Book picks similar to
Something For Nothing by Andy Muir


crime
australian
australia
australian-fiction

Murder at Myall Creek


Mark Tedeschi - 2016
    The trial created an enormous amount of controversy because it was almost unknown for Europeans to be charged with the murder of Aborigines. It would become the most serious trial of mass murder in Australia’s history. The trial’s prosecutor was the Attorney General of New South Wales, John Hubert Plunkett. It proved to be Plunkett’s greatest test, as it pitted his forensic brilliance and his belief in equality before the law against the combined forces of the free settlers, the squatters, the military, the emancipists, the newspapers, and even the convict population. From the bestselling author of Kidnapped and Eugenia, Murder at Myall Creek follows the journey of the man who who arguably achieved more for modern-day civil rights in Australia than anyone else before or since.

Fractured


Dawn Barker - 2013
    His wife, Anna, isn't coping with their newborn. Anna had wanted a child so badly and, when Jack was born, they were both so happy. They’d come home from the hospital a family. Was it really only six weeks ago?But Anna hasn’t been herself since. One moment she’s crying, the next she seems almost too positive. It must be normal with a baby, Tony thought; she’s just adjusting. He had been busy at work. It would sort itself out. But now Anna and Jack are missing. And Tony realises that something is really wrong…What happens to this family will break your heart and leave you breathless.

Heiress on Fire


Kellie McCourt - 2021
    The marriage of Aussie billion-heiress Indigo-Daisy-Violet-Amber Hasluck-Royce-Jones-Bombberg to conscientious reconstructive surgeon Dr Richard Bombberg has come to a spectacular end. In the middle of a cocktail party, Indigo set him and a mysterious redhead on fire. And then blew them and her penthouse up. All terrible accidents.When detectives discover explosive device remains in the charred penthouse, they're gunning for Indigo. Unless she can remain upright, stuff her dignity into her Chanel clutch and uncover the mystery redhead's identity, she's going to jail.To help Indigo, her semi-retired, semi-Buddhist, supermodel mother hires Esmerelda, a recent graduate of the model mentor prison program, as Indigo's personal assistant. Indigo and Esmerelda traverse Sydney's upper-class underbelly picking locks, outsmarting bankers and leprechauns, beating up feared gangsters, breaking into hospitals, setting a cathedral on fire (another terrible accident), bribing a giant fireman and some other stuff.How hard can all this be for an heiress and a felon?

The Night Guest


Fiona McFarlane - 2013
    Her routines are few and small. One day a stranger arrives at her door, looking as if she has been blown in from the sea. This woman—Frida—claims to be a care worker sent by the government. Ruth lets her in.Now that Frida is in her house, is Ruth right to fear the tiger she hears on the prowl at night, far from its jungle habitat? Why do memories of childhood in Fiji press upon her with increasing urgency? How far can she trust this mysterious woman, Frida, who seems to carry with her, her own troubled past? And how far can Ruth trust herself?

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.

Great Australian Mysteries: Unsolved, Unexplained, Unknown


John Pinkney - 2003
    This work includes inexplicable disappearances, some which defy logic, unsolved murders, mystifying phenomena and scientific enigmas.

Sheerwater


Leah Swann - 2020
    From a stunning new literary talent, you won't be able to put down this novel about a mother's love for her children - it will break your heart.'With visceral prose and a tense narrative arc that unfolds over just three days, speeding towards a dramatic conclusion .... Sheerwater is a propulsive read with an acute emotional core ... likely to hold appeal for readers of both literary and crime fiction, and fans of writers such as Emily Maguire, Emma Viskic and Sofie Laguna.' Bookseller + PublisherAva and her two young sons, Max and Teddy, are driving to their new home in Sheerwater, hopeful of making a fresh start in a new town, although Ava can't help but keep looking over her shoulder. They're almost at their destination when they witness a shocking accident - a light plane crashing in the field next to the road. Ava stops to help, but when she gets back to the car, she realises that somehow, among the smoke, fire and confusion, her sons have gone missing ...From a substantial new Australian writing talent, Sheerwater is tense, emotional, unforgettable. Perfect for readers of Mark Brandi's Wimmera and Stephanie Bishop's The Other Side of the World, this is a beautifully written, propulsive, gut-wrenching and unputdownable novel - an aching, powerful story of the heroic acts we are capable of in the name of love.'Sheerwater is that rare gift of a book that balances gorgeous, glittering language with breathless pace. Leah Swann writes with devastating honesty ... This is an extraordinary novel - I tore through it, captivated by the imagery and the setting, desperately hoping for a happy ending.' Rebecca Starford, author of Bad Behavior'Heart-in-mouth story ... Swann's language is sinewy and pointed; the book is trim and every sentence is necessary...a complex and horribly believable story with tremendous flair.' The Age'Sheerwater is a haunting story built on conflict. Freedom and control, tenderness and violence, hope and fear, love and hate. It shows the strength of a mother's love and the yearning for something more ... This novel is full of beautifully gripping prose and deeply powerful emotions told through sublime pacing. I found it triggered a peculiar mix of wanting to dwell in the darkly emotive prose while needing to urgently push through it to find resolution. It will be one of those books that lingers in your mind, the memory of which may even be mistaken for a story read in the news.' Booktopia'Sheerwater is compelling reading ... There is an urgency in the writing that makes you read on because you must know what the conclusion is - no matter which way it goes ... This is an extraordinary literary debut; the writing is beautifully evocative and the intertwining narratives of the main characters seamless. It's tender, it's suspenseful and you'll be wanting to see so much more from Leah Swann - I ignored everything for a day to rip through the pages and loved every minute of it.' Better Reading

An Isolated Incident


Emily Maguire - 2016
    But as the days tick by with no arrest, Chris's suspicion of those around her grows.

