Book picks similar to
Bodger (Cygnet Young Fiction) by Peter D. Jeans


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Whistler's Bones: A Novel of the Australian Frontier


Greg Barron - 2017
    Two years later he was a key man on one of Australia’s greatest cattle drives – the Durack family’s epic journey from Cooper’s Creek, Queensland – to the Kimberley. Drawing on Charlie’s largely unknown story, and filling in the gaps with fiction, the author has created a novel unique in Australian literature. An unprecedented adventure, and a passionate love story – Whistler's Bones is both a celebration of the good things in the settlement of Northern Australia – and a damning indictment of the bad.

The Ballad of Banjo Crossing


Tess Evans - 2011
    Jack McPhail is a man on the run from his past, a drifter who lands by accident in a sleepy outback Australian town called Banjo Crossing. Jack - almost despite himself - becomes slowly drawn into the town, its community, its characters and its concerns.He's on the brink of falling in love with Mardi, a young widow and owner of the local coffee shop, when the community is confronted and divided by an unexpected development. A coal mining company has come to town, intent on buying up the local properties to build an open cut mine. The town of Banjo Crossing rallies together to fight off the threat. Jack wants to help out his new friends, but if he does, he's at risk of his past being exposed. Having his secret out there could change everything for him. Will he help them out, even if it costs him his second chance at happiness?'Highly topical and engaging ... incubating a mystery which must not be revealed until the exact psychological moment ... entertaining and charismatic' Adelaide Advertiser

Where Fortune Lies


Mary-Anne O'Connor - 2020
    For fans of Nicole Alexander, Colleen McCullough, and Fiona McIntosh.1879: 'Invisible' Anne Brown fears she'll never escape the harshness and poverty of her life in County Donegal, Ireland. Until, one heartbreaking Beltane night, her life is changed forever and she leaves to seek her fortune in far-flung Australia.Upon the death of their father, charismatic Will Worthington and his beloved sister Mari are stunned to find he has left all their money and a ticket to the far shores of Australia to an enigmatic painted woman. It seems their only hope for a brighter future also lies in Australia, where together with Will's best friend, the artist Charlie Turner, they seek their fortunes.Charlie finds love with a mysterious exotic dancer, yet there is trouble on the horizon. His new friends up in the Victorian Alps might be teaching him to run with the wild horses and find his talent with a brush at last, but life in a bushranger gang is a dangerous game.As Charlie struggles to break free from his fate, all four are left with impossible choices as fortunes waver between life and death, loyalty and the heart.

Red Dust Dancer


Eva Scott - 2016
    Tamsin Cooper's career as a Parisian showgirl is coming to an end. Nearly thirty, with no boyfriend and no prospects of a family of her own, she decides to take up her inheritance–her Uncle Ted's cattle farm in Queensland.Farm life seems to be suiting her until Tamsin discovers that Uncle Ted had a secret–and her sexy neighbour Angus Walker helped him keep it. Faced with losing her farm and her heart, Tamsin returns to what she knows best, dancing, and starts teaching the residents of Elliott's Crossing how to get in touch with their inner showgirl. She may have the dance moves, but can she shimmy past a forty–year–old lie and a betrayal of lost love to find her place–and rediscover love–in this country town?

After Sundown


Suzanne Brandyn - 2018
    It's also about small town gossip and a sexy Jackaroo, who turns out to be much more than a man on horseback. Blurb: After the death of her husband, Ebony Burrows follows through on her dream to move to a property they'd purchased some years back at Hope Creek, near Whispers Gully. When she arrives, she is warned to lock up after sundown. Ebony isn't into superstitions or small-town gossip until Mr Handsomeness, the next-door neighbour, and the recent caretaker, introduces himself as Tyler Hanson. He repeats the warning she had from the real estate agent when she picked up the keys. Hope Creek is not a safe place for a woman to live alone, and she must lock up after sundown. Her suspicions are aroused when Tyler becomes an annoying neighbour. Ebony discovers a murder-suicide happened in the woolshed at Hope Creek five years ago and she thinks she's made a rash decision. Worse still, whoever is responsible for the unnerving incidents about her house is targeting her and not the community of Whispers Creek. Ebony doesn't know who to trust. Are two of the most wanted criminals in Australia responsible? Does someone else have a vendetta against her? Or perhaps it's the stranger who knocks on her door after sundown.

Diamonds and Dust


Sheryl McCorry - 2008
    When she was 18 her family moved to Broome, and it was the first time she'd ever used a telephone or seen a television.A year later, only hours after being railroaded into marriage by a fast-talking Yank, Sheryl locked eyes with Bob McCorry, a drover and buffalo shooter. When her marriage ended after only a few months, they began a love affair that would last a lifetime and take them to the Kimberley's harshest frontiers.Sheryl became the only woman in a team of stockmen. She soon learned how to run rogue bulls and to outsmart the neighbours in the toughest game of all – mustering cattle. The playing field was a million acres of unfenced, unmarked boundaries.Sheryl went on to become the first woman in the Kimberley to run two million-acre cattle stations, but her life was not without its share of tragedy. Her story is an epic saga of life in one of the toughest and most beautiful terrains in Australia – a story of hardship, drought, joy and triumph.

