Book picks similar to
Drums of Mer by Ion L. Idriess


australia
fiction
australian-author
1750-1799

Family Baggage


Monica McInerney - 2005
    She’s arranged hundreds of them for her family’s travel agency. Now Harriet is joining her adopted sister, Lara, to lead a group through the Cornish countryside. But when Lara fails to appear at the airport as planned, Harriet finds herself in uncharted territory and suddenly alone with a busload of eccentric seniors. As the tour wends its way through the picturesque landscape, Harriet must uncover her sister’s whereabouts and confront long-held family secrets involving Lara’s arrival twenty-five years ago . . . not to mention keeping track of more baggage–real and emotional–than she ever expected.

Wildhorse Creek


Kerry McGinnis - 2010
    He finds it in Queensland's spectacular Gulf Country, on the sprawling cattle runs. The Gulf breeds tough men, and Billy is quickly drawn to the excitement and adventure of working with the fiery cattleman and ex-con, Blake Reilly, and his daughter, Jo.Billy finds mateship, danger and romance in the Gulf, but he also finds an untamed land with a history of violence. In the brooding heat and unpredictable storms, the future he had sought unfolds - in ways as turbulent and unexpected as the country itself - and Billy discovers a place where he can at last belong.

The Time of Thunder


Greg Barron - 2020
    Yet what begins as a field assignment becomes a journey into Jamie’s own identity.Danny Carter was a schoolboy during the Korean War, growing up with the mystery of his airman brother's disappearance. As Danny comes of age in a rapidly changing United States, he is determined to locate his brother's lost plane in the face of murder, intimidation and loss.Danny and Jamie, coming together from opposite sides of the world, will find that revenge extracts a terrible price, and reveal a shocking truth that will shake the world.

Catch Us The Foxes


Nicola West - 2021
    Others you don’t dare let out … Twin Peaks meets The Dry in a deliciously dark and twisted tale that unravels a small town Ambitious young journalist Marlowe ‘Lo’ Robertson would do anything to escape the suffocating confines of her small home town. While begrudgingly covering the annual show for the local paper, Lo is horrified to discover the mutilated corpse of Lily Williams, the reigning showgirl and Lo’s best friend. Seven strange symbols have been ruthlessly carved into Lily’s back. But when Lo reports her grisly find to the town’s police chief, he makes her promise not to tell anyone about the symbols. Lo obliges, though it’s not like she has much of a choice – after all, he is also her father. When Lily’s murder makes headlines around the country and the town is invaded by the media, Lo seizes the opportunity to track down the killer and make a name for herself by breaking the biggest story of her life. What Lo uncovers is that her sleepy home town has been harbouring a deadly secret, one so shocking that it will captivate the entire nation. Lo’s story will change the course of her life forever, but in a way she could never have dreamed of.

A Cage of Desire


Shuchi Singh Kalra - 2018
    You don't need the latter, because no matter what you do, you cannot make anyone love you back.'Renu had always craved for love and security, and her boring marriage, mundane existence somehow leads her to believe that, maybe, this is what love is all about. Maya, on the other hand, is a successful author who is infamous for her bold, erotic books.What do these two women have in common? How are their lives intertwined?Renu's thirst for love and longing takes her on a poignant journey of self-exploration. The answers come to her when she finds the courage to stand up for herself, to fight her inner demons and free herself from the cage of desires . . .

The Lost Boys


Sam de Brito - 2008
    He and his friends while away their days smoking dope, trying to root chicks and surfing at Maroubra. Ned's life is only just beginning – tomorrow, some time.Ned is 35. He and his mates drift through the days snorting cocaine, trying to root chicks, clinging to the pub and surfing at Bondi. For Ned, this is it – tomorrow never came.What happens when life passes you by? When the drugs no longer work and the promise of the future has become the wreckage of the past? What happens when a generation of men lose their way?Confrontingly honest, blackly funny, The Lost Boys is a compelling look at the dark side of being a 21st century man from a powerful new voice in fiction.

Well-Behaved Women


Emily Paull - 2019
    A woman grapples with survivor’s guilt after a body is found in her garden bed; an ageing beauty queen contemplates her past; a world champion free-diver disappears during routine training...In moments disquieting or quietly inspiring, this collection considers the complexity of the connections we make—with our family, friends and neighbours, and with those met briefly or never at all.In her timely debut, Emily Paull voices a chorus of characters that reveal and re-evaluate the expectations of women in Australia today—after all, well-behaved women rarely make history.

