Australian Fiction Mysteries

For as long as she can remember, twenty-eight-year-old Leah has suffered from akinetopsia—her eyes can’t process movement, only still images. As she walks around her neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, her white stick tapping the pavement, most people assume she’s blind. But Leah sees a good deal, and she remembers every image her eyes capture. Accustomed to a solitary life in her rambling apartment complex, Leah’s routine is thrown out of whack when someone new moves in next door. Alice is beautiful and kind, but Leah can smell waves of anxiety coming off her.

Amy is trying to put the catastrophic floods of the past year behind her, although it feels like everything has disappeared with the water; her business, her home, and boyfriend. When an opportunity for a getaway at Bindarra Creek arises, she takes it, hoping to renew her zest for life. One thing is for sure though, no more business dreams and definitely no more men. At Forrest Glen Retreat, Jacob is settling in and enjoying the country lifestyle that Bindarra Creek offers. However, the temptation to return to his ex- girlfriend is ongoing and he is drawn to her invitations to reunite. ...

Camryn Lane is living her dream: after years of struggle and rejection, her first novel has finally been published. She’s on top of the world–until she receives a disturbing email from an unknown sender. Rattled, Camryn swallows the sick feeling and resolves to put the missive out of her mind. But when she checks her ratings online, she finds an aggressive one-star review, and soon Camryn’s book is flooded with negative reviews and publicity. Could the reviewer be the same person who sent the ugly email? And why do they want to ruin her?

For police officers Steve Fraser and Tess Ballard, a split-second decision saves the lives of 50 members of a cult - but also puts their careers on the line. Tess' work is everything to her; she's forged a new life through sheer determination, so when her past returns to haunt her, Steve must race through wild country if he is to save the people he most cares about.

On a November morning at the University of Georgia, a fraternity brother steps into a busy crosswalk and is struck dead by an oncoming car. More than a dozen witnesses all agree on two things: the driver looked identical to the victim, and he was smiling. Detective Marlitt Kaplan is first on the scene. A local and the daughter of a professor at the university, she knows all its shameful history. But in the course of investigating this hit-and-run, she will uncover more chilling secrets in the system of fraternities and sororities that empower the university's most elite students.

True-crime podcaster Rachel Krall gets pulled into the cut-throat and narcissistic world of social media influencers as she investigates the mysterious disappearance of an Instagrammer. Racing to find the missing woman before it's too late, Rachel discovers a connection to the abduction and murders of other young women years earlier.

When talented journalist Penelope "Casey" Harrison starts to research a piece about the #MeToo movement that includes an incident in her own life that she has been trying to put out of her mind for years, she does not realize that the young man who drugged and assaulted her at a fraternity house party in college is now a wealthy, powerful industrialist on the eve of a merger which will make him a billionaire - and who will do anything, even murder, to cover his tracks.

Somebody is lying. After 18-year-old Ellie Canning is found shivering and barely conscious on a country road, her bizarre story of kidnap and escape enthralls the nation. Who would do such a thing? And why? Local drama teacher Suzannah Wells, once a minor celebrity, is new to town. Suddenly, she's in the spotlight again, accused of being the monster who drugged and bound a teenager in her basement. As stories about her past emerge, even those closest to her begin to doubt her innocence. And Ellie? The media can't get enough of her.

Ethan Haddock is discovered in his apartment, dead, apparently by his own hand. His professor is taken in for questioning, and rumors swirl that his death is the result of a student-teacher bad romance. The story hits the media, an investigation is opened and the professor is suspended. Marlitt Kaplan has never investigated love affairs. A former detective turned research assistant, she misses the excitement of her old job. When her mother, a colleague of the accused professor, asks for her help, Marlitt finds herself in the impossible position of proving something didn't happen.