Unsolved Australia: Lost Boys, Gone Girls


Justine Ford - 2019
    But not for everyone. Unsolved Australia: Lost Boys, Gone Girls tells thirteen stories of people whose luck ran out in the most mysterious of circumstances.It's a journalistic deep-dive into Australia's dark heart by one of Australia's premier true crime writers, Justine Ford, the acclaimed bestselling author of Unsolved Australia and The Good Cop .Why are four people missing from a Western Australian doomsday cult? Who abducted and murdered beauty queen Bronwynne Richardson on pageant night? And why is a cooked chook important evidence in the outback disappearance of Paddy Moriarty?Key players are interviewed, evidence laid out and suspects assessed. Never-before-published information is revealed. Can you help crack the case and solve these mysteries?Hold tight as Unsolved Australia: Lost Boys, Gone Girls takes you on a chilling yet inspiring true crime rollercoaster ride where the final destination is hope.

Midwife On The Orient Express: A Christmas Miracle


Fiona McArthur - 2019
    On departure she can't believe her ill-timing when she sees Dr Lucas Black on that platform in Venice.Lucas hates surprises. Offering his seat to the woman who jilted him fifteen years before was bad, but leaving her with his meddling grandmother was a hundred times worse.Transport yourself into the glamorous night and through the next thirty-six hours as emotion, an unexpected medical drama and grandmotherly interference help this midwife and doctor find their miracle for Christmas.

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.)

The Fighting Season


Bram Connolly - 2016
    Matt Rix, the ultra tough commando who led the ambushed platoon, swears vengeance. Rix is one of Special Forces' most lethal operators. He'll neutralise Rapier - whatever it takes.But in Afghanistan's brutal war, not all things are as they seem.'The Fighting Season is military fiction of the first order: as tough as nails and packed with the insider knowledge of someone who has done it for real.' - Matthew Reilly'Action packed, gritty and authentic to the core.' - Merrick Watts

The Frankston Murders: 25 Years On


Vikki Petraitis - 2018
    The spate of murders in 1993 touched many more lives than just the three victims. All of Melbourne was gripped with fear, as Frankston and surrounding suburbs were flooded with police hunting the serial killer of three young women. It began on June 11 when Elizabeth Stevens was murdered on her way home from the library. On July 8, Debbie Fream who'd left her 12-day-old baby with a friend while she dashed out for milk, was abducted and killed. Three weeks later, Year 12 student, Natalie Russell, was brutally murdered on her way home from school. When Paul Denyer, an odd young man, was arrested the day after Natalie's body was found, the police and public were shocked by his lack of emotion. Denyer, who was only 21-years-old, spoke of the three young women with contempt as he described their final moments. Their deaths had simply fuelled his bloodlust. Eleven years later, just as the public's memory of the Frankston murders began to fade, convicted serial killer, Paul Denyer, made front-page news with his quest to become a woman. The Frankston Murders: 25 years on details the shocking crimes and explores the lingering effects of what Denyer did. Now 25-years-old, Debbie Fream's son Jake speaks for the first time about the loss of his mother. And Carmel and Brian Russell share their dream for Denyer's ongoing incarceration, as the killer of their child will be eligible to apply for parole for the first time in 2023.

Starfish Sisters


J.C. Burke - 2007
    At first they are not friends, as jealousy, insecurity, secrets, and lies abound. Yet they soon realize that their friendship brings out the best in each of them. But will it be too late to make the grade at the camp?

The Stone Dragon


Peter Watt - 2008
    What is it that draws Tung Chi, a former Shaolin priest in the service of the Chinese emperor, to the Australian colony of Queensland?This mystery ensnares local businessman John Wong, who fears for his daughter, living across the world in Peking at a time when a revolutionary force known as the Boxers is on the rise. Together Tung and John, with his son, Andrew, embark on a dangerous journey that will lead them into a conflict in which everything is at stake, but allegiances uncertain. The sleeping dragon of China is awakening... From the tropics of Queensland to the heart of the Chinese empire, The Stone Dragon is a gripping tale of rebellion, survival and the powerful influence of loyalty and love.

Blue Fin


Colin Thiele - 1969
    He's thin and long-faced, like the fish he's named after. At school he's no good at sport and, at home, his father scorns him. Snook joins his father and fellow crewmen on a tuna-fishing expedition, when disaster strikes. It is up to Snook to save himself and his father from a desperate situation.

A Sunburnt Childhood


Toni Tapp Coutts - 2016
    But there was no 'big house' here - Toni did not grow up in a large homestead. She lived in a shack that had no electricity and no running water. The oppressive climate of the Territory - either wet or dry - tested everyone. Fish were known to rain from the sky and sometimes good men drank too much and drowned trying to cross swollen rivers.Toni grew up with the Aboriginal people who lived and worked on the station, and got into scrapes with her ever-increasing number of siblings. She loved where she grew up - she was happy on the land with her friends and family, observing the many characters who made up the community on Killarney. When she was sent to boarding school all she wanted to do was go back to the land she loved, despite the fact that her parents' marriage was struggling as Bill Tapp succumbed to drink and June Tapp refused to go under with him.Toni's love of the natural world and of people alike has resulted in a tender portrait of a life that many people would consider tough. She brings vividly to the page a story seldom seen: a Territory childhood, with all its colour, characters and contradictions.