Books

In the ninth volume in the exciting Grave Tales series, journalists Helen Goltz and Chris Adams visit Tasmanian cemeteries to unearth some great tales.

Stories include:

• • Mark Jeffrey: a Port Arthur prisoner who lived with the 1100 or so deceased residents on the Isle of the Dead and should have been buried there…
  • Sylvia McArthur: a girl who died young but made her mark documenting in letters to a newspaper’s children’s page what life was like in the mining towns.
  • Frederick Thompson: was the last man hanged in Tasmania. His crime, the murder of young, Eveline Mary Maughan. He claimed his innocence to the end.
  • Roy Cazaly: footy fans still sing the song about him, Up There Cazaly, but the champion moved to Tasmania where his life took him on a different track.
  • John Joseph Sweeney: a Tasmanian soldier who joined the NZ forces as a tunneller, planting explosives under German trenches, but met a terrible fate.
  • The Neva: the female convict ship that carried over 200 passengers and crew, but when it hit a reef, it was not women and children first.
  • Thomas Nevin may have created the first mugshots in Tasmania, capturing poignant images of men who ended their days on Tasmania’s gallows.
  • Martin Cash: has been described as a rarity – a bushranger who lived to retire.

… And 10 more stories in this volume.

Miss Matilda Hayward has a wedding to plan and while ordering her bridal bouquet in Bridal Lane, she finds a note in her sample bouquet requesting a liaison. Innocently believing the note to be a mix-up, Matilda engages her brother, Daniel, to attend the liaison with her, but the young paramour rushes off. He is later found beaten and bruised in an alley off Bridal Lane by Matilda’s fiancé, Detective Thomas Ashdown, and his partner, Detective Harry Dart.
When a respected lacemaker is also found murdered in the same laneway, the note takes on a new significance. Matilda is assigned to write the obituary for the Women’s Journal with her illustrator friend, Miss Georgina Urry, and soon finds herself embroiled in danger in the middle of a murder case, much to her fiancé’s displeasure. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot before Matilda makes it to the altar!

“Last night you were in my dreams. I hate that. I woke up exhausted, as though I had lived through it all again -the police, the press and the vilification.”

Catherine Jameson—thirty, a widow in hiding—doesn’t know what happened that night. Two bodies found: her husband and his ex-lover. Was it a murder-suicide or accidental death and suicide?

Or, as some believe, did Catherine have a hand in it? Living a new life with a cottage to renovate and her dog, Buddy, for company, Catherine picks through the ruins of her old life to find answers.

He’s an actor making a name for himself.

She wants fame so badly she can taste it.

This can’t end well.

Heath’s star is on the rise in the theatre scene, and except for her Wylde girl perfume commercial, Cathy is in his shadow. When she decides to move to the city to audition for film roles, charismatic film director Edgar Linton offers her a role and his heart. Heath is determined not to lose her; Edgar is determined to have her. Catherine’s choice may destroy them all.

When everything around you is collapsing, what do you do? One woman did what any self-respecting marketing executive would do, she threw it all in and ran away!

In a battle to reignite her passion for life, regain her self-esteem and find herself again, the author tried her hand at a number of life-changing jobs. At 39, she became a police cadet; at 40 she packed the car, and with her beloved Boxer dog, 'ran away' to become an editor of a newspaper in a seaside community. At 41, she came to her senses, came home, settled down, and began again.

From High Heels to Handcuffs is for anybody who has ever lost their footing in this world and wondered, 'can I start again?'

Amidst the festivities at the Christmas market, a killer is slaying "fallen angels".

It’s the most wonderful time of the year until fear overtakes festivities a week before Christmas. Mortician Phoebe Astin is visited by several young women who met their deaths after a visit to the Christmas market, and witnesses claim to have seen a woman leading them away. The last words the victims hear are the killer’s chilling nickname – "Fallen Angel."

As the town’s joyous mood turns to apprehension, Phoebe along with sharp-eyed Detectives Harland Stone and Gilbert Payne, and daring reporter Lilly Lewis, are desperate to unmask the ruthless killer before another lady is claimed.

It's a busy time for Phoebe and her brothers, Julius and Ambrose, at The Economic Undertakers amid twinkling lights, a proposal, and a baby's arrival. But can Phoebe help unravel the sinister truth before death casts a pall over the holiday cheer?

