Australian Fiction Mysteries

Meet Jack Irish, criminal lawyer, debt collector, football lover, turf watcher, trainee cabinetmaker, and the best Australian crime character we've seen in years. When Jack receives a puzzling message from a jailed ex-client, he's too deep in misery over Fitzroy's latest loss to take much notice. Next thing Jack knows, the ex-client's dead and he's been drawn into a life-threatening investigation involving high-level corruption, dark sexual secrets, shonky property deals and murder.

Welcome back to Zig Zag Lane in the heart of Sydney's rag-trade district, where our intrepid tea ladies, Hazel, Betty and Irene, have their work cut out. Solving a murder, kidnapping and arson case, and outwitting an arch criminal, earned them the respect of a local police officer. Now he needs their assistance to help solve a plot that threatens national security. As if that's not enough, Irene gets a coded message directing her to the spoils of a bank robbery, which sends the tea ladies on a treasure hunt with an unexpected outcome.

In the drought-stricken region between Warragulla and Merriwa, where dust storms sweep across isolated communities without warning, Detective Maya Thorne investigates the murder of an NBN technician found at a remote telecommunications tower. What begins as a seemingly isolated incident soon reveals a sophisticated conspiracy lurking beneath the surface of this fractured community of less than a thousand souls. When a second communications specialist is murdered during an intensifying dust storm, Maya must navigate both the blinding red haze and the closed ranks of locals harbouring decades...

In the drought-stricken town of Warragulla, where water means survival, detective Maya Thorne investigates what appears to be a simple robbery gone wrong at a local agricultural supply store. What begins as a straightforward murder case soon reveals something far darker lurking beneath the surface of this isolated community. When an unusual fog blankets the region and an elderly drifter returns seeking answers about his long-missing brother, Maya must navigate both the disorienting weather and the closed ranks of locals, who harbour generations of secrets about stolen water rights. As the ...

Friday's Mum, the Nobel Prize winning physicist, has been accused of espionage. The police think she's been selling secrets about the CERN Hadron Super Collider. Friday knows her mother isn't capable of such a thing - this is a woman who can't even operate a dishwasher. She's got to smuggle herself into Switzerland to clear her Mum's name. Fortunately, Melanie is a master of disguise. After an extremely extreme make-over, Friday arrives at CERN and finds axolotls in the water coolers, graffiti in the great hall and most baffling of all - her sister has fallen in love with an engineer!

Professor Denise 'Doc' Rado is South Africa's expert on pangolins, busting poachers and freeing the endangered anteaters in elaborate undercover stings. After a risky operation backfires, Doc's life is shattered, but she still has to lead an eclectic group of donors on a wildlife tour of southern Africa. But there's a target on her back.

At a busy festival site on a warm spring night, a baby lies alone in her pram, her mother vanishing into the crowds. A year on, Kim Gillespie's absence casts a long shadow as her friends and loved ones gather deep in the heart of South Australian wine country to welcome a new addition to the family.

1967: Hazel's new job at the docks quickly turns perilous when she stumbles into the criminal underworld that lurks beneath the surface. A million in gold coins has vanished from a cargo ship and a dead body washed up. Suddenly, she's in over her head. Disillusioned with her life, Betty is led astray by a charismatic new friend and finds herself exposed in more ways than one - until a crisis drags her back to reality. Living in a high-class brothel, Irene gets wind of a threat that could destroy her livelihood.

When the hunters become the hunted, ex-CIA agent Jed Walker is the man you need. In 2011, Seal Team Six killed Osama Bin Laden. Now, four years later, someone is eliminating Team Six - one by one they are turning up dead. Jed Walker, ex-CIA, is an outsider back in the game. He's been chasing down a sinister group code-named Zodiac that the big guns - MI5, CIA, the Pentagon - have failed to eradicate. Walker follows the trail of bodies, uncovering secrets and making connections he's not supposed to make.

Four young boys are left alone in a hotel room while their parents dine downstairs. When Sara Farrow checks on the children at midnight, her son is missing. Distrustful of the police, Sara turns to Crimson Lake’s unlikeliest private investigators - disgraced cop Ted Conkaffey and convicted killer Amanda Pharrell. For Ted, the case couldn’t have come at a worse time. Two years ago, a false accusation robbed him of his career, his reputation, and most importantly, his family. But now, Lillian, the daughter he barely knows, is coming to stay in his ramshackle cottage by the lake.

