Books of the Month - Fiction

The latest stunning thriller from the bestselling author of Scrublands and The Seven. Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic are back - as Nell is thrown into her most emotionally fraught investigation yet. A controversial entrepreneur is murdered in a remote mountain valley, but this is no ordinary case. Ivan and Nell are soon contending with cowboy lawyers, conmen, bullion thieves and grave robbers. But it's when Nell discovers the victim is a close blood relative, that the past begins to take on a looming significance. What did take place in The Valley all those years ago? What was Nell's mother doing there, and what was her connection to troubled young police officer Simmons Burnside? And why do the police hierarchy insist Ivan and Nell stay with the case despite an obvious conflict of interest? The Valley features a page-turning plot, intriguing characters, and an evocative sense of place-where nothing is ever quite what it seems. Chris Hammer, the acclaimed and bestselling author of the international bestsellers Scrublands, Treasure & Dirt, The Tilt and The Seven, presents another immersive and emotionally rewarding thriller. Praise for Chris Hammer: 'Hammer has confirmed and underlined his reputation as numbering among the very best novelists in detective fiction.' Sydney Morning Herald 'Chris Hammer at the height of his powers ... absolutely not to be missed!' Hayley Scrivenor, author of Dirt Town on The Tilt 'A darkly simmering mystery, gorgeously told ...

Summer, Adelaide, 1917 The impeccably dressed Miss Kate Cocks might look more like a schoolmistress than a policewoman, but don't let that fool you. After only 13 months running the new women's police branch, she's a household name, and mothers in every suburb are given to cry 'Call Miss Cocks!' at the first sign of trouble. No stranger to the dark side of Adelaide, Miss Cocks wrangles wayward husbands into repentance, sees through deceptive clairvoyants and rescues young women (whether they like it or not) with her five-foot cane and junior constable and jiu-jitsu expert Ethel Bromley at her side. When shop assistant Dora Black is found dead on a city beach, Miss Cocks and Ethel are ordered to stay out of the investigation. It's not their job to play detective; it's their job to prevent immoral behaviour. But when Dora's workmate Ruby Campbell goes missing soon after, the women know something sinister is afoot, and determine to take matters into their own hands. After all, who knows Adelaide better than the indomitable Miss Cocks? *In 1915, Fanny Kate Boadicea Cocks became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary as men.

Why would my best friend want to destroy my life? Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in a small town in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they've always had a close - sometimes too close - friendship. Now in their twenties, their lives have finally started to diverge: Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the Mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu. Unused to sharing Finn, Daphne starts to act up in ways that will allow her to maintain the control over her best friend she's always relished. Then, one fateful day, Finn, Daphne and Magdu all go mountain climbing - and Magdu falls to her death. Is it suicide, or a terrible accident - or has something more sinister happened? Bold, dramatic and utterly compelling, Girl Falling forces us to confront the stories we tell ourselves about the people we love.

The dangerous thrills of solo travel come into focus in this full-throttle twist on outback noir by the bestselling author of The Safe Place and The Shadow House. On the Coral Coast of Western Australia, solo traveller Katy is on a mission to find her free-spirited sister, Phoebe, who disappeared along the same route a year ago. But as she drives her campervan further into the wild north, Katy realises she's not as alone as she'd first believed. Soon she is pulled into a complicated web of secrets, lies, myths and stories that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her sister. In this nerve-shredding outback thriller, our obsessions with freedom and beauty collide with our fear of what lies in the wilderness, and the truth behind Phoebe's disappearance proves stranger and darker than Katy could ever have guessed...