Ideal for fans of Deanna Raybourn, Cara Devlin, Irina Shapiro, and Wendy Vella.

You are playing a game online; masterminding the perfect crime. Or at least you think it’s a game.

A seemingly normal web site inviting game players to mastermind the perfect crime is the façade for billionaire Lawrence Hackett’s real-life game of Mastermind—an invitation-only competition for a select few to see who can perform the perfect heist and win an enormous bounty.

Special Agent Mitchell Parker and his team learn the magnitude of the international crime ring just in time. Washington, London, Paris … the clock is on. If you love it when a plan comes together, hold on tight, because nothing is about to go to plan!

Below the surface of the ocean, off the shores of Cape Hatteras, lie the bodies of many ships that never made it to shore and something more … silent and sinister.

Two sets of fresh fingerprints on a pair of binoculars left on the beach are cause for concern for FBI special agent Mitchell Parker and his team, Nick Everett, Ellen Beetson and Samantha Moore. The prints belong to a criminal that is currently not listed as in the country and a foreign diplomat who disappeared a year ago.

And are the six Beijing police officers that are guests of the USA to study, the same six officers that left Beijing?

It’s a rough and violent ride for Mitchell Parker and his team against the ocean and the clock.

The stilted footage of Holocaust survivors marching through the gates of Auschwitz projects behind Benjamin Hoefer at the book launch of his father, Eli’s biography. As it comes to the end and closes in on Eli Hoefer’s gaunt face, four red words are scratched across the last frame— Nazi, Jew hater, fake!

FBI Special Agent Mitchell Parker is frustrated to be called in on what he believes is a police matter, but digging soon reveals a threat that has far-reaching implications.

Parker and his team, Nick Everett, Ellen Beetson and Adam Forster find themselves in the middle of a neo-Nazi plot that spans two continents and threatens to bring one of the worst atrocities of history back to life.

‘If you are a fan of Kathryn Ledson or Janet Evanovich (though Jesse Clarke is a lot more reliable, sensible and doesn’t over share her personal life as does Stephanie Plumb) you will love unravelling the mysteries in the Jesse Clarke series.’ Carol,  Reading, Writing and Riesling.

Jesse thought sugar was such a friendly substance, until it appears in two of her cases for all the wrong reasons. Traces of sugar were connected to a bomb that blew up her client’s Mercedes. Was the bomb meant to kill or was it just a warning of what is to come? And could sugar have duped the immune system of a client’s mother over thirty years ago, resulting in death?

Juggling the two cases—one in the present and one in the past—Jesse finds herself talking to the living and the dead to get results.

‘AMAZING! Reading about a female PI kicking some ass was just the icing on the cake I needed!' Christine – Goodreads

The dead are walking and it is not even Halloween!

Sassy private investigator Jesse Clarke knew it wasn’t going to be a normal week when two dead people are spotted alive but their death certificates say otherwise, Spiderman steals a collection of costumes made for the next Comic Con, and Batman drops in to warn her that all is not as it seems.

Supported by her own man of steel—the tall, dark and handsome Dominic; business partner Ed; police contact Officer Jason who has more than a professional interest in Jesse; and, best friend Melanie, Jesse finds herself talking to witches, superheroes and morticians to solve her two cases and looking behind the disguises for answers!

Jesse Clarke is back!

Eighty-nine-year-old Carrie Howell, dressed in her Sunday-best, asks her grand-daughter, Rachael, to stop a while in front of the rambling old mansion-Autumn Manor. Who are these people her grandmother is remembering and what is her connection to the ‘haunted house’ that Rachael avoided as a child?

Ophelia’s first love might be her last. In her wildest dreams, Ophelia Montague never imagined she would leave the city, her friends, her school and move to a seaside village.

But when her parents die in an accident, that’s just where she finds herself – ensconced in a rambling house on the beach, with her uncle, Sebastian, his boarder—19-year-old Adam Ferrier, and two Great Dane dogs named after shipwrecks.

By the ocean’s edge she meets Jack Denham who seems to command the sea and the moon—and if he has his way—Ophelia, too.

