Book picks similar to
The Tesla Legacy by Robert G. Barrett
fiction
australian
audio
robert-g-barrett
Up on Horseshoe Hill
Penelope Janu - 2019
Her wit is as sharp as a knife. She is one of my absolute must-read authors.' Victoria Purman, bestselling Australian author A kiss can change your life ...Jemima Kincaid loves her home, her horses and her job as a farrier. Life has not been kind to her, but Jemima is happy in the close-knit rural community of Horseshoe Hill, which rallied around in her hour of need. Even so, she is fiercely independent and will never rely on anyone again.Particularly a man like Finn Blackwood.An infuriatingly attractive geneticist and wild animal vet, Finn threatens not only the serenity of Jemima's present, but that of the future she has so carefully mapped out. But as their paths continue to cross, she finds her attraction to Finn impossible to counter, even as the trauma of her past threatens to undo her. Finn is fascinated by Jemima's solitary nature and unique vulnerabilities but Jemima knows all about loss and how to avoid it. Don't let anyone get close in the first place ...As the past begins to cast long shadows, Jemima and Finn discover that a kiss can bring worlds together-or tear them apart. Will they finally face their fears and find love on Horseshoe Hill?
The Good Teacher
P.J. Kelly - 2017
A cloudy autumn sky. The day started with 362 students and seventeen teachers. It ended with three people missing. Lisa and Jacob Johnstone had suffered a well-documented childhood of neglect and abuse. Everyone agreed that it needed to end. Jessica Bell was a kind and well-respected teacher. A strong and motivated woman, she only wanted the best for her students. Her own history of damage and pain had her believing that running away was the solution they had all been searching for. And so ensued a battle between right and wrong, good and evil, and common sense and the law. Miss Bell was not a bad woman. She was a good teacher. This is her story.
White Gum Creek
Nicole Hurley-Moore - 2018
On the occasional trip into nearby White Gum Creek he keeps to himself and that's the way he likes it. And though over the last six years the townsfolk have tried to reach out to Nick, he's pushed them all away.Whenever Nick comes into the Gumnut Bakery, Natasha Duroz tries to engage him in conversation when she serves him. There's something about him that intrigues Tash, but she's not sure if it's because she feels sorry for him or there's something more.At last encouraged by the warmth of a few old and new friends, Nick gradually begins to re-engage with the outside world. Then, suddenly some minor vandalism on his farm escalates and odd things begin to happen on Winters Hill. Is someone out to hurt Nick or have his years of solitude been playing tricks on his mind? This entrancing novel is about overcoming heartache and loss through the power of friendship and love.
Vertigo: A Novella
Amanda Lohrey - 2008
They leave the city, fleeing a past and a future that fill then with fear. On the coast they discover a natural world that is both destructive and rejuvenating. Events sweep them up and they must confront what they have tried to put behind them.Veritgo is an enthralling short novel by one of Australia's leading writers.
A Pocketful of Eyes
Lili Wilkinson - 2011
Can Beatrice sift through the clues to discover if there is a murderer in the midst? This sharp, sassy mystery has plenty of twists and turns, a dash of romance, and a splash of funny, and will keep the reader guessing right to the very end.
Bloodtree River
Sarah Barrie - 2018
Indiana O'Meara is no stranger to the forces of evil. Her own past is full of violence. Now a policewoman, Indy is always fighting to redeem herself and defeat the dark. So when girls begin to go missing at a remote cattle station in Tasmania, she is quick to agree to go undercover to investigate chief suspect, the owner of Calico Mountain Lodge, Logan Atherton, even though last time she went undercover it came to a bloody end. But her early encounter with Logan Atherton reveals a man full of contradictions. His deep empathy for horses and those he cares for is obvious but he is also taciturn to the point of rudeness, and there is a strange atmosphere at the lodge. It doesn't add up. As Indy begins to dig deeper into the secrets at the Lodge, she finds herself embroiled in a murderous web more complex and terrifying than she could ever have imagined...