Double Take


Kendall Talbot - 2015
    A detective with more clues than time. A double cross no-one saw coming.Jackson Rich will do anything to save his wife. . . even if it means falling back into his criminal ways. Robbing a bank though, isn’t a one-man job and to make it out of the vault alive, he needs help from his old crew. But someone is watching every move he makes, and they are in it for the thrill and the money.Detective Steel receives a tip-off about a bank robbery set to be committed during the prized Melbourne Cup horse race. The clues pile up, as do the suspects. But each baffling lead runs to a dead-end and as the heist draws closer, Steel is drawn into a web of deceit that puts his stellar career on the line.When a shocking deception leaves the heist crew shattered and exposed, they aim for revenge—and more than one person will be trapped in the crosshairs. Double Take is a full-length, stand-alone heist thriller that will have you turning the pages all night long.Fans of John Grisham, Robert Dugoni, Melinda Leigh, Michael Connelly and Joy Ellis will enjoy this pulse-pounding mystery.

The Hunting


Stephen Leather - 2021
    His medical skills help casualties survive against all the odds.But Raj needs to rely on a completely different set of skills when he is taken hostage in a treacherous case of mistaken identity.Billionaire big-game hunter Jon van der Sandt is driven by revenge - his family have been killed by jihadist terrorists and he wants his vengeance up close and personal. He has hired ex Special Forces hard men to snatch the ISIS killers from the desert and transport them halfway across the world to the vast wilderness of his American estate.But they grab Raj by mistake, and once the killing begins it's too late to plead mistaken identity. To survive, he'll have to become as ruthless a killer as the man who is hunting him.

The Last Dance


Fiona McIntosh - 2015
    Here she meets the enigmatic Montgomery, who orchestrates a job for her as governess for the wealthy Ainsworth family in Sussex. But nothing is as straightforward as it first seems.In entering the mansion of Harp's End, Stella encounters a family with more secrets than most. She struggles to fit in above or below stairs – although nothing proves so challenging as restraining the illicit love that ignites between herself and the mysterious Douglas Ainsworth.When Douglas announces that they are all to voyage aboard a cruise ship bound for Morocco, tensions reach new heights and finally bubble over. Stella finds herself caught up in a family at war and in a world on the edge of another. She is now the keeper of an incendiary document smuggled out of Berlin, one which must reach London at all costs.From the rolling green hills of the Kentish Weald to the colourful alleys and bazaars of Morocco, this is a thrilling story of intrigue and danger – and a passion to risk dying for.

Other People's Houses


Kelli Hawkins - 2021
    The perfect family. Too good to be true.Kate Webb still grieves for her young son, ten years after his loss. She spends her weekends hungover, attending open houses on Sydney's wealthy north shore and imagining the lives of the people who live there.Then Kate visits the Harding house - the perfect house with, it seems, the perfect family. A photograph captures a kind-looking man, a beautiful woman she once knew from university days, and a boy - a boy that for one heartbreaking moment she believes is her own son.When her curiosity turns to obsession, she uncovers the cracks that lie beneath a glossy facade of perfection, sordid truths she could never have imagined.But is it her imagination? As events start to spiral dangerously out of control, could the real threat come from Kate herself?

The Inside Man


James Phelps - 2021
     The unputdownable action thriller from Australia's no.1 true crime writer.Riley Jax, convicted murderer. Once a promising engineer in the army, he lost everything in a single night when he killed a man - an act he cannot remember.It's a devastating gap in an otherwise perfect memory.Now he's facing a new life, one behind bars, where he has to learn a whole different set of rules and only the toughest survive.And as a series of deadly bombings rocks the outside world, the only man who might be able to find the truth behind the conspiracy ... is on the inside.

Bruny


Heather Rose - 2019
    Daesh has a thoroughfare to the sea and China is Australia's newest ally. When a bomb goes off in remote Tasmania, Astrid Coleman agrees to return home to help her brother before an upcoming election. But this is no simple task. Her brother and sister are on either side of politics, the community is full of conspiracy theories, and her father is quoting Shakespeare. Only on Bruny does the world seem sane. Until Astrid discovers how far the government is willing to go.Bruny is a searing, subversive, brilliant novel about family, love, loyalty and the new world order.

Cutters End


Margaret Hickey - 2021
    A mysterious death on New Year’s Eve 1989 leads to a shocking murder investigation 32 years later...A desert highway. A remote town. A murder that won’t stay hidden.New Year’s Eve, 1989. Eighteen-year-old Ingrid Mathers is hitchhiking her way to Alice Springs. Bored, hungover and separated from her friend Joanne, she accepts a lift to the remote town of Cutters End.July 2021. Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti is seconded to a recently reopened case, one in which he has a personal connection. Three decades ago, a burnt and broken body was discovered in scrub off the Stuart Highway, 300km south of Cutters End. Though ultimately ruled an accidental death, many people - including a high-profile celebrity - are convinced it was murder.When Mark’s interviews with the witnesses in the old case files go nowhere, he has no choice but to make the long journey up the highway to Cutters End.And with the help of local Senior Constable Jagdeep Kaur, he soon learns that this death isn’t the only unsolved case that hangs over the town...