January 2019
Two Bodies - One
suicide. One cold-blooded murder. Are they connected? And who's really pulling
the strings in the small Swedish town of Gavrik? Two Coins - Black Grimberg
liquorice coins cover the murdered man's eyes. The hashtag #Ferryman starts to
trend as local people stock up on ammunition.
Two Weeks -Tuva Moodyson,
deaf reporter at the local paper, has a fortnight to investigate the deaths
before she starts her new job in the south. A blizzard moves in. Residents,
already terrified, feel increasingly cut-off. Tuva must go deep inside the
Grimberg factory to stop the killer before she leaves town for good. But who's
to say the Ferryman will let her go? Red
Snow is by Will Dean.
February 2019
A psychopathic former Israeli spy, Agent 10483 is busy trying
to shut down the spy organisation he once worked for. At the same time, he is
plotting his revenge on the individuals he deemed responsible for betraying
him, and trying to hunt down a nuclear warhead.
It cannot end well. Everyone
wants to get their hands on him: the Organisation, two assassins working for
Herr Schmidt, who is also trying to get hold of the warhead, and Carmit, who
has quite literally been messing with his brain. Offering a fascinating behind-the-scenes
glimpse into the technology of high- level intelligence operations, Nir
Hezroni's dark thriller Last Instructions is a chilling exploration of a dark
psychotic killer.
March 2019
It took sacrifice, pain, and more than a few dead bodies, but
Lola has clawed her way to the top of her South Central Los Angeles
neighbourhood. Her gang has grown beyond a few trusted soldiers into a
full-fledged empire, and the influx of cash has opened up a world that she has
never known. But with great opportunity comes great risk, and as Lola ascends
the hierarchy of the city's underworld she attracts the attention of a dangerous
new cartel who sees her as their greatest obstacle to dominance. Soon Lola
finds herself sucked into a deadly all-out drug war that threatens to destroy
everything shes built. But even as Lola readies to go to war, she learns that
the greatest threat may not be a rival drug lord but a danger far closer to
home: her own brother. American Heroin is by Melissa Scrivner Love.
The Unmourned is by Meg and Tom Keneally. Not all murder victims are mourned... For
Robert Church, superintendent of the Parramatta Female Factory, the most
enjoyable part of his job is access to young convict women. Inmate Grace
O'Leary has made it her mission to protect the women from his nocturnal visits
and when Church is murdered with an awl thrust through his right eye, she
becomes the chief suspect. Recently arrived from Port Macquarie,
ticket-of-leave gentleman convict Hugh Monsarrat now lives in Parramatta with
his ever-loyal housekeeper Mrs Mulrooney. Monsarrat, as an unofficial advisor
on criminal and legal matters to the governor's secretary, is charged with
uncovering the truth of Church's murder. Mrs Mulrooney accompanies him to the
Female Factory, where he is taking depositions from prisoners, including Grace,
and there the housekeeper strikes up friendships with certain women, which
prove most intriguing. Monsarrat and Mrs Mulrooney both believe that
Grace is innocent, but in this they are alone, so to exonerate her they must find
the murderer. Many hated Church and are relieved by his death, but who would go
as far as killing him?
April 2019
The Chemical Detective is by Fiona Erskine. Dr Jaqueline Silver blows things up to keep
people safe. Dr Jaq Silver. Skier, scientist, international jet-setter,
explosives expert. Working on avalanche
control in Slovenia, Jaq stumbles across a problem with a consignment of
explosives. After raising a complaint with the supplier, a multinational
chemical company, her evidence disappears. Jaq is warned, threatened, accused
of professional incompetence and suspended. Taking her complaint to further,
she narrowly escapes death only to be framed for murder. Escaping from police
custody, she sets out to find the key to the mystery. Racing between the snowy slopes of Slovenia
and the ghostly ruins of Chernobyl, can she uncover the truth before her time
runs out?
Cracow, 1893. Thirty-eight-year-old Zofia Turbotynska has
assured her husband's rise through the ranks to university professor and is now
looking for something to fill her long days at home. To stave off the boredom
and improve her social standing, she decides to organise a charity raffle. To
recruit the requisite patronage of elderly aristocratic ladies, she visits
Helcel House, a retirement home run by nuns.
When two of the residents are found dead, Zofia discovers by chance that
her real talents lie in solving crimes. The examining magistrate's refusal to
take seriously her insistence that foul play is involved spurs her on to start
her own investigation, recruiting her quick-witted servant Franciszka as her
assistant. With her husband blissfully unaware of her secret activities, Zofia
ruthlessly follows the clues and gradually closes in on the truth. Drawing on Agatha Christie and filled with
period character and charm, Mrs Mohr Goes
Missing is by Maryla Szymiczkowa and vividly recreates life in
turn-of-the-century Poland, confronting a range of issues from class prejudice
to women's rights, and proving that everyone is capable of finding their
passion in life, however unlikely it may seem.
May 2019
Strange Tombs is by Syd Moore. Halloween in Essex, and things are going well
for the writers on the Mystery and Suspense course at old Ratchette Hall.
Things however take a
June 2019
If only death came with a warning… Flirtatious American blonde, Miss Hailey
Duke, should never have accepted a summer weekend invitation to Fontaburn Hall.
But when the Honourable Archibald Cooke Wellingham’s gentrified house party are
woken, in the early hours of Sunday morning, it’s too late: Miss Duke’s blood
is on their hands. With the aid of
well-mannered Detective Chief Inspector Reynolds, intelligent Sergeant Ayari
and loyal friend Dr Toby Cropper, Susie Mahl, on a timely commission drawing
six racehorses nearby, seizes the opportunity to play detective for a second
time. Her inquisitive nature, tenacity for truth and artist’s eye for detail
make her ideally suited to the task in hand, but is she getting carried away by
her previous triumph - even to the extent of endangering her reputation and her
burgeoning relationship with Toby? The Colours of Murder is by Ali Carter.
The Van Apfel Girls are Gone is by Felicity McLean. 'We lost all three girls that summer. Let them slip away like the words of some half-remembered song and when one came back, she wasn't the one we were trying to recall to begin with.' Tikka Molloy was eleven and one-sixth years old during the long hot summer of 1992, growing up in a distant suburb in Australia surrounded by encroaching bushland. That summer, the hottest on record, was when the Van Apfel sisters - Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia and Ruth - mysteriously disappeared during the school's Showstopper concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river. Did they run away? Were they taken? While the search for the sisters unites the small community, the mystery of their disappearance has never been solved. Now, years later, Tikka has returned home, to try to make sense of that strange moment in time. The summer that shaped her. The girls that she never forgot.