When Sophie Carell was eight-years-old, her eccentric, clairvoyant great aunt, Daphne, predicted Sophie would be one of the greatest clairvoyants of her time. Sophie wanted to be a movie star. Her mother said not to worry about it-Aunt Daphne was daffy.

When Sophie is called to the reading of Daphne's Will, she is given a pair of glasses that will change her life. But that's not all she acquires. Along with the glasses, Sophie 'inherits' a protector-the handsome and powerful Lukas Lens; plus brooding Detective Murdoch Ashcroft who is keen for Sophie to fill her aunt's shoes and put her talents to work for him.

Sophie has to decide if she will focus on her acting career or explore her new-found clairvoyant skills. But danger lurks around the corner...

On Valentine’s Day 1900, three schoolgirls and a teacher disappear while on a school outing at Hanging Rock in Victoria. What became of the missing girls and their teacher?

Joan Lindsay’s Picnic at Hanging Rock detailed the tragedy, and the author left strict instructions for the final chapter not to be printed until her death. Many Australians remember the 1967 book and 1975 film; many high school students studied it as part of their school curriculum.

But was the story real? And did the secret chapter released after Joan Lindsay’s death cast a new light on the fate of the missing ladies?

In No Picnic at Hanging Rock, the mystery is explored with Lady Joan Lindsay’s original editor, Sandra Forbes; Joan’s personal friend Phillip Adams; actor Anne-Louise Lambert – who met Joan on the set of the film; and a range of contributors who share their theories.

A missing girl, a reluctant spirit, and a race to solve the case before a very important wedding!

Miss Phoebe Astin's much-anticipated day at the aquarium with her fiancé, family and friends, takes a dark turn when a recently captured shark dramatically regurgitates a human arm during its grand showing. Suddenly, Phoebe finds herself thrust into a chilling mystery that intertwines with the sudden disappearance of a student from Miss Emily Yalden's deportment school.
As rumours swirl around the beautiful young student, whose flirtations with her sister's beau have sparked heartache and jealousy, Phoebe seeks the help of a reluctant spirit. An arrest is made, but is there enough evidence for a conviction?
With or without the help from the spirit world, Detective Harland Stone is determined to pursue justice and to close the case before a very important date - his wedding to Phoebe.
In the last volume of the Lady Mortician series, engagements, weddings, and spirits abound!

Not even the son of the Raven can avoid his destiny.

A generation has passed, and the son of the Raven, Murdoch Ashcroft, and the strongest witch of her time Sophie Carrel, has come of age. Raised amongst the cursed, their protectors, witches and shapeshifters, Dane Ashcroft is a mystery; the true nature of his lineage uncertain. Will he be accursed and inherit the clairvoyant glasses like his powerful witch mother, Sophie Carrell? Will he be the next Raven to take over from his father, Murdoch Ashcroft? Or a powerful witch in his own right.

While peace prevails, curiosity follows him. But a shapeshifter is tired of the status quo. Tired of the descendants being robbed of their destiny, and is bringing reinforcements from the past to challenge the fragile peace. If he has his way, the Raven’s son will need to show his hand to survive.

The time has come to discover the Raven’s son’s destiny.

The son of the Raven grapples with a relentless adversary set on dismantling everything meaningful in his life.

Dane Ashcroft, challenged by his father's long-time shapeshifter enemy, is gifted a ghost protector from his powerful witch mother. Fortunately, the ghost protector is not only a former detective from the days of Jack the Ripper but also the most successful shapeshifter hunter of his time.

With his new protector, Dane finds himself looking over his shoulder for his enemy while trying to solve a case with his detective partner that might just involve an unbalanced killer brought back from the past. And in the middle of his drama is a generational love triangle with the enchanting Lark, whose affection he is determined to win.

With the future of his parents—Murdoch, the legendary Raven, and Sophie, the fated witch—hanging in the balance, Dane's decision to reveal his own formidable abilities may change the course of history itself. Will he rise as the hero his lineage expects, or will he have no choice in his destiny?

"We are cut from the same cloth; made for each other."

He’s tall, dark, handsome and athletic and just that little bit mysterious. He’s also over women, big time. A star of the Saint’s team, Alex Renwick 'The Russian' has had a high profile relationship with a Hollywood director’s daughter for years and now that it is over, he just wants to focus on his sporting career.