Cricket Kings


William McInnes - 2006
    With these characters William will make us laugh and cry. And never again will we think that someone is just a regular bloke - everyone can be a king or a queen in their own suburb.

The Forbidden Spacemage


Dan Oakley - 2018
     Tomas longs for adventure. Rejected by the villagers of Terrano all his life for his magical abilities, he knows peasants like him are not permitted to serve aboard the Seven Kingdom’s Starships. But when someone reports him for practicing the dark art of magic and Tomas has to run from his accusers, he finds himself caught up in a world of starships, alien worlds and mutant creatures. Join Tomas on his adventure through space!

Hell Has Harbour Views


Richard Beasley - 2001
    Not for him the stereotype of the greedy lawyer. He'd be the defender of the abused, the voice of the poor, the champion of the oppressed. And he was for a time...until Rottman Maughan and Nash dangled the office with the harbour view in front of him.Now he's turning blind eye to suspect time sheets, championing the powerful against the powerless, and not being entirely honest with his girlfriend.Is there a way back?

Troppo


Madelaine Dickie - 2016
    But things take a dangerous turn when she goes to work at Shane’s Sumatran Oasis.Caught up in the hostility directed at Shane, and flirting and surfing with the hell-man Matt, Penny soon finds herself swept into a world where two very different cultures must collide.

Confessions of a Once Fashionable Mum


Georgia Madden - 2015
    Facebook-worthy baby? Tick. Bikini-body six weeks after giving birth? Um … not so much.Fashion PR exec Ally Bloom got her happy ending. Okay, her marriage might be showing the odd crack, her battleaxe mother-in-law might have come to stay, and she might not be the yummy mummy she'd imagined, but it's nothing a decent night's sleep and a firm commitment to a no-carb diet won't fix.But when Ally returns to work and finds she'll be reporting to a 22-year-old airhead, she decides to turn her back on life as a professional fashionista and embrace her inner earth mama instead.So it's out with the Louboutins and champagne and in with the sensible flats and coffee mornings with the Mummy Mafia. From attending her first grown-up dinner party only to discover that placenta is top of the menu to controlling her monster crush on local playgroup hottie Cameron, Ally must find her feet in the brave new world of the stay-at-home mum.

The Call of the High Country


Tony Parsons - 1999
    As a young married couple, Andrew and Anne work together to make the very best of their property, High Peaks, but at what cost to their happiness? In time, the property will pass to their son, David. Handsome and hardworking, David is determined to become the best sheepdog handler in the land. Nothing is going to stand in his way-not even the beautiful Catriona Campbell, daughter of the wealthy graziers next door. The Call Of The High Country is an inspiring and heartwarming saga of a family battling through hard times, of a love that defies all odds, and of dreams that won't be broken.

Gone Fishing


Susan Duncan - 2013
    For bargeman Sam Scully, life in Cook’s Basin is nothing short of paradise. A wonderland of golden sand and turquoise waters, battered old tinnies and wonky pontoons, it’s a realm unspoilt by the modern world. But then a notice goes up in the Square that screams ‘EXCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT! ’Paradise is about to be ripped apart. With plans underway to build a flash resort in the heart of their community, the residents leap into action - with Sam as their leader, and a twelve-foot papier-mache cockatoo as their mascot . . . But it'’s never going to be easy to turn the tide of ‘progress’. Meanwhile there'’s trouble brewing at the Briny Café. Kate Jackson is struggling to come to terms with the dreadful secret spilled on her mother'’s deathbed. And as for Kate'’s co-owner, Ettie Brookbank… Well, what is happening to Ettie?

Union Belle


Deborah Challinor - 2005
    Times were tough and when the Government implemented harsh and heavy-handed emergency regulations, families were divided along political lines, and bitter accusations of sabotage and treachery began to tear small mining communities apart. Against this emotive backdrop, in the tiny mining village of Pukemiro, a story of love and treachery is also being played out in the personal lives of some of those intimately connected with the strike. Ellen McCabe, wife of the local union secretary and hero, Thomas McCabe, and a life-long Union woman, finds herself caught up the passion of the fight and a new found passion of her own - when a charismatic war veteran, Jack Vaughan comes to Pukemiro and befriends her husband. In a powerful tale of love and conflict Ellen is forced to examine her loyalties and make heart shattering choices, as the country and community around her is pulled apart. A full-blooded romance set in times of conflict, Union will do for the Waikato what Denniston Rose did for the West Coast - and much more.