Book picks similar to
Where the Truth Lies by Karina Kilmore
crime
australian-author
mystery
australian
Inheritance of Secrets
Sonya Bates - 2020
A wartime promise. A quest for the truth. Heather Morris meets Jane Harper in a gripping, page-turning mystery.No matter how far you run, the past will always find you.Juliet's elderly grandparents are killed in their Adelaide home. Who would commit such a heinous crime - and why? The only clue is her grandfather Karl's missing signet ring.When Juliet's estranged sister, Lily, returns in fear for her life, Juliet suspects something far more sinister than a simple break-in gone wrong. Before Juliet can get any answers, Lily vanishes once more.Juliet only knew Karl Weiss as a loving grandfather, a German soldier who emigrated to Australia to build a new life. What was he hiding that could have led to his murder? While attempting to find out, Juliet uncovers some disturbing secrets from WWII that will put both her and her sister's lives in danger ...Gripping. Tense. Mysterious. Inheritance of Secrets links the crimes of the present to the secrets of the past and asks how far would you go to keep a promise?'The perfect combination of great historical fiction and a thriller ... highly recommend' Better Reading'Captures the imagination from the first page' SA Weekend'A tense compelling read; think Jane Harper's The Dry meets Heather Morris's The Tattooist of Auschwitz ... fast-paced story-telling with plenty of heart-stopping moments. If you want to lose yourself for several hours, this is a wonderful book to do it in.' Nadia L King'A layered family drama of mysteries and long held loyalties' The Blurb
The Ex Girlfriend
Nicola Moriarty - 2019
After everything she's been through, Georgia knows she deserves someone like him, to make her feel loved. Safe.The only problem is his ex-girlfriend. Luke says Cadence is having trouble accepting their break-up, but Georgia thinks there's more to the story. She also has the feeling someone is watching her.When everything starts to go wrong at work, at home, in her old friendships and her happy new relationship with Luke, Georgia starts to feel truly afraid.Cadence wants what she has. What would she do to get it?And can Georgia trust anyone at all?
Praise for Nicola Moriarty
'I devoured it' Marian Keyes
'Accelerates in intensity and sheer originality with every page' Australian Women's Weekly
'Dramatic, mysterious and compelling' Vogue
Beneath the Shadows
Sara Foster - 2011
However, a week later, Adam vanishes, leaving their baby daughter on the doorstep. The following year, Grace returns to the tiny village of Roseby. She is desperate for answers, but it seems the slumbering village is unwilling to give up its secrets. As Grace learns more about the locals and the area’s superstitions and folklore, strange dreams begin to trouble her. Are the villagers hiding something, or is she becoming increasingly paranoid? Only as snowfall threatens to cut them off from the rest of the world does Grace begin to understand how close the threat lies, and that she and her daughter may be in terrible danger if she cannot get them away in time. Praise for Beneath the Shadows 'Something for everyone: mystery, romance and mortal danger' Kirkus Reviews 'Sara Foster overtly appropriates the tone, atmosphere and themes of classics from Wuthering Heights to Rebecca, delivering a modern gothic that has the charm and suspense of Susan Hill's ghost stories.'―Saturday Age 'Sara Foster slowly unravels the mystery in this highly engaging thriller… Secrets Grace uncovers in the cellar, not to mention the ghostly antics of the grandfather clock, further enhance this very readable novel's Gothic flavour' ―Canberra Times 'Loss, grief, abandonment, and search for truth are dark themes woven through Beneath the Shadows. Combining elements of mystery, psychological thriller, romance, and ghost story, the novel leaves readers guessing until the very end.―West Australian 'As winter snows start to cut them off from the world, Grace finds the answers lie in unsuspected places. Heart-stopping moments are ahead for her… and us.” ―Women's Day “If you’ve ever fantasised about leaving all the chaos of the city behind and opting for a more peaceful existence in a small town, you might think again after reading Beneath the Shadows… Full of intrigue and wonderfully dark descriptions of ghosts that haunt the moors.―Good Reading Magazine
The Inheritance
Gabriel Bergmoser - 2021