Carla Brooker’s professional sporting career as a basketballer with the Suns is about to end due to injury. To mask the pain, she throws herself into developing her role as a sports reporter. There’s just one problem, she needs a date for the Suns’ Ball where she will announce her retirement.

When these two sporting hotshots meet, they are more than a good fit, they are made for each other … if they can just file away the doubts they carry and find a way to be together.

"I don't want to accidentally break you."

In his hometown of Berlin, Germany, Niklas Wagner is a super star and when the Saints’ pay the big bucks to sign him up and bring him to Santa Ana, California, Nik takes a shine to his new life. When he meets the Saints’ media officer, Sasha Saxon, sparks fly literally.

But Sasha is not your average girl—by day she is a journalist who looks after the media for the national champion soccer team and at night she designs for her personal fashion label. She had big dreams and they don’t include a boyfriend. Nik has never had to chase the girls but now he has met his match—Sasha is about to lead him on the biggest chase of his life.

“I’ll remember, until my dying breath.”

Tomás Carrera didn’t expect Alice Peterson to rock his world.

Growing up with a single mom and as the eldest of five siblings, Tomás has had to be responsible all his life. Now his super star soccer status has provided for his family and allowed him to let his hair down… and that’s just what he’s doing.

Signed to the Santa Ana Saints, Tomás is catching up for lost time with fast women, a fast Ducati motorcycle and a bevy of adoring fans. That is, until he loses his heart to Alice and is torn with wanting her and his independence.

“I want to stay forever... I want to have you for as long as I can have you Lucas, even if that is a week or a year or a decade.”

Mia Carter never thought getting suspended from her part-time job for having attitude could be the best thing to ever happen ... maybe.

When Lucas Ainswright—one of the world’s biggest sporting stars—needs a minder, it just so happens that attitude is just what is needed to keep Lucas in line.

Now Mia’s job is to manage the sporting world’s bad boy and keep him at the top of his game for the season. Game on!

Matilda Martin, newly single, is having a life change – a new job, a new city, and a new dating outlook. That’s right, she is over smooth men. In fact, Matilda is taking it one step further; she is only interested in Mr Average from now on – a man who doesn’t have women hanging off him, doesn’t know all the pick-up lines and is 100 percent real.

Adam Cahill is tall, dark, handsome and a spy for a government agency. And he has just been dumped. Allegedly, according to his now ex-girlfriend, he is “all about work, constantly grumpy, and as much fun as a crisis meeting”. Adam has given up on finding love – from now on, he’s focusing on his career.

Luckily Matilda’s been assigned to his next project since neither of them is bound to be interested in each other.

Irish-girl Orla Murphy is a romantic – books, films, real-life – she believes in love; she’s just got to find it. Accepting a one-year contract to work in Washington DC as a translator, Orla leaves her Dublin hometown for a new start.

Nick Hughes is 100 per cent work-focused especially after his last relationship exploded along with his heart. He’s made it clear he’s not interested in romance, no matter who might catch his eye.

When Orla finds several old notes written by a child in her library copy of 'Anna Karenina', she decides to track down the owner and give them back. She soon discovers that the owner has been missing for decades and is filed as a cold case. Suddenly Orla finds herself with a mystery, the notes open up a whole new angle to the case, and Nick is assigned to work on it. Now they’ll have to see each other every, single day!

Beautiful muse, Miss Sapphire Reubens, the inspiration for her lover's latest art exhibition, is missing – items of her clothing found in the river. Worryingly, Miss Matilda Hayward and her fellow writer for the Women’s Journal, Miss Alice Doran, enjoyed a preview of the inspired work featuring Miss Reubens immersed in water. Was it a death portrait?

When another two rival artists are found murdered and posed in the manner of their painting, Matilda and her new beau, Detective Thomas Ashdown, fear the artist's inspiration may have come from ill means. There is mystery, passion and love afoot!

Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career, after all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women’s Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting ‘Freak Show’ and to interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for help to her escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But when the giantess’s husband is found murdered; the giantess is a likely suspect.

Matilda enlists the help of her lawyer brother, Amos, to prove the giantess is no killer and to free her from a life of exploitation. But close family friend, Detective Thomas Ashdown – who has feelings for Matilda having known her since childhood – would prefer Matilda was nowhere near his murder case. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot!