Australian Thrillers

THE EXPLOSION BROUGHT DOWN THE ENTRANCE TO THE TOMB, BURYING THE CHINESE PEASANTS, BUT KEEPING THE BULLION SAFE UNTIL THE JAPANESE MILITARY CAN RETURN. Hidden inside a long-forgotten ancient mountainside tomb, lies a small part of the 6,000 tons of gold looted by Japanese forces from Nanking during the Second World War. A letter written by Sergeant Ichiro to his father lies forgotten, finally emerging into the light of day seventy-one years later. The strands of destiny weave themselves together, drawing a young Australian and his part-Japanese girlfriend towards the death and wealth which ...

ORIGINAL STORY, WRITTEN BY A HUMAN The irrepressible Detective Ange Watson is back for the gripping second instalment of the Saltwater Crimes Trilogy. Ange’s return to her beat in Byron Bay certainly doesn’t go to plan. Some deep soul searching is needed when her reputation is left in tatters. Her fixation on the criminal syndicate behind the Namba Heads tragedies leads her to adopt the persona of a shady cop and head north to the glittering Gold Coast. All that glitters is definitely not gold! With some newfound surf buddies to keep her company and aided by a surprising and thrilling ...

ORGINAL STORY, WRITTEN BY A HUMAN All things are connected - Tread Carefully. Detective Ange Watson is tougher than she looks, even tougher than she realises. Which is just as well... When asked to find a young surfer who vanished from a nearby fishing village, Ange feels confident she’ll solve the matter quickly, leaving the weekend free to enjoy the beach and catch some awesome waves. It’s ironic how the simple jobs are the ones that turn to custard. As Ange dives deeper into the case, she's swept up in a frantic chase to expose the truth and prevent further carnage. Every turn ...

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.

One lonely night, a cabbie discovers that his intoxicated passenger has been suffocated with a handkerchief saturated in chloroform. The murderer, the victim, and the motive are all unknown. Fergus Hume's first literary attempt, became the best-selling mystery novel of the 19th century.

During a broiling heatwave, the inner circle of a high-profile charity attend a critical meeting at White Ash Ridge, a small hotel nestled in the Australian wilderness. As the temperature rises, a body is found lying in the thick bush, bludgeoned to death. One of the four remaining guests is a murderer - but who, and why, is a mystery. Detective Dana Russo knows the national spotlight will be sharply focused on the case. The charity was formed when the founders' teenage son was killed after intervening in a vicious assault - sparking public outrage and a damning verdict on the investigation.

Caleb Carmichael's star studded boxing career came to a screeching halt the day he ended up flat on his back in hospital. If he fights again, he risks becoming permanently paralysed from the waist down. Professional Boxing is his whole life and he's lost without it, but he doesn't have a choice. Reluctantly, he cuts his losses and takes a job running the infamous Melbourne boxing studio, Beat. But when a frightened woman turns up at the studio looking for a way to take her life back, Caleb realises there might be something out there for him after all. From Amity Cross comes Quake, a ...

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.

Adelaide Hills, Christmas Eve, 1959. At the end of a scorching hot day, a local deliveryman makes a terrible discovery. A police investigation is called, and the small town of Tambilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia. Many years later and thousands of miles away, Jess is a journalist in search of a story. Having lived and worked in London for nearly two decades, she now finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. Until a phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney.

Evelyn Varley has always been ambitious and clever. As a girl, she earned a scholarship to a prestigious academy well above her parents’ means, gaining her a best friend from one of England’s wealthiest families. In 1939, with an Oxford degree in hand and war looming, Evelyn finds herself recruited into an elite MI5 counterintelligence unit. A secret society seeks an alliance with Germany and, posing as a Nazi sympathizer, Evelyn must build a case to expose their treachery. But as she is drawn deeper into duplicity, some of those close to her become embroiled in her investigation.

Sydney, 1946. Though war correspondent Billie Walker is happy to finally be home, for her the heady postwar days are tarnished by the loss of her father and the disappearance in Europe of her husband, Jack. To make matters worse, now that the war is over, the newspapers are sidelining her reporting talents to prioritize jobs for returning soldiers. But Billie is a survivor and she's determined to take control of her own future. So, she reopens her late father's business, a private investigation agency, and, slowly, the women of Sydney come knocking.

Three years into his tumultuous career as a black-ops wrecking ball, a young Jason King’s superiors mandate a week’s rest between assignments. But three days in, his vacation is nixed, and a mysterious CIA spook puts him on a plane to Chile for a training camp atop the highest volcano on earth. Ojos del Salado sits twenty thousand feet above sea level–within hours of arrival, the workload threatens to destroy him: physically, emotionally, spiritually. But there’s a reason they want him crippled by altitude sickness.

When Detective Constable Lillian Tate arrives at a remote paleontological research site in the harsh Nullarbor Plain, she expects a routine missing person case. Dr. Noah Henshaw, a respected scientist studying ancient fossils, has vanished into the red dust of the Australian desert. What begins as a straightforward welfare check quickly transforms into something more sinister. The discovery of Dr. Henshaw's body reveals a brutal murder that shatters the quiet academic world of fossil research and threatens to expose secrets that powerful people will kill to protect. As Tate delves deeper ...

In the wake of a global conflict, foreign forces occupy part of Australia, quashing all but a few pockets of local resistance. The tense stalemate ends in 2034, when Jack Dunne reignites the war. Dunne is an Outrider, one of the last elite special operations soldiers in the Resistance. As the enemy prepare to eliminate the freedom fighters once and for all, he is tasked with his final mission. If Dunne and his eleven-year-old son achieve the impossible, and survive, they'll secure their future across the border in Free Australia. But the road to victory will be bloody.

Jaxie Clackton is a brutalized rural youth who flees from the scene of his father's violent death and strikes out for the vast wilds of Western Australia. All he carries with him is a rifle and a waterjug. All he wants is peace and freedom. But surviving in the harsh saltlands alone is a savage business. And once he discovers he's not alone out there, all Jaxie's plans go awry. He meets a fellow exile, the ruined priest Fintan MacGillis, a man he's never certain he can trust, but on whom his life will soon depend.

Reid left the small town of Manson a decade ago, promising his former Chief of Police boss he'd never return. He made a new life in the city, became a PI and turned his back on his old life for good. Now an insurance firm has offered him good money to look into a suspicious car crash, and he finds himself back in the place he grew up—home to his complicated family history, a scarring relationship breakdown and a very public career-ending incident. As Reid's investigation unfolds, nothing is as it seems.

A woman has been found crushed and mutilated inside mining equipment. Jenny is sure the woman’s death was no accident. She investigates and uncovers a link to an extremist Sovereigntist cult who don’t take kindly to strangers. As if fanatics weren’t scary enough—the commune is full of armed men and what appears to be women held captive. Her gut instincts are telling her this cult is trouble, but she needs proof. Jenny’s boss tells her to do what she’s never been good at—be patient, don’t stir up trouble and keep her mouth shut.

It's 2005, and Jed Walker has just joined the CIA. As a 10-year veteran of Air Force Special Operations, Walker is used to being at the pointy end of things. But normally the front line is much further from home. Sent to New Orleans on the trail of Russians wanting to claim back what was stolen from them in Afghanistan, it doesn't take long for Walker to realise that in the murky world of espionage, the rules of war do not apply.

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 ...

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, ...