A young woman is hiding out in a sleepy North Queensland tourist town, trying to stay under the radar, when she stumbles across a dangerous drug cartel. Anyone else might back away shaking their head, pretend they hadn't seen anything, keep quiet, even though people are getting hurt. But Maggie is no ordinary girl. She's got skills, as well as plenty of secrets to keep, burdens to carry - and anger to burn.When circumstances mean that she has to get out of town - fast - she heads towards Melbourne, where she just might find the answers that she needs - answers about her family and who she really is. With a bent cop for a dubious ally, the police tracking her and furious bikers on her trail, Maggie is in deep trouble. She's only got her ingenuity and wits on her side - and a determination not to inherit the sins of her father.A powerhouse, fast-paced, high-adrenaline and tense thriller from Gabriel Bergmoser, author of the critically acclaimed bestselling outback noir The Hunted.PRAISE FOR THE INHERITANCE'A heroine you can't look away from, pure thrills and wallop, wilder and gamier than your average Aussie noir, this is fierce storytelling.' Kyle Perry, bestselling author of The Bluffs'The Inheritance locks the reader in the trunk and puts the pedal to the metal for twenty-two blistering chapters.' Jack Heath, bestselling author of Hangman'The Inheritance captures the pedal-to-the-metal pace and thrills of Bergmoser's first book, but adds a more substantial plot and richer characters. The story unfolds quickly, and it swiftly builds to an explosive climax. A ferocious tale about a troubled heroine who makes most of the fictional tough guys look like wimps.' Canberra WeeklyPRAISE FOR THE HUNTED'An original and high-octane read, it makes Deliverance look like Picnic at Hanging Rock.' The Times/Sunday Times Crime Club'This slice of outback noir is ... at once exhilarating, gleefully vicious and totally race-to-the-finish-line unputdownable.' The Observer'An audacious walk on the wildest side of outback noir ... a vivid thriller.' The Sydney Morning Herald'A perfectly paced, thrilling read with an unrelenting sense of dread and menace ... building suspense at every turn of the page. Crime and thriller readers will love this savage Rottweiler of a novel that will clamp its jaws around their throat and shake them to the end.' Books+Publishing'Tough, violent, suspenseful and peopled with great characters, The Hunted could well be the Australian thriller of the year. This is Jack Reacher for adults.' Canberra Weekly
The Paris Affair
Pip Drysdale - 2021
It turns out she might be right. Meet Harper Brown… Occupation: Arts journalistDream job: Hard-hitting news reporterLocation: ParisLoves: True crime podcasts, art galleries, coffee, whiskeyDoes not love: fake people, toxic positivity, being told how to live her life by smug workmates who have no life (that’s you, Stan), her narcissistic exFavourite book: 1984Favourite artist: Noah X. Sometimes.Favourite painting: Klimt’s Schubert at the PianoSpecial skills: breaking out of car boots, picking locks and escaping relationships.Superpower: She can lose any guy in three minutes flat. Ask her how.Secret: She’s hot on the trail of a murderer – and the scoop of a lifetime. That’s if the killer doesn’t catch her first.
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!
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...
The Van Apfel Girls Are Gone
Felicity McLean - 2019
Let them slip away like the words of some half-remembered song and when one came back, she wasn't the one we were trying to recall to begin with.'So begins Tikka Molloy's recounting of the summer of 1992 - the summer the Van Apfel sisters, Hannah, the beautiful Cordelia and Ruth - disappear.Eleven and one-sixth years old, Tikka is the precocious narrator of this fabulously endearing coming-of-age story, set in an eerie Australian river valley suburb with an unexplained stench. The Van Apfel girls vanish from the valley during the school's 'Showstopper' concert, held at the outdoor amphitheatre by the river. While the search for the sisters unites the small community on Sydney's urban fringe, the mystery of their disappearance remains unsolved forever.Brilliantly observed, sharp, lively, funny and entirely endearing, this novel is part mystery, part coming-of-age story - and quintessentially Australian. Think The Virgin Suicides meets Jasper Jones meets Picnic at Hanging Rock.
This House of Grief
Helen Garner - 2014
You take the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.
On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father's Day, Robert Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys, aged ten, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic accident? The court case became Helen Garner's obsession. She followed it on its protracted course until the final verdict. In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom with its actors and audience, all gathered for the purpose of bearing witness to the truth, players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice. This House of Grief is a heartbreaking and unputdownable book by one of Australia's most admired writers. Helen Garner's first novel, Monkey Grip won the 1978 National Book Council Award, and was adapted for film in 1981. Since then she has published novels, short stories, essays, and feature journalism. In 1995 she published The First Stone, a controversial account of a Melbourne University sexual harassment case. Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004) was a non-fiction study of two murder trials in Canberra. In 2006 Helen Garner received the inaugural Melbourne Prize for Literature. Her most recent novel, The Spare Room (2008), won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the Queensland Premier's Award for Fiction and the Barbara Jefferis Award, and has been translated into many languages. Helen Garner lives in Melbourne.
