Book picks similar to
The Good Teacher by R.M. Anderson


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The Stoning


Peter Papathanasiou - 2021
    Suspicion instantly falls on the refugees at the new detention centre on Cobb's northern outskirts. Tensions are high, between whites and the local indigenous community, between immigrants and the townies.Still mourning the recent death of his father, Detective Sergeant George Manolis returns to his childhood hometown to investigate. Within minutes of his arrival, it's clear that Cobb is not the same place he left. Once it thrived, but now it's a poor and derelict dusthole, with the local police chief it deserves. And as Manolis negotiates his new colleagues' antagonism, and the simmering anger of a community destroyed by alcohol and drugs, the ghosts of his past begin to flicker to life.Vivid, pacy and almost dangerously atmospheric, The Stoning is the first in a new series of outback noir featuring DS Manolis, himself an outsider, and a good man in a world gone to hell.

Flying the Nest


Rachael Johns - 2020
    Heartbroken, Ash suddenly finds herself living a double life - one week with her children, the next cohabiting with her happily single sister-in-law. Her friends think the modern custody solution is an exciting opportunity for her to spread her wings, but all Ash wants is her family back together.An offer to renovate a seaside cottage seems like the perfect distraction for Ash while waiting for Adrian to come to his senses. She's determined to fix her marriage as well as the cottage, but life gets even more complicated when she meets local fisherman Dan Emerson.Soon, each home-stay becomes more dysfunctional, while for the other week Ash enjoys the peaceful life of the beachside community. The more time Ash spends in Ragged Point, the more she questions what she really wants. Is a sea-change the fresh start she needs to move on?When tragedy calls Ash back to the city, she's torn between the needs of her family and her future. Can her family life fit in with a permanent move to the beach or could Ash's new-found independence attract Adrian back to the nest?

The Geography of Friendship


Sally Piper - 2018
    Over the next five days, as they face up to the challenging terrain, it soon becomes clear they are not alone.   Lisa, Samantha and Nicole have known each other since school. Lisa is a fighter, Samantha a peacekeeper and Nicole a rule follower. United they bring out the best in one another.  Only once it is too late for them to turn back do they appreciate the danger they are in. Their friendship is tested, and each of them must make a choice that will change their lives forever.

Last Place You Look


Louisa Scarr - 2021
    You’d do anything to find out the truth. Wouldn’t you?A man lies dead in a hotel room, and the police attend his home address to inform the widow. Nothing unusual, until DC Freya West realises – too late – that the victim is the man she has been having an affair with. The future she imagined has been snatched away.Meanwhile, her new boss, DS Robin Butler, is preoccupied with his own problems. Mistakes he thought buried deep in his past now threaten to be exposed. Before long, both Butler and West are keeping secrets that could end their careers – and worse. When the detectives have a chance to tell the truth, they choose to keep quiet. But once that line is crossed, is there any going back? After all, breaking the law is easy when you know how to uphold it.Don’t miss this tense and compulsive police procedural thriller. Perfect for fans of Sunday Times bestselling authors Cara Hunter, Susie Steiner and Jane Casey.Praise for Last Place You Look‘The delicious joy of discovering a brilliant new crime series! What appears to be a simple case opens wounds for both suspects and investigators. Our detectives, Butler and West, are a duo for our days; bound by their troubles, loneliness and secrets into an unlikely alliance. You’ll fall for them, and this novel, in a big way!’ Jo Furniss, author of All the Little Children‘Tightly plotted with superb characterisation, Last Place You Look shows the devastating consequences when a small wrong decision leads to a bigger one, and then a bigger one after that. A skilfully-built house of cards comes crashing down, leaving DC Freya West and DS Robin Butler in possession of shocking secrets... It's a book you won't be able to turn away from until you reach the very last page.’ Alison Belsham, author of The Tattoo Thief‘Fantastic story with a pair of detectives who are battling their own demons amidst an apparent suburban suicide’ James Delargy, author of Vanished

Asylum


Jack Adams - 2019
    Behind these walls, in these rooms, on the grounds, at the river. The inmate sketched it all – fine lines. See there, in the negative space, the truth in the pencil strokes. Then he was gone.Joe was their friend; the man they spoke to through the wire fence of the Lunatic Asylum, and 10-year-old best friends, Nathan Delaney and Adam Murphy, knew he wasn’t insane. Then, one day, Joe was gone. Now hitting their thirties—jobs and divorces in their wake—ex-cop, current P.I. Nate and psychologist Adam decide to share office space and a receptionist. That’s when the letter arrives advising them that they have received ‘Expectations’. A quaint, old-fashioned bequest delivered by a solicitor which amounts to an inheritance for two boys – left by Joseph O’Connell, a missing-believed-deceased former patient at the River Park Lunatic Asylum.

