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The truth is never black and white ‘This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths but perhaps all of them were murders. It’s a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let’s just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.’ University life is full of perfect strangers, charismatic academics and instant best friends. Pen Sheppard fits in by reinventing herself and wiping away her past, never thinking that others might be doing the same thing. But keeping secrets can become obsessive and betrayal deadly. Within six months three students are dead. Should Pen remain silent? Or will she be compelled to talk, to excuse, to explain … or perhaps confess?
'The best book I've read this year' Fiona Barton, bestselling author of The Widow 'Dark, compelling and deep. This is a fantastic debut' Alex Lake, bestselling author of After Anna 'This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths but perhaps all of them were murders. It's a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let's just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.' A fresh start. A new home. A time to make friends. A chance to hide from her past. University life offers all these things to Pen. But her secrets define her. And they may yet kill her... ‘Intrigue, betrayal and murder…deliciously dark’ T.R. Richmond, author of What She Left ‘Tense, sparse…the gripping plot challenges and subverts the notion of innocence until the very last page’ Monocle ‘Unputdownable’ Marie Claire
'This story wouldn't let me go' Michael Robotham 'Fierce, action-packed ... A wild, original ride from start to finish' Sarah Bailey 'Taut, propulsive ... Brilliant' Anna Downes Shortlisted for the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction She's protected them from the truth. Can she save them from her past? Sarah Calhoun is a regular Sydney soccer mum, but she's keeping terrifying secrets from everyone she loves . . . and her past is about to catch up with her. When two men from Northern Ireland hunt her down, she's forced to return to Belfast to testify at a murder trial. Caught in the crossfire of an obsessive policeman driven by a disturbing past, and a brutal IRA executioner, Sa...
Brilliant short fiction from some of Australia’s most talented storytellers A woman suspects her partner of murder. A father seeks to save his son from a looming disaster. A boy finds love in the heat of summer as a dust storm transforms his city and his fortunes. A guard in a detention centre causes tragedy. A town is consumed by a strange apocalypse that its residents struggle to keep contained. Continuing Black Inc.’s long tradition of discovering and celebrating the country’s finest writers, these exceptional stories will entertain, move and provoke you long after you finish reading. Spend this summer with Australia’s best writers. Michael Mohammed Ahmad • Liz Allan • Romy Ash • Tony Birch • Stephanie Bishop • Mikaella Clements • Aoife Clifford • Lauren Aimee Curtis • Demet Divaroren • Elizabeth Flux • John Kinsella • Jack Latimore • Jennifer Mills • Paddy O'Reilly • Fikret Pajalic • Elliot Perlman • Allee Richards • Mirandi Riwoe • Beejay Silcox • Elizabeth Tan • Tien Tran • Brenda Walker • Ben Walter • Marlee Jane Ward • Katy Warner • Chris Womersley • Danielle Wood • Michelle Wright
In a seedy hotel near Ground Zero, a woman lies face down in a pool of acid, features melted of her face, teeth missing, fingerprints gone. The room has been sprayed down with DNA-eradicating antiseptic spray. Pilgrim, the code name for a legendary, world-class segret agent, quickly realizes that all of the murderer's techniques were pulled directly from his own book, a cult classic of forensic science written under a pen name.
Scarlet Stiletto: The First Cut presents a superb collection of spine-chilling crime fiction stories culled from the annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards hosted by Sisters in Crime Australia. You'll find the whole gamut from murder and mayhem to police procedurals and crime in verse. Some will have your blood running cold, some will raise gooseflesh, and others will make you laugh - but all will have you on the edge of your seat, and wanting more. "A crime and mystery short story collection of startling originality; and a grim warning of what evil lurks in Australian suburbia." Kerry Greenwood
Wish You Happy Forever chronicles Half the Sky founder Jenny Bowen's personal and professional journey to transform Chinese orphanages—and the lives of the neglected girls who live in them—from a state of quiet despair to one of vibrant promise. After reading an article about the thousands of baby girls languishing in Chinese orphanages, Bowen and her husband adopted a little girl from China and brought her home to Los Angeles, not out of a need to build a family but rather a commitment to save one child. A year later, as she watched her new daughter play in the grass with her friends, thriving in an environment where she knew she was loved, Bowen was overcome with a desire to help the c...
Shortlisted for the Penguin Literary Prize Like fireflies to the light, Mona, Benny and Jimmy are drawn into the elegantly wasted orbit of the Crystal Ballroom and the post-punk scene of 80s Melbourne, a world that includes Nick Cave and Dodge, a photographer pushing his art to the edge. With precision and richness Kirsten Krauth hauntingly evokes the power of music to infuse our lives, while diving deep into loss, beauty, innocence and agency. Filled with unforgettable characters, the novel is above all about the shapes that love can take and the many ways we express tenderness throughout a lifetime. As it moves between the Blue Mountains and Melbourne, Sydney and Castlemaine, Almost a Mirror reflects on the healing power of creativity and the everyday sacredness of family and friendship in the face of unexpected tragedy.
Two frightened children, two very different mothers, and one night of terrifying Blitz bombing during World War Two. And when the bombs stop falling, which families' lives will be changed forever? 'Maggie Joel's The Safest Place in London is a beautifully written exploration of desperation and hope in a time of war. The novel captures the essence of the era with subtlety and style, while the shifting new world pushes characters to extreme lengths. A remarkable story of family, survival and how one decision can change lives for better or worse.' - Jane Harper, author of The Dry On a frozen January evening in 1944, Nancy Levin, and her three-year-old daughter, Emily, flee their impoverished Ea...
A road trip with unlikely companions, a girl with a unique way of seeing the world, a great loss and a struggle of identity; Metal Fish, Falling Snow is an Own Voices YA debut that packs a punch.