The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
Dominic Smith - 2016
In his earlier, award-winning novels, Dominic Smith demonstrated a gift for coaxing the past to life. Now, in The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, he deftly bridges the historical and the contemporary, tracking a collision course between a rare landscape by a female Dutch painter of the golden age, an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan, and a celebrated art historian who painted a forgery of it in her youth.In 1631, Sara de Vos is admitted as a master painter to the Guild of St. Luke's in Holland, the first woman to be so recognized. Three hundred years later, only one work attributed to de Vos is known to remain--a haunting winter scene, At the Edge of a Wood, which hangs over the bed of a wealthy descendant of the original owner. An Australian grad student, Ellie Shipley, struggling to stay afloat in New York, agrees to paint a forgery of the landscape, a decision that will haunt her. Because now, half a century later, she's curating an exhibit of female Dutch painters, and both versions threaten to arrive. As the three threads intersect, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos mesmerizes while it grapples with the demands of the artistic life, showing how the deceits of the past can forge the present.
Headland
Ged Gillmore - 2017
Murdoch’s doing just fine, thanks for not asking. He’s dealing drugs for a crime syndicate in Sydney and saving for a house by the sea. But what does he think life is, a fairy tale? As the syndicate puts pressure on him to fill the shoes of his murdered boss, Murdoch is cornered by an equally formidable foe: the Australian Tax Office demanding an explanation for his sizeable cash income. Murdoch spins a beautiful lie, telling tax inspector, Hannah Simms, he’s a private detective. When Simms asks him to investigate the mystery of her niece's disappearance, Murdoch grabs what he thinks is a golden opportunity to outrun the syndicate. But his arrival in the missing girl's small coastal home town causes an unexpected stir and the reluctant PI soon realises his troubles are only just beginning. HEADLAND is crime fiction at its best, a small town murder mystery to keep you guessing until the very end. ** THIS IS NOT THE AUSTRALIA YOU’VE SEEN ADVERTISED ** HEADLAND is the first book in the Bill Murdoch Mystery series. Set in Sydney, and small town Australia, this series will appeal to fans of Mick Herron, Peter Temple, Barry Maitland, Ragnar Jonasson, Erik Hamre, Jane Harper, Garry Disher, Mari Hannah, Dave Warner, Jock Serong, Pete Brassett, and Iain Rankin's Rebus novels. Tense and taut. Smart and sharply-observed. This is a cracking new addition to the Aussie crime genre. Bad-boy-turned-local-hero, Bill Murdoch, is back to solve more murder mysteries in the sequels CLASS ACT, and BASE NATURE. Out now!
No Man's Land
Roland Fishman - 2014
A Muslim extremist group based in Indonesia has plans to launch devastating attacks on Sydney on New Year's Eve - and only one man can stop them: special operative Russell Carter, an Australian version of Lee Child's Jack Reacher - a man of few words but much action..."A thriller that has all the elements for success; a surfing, martial-arts proficient and taciturn hero and a beautiful sidekick with whom he still has unresolved issues... Fishman sets a fierce pace over almost 400 pages with the action seldom slowing...This is the first in a series of thrillers featuring the enigmatic and lethal Carter."MELBOURNE SUNDAY AGE - Australia's New York Times"All of this makes Carter an unexpected hero type - flawed, questioning, brave with enough of the all action hero type to be very believable. And it doesn't hurt that there's nothing decorative female about Erina - she's a strong, capable woman in her own right...Added to the believability of the unexpected, the realistic portray of the two central characters, and a strong plot, there's a hefty dose of good, dry very Australian humour."KAREN CHISHOLM - AUSTRALIA & NZ CRIME FICTION REVIEWS"Several of the action sequences are portrayed in such granular detail that often time dilates ... As it draws to its conclusion the conflict explodes like a display of fireworks."NICK LATHOURIS - CO-WRITER MAD MAX FURY ROAD"This is the rare international thriller with an engaging romantic subplot that features full-bodied human beings. Be ready to be thrilled and charmed. A thriller lovers delight."JAMES N. FREY - Author of nine acclaimed thrillers and the best selling HOW TO WRITE A DAM GOOD THRILLER"Fishman is the real deal. He knows how to sustain a cracking pace from start to finish, so much so that I found myself saying after each chapter, 'just one more'... Carter is a terrific protagonist, as dangerous as Jack Reacher but with a spiritual dimension."ALEX GILLY, author of DEVIL'S HARBOUR
No One
John Hughes - 2019
He doesn’t stop immediately. By the time he returns to the scene, the road is empty, but there is a dent in the car, high up on the passenger door, and what looks like blood. Only a man could have made such a dent, he thinks. For some reason he looks up, though he knows no one is there. Has he hit someone, and if so, where is the victim?So begins a story that takes us to the heart of contemporary Australia’s festering relationship to its indigenous past. A story about guilt for acts which precede us, crimes we are not sure we have committed, crimes gone on so long they now seem criminal- less.Part crime novel, part road movie, part love story, No One takes its protagonist to the very heart of a nation where non-existence is the true existence, where crimes cannot be resolved and guilt cannot be redeemed, and no one knows what to do with ghosts that are real.
