Australian Crime

The small town of Nannine lies in the harsh red interior of New South Wales. Once a thriving outback centre, years of punishing drought have whittled it down to no more than a couple of pubs and a police station. And its one sinister claim to fame: the still-unsolved disappearance of Evelyn McCreery 19 years ago from the bedroom she shared with her twin sister. Mina McCreery's life has been defined by the intense and ongoing public interest in her sister's case. Now an anxious and reclusive adult, Mina lives alone on her family's sunbaked destocked sheep farm.

I was dreading the Cunningham family reunion even before the first murder. Before the storm stranded us at the mountain resort, snow and bodies piling up. The thing is, us Cunninghams don't really get along. We've only got one thing in common: we've all killed someone.

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.

A Cabinet Minister is murdered, Parliament House is in uproar and political newshound Paul Ryder is busy trying to sleep with a sexy TV reporter. Soon he’s on the trail of the scoop of a lifetime. All he has to do is survive the media moguls, political fixers, spooks, cops and fellow reporters who stand in his way. A fast-paced comic crime novel.

In a close-knit, blue-collar town, the shocking murder of a resident sends shockwaves through the community. Jacquie Underdown's gripping novel, "All That Was Left Unsaid," delves into a web of suspicion, where three women find themselves entangled in a dangerous game of secrets and betrayal. As the investigation unfolds, the spotlight falls on Tina, Maddison, and Isabelle, each carrying their own burdens and hidden pasts. Tina's relentless quest for truth takes her on a perilous journey, where familiar faces blur the lines of trust. Maddison, trapped in a loveless marriage and battling ...

A true insider's story of the backpacker murders from the detective who led the team that arrested Ivan Milat. Milat - the serial killer who preyed on young hitchhikers. The backpackers - the innocent victims of a brutal murderer. Belanglo - a place that became synonymous with pure evil. It was the biggest and most complex manhunt in Australian history, an investigation that gripped a nation. Behind the many false leads and dead ends, precious clues emerged that pointed to one man.

If you thought you knew the story of The Teacher's Pet, get ready to be shocked. Hedley Thomas takes you behind the scenes with a blow-by-blow account of one of the most intriguing and enduring murder mysteries of our time - the crime, the podcast investigation, the sexual exploitation of teenage students, the courtroom drama - and how justice was finally delivered.

Julia Schmidt reckons the suburban library where she works is the most boring place on earth. Then an hobo dies in an armchair. Everyone thinks he died of natural causes. They are wrong, and Julia is soon playing cat-and-mouse with a killer while trying to recover a priceless library book. An Australian comic crime novel with an endearing amateur sleuth.

When Detective Senior Constable Sarah Chen finds prominent Aboriginal rights lawyer David Namatjira dead at the bottom of Emily Gap, what appears to be a hiking accident quickly reveals itself as calculated murder. David's death coincides with the systematic ransacking of his Legal Aid office, where crucial files documenting mining company corruption have been stolen. His legal challenges cost Northern Territory Minerals millions while protecting sacred Aboriginal sites from illegal exploration, giving corporate executives powerful motives for eliminating their most effective opponent. But ...

Private investigator Gary Maddox scratches out a living doing personal injuries surveillance. A mother asks him to find out who killed her drug-dealer son. The son deserved to die. But the mother deserves justice and offers Gary a lot of money. Soon he's battling drug dealers, corrupt cops, hit-men and murderers. They try to rub him out. But he's well-armed, and not dead yet.

Most homicide detective teams run on trust, loyalty, and the shared desire to put killers behind bars. Frank Bennett's partner, Eden Archer, thrives on darkness and danger. She has a rare talent for catching killers - but her idea of justice has little to do with courtrooms. Now three girls are missing, and Eden is going undercover to a remote farm where the troubled hide and blood falls more often than rain. Frank’s job is to keep an eye on his partner while she's there - but is it for Eden's protection, or to protect others from her?

5 SHORT STORY GEMS is a compendium of short stories written by New Zealand author Lance Morcan and published by Sterling Gate Books in 2019/2020. The stories, which have also been released as standalone Kindle ebooks, are aimed at lovers of thrillers, adventure, romance and historical fiction. Details follow… ONCE WERE BROTHERS – Life will never be the same for young Benjamin Thomas after disaffected Maoris abduct his identical twin brother in this moving short story adventure set in Nineteenth Century New Zealand. Mr. 100% – When New York defense lawyer Madison ‘Mr. 100%’ Harley ...

What happens when Jennifer Longo arrives at a small town where children are mysteriously disappearing? An anonymous cryptic link on The Longo Files website results in newly graduated investigative reporter Jennifer Longo, travelling to a small town to investigate a series of child kidnappings. Jennifer is eager to make a name for herself, but her debut case does not go as planned when she too finds herself victim to a crazed stalker. Shoot from the hip, no nonsense Detective Alex Johnson is deployed and from the outset has a suspect firmly in his sights - Jason Drew who just by coincidence ...

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.

A village boy dies alone in the mountains, his broken body lying at the bottom of a steep gorge. Was it the tragic accident that everyone believes? Terry has suspicions. But he’s got his own problems. His writing career is on the rocks. In fact he can’t even see the rocks from where he’s standing. From the best-seller lists to obscurity it’s hit him hard. But the words aren’t there. The Greek-island village is a last shot to rekindle his lost mojo. But it’s not going well. Grilled octopus, raki and the single mum down the corridor hold more interest than his laptop. And what is ...

In the unforgiving outback of Queensland, Australia, danger lurks behind every red-dusted corner. Former SAS ranger Mick Hunter knows how to navigate the wild, but nothing prepares him for the chaos when he crosses paths with a group of hostile locals. Saved in the nick of time by a mysterious woman, Mick quickly learns her motives are as shadowed as the desert night. When she reveals why she intervened, Mick's gratitude turns to doubt—and dread. Her secret pulls him into a deadly game of cat and mouse, where trust is scarce, and survival hinges on every decision. As the vast, rugged ...

Should he be hanged or transported? The Artful Dodger is the best pick-pocket in England, a one-person crime wave. Although only a child, he seems certain to face the noose. But, to everyone’s surprise but his own, he escapes this fate and is transported to Australia. There he falls prey to Fred Crimp, a disfigured and vicious criminal who Dodger thinks vaguely familiar. His quick wits save him, and life begins to look better as he discovers there are easier ways to get rich than by picking pockets. But back in London, the peril becomes more deadly and his life at risk. In order to elude ...

Constable Jenny Williams took a job in a remote opal mining town for answers. When the case surrounding her missing cousin goes cold, she embraces an invitation to party with the locals. But the night is cut short when the live music event turns into a crowded crime scene. A high-pitched scream and the smell of burning flesh has left a woman burned to death. No one saw the perpetrator, not even Jenny. Now it’s her job to catch the psychopath before they kill again. With no ID, no witnesses and no one coming forward who knows the woman, her case has no leads—not even a motive.

Laurence Turner, a pharmacist from Sydney, is wracked with guilt after his fiancé dies on a sailing trip. The tragedy is followed by yet another fatal incident when he dispenses the wrong medication to a customer. Laurence moves to the Clare Valley in South Australia for a fresh start, but when he stumbles across the dead body of a visiting American reporter, things take a turn for the worst. The case explodes into far more than Laurence could ever expect with the arrival of a beautiful American woman, Skyler Hawthorne. Her troubles put Laurence in the path of both domestic and foreign ...

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.