to the killer's motive ... and identity.' - from back cover

'The Eleven Domains were forged in blood a thousand years ago. The blood is about to flow again. Bramble is as wild as the animals she follows deep into the forest near her village. Her dark eyes betray her heritage - she's a Traveller, one of the despised original people of the Domains. And for as long as she can remember, she has wanted to take to the Road like her grandfather. But the gods who dwell near the alders always say no ... In Turvite, where the ghosts drift along dark cobbled streets, Ash must leave his parents, and the Road, to begin an apprenticeship with the only person who will accept a Traveller - the scheming, yet irrestible, Doronit. But the gods who linger in the gloomy square have other plans for him ... From different ends of the Eleven Domains, death casts Bramble and Ash on journeys across valleys and mountains, deep into themselves and the dark history of their ancestors.'

Source: Australian 'blurb' from The Castings Trilogy website (Sighted 11/01/10)

'Nine-year-old Ann has been taken to a nature reserve by her Aunt Rachel. As they are leaving, she sees a strange young man staring at them. After his panic subsides, the young man, Mart, realizes that they may be able to connect him to the girl he's just strangled. Hence a game of cat and mouse begins as Mart stalks them and other inhabitants of their small Australian town. Will Ann and her aunt escape?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.