Man in the Corner


Nathan Besser - 2016
    But the following night David collapses from a rare brain disease and within a few months his world is turned upside down.It was a perfectly acceptable life – successful business, happy marriage, two children. Why then has David involved himself in an identity-theft crime worth millions of dollars? Why is he taking instructions from the oddly eloquent, handsome criminal, Ben Strbic? David can't quite understand the sequence of events that has led him here, only that he must continue to the very end.As the days and months progress, a scam that was meant to be straightforward becomes a perilous mystery unfolding in David's very own life.

The Hope Flower


Joy Dettman - 2021
    Or they were a family, until their father took his own life to escape his bed-bound wife, too obese to leave her room.But for Lori and the remaining brothers, there is no escape from their volatile, mentally unstable mother. They raise themselves away from the gaze of the authorities, realising that though abandoned, they are now in charge. They can control everything, including their mother's food intake.In time, their mother emerges, after losing two-thirds of her body weight. But does she bring with her the seed of hope for a better future, or will all hell break loose?'The texture of the writing as well as the mind-boggling plots give her books a fatally addictive attraction' Saturday Age

The Trouble with Paradise


Annie Seaton - 2019
    The tropical island holiday after her beloved grandfather’s funeral was supposed to be balm for her soul, and not create more worry. When Dominic Richards moves back to his home town to take up a new job, the last person he expects to discover as his new assistant professor, is the beautiful woman he spent a memorable night with on a tropical island. Nic doesn't do forever but having Melissa around has him thinking maybe he could. But Melissa is not one bit interested… or is she? (Note: this is a revised and expanded edition of Holiday Affair originally published, 2012.)

A Time of Secrets


Deborah Burrows - 2015
    Someone in the Australian Intelligence Bureau is trading secrets and it's up to Stella and her uncompromising superior officer, Lieutenant Nick Ross, to find the traitor.When Eric's team is scheduled to be deployed in a dangerous mission to the South West Pacific, Stella races to uncover the truth or risk not only Eric's life, but the security of Australia itself. Torn between protecting the ones she loves and her duty to her country, Stella chooses to pursue the truth at all costs.Even if it means putting herself in the firing line...

The Shepherd's Hut


Tim Winton - 2018
    Short-listed twice for the Booker Prize and the winner of a record four Miles Franklin Literary Awards for Best Australian Novel, he has a gift for language virtually unrivaled among writers in English. His work is both tough and tender, primordial and new - always revealing the raw, instinctual drives that lure us together and rend us apart. In The Shepherd's Hut, Winton crafts the story of Jaxie Clackton, 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. The Shepherd's Hut is a thrilling tale of unlikely friendship and yearning, at once brutal and lyrical, from one of our finest storytellers.

Half the World Away


Cath Staincliffe - 2015
    Back in Manchester, her parents Jo and Tom, who separated when Lori was a toddler, follow her adventures on her blog, 'Lori In The Orient'.Suddenly communication stops and when the silence persists a frantic Jo and Tom report her missing. It is impossible to find out anything from 5,000 miles away so they travel out to Chengdu, a city in the south-western province of Sichuan, to search for their daughter.Landing in a totally unfamiliar country, with no knowledge of the customs or language, and receiving scant help from the local authorities, Jo and Tom are forced to turn detective, following in their daughter's footsteps, tracing the people she mentioned in her posts, interviewing her friends, colleagues and students. It's an unbearably difficult challenge and, as the days pass, the fear that Lori is lost for good grows ever larger.

Find Her First


Emma Christie - 2022
    . . The race for the truth leads them far from their Edinburgh home – but who will find her first, and will they save her life or take it?

The Peacock Summer


Hannah Richell - 2018
    Set in a fading family estate nestled within the Chiltern Hills, this is the story of two summers, sixty years apart, woven together to reveal one dramatic family story.

Run, Run, Run


Mark Capell - 2011
    But even that can't protect him and his wife, Sally. Somebody knows their new identity - somebody who shouldn't.Frank Tong is an artist who finds inspiration for his paintings from the violence of his criminal life. When his brother is put away for murder he wants revenge. And Frank has a mole in the Witness Protection Scheme.Dan and the pregnant Sally have no choice. They have to flee. They go on the run from both sides of the law.They must learn to lie, steal, shoot and fight to survive. They can't use their credit cards, cash machines, mobile phones - anything that will give away their location. They must constantly look over their shoulder. It's living life like a criminal - a difficult task for two law abiding people.What will it take to return to a normal life? How far are they prepared to go? What will they sacrifice for their freedom?'Run, Run, Run' is a crime thriller that will have your heart racing and your mind buzzing....Sometimes the best way to get justice is to run away from it...(2014 REVISED EDITION)

Camp Leichhardt


Greg Barron - 2017
    When he heads down to Camp Leichhardt, a Grey Nomad camp on the Roper River, to fish and get away from the stresses of life, he finds that all is not what it seems. Ben uncovers a criminal conspiracy that will destroy lives and wreak havoc on local communities. With the beautiful Malea as his ally, he has to face his past head on, and tackle a cartel intent on making money at any cost. Yet, in doing so, he risks everything, even his own future.