Australian Mystery

If Hallmark Mysteries joined the Travel Channel describes the Challenge Series. Dave and Katie Parker are a retirement aged couple recovering from difficult circumstances. “I feel like our old life was a boat that went over a waterfall with us inside. Now we’re bobbing up in the pool below, glad to be alive, but without a boat,” says Katie. The Challenge Series of novels follow the Parkers as they solve mysteries, thwart criminals, and find new adventures in colorful locales. Challenge in the Golden State The Parker family travels in an RV to the Golden State on vacation. After Dave, ...

When a mysterious client hires Penn Gwinn, a private investigator based in San Rafael, California, to locate the legendary opal called the Aqualene, Penn thought it would be a quick buck. He had no idea he was about to become involved in a bizarre chase for the Aqualene, called the Eye of God, part of the Australian Aborigine heritage. As this case takes him through Mexico and on to Australia, he attracts many so-called friends and allies. The confrontation with the Quad Lateral Council, an international criminal syndicate, leaves a trail of bodies. Penn deals with phony detectives and ...

America is reeling from the national blackout that swept the nation, continuing to dig out of the power outage. And the new president is unlike any Mitch has worked with in the past; he is extremely dictatorial and sees cracks in America's democratic institutions that he believes can be exploited to put his family in power permanently. As Mitch backs away from the new president, he in turn questions Rapp's loyalty. Mitch decides to take a much needed break and moves to his house in Cape Town, where he gets pulled into a job with Nicholas Ward, the world's first trillionaire.

In Unamurra, a drought-scarred, one-pub town deep in the outback, two men are savagely murdered a month apart - their bodies elaborately arranged like angels. With no witnesses, no obvious motives and no apparent connections between the killings, how can lone police officer Detective Dana Russo - flown in from hundreds of kilometres away - possibly solve such a baffling, brutal case? Met with silence and suspicion from locals who live by their own set of rules, Dana must take over a stalled investigation with only a week to make progress.

In war-torn Syria, a massacre survivor is pulled from beneath a pile of bodies. She is given one instruction: 'find Jed Walker'. Walker is ex-CIA - a man who thought he was long out of the game. Discovering a terror outfit is running people-smuggling from the Middle East and into the United States, he is drawn back in to fight their evil trade. At first Walker thinks these human traffickers are driven purely by profit and greed. But it is much worse than that - and it has ties to the highest levels of power.

Jack West Jr has made it to the Supreme Labyrinth. Now he faces one last race - against multiple rivals, against time, against the collapse of the universe itself - a headlong race that will end at a throne inside the fabled labyrinth. But the road will be hard. For this is a maze like no other: a maze of mazes.

Running from a bad relationship, journalist Jo Sharpe heads home to Arthurville, the drought-stricken town she turned her back on years earlier. While some things have changed - her relationship with her ailing, crotchety father, her new job at the community newspaper - Jo finds that her return has rekindled the grief and uncertainty she experienced during her childhood following the inexplicable disappearance of her mother and baby sister.

The Central Intelligence Agency is in crisis. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Congress is questioning the organisation’s necessity. Interim CIA director Thomas Stansfield must fight for his agency’s survival while explaining why the previous candidate for his job was found murdered in a French hotel – surrounded by booze, cash, and dead men. Worst yet, a brilliantly run sting operation in Moscow has resulted in the arrest of America’s most prized Russian asset and the expulsion of his CIA handler.

Someone has been plotting to bring down the Spencers ever since Kensy and Max were thrust into the secret world of Pharos, but they've always managed to stay one step ahead of their attackers...until now. As the twins' inner circle - and Pharos's top agents - start going missing, it quickly becomes clear that someone is staging a coup. Soon Kensy and Max are on their own, racing to get to the bottom of the terrible situation before the organisation completely falls apart. And before their family is gone forever.

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.

Georgia and Luke are in love. They've only been dating for a few months, but Georgia is pretty sure he's the one. They get along so well; he's romantic and kind and funny. There's just one problem: Luke's ex-girlfriend, Cadence, is having trouble moving on. She texts him all the time, won't give Luke back some of his things, and Georgia is convinced Cadence has followed them on more than one occasion. It's starting to get creepy. Georgia and Luke soon move in together, but the shadow of Cadence looms large.

When eighteen-year-old Ellie Canning is discovered wandering the countryside, dazed and traumatized, she tells a harrowing story of abduction, captivity, and escape. An overnight symbol of survival and empowerment, Ellie enthralls an outraged nation. Then authorities zero in on an unlikely suspect: high school teacher Suzannah Wells, identified by Ellie as the woman who kept her drugged and bound in a basement. The evidence against Suzannah is damning—vilified by the media, Suzannah’s only defense is that not a single word Ellie says is true. Suzannah has no reason to lie.

Australia has always been a land of mysteries. Some are ancient, some are historical and many continue to perplex us today—and will probably continue to do so tomorrow. More often than most of us would like to think, things simply vanish and people disappear without explanation, leaving a trail of heartbreak across generations. Australia also has its fair share of buried loot and fabulous riches gone missing—somewhere. Master storyteller Graham Seal has gathered mysteries from around Australia.

Everyone in the small town of Thorncombe knows the tales of the haunted woods where the birds don’t sing and a girl in a white dress roams, luring people to their deaths. But when a girl in white is found dead the morning after Halloween, her body carefully arranged at the bottom of an old stone folly, the community is thrown into turmoil.

All Hanna Fischer ever wanted to do was to study physics under the great Albert Einstein. But when, as a teenager in 1919, her life is suddenly turned upside-down, she is catapulted into a new and extraordinary life - as a secretary, a scientist, a sister and a spy. From racist gangs in Berlin to gangsters in New York City, Nazis in the 1930s and Hitler's inner circle during the Second World War, Hanna will encounter some of history's greatest minds and most terrible moments, all while desperately trying to stay alive.

You have been given access to secret files buried deep within the archives. Disturbing stories never meant for the light of day. Stories of evil grandparents and unsettling homework. A string of deaths, seemingly unrelated. Walls squirm, as if alive. A cursed wish comes true. Ordinary people behave oddly, even family and your closest friends. These stories share a common fate. All the children are met with tragedy. Coincidence? Or could these nightmares be connected by something more sinister than you dare to imagine? A dark and chilling mystery awaits.

The Queen's Colours leadership program is heading to Egypt and Alice-Miranda and her friends are thrilled. There are hidden tombs to explore, a new culture to experience and a lot to learn about the country's ancient past. But something is amiss among the pyramids and palm trees. Bizarre happenings back home, a new friend with something to hide and adults with stories that don't quite add up leave the friends very worried indeed. One thing's for sure: when Alice-Miranda starts digging, she'll find more than just buried treasure!

For 35 years, the United States and Russia each had their own superhero. Three days ago, America's hero died. Today will be bad. In the face of an overwhelming attack, one young woman—unassuming and anonymous—might be America's only hope. Her codename...Cobalt Blue.

Egypt is under attack. The ancient city of Luxor is under attack. Pharaoh Tamose lies mortally wounded. All seems lost. Taita prepares for the enemy's final, fatal push. The ex-slave, now general of Tamose's armies, is never more ingenious than when all hope is dashed. And this is Egypt's most desperate hour. With the timely arrival of an old ally, Taita's army repels the enemy invaders; for now, at least. But upon his return to Luxor, Taita is seized and branded a traitor. Tamose is dead and a poisonous new era has begun. The new Pharaoh has risen.

Sydney is full of climate refugees. Food and water insecurity have created tension. There is poverty, suspicion and cultural disharmony. A world of have and have nots.