Detective Alex Reilly thought his transfer to the remote desert town of Coober Pedy would be a quiet assignment—a chance to rebuild his damaged career far from the spotlight. But when Harold Finch, part-owner of the town's vital water supply, is found dead in his underground home, what appears to be a tragic accident quickly reveals itself as something far more sinister. As Reilly investigates, he discovers that Harold's death is connected to a sophisticated conspiracy targeting the community's most precious resource: water. Environmental engineer Daphne Traynor seems helpful at first, ...

Maine, 1789: When a man is found entombed in the frozen Kennebec River, Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth, death and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she has also documented the details of an alleged rape committed by one of the town’s most esteemed gentlemen – the same man who has now been found dead in the ice.

In 2011, on a remote Iranian mountain, a group of high-level officials have just witnessed the successful demonstration of a new weapons system meant to upend the American-led war in Afghanistan by essentially decimating the population. The intelligence officer recognizes what this development signifies even if his contemporaries do not. A fellow participant seems to agree with the intelligence officer’s reticence, remarking that he wished there was someone they could tell about this madness. But there is someone the intelligence officer can tell. One man who might just make a difference.

A sinister group - code-named Zodiac - has launched devastating global attacks. Twelve targets across the world, 12 code-named missions. Operating distinct sleeper cells, they are the ultimate terrorist organisation, watching and waiting for a precise attack to activate the next group. It is a frightening and deadly efficient way to stay one step ahead. And cause the most chaos. For ex-CIA operative Jed Walker, chaos is his profession. On the outer, burned by his former agency, he is determined to clear his name.

Detective Bigfoot and Sergeant Elizabeth West are tracking down a serial killer in the Australian Outback. Shots ring out Bigfoot takes a bullet and collapses. The killer is stalking them taking his time, his laugh reverberates through the Australian Bush. West has to drag Bigfoot to safety and take on the killer at the same time but she has only one bullet left. 'The craziest detectives in the world!' Revised & Rewritten.

CeCe D’Aplièse, in her mid-twenties, has never felt she fitted in anywhere. Following the death of her father, the elusive billionaire Pa Salt – so-called by the six daughters he adopted from around the globe – she finds herself at breaking point. Dropping out of art college, CeCe watches as Star, her beloved sister, distances herself to follow her new love, leaving her completely alone. In desperation, CeCe decides to flee England and discover her past; the only clues she has are a black-and-white photograph and the name of a woman pioneer who lived in Australia over one hundred years ago.

Katie has only one dream to be the best wilderness scout ever. And to win all ten badges available during their five-day camping trip to Kangaroo Island, and most important to beat all the other girls to the Camp Cup, the once-a-year prize for the best wilderness troop. With her four troop members in tow, she sets up camp in a remote location where a strange giant rock dominates the beach … Was that rock there last year? In the night, something is slaughtering the roos in the night… If the adults find out Katie and her troop will be sent home. The competition for the Camp Cup is heating...

When Jenny Williams took a job as the new constable in an outback opal mining town, she thought she’d be hunting down clues to find her missing aunt and cousin. But when a young woman’s body is found at the bottom of a mine shaft, a possible murder forces her personal agenda to take a back seat. Jenny goes head to head with her new commanding officer. He doesn’t want to ruffle feathers in town and rules the case Death By Misadventure. But Jenny is sure the dead woman met with foul play.

Detective Senior Constable Riley Murphy thought Lightning Ridge was career exile—a remote opal mining town where the biggest crimes were petty theft and neighbourly disputes. Then respected opal dealer Elena Kozlov is found brutally murdered in her ransacked workshop, and Riley's routine investigation spirals into something far more dangerous. Elena wasn't killed for her valuable stones—she was eliminated for asking the wrong questions about suspicious corporate activity. As Riley digs deeper, she uncovers Asset Beta, a covert operative who's been surveilling Lightning Ridge residents ...

A young woman is found dead in her isolated town house in rural Red Creek, an up-and-coming wine tourism destination outside Sydney. No forced entry. No signs of struggle. And her geologist husband has an alibi, though it’s not exactly solid. While a tabloid journalist is quick to spin her own damning narrative, homicide detective Rose Riley is questioning everything she sees—especially in a rapidly developing community that already seems on edge.