Fatal Liaison
Vicki Tyley - 2011
Greg's reason for joining has nothing to do with looking for love. His recently divorced sister Sam has disappeared and Greg is convinced that Dinner for Twelve, or at least one of its clients, may be responsible.Neither is Megan looking for love. Although single, she only joined at her best friend Brenda De Luca's insistence. When a client of the dating agency is murdered, suspicion falls on several of the members. Then Megan's friend Brenda disappears without trace, and Megan and Greg join forces. Will they find Sam and Brenda, or are they about to step into the same inescapable snare?
The Rules of Backyard Cricket
Jock Serong - 2016
The endless glow of summer, the bottomless fury of contest. All the love and hatred in two small bodies poured into the rules of a made-up game.Darren has two big talents: cricket and trouble. No surprise that he becomes an Australian sporting star of the bad-boy variety—one of those men who’s always got away with things and just keeps getting.Until the day we meet him, middle aged, in the boot of a car. Gagged, cable-tied, a bullet in his knee. Everything pointing towards a shallow grave.
Dark Heart
Catherine Lee - 2013
Now he’s dead. Murdered in his own home, the women of Sydney can breathe easy again. All but one. His final victim is still missing — chained up, running out of time, and awaiting a captor who will never return.Detective Sergeant Charlie Cooper is desperate to find the missing woman alive. On the verge of quitting Homicide after a decade chasing the brutal killer, this is his last chance to atone for all the victims he failed.After a life-saving heart transplant, Eva Matthews just wants things to get back to normal. But when she learns she has the heart of the serial killer, will nothing stop the nightmares that plague her?Dark Heart is a detective story, a race against time to save a life. But it’s also an exploration of cellular memory, the intriguing medical phenomenon of patients receiving more than just an organ from their donor. The terrifying serial killer may be dead, but that is just the beginning…
Cyanide Games
Richard Beasley - 2016
Melissa’s phone call takes Tanner away from drug dealers and crooked property developers into the highest end of corporate corruption – mining companies trying to cover up environmental disasters and families at the top of the rich list who think they’re above the law.As he pursues those who had Cheung incarcerated, Tanner unearths cover-up after cover-up, putting his life and those of others in danger as he tries to bring the perpetrators to justice.A tough, gritty legal thriller from the bestselling author of Hell Has Harbour Views
All These Perfect Strangers
Aoife Clifford - 2016
Only Pen knows the reason why.College life had seemed like a wonderland of sex, drugs and maybe even love. The perfect place to run away from your past and reinvent yourself. But Pen never can run far enough and when friendships are betrayed, her secrets are revealed. The consequences are deadly.‘This is about three deaths. Actually more, if you go back far enough. I say deaths, but perhaps all of them were murders. It’s a grey area. Murder, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. So let’s just call them deaths and say I was involved. This story could be told a hundred different ways.’‘This is a novel of disquieting intimacy and controlled suspense, Aoife Clifford deftly tightening the screws until we share the narrator’s sense of emotional and physical confinement and the unremitting grip of the past.’ - Garry Disher, author of Bitter Wash Road
The Heartwood Hotel
Kerry McGinnis - 2018
It always has been so, but it's still just a building. It's your family - you and Adam and old Tiger - who animate it, keep the heart beating, so to speak.' In the abandoned railhead town of Tewinga, now almost a ghost town, Lyn and Adam Portman struggle to keep the Heartwood Hotel afloat. Lyn loves her husband and longs to be a mother. But she's kept busy caring for her elderly father, her community, and Max, the young worker who reminds her of the brother she's lost and dearly misses.When he fails to return from a day trip, Lyn's concern deepens as the length of his absence grows, the more so with rumours of criminal activity at a nearby station. Meanwhile, a chance meeting uncovers a family bombshell that leaves Lyn reeling. The community must pull together as never before, proving that sometimes the smallest towns have the biggest hearts - and hide the darkest secrets.From the bestselling author of Secrets of the Springs, this is the new outback mystery from Australia's authentic rural writer and beloved voice of the bush.