FICTION

"A classic Aussie crime novel arrives like a full-throttle ute crashing through a fence. I devoured it like a Pine Lime Splice on a hot day." — Kaz Cooke"It's amazing to see what Ronni Salt can do when she's freed from a 280-character word limit." — Shaun MicallefIt's 1974 in the Riverina.The weather is scorching,but the body in the Murray River is stone cold.A gripping crime thriller about guns, drugs, and a young woman who’s dead on the money.When nineteen-year-old farmgirl Adelaide Hoffman applies for a cadetship at the Gunnawah Gazette, she sees it as her ticket out of a small, stifling life. The paper's owner, Valdene Bullark, recognizing something of her younger self in Adelaide, puts her straight to work.What begins as a routine story covering an irrigation project soon leads Adelaide to a far more dangerous investigation. In farming communities, water is money, and Adelaide’s questions stir up a hornet’s nest. Someone is determined to stop her and Val from uncovering just how deep the river of corruption and crime runs.Shady deals. Hidden agendas. A labyrinth of lies. In Gunnawah, everyone seems to have a secret, and too many are already dead quiet.Set in the heart of rural Australia during the era of Gough Whitlam, pub brawls, and flared jeans, Gunnawah is a compelling crime thriller about corruption, guns, and drugs from the most arresting new voice in Australian Noir."This compelling rural crime story, set in the politically charged Australia of the 1970s, will intrigue fans of Margaret Hickey, Richard Osman, and Lainie Anderson." — Books+Publishing"Ronni Salt's debut is historical crime fiction at its best, with a vivid sense of time and place and unforgettable characters at its core." — Newtown Review of Books

A steamy marriage of convenience romance about two friends striking a deal to save a billion-dollar company, and quickly find themselves blurring the lines between pretending and real love as they unravel the scandals set to tear them apart. Be loud. Lean in. Take your seat at the head of the table. I want the whole room to know that when my wife speaks, it’s time to sit down and listen. Thanks to my reckless roommate, I’m about two skips away from being homeless. Temp jobs aren’t paying the bills, and now I have to cancel the scuba diving trip I can no longer afford. At least I’ll be spared from my instructor’s tempting smile and rock-hard abs. Dex is wonderful, but he’s only ever treated me like a friend…a really good friend. In fact, when he hears I’m having money problems, he comes up with a way we can help each other. In a clever scheme to ensure her jaded, love-doubting grandson didn’t end up alone, Dex’s grandma left her company to Dex’s…wife. Except he isn’t married. Until me, that is. Now I’m suddenly the CEO and majority shareholder of a billion-dollar cruise corporation. I’m unprepared, and the sharks in the boardroom are scarier than the great whites in the water. But the plan is simple. Play the part for a year, hand the company back over to Dex, then get divorced. Easy. In exchange, I’ll never have to worry about money again. But it’s not long before I realize the company is in danger and a lot of people need my help. And now that I’m acting like the boss, there’s a look in Dex’s eyes I’ve never seen before. Something more than friendly… Because when he calls me “wife” lately, it doesn't seem like it's for show.

A fake marriage meets enemies to lovers in Rebecca Robinson’s steamy, thrilling romantasy debut, the start to a duology perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas and Jennifer L. Armentrout. All her life, Vaasa Kozár has been sharpened into a blade. She has now lost her mother – her only remaining parent – to a dark magic that has since awoken within her. Vaasa’s domineering brother, Dominik, knows Vaasa isn’t long for this world, so he marries her off to Reid of Mireh, a ruthless foreign ruler, in one last political scheme. For Dominik to invade Reid’s nation, all Vaasa has to do is die. But she is desperate to live, and Vaasa enters her new marriage with every intention of escaping it. To her surprise, Reid offers her a deal: help him win the votes to rise in power, and she can walk free. In exchange, he will help keep the dark magic running through her veins at bay. His proposal may be too good to refuse, yet Vaasa and Reid’s undeniable attraction threatens to break the rules of their arrangement. As Dominik’s lethal machinations take form, everything is at stake, and Vaasa must learn to trust her new husband. But how can she? Especially when their perfect political marriage begins to feel like the real thing . . .

One night in the woods A party gone wrong A body discovered at sunrise He murdered her at the folly on their wedding day, left her body for the crows. They say she haunts the woods now, a girl in a white dress … Everyone in the small town of Thorncombe knows the tales of the haunted woods where the birds don’t sing and a girl in a white dress roams, luring people to their deaths. But when a girl in white is found dead the morning after Halloween, her body carefully arranged at the bottom of an old stone folly, the community is thrown into turmoil. With a teenage daughter of his own, police detective Ben Chase knows how high the stakes are. Was the girl the victim of a party prank gone wrong, or does her death represent something more sinister and ritualistic? As the investigation unfolds and the noose tightens around Chase’s own family, the only thing anyone can be sure of is that no one is safe until this violent killer is caught. A tense, clever and claustrophobic thriller where no one is who they seem and the danger lies just out of sight. 'The new master of the atmospheric thriller' Ali Lowe 'delivers suspense until the very end.' Books+Publishing

‘Book 1 in the series was Shortlisted for 2024 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Debut Crime Fiction’In the serene setting of Vanuatu’s Santo Island, tranquillity shatters when the lifeless body of a French farmer, Guy Simeon, is discovered on the pristine white sands of Champagne Beach. As they delve deeper, a labyrinth of secrets, coercion, and lies emerges. Simeon’s missing wife and strained relationship with his son paint a complex picture of his troubled life. Moreover, his financial woes and grievous interactions with locals only deepen the pool of suspects.From the bustling port town of Luganville to the idyllic beaches and azure waters of Santo, George and Jayline tirelessly pursue leads, but find themselves entangled in a web of confusion with no clear motive, weapon, or suspect in sight.Praise for the series ... a tour de force both in its vivid descriptions of warts-and-all Vanuatu and its ability to suck the reader into the frustrating investigation of its likeable detective. A thoroughly enjoyable read. - Colin Cotterill, best-selling crime fiction author