It was always expected that Lachie Sinclair and his brothers would one day take over the family property, Kamilaroi. But when tragedy strikes, Lachlan blames his father and angrily renounces any future for him at Kamilaroi. Moving to the city, Lachie joins the police force and quickly rises through the ranks. But after being injured in a gunfight he decides to go out on his own as a private investigator. When a wealthy society woman asks Lachie to lead the search for her missing daughter, he reluctantly agrees. Early indications are that the woman's captors are hiding her in the Pilliga region, meaning Lachie must return to his roots in order to try and save her life.
Return to Moondilla tells the story of former journalist, Greg Baxter, who's recently returned to the Moondilla area he grew up in to finish writing what he hopes will be a bestselling novel. Far from being able to concentrate on his novel, though, Baxter is drawn into an investigation into a local drug dealing ring that puts his life in danger. He's also the subject of attention of numerous single women in Moondilla, including the local doctor he once had a crush on, Julie Rankin. After an attempt on his life, Baxter is hugely relieved when the drug ring is broken open. Finally able to finish his novel, he's elated by its success and also finds himself in love. With Return to Moondilla, popular Australian author, Tony Parsons, has written another action-packed novel combining a rural setting with a crime subplot and some romance.
“Unforgettable. . . . An outstanding adventure in its lyrical, utterly compelling, and heartbreaking investigations of the world of diamond smuggling.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil For nearly eighty years, a huge portion of coastal South Africa was closed off to the public. With many of its pits now deemed “overmined” and abandoned, American journalist Matthew Gavin Frank sets out across the infamous Diamond Coast to investigate an illicit trade that supplies a global market. Immediately, he became intrigued by the ingenious methods used in facilitating smuggling particularly, the illegal act of sneaking carrier pigeons onto mine property, affixing diamonds to their feet, and sending them into the air. Entering Die Sperrgebiet (“The Forbidden Zone”) is like entering an eerie ghost town, but Frank is surprised by the number of people willing—even eager—to talk with him. Soon he meets Msizi, a young diamond digger, and his pigeon, Bartholomew, who helps him steal diamonds. It’s a deadly game: pigeons are shot on sight by mine security, and Msizi knows of smugglers who have disappeared because of their crimes. For this, Msizi blames “Mr. Lester,” an evil tall-tale figure of mythic proportions. From the mining towns of Alexander Bay and Port Nolloth, through the “halfway” desert, to Kleinzee’s shores littered with shipwrecks, Frank investigates a long overlooked story. Weaving interviews with local diamond miners who raise pigeons in secret with harrowing anecdotes from former heads of security, environmental managers, and vigilante pigeon hunters, Frank reveals how these feathered bandits became outlaws in every mining town. Interwoven throughout this obsessive quest are epic legends in which pigeons and diamonds intersect, such as that of Krishna’s famed diamond Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light, and that of the Cherokee serpent Uktena. In these strange connections, where truth forever tangles with the lore of centuries past, Frank is able to contextualize the personal grief that sent him, with his wife Louisa in the passenger seat, on this enlightening journey across parched lands. Blending elements of reportage, memoir, and incantation, Flight of the Diamond Smugglers is a rare and remarkable portrait of exploitation and greed in one of the most dangerous areas of coastal South Africa. With his sovereign prose and insatiable curiosity, Matthew Gavin Frank “reminds us that the world is a place of wonder if only we look” (Toby Muse).
The first book in the New York Times bestselling epic fantasy trilogy by award-winning author Laini Taylor Around the world, black handprints are appearing on doorways, scorched there by winged strangers who have crept through a slit in the sky. In a dark and dusty shop, a devil's supply of human teeth grown dangerously low. And in the tangled lanes of Prague, a young art student is about to be caught up in a brutal otherworldly war. Meet Karou. She fills her sketchbooks with monsters that may or may not be real; she's prone to disappearing on mysterious "errands"; she speaks many languages--not all of them human; and her bright blue hair actually grows out of her head that color. Who is she? That is the question that haunts her, and she's about to find out. When one of the strangers--beautiful, haunted Akiva--fixes his fire-colored eyes on her in an alley in Marrakesh, the result is blood and starlight, secrets unveiled, and a star-crossed love whose roots drink deep of a violent past. But will Karou live to regret learning the truth about herself?
How did Stowe become the ski capital of the East? From the beginning, the community of Stowe has made the most of its natural setting-Mount Mansfield, the forests and fields, the clear mountain streams and fine air-to carve out an appealing, enduring, distinctively New England style of life. That appeal is beautifully presented in Images of America: Stowe. This book combines historical images with detailed narrative to document life in rural Stowe from the 1870s through its emergence as an unrivaled tourist and recreation center in the middle of the 20th century. Beyond their own appeal, the images describe how Stowe has managed to change with the times yet maintain its inviting character and amenities. Images of America: Stowe contains scenes from stereo views, photographs, and postcards. It shows the working side of Stowe: industries that involved logging, sawmills, farming, maple sugaring, and tourism. It also shows the more leisurely side of Stowe: the Lake Mansfield Trout Club, the Trapp Family Music Camp, hiking, skiing, Old Home Day parades, and school activities.
Featuring 50 of the state's best hikes, with an additional 52 honorable mention hikes, Hiking Oregon is the ticket to experiencing the Beaver State's remarkable diversity. This one-of-a-kind guidebook will take outdoor enthusiasts on hikes along rugged, rocky coastline to historic lighthouses; through scented, sagebrush high desert and magnificent lava plains; to the tops of volcanic peaks; past cascading waterfalls; and alongside wild and scenic rivers.
Backpacker brings the outdoors straight to the reader's doorstep, inspiring and enabling them to go more places and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine, and the only magazine whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker's Editors' Choice Awards, an industry honor recognizing design, feature and product innovation, has become the gold standard against which all other outdoor-industry awards are measured.
Based on his own extraordinary life, Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram is a mesmerizing novel about a man on the run who becomes entangled within the underworld of contemporary Bombay—the basis for the Apple + TV series starring Charlie Hunnam. “It took me a long time and most of the world to learn what I know about love and fate and the choices we make, but the heart of it came to me in an instant, while I was chained to a wall and being tortured.” An escaped convict with a false passport, Lin flees maximum security prison in Australia for the teeming streets of Bombay, where he can disappear. Accompanied by his guide and faithful friend, Prabaker, the two enter the city’s hidden society of beggars and gangsters, prostitutes and holy men, soldiers and actors, and Indians and exiles from other countries, who seek in this remarkable place what they cannot find elsewhere. As a hunted man without a home, family, or identity, Lin searches for love and meaning while running a clinic in one of the city’s poorest slums, and serving his apprenticeship in the dark arts of the Bombay mafia. The search leads him to war, prison torture, murder, and a series of enigmatic and bloody betrayals. The keys to unlock the mysteries and intrigues that bind Lin are held by two people. The first is Khader Khan: mafia godfather, criminal-philosopher-saint, and mentor to Lin in the underworld of the Golden City. The second is Karla: elusive, dangerous, and beautiful, whose passions are driven by secrets that torment her and yet give her a terrible power. Burning slums and five-star hotels, romantic love and prison agonies, criminal wars and Bollywood films, spiritual gurus and mujaheddin guerrillas—this huge novel has the world of human experience in its reach, and a passionate love for India at its heart.
