Australia

Crime. A never-ending drought, searing heat and the intensity of a close-knit community ratchet up the tension, as a policeman returns to his home town for the funeral of his childhood best friend. A friend suspected of brutally killing members of his own family. Reluctantly drawn into the investigation, he is forced to confront his past and the community that rejected him two decades earlier.

Unmarried and approaching 40, a university scientist applies the same systematic approach to finding the perfect partner as he does to his work. But things don't quite go to plan when a women, who isn't interested in him anyway, and on paper is completely unsuitable, bursts into his life creating feelings he could never have anticipated. Quirky, humorous, touching, warm and highly readable.

Historical fiction. A lighthouse keeper and his wife find a boat washed up on the shores of their remote island. Inside is a crying baby and a man's body. Following their hearts, they make a decision that will shape the rest of their lives.

Historical Fiction. 1788 and a young lieutenant arrives in New South Wales, setting up an observatory to chart the stars in the Southern Hemisphere. He befriends a young Aboriginal child who helps him with his efforts to record and learn their language. As their connection develops he begins to question his purpose in their homeland. Thought-provoking and nuanced. A book that asked questions about how we value difference, how we communicate across language barriers and how we respond when faced with a moral dilemma.

Crime fiction. In the outback, nothing stays buried forever....In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable youngsters and billionaires do as they please. Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner's death is straight-forward, not even who found the body. Homicide Detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan. But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up, and if so, by whom? As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, and a past long forgotten is thrown into scorching sunlight. Because in Finnigans Gap, nothing stays buried for ever.

New South Wales. Dolly Maunder is born at the end of the nineteenth century, when society's long-locked doors are just starting to creak ajar for determined women. Growing up in a poor farming family in rural New South Wales, Dolly spends her life doggedly pushing at those doors. A husband and two children do not deter her from searching for love and independence. A subversive, triumphant tale of a pioneering woman working her way through a world of limits and obstacles, who is able - despite the cost - to make a life she could call her own.

An unforgettable story of one native Australian family and the racist government that threatens to separate them. Odette Brown has lived her entire life on the fringes of Deane, a small Australian country town. Dark secrets simmer beneath the surface of Deane—secrets that could explain why Odette's daughter, Lila, left her one-year-old daughter, Sissy, and never came back, or why Sissy has white skin when her family is Aboriginal. For thirteen years, Odette has quietly raised her granddaughter without drawing notice from welfare authorities who remove fair-skinned Aboriginal children from their families. But the arrival of a new policeman with cruel eyes and a rigid by-the-book attitude throws the Brown women's lives off-kilter. It will take all of Odette's courage and cunning to save Sissy from the authorities, and maybe even lead her to find her daughter. Bolstered by love, smarts, and the strength of their ancestors, Odette and Sissy are an indomitable force, handling threats to their family and their own identities with grace and ingenuity, while never losing hope for themselves and their future.