The beachside town of Dinkum lives and breathes the Surf Life Saving State Championships, but they’ve never won it. But that was before Muzza, a bronzed life saving god, who's going to take Dinkum all the way to the Nationals and finally stick it up those wankers at Yobbo Bay. When a tragic accident puts Muzza in danger, it’s up to Shilto, the new life guard in town and local Marine Biologist Bec Grouse to save the day.
Buying a rundown motel to start a new life — what could possibly go wrong? In this funny and moving novel, prize-winning author Stephanie Johnson turns her wry eye on us. ‘What a fabulous read. Stephanie Johnson’s characters choose an old motel with little to offer except an amazing view in order to start a ‘new life’. Their first guests are a classic cast of the sorrowful and dysfunctional that every-day life throws at us these days. They are joined by their pregnant daughter, a mysterious young criminal from next door and a dog that knows more than all of them put together. The story is fast paced, and unpredictable, it’s smart, contemporary and heartbreaking all at once. And, just when it was about to make me cry, Johnson startled me into wild laughter. This is her best book ever, and I loved every page of it.’ – Fiona Kidman
‘We have a dead second wife and a missing first wife…we’ve got a huge problem here.’ Detective Peter Seymour Seven Bones is the story of one of the more bizarre murder investigations in Australia’s history. Two wives die in suspicious circumstances: co-incidence or, as husband Thomas Keir describes it, ‘bad luck’? Three years after Thomas Keir alleged his first wife Jean deserted him and her young son for another man, his second wife Rosalina, Jean’s cousin, lay scorched and strangled on her bed. Arriving on the scene, Detective Peter Seymour realised he was either dealing with the world’s unluckiest husband, or a serial wife killer. While Keir was remarkably found ‘not guilty’ of Rosalina’s murder, despite a clear-cut case, her death unlocked the mystery of Jean’s disappearance. A subsequent police investigation lead to the discovery of seven small fragments of Jean’s bones - fingers, knuckles and toes - buried deep under the same house in which Rosalina died. Keir’s ‘grieving husband’ act was suddenly in question. The investigation revealed Thomas Kier was a man so jealous he hated even his own baby son touching his wife, Jean. A man so possessive he threatened he would cut her up and feed her to the dogs if she ever left him. A man who thought he could commit the perfect crime and publicly taunted the police through the media. Written through the eyes of Detective Peter Seymour, Seven Bones follows his relentless pursuit of justice and his own family sacrifices, through the drama of the police investigation into Jean’s death, and the three trials, convictions, and appeals that would take fifteen years to reach their final conclusion.
“He was aware of spinning and tumbling as he dropped through the water and then was aware of rising through the lightening green …” There are Snapper over at Holden and Old Kukupu and the Last Taraire Tree Seed are just two of the tales from down under.