Keen to flee the wreckage of her marriage, Australian scientist Kit Bitterfeld accepts a coveted winter research position at Macpherson Station in Antarctica. On the way there, Kit and her fellow researchers field a distress call from a nearby ship. By the time they reach the vessel it is on fire and the crew has vanished. A lone survivor is found, but he can't remember who he is or what has happened. They bring the survivor, eventually identified as geophysicist Nick Coltheart, to Macpherson but it's clear that something is wrong

Butter O'Bryan lives in a Very Small Castle with his father and three aunts—Aunt Elephant, Aunt Cake and Aunt Peculiar. These aren't their real names, of course, just as Butter's father isn't really called 'Pongo'. And even though Butter is only twelve years old, and the grandson of one of Australia's most successful Jam Kings, he is very aware of the hardship many people are experiencing. Butter has been told there are ghosts at the nearby isolated Howlers Beach, but are there? And how can the children Butter plays cricket with on the beach simply vanish?

Butter has been told there are ghosts at the nearby isolated Howlers Beach, but are there? And how can the children Butter plays cricket with on the beach simply vanish? Who are these children and why do they refuse his help? Butter is certain they're hiding a secret and he's determined to uncover it.

Within hours of arriving in New York City, Jane is dragged into a case and finds herself up against one of the toughest minds she’s ever had to crack: a Silicon Valley billionaire whose ex-business partner has just been murdered. Sarah Noble is the darling of the tech world–the genius behind an AI defence system that hijacks enemy missiles. But when Sarah’s estranged business partner is killed in a mysterious plane crash, suspicion immediately falls on one of the few people who could hack the plane’s guidance system and had a motive to do so: Sarah herself.

Silas didn't have a happy childhood. Aunt Bunny made sure of that. Yet out of money and almost out of time, Silas and his girlfriend Rose are forced to return to his childhood home. Back to the darkness, back to the woods, where addiction and hedonism are disguising something much more sinister... Plagued by strange, unnerving events, Silas is drawn back into the family by an ancient presence deep in the woods. It will not let him go, and neither will Bunny.

Eddie Woo Super Sleuth is ready for action and mystery. With a mind for maths and a nose for adventure, he is about to skateboard into...danger. When Eddie receives a cryptic message from Mr Appleby, a Woo family friend and resident of Sunny Side Aged Care, he is soon on a mission to thwart the evil plans of smugglers. It's up to Eddie to crack the clues and improve his skateboarding so that he can enter the annual school Triple Threat Quest with his best friends Rusty and DT.

Eddie Woo Super Sleuth: a mind for maths and a nose for adventure. A treasure hunt, a piano key, ciphers, a puzzle from the past... Eddie Woo and his best friends Rusty and DT must find clues, crack a musical mystery, scale a lighthouse, discover a secret cave and find long-forgotten gold. But they are not the only ones searching for it...

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she's dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it's missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That's when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: Stay awake.

An irresistible tale of swashbuckling pirates in the New World; a classic story of treasure and betrayal Jamaica in 1665 is a rough outpost of the English crown, a minor colony holding out against the vast supremacy of the Spanish empire. Port Royal, Jamaica's capital, a cut-throat town of taverns, grog shops, and bawdy houses, is devoid of London's luxuries; life here can end swiftly with dysentery or a dagger in your back.

Port Brighton hates outsiders. The small coastal town has its own ways of dealing with the evil, the foolish, the misled, and it holds tightly to them. But the seams start to split after two deaths occur on the same tragic night: a baby abandoned at the foot of a lighthouse, and a drunken teenager drowned in the storming sea. As gossip fuels rumours and tensions erode trust, the bonds that keep Port Brighton together begin to fray, threatening to expose the truth about more than just the two deaths.

For July Fielding, nothing has been the same since that summer before senior year. Once, she had Alex, her loyal best friend, the one who always had her back. She had Sydney, who pushed her during every cross-country run, and who sometimes seemed to know July better than she knew herself. And she had Sam. Sam, who told her she was everything and left her breathless with his touch. Now, July is alone. Every single person in her small town of Lithia has disappeared.