Eucalyptus
Murray Bail - 1998
When Ellen turns nineteen Holland makes an announcement: she may marry only the man who can correctly name the species of each of the hundreds of gum trees on his property. Ellen is uninterested in the many suitors who arrive from around the world, until one afternoon she chances on a strange, handsome young man resting under a Coolibah tree. In the days that follow, he spins dozens of tales set in cities, deserts, and faraway countries. As the contest draws to a close, Ellen and the stranger's meetings become more erotic, the stories more urgent. Murray Bail's rich narrative is filled with unexpected wisdom about art, feminine beauty, landscape, and language. Eucalyptus is a shimmering love story that affirms the beguiling power of storytelling itself.
Dead in the Water
Tania Chandler - 2016
And safer. But soon her crime-writer ex-boyfriend turns up in town to promote his new novel, in which a woman is found dead — murdered — in a country lake. Hours later, Brigitte watches the police pull a body from the water near her Gippsland home.Her husband, a country cop now, is at the scene, though it’s not his investigation; he’s only helping the Melbourne Homicide Squad. But there’s something he’s not telling Brigitte.With her personal life spiralling out of control once more, and fearing her family is in danger, who can Brigitte turn to? And what if she makes the wrong choice?'Dead in the Water' is about trying to escape the cycle of trauma. It delves into the darkness beneath the surface of fear, betrayal, and revenge, to find a glimmer of hope.
The Morbids
Ewa Ramsey - 2020
Heart-wrenching, heart-warming and ultimately uplifting--a story about the power of a little kindnessA story of friendship, love and what it means to truly live when, sometimes, it may seem easier not to.Caitlin is convinced she's going to die.Two years ago she was a normal twenty-something with a blossoming career and a plan to go travelling with her best friend, until a car accident left her with a deep, unshakable understanding that she's only alive by mistake.Caitlin deals with these thoughts by throwing herself into work, self-medicating with alcohol, and attending a support group for people with death-related anxiety, informally known as the Morbids.But when her best friend announces she's getting married in Bali, and she meets a handsome doctor named Tom, Caitlin must overcome her fear of death and learn to start living again.Beautiful, funny, and universally relatable this story of hidden loneliness and the power of compassion and companionship reminds us that life is an adventure truly worth living.
The Paris Collaborator
A.W. Hammond - 2021
In German-occupied Paris, former schoolteacher Auguste Duchene has stumbled upon an unusual way to survive: he finds missing people. When he’s approached by the French Resistance to locate a missing priest – and a cache of stolen weapons – Duchene initially refuses. But the Resistance offer him no choice. Within hours, he’s also blackmailed by a powerful Nazi into searching for a German soldier who’s suspected of deserting.To fail at either task will have deadly consequences for Duchene – and for his daughter Marienne.So begins a frantic race against time. As forces close in on Paris, Duchene has only 48 hours to locate the missing priest and soldier, or lose the only person he loves…
Fetish
Tara Moss - 1999
When she travels to Sydney on assignment and finds her best friend murdered, she soon discovers a deadly puzzle of suspicious photographers, hired thugs, mysterious lovers and the handsome, jaded Detective Andy Flynn investigating the Stiletto Murders - the most violent serial killings Australia has ever known. In her quest to uncover the truth behind her best friend's murder, Mak falls headlong into a deadly game of cat and mouse, unaware she has become the obsession of a sadistic psychopath. When a photo from her portfolio disappears, her borrowed flat is ransacked and Andy Flynn suddenly goes underground, Mak knows she must run. But where can she go and to whom can she turn? Mak has scratched the seedy underbelly of a foreign city and is driven into a corner, an evil place where, for her own well-being and state of mind, she must suspect everyone and everything... The first book in the Mak Vanderwall series, FETISH is followed by SPLIT, COVET, HIT, SIREN and ASSASSIN.