The Book Podcast

Renovations are hell. And that's before you find the body beneath the floorboards. An intriguing mystery from a stylish new voice in crime fiction, for readers of Kerry Greenwood and Holly Throsby.Continue reading

A chilling police thriller set in a small coastal town on the Mornington Peninsula, where the discovery of human bones on an isolated beach has reawakened a twenty-year-old cold case…Continue reading

Welcome to The Emporium of Imagination, a most unusual shop that travels the world offering vintage gifts to repair broken dreams and extraordinary phones to contact lost love ones.Continue reading

Propelling the reader back and forth between the 1940s, 1960s and 1980s, The Silent Listener is an unforgettable literary suspense novel set in the dark, gothic heart of rural Australia.Continue reading

Four-and-twenty extraordinary women; one chance to save a kingdom.What would you sacrifice to save your family, your loved ones, yourself? In September 1486, the reign of King Henry VII of England is again threatened by York loyalists. The only thing standing in the way is a four-hundred-year-old sidhe who just wants to be left alone, and a group of London women with a lot to lose if England is plunged back into war. ​But, in 1486, women have no power. Only the ability to make difficult choices and sometimes-heartbreaking sacrifices.Continue reading

‘The good, bad and downright rotten parts of Australia’s criminal justice system are put on trial by Dr Xanthé Mallett. With her clear-eyed logic andContinue reading

Inspired by a true story, The Lost Jewels unfolds an incredible mystery of thievery, sacrifice and hope through the generations of one family. Writing Class, New releases and our bookshop is Myrtle House in Wollombi NSWContinue reading

A terrifying, twisting debut from TV news journalist Katherine Firkin. It's time for a killer to leave his mark.Continue reading

Rose and Cassie discuss The Mother Fault by Kate Mildenhall, Cassie brings us industry news and new releases, Bookshop is Typeface Perth, and Pamela Freeman talks about how to create tension and pace in your story.Continue reading

Is it more dangerous to forget … or to remember? Phoebe’s life has fallen apart and there’s only one place . to go. Alone andContinue reading

1999. Winter. Bondi. Harry's been on the streets so long he could easily forget what time is. So Harry keeps an eye on it. EveryContinue reading

In this week's episode, I talk to Carol LeFevre about her new novella Mummurations. Cassie Hamer talks book news and reviews, Independent bookstore Bookoccino joins us, and Pamela Freeman answers your writing questions.Continue reading

Marina and her husband, Jacob were each born on a kibbutz in Israel.  They meet years later at a university in California when Jacob is a successful psychiatrist with a young son, Ben, from a disastrous marriage.  The family moves to a brownstone in Harlem, formerly a convent inhabited by elderly nuns. Outside the house one day Marina encounters Constance, a young refugee from Rwanda, and her toddler, Gabriel.  Unmoored and devastated, Constance and Gabriel quickly come to depend on Marina; and her bond with the little bot intensifies.  The pure, blinding love that it is possible to feel for children not our own is the thread that weaves through The Children's House.Continue reading

A hot summer. A shocking murder. A town of secrets, waiting to explode. A brooding, suspenseful and explosive debut that will grip you from the first page to the last.Continue reading

If you loved THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY, THE LITTLE COFFEE SHOP OF KABUL and THE THORN BIRDS you will devour this story of five different women united by one need: to overcome the vast distances of Australia's Top End with friendship, tears, laughter, books and love.Continue reading

Deaf since early childhood, Caleb Zelic used to meet life head-on. Now he's struggling just to get through the day. His best mate is dead, his ex-wife, Kat, is avoiding him, and nightmares haunt his waking hours. But when a young woman is killed after pleading for his help in sign language, Caleb is determined to find out who she was.Continue reading

Set in rural Tasmania from the 1920s to the 1990s, The Sisters' Song traces the lives of two very different sisters. One for whom giving and loving are her most natural qualities and the other who cannot forgive and forget.Continue reading

It's been twenty years since Cormac Reilly discovered the body of Hilaria Blake in her crumbling Georgian home. But he's never forgotten the two children she left behind…This unsettling small-town noir draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland, where corruption, desperation, and crime run rife.  A gritty look at trust and betrayal where the written law isn't the only one, The Ruin asks who will protect you when the authorities can't–or won't.Continue reading

Set in the old-growth eucalypt forests and vast rugged mountains of southern Tasmania, The Orchardist's Daughter is an uplifting story about friendship, resilience and finding the courage to break freeContinue reading

From inside her Toorak mansion, Margaret, matriarch, widow of Edmund Rice O'Day of O'Day Funerals, secretly surveys her family in the garden. Everyone, including Margaret herself, is oblivious to the secrets that threaten to be uncovered by a visiting American relative who is determined to excavate the O'Day's family history. How far will Margaret go in order to bury the truth?Continue reading

In this masterful suspense novel, which will appeal to fans of Gone Girl, it's clear that the truth is not always what it seems . . . There are secrets in every marriage . . . and some are more dangerous than others.Continue reading

Petite, glamorous and beguiling, Jessie 'Chubbie' Miller was one remarkable woman ... flyer, thrill seeker, heartbreaker. No adventure was too wild for her, no danger too extreme. And all over the world, men adored her. Continue reading

Wiremu Heke of Aramoana joins a sealing boat on a voyage from Tasmania to Western Australia. He is on a quest to avenge the destruction of his village but soon finds himself a part of the violent and lawless world that has claimed the lives of those he's known.Continue reading

This is the story of a crime. This is the story of a miracle. There are two stories here. A page-turning, thought-provoking portrayal of a remote community caught up in a collective moment of madness, of good intentions turned terribly awry. A blistering examination of truth and power, and how we might tell one from the other.Continue reading

Moving from wartime Europe to modern-day Australia, The Deceptions is a powerful story of old transgressions, unexpected revelations and the legacy of lives built on lies and deceit Inspired by a true story of wartime betrayal, The Deceptions is a searing, compassionate tale of love and duplicity-and family secrets better left buried.Continue reading

In this compelling and insightful memoir, Nicola blends her personal experiences with the historical progression of psychoanalysis. In the end, much like in analysis, it is the careful act of narrative construction that yields the answers.Continue reading

Emotional, powerful, unforgettable. From a stunning new literary talent, you won't be able to put down this novel about a mother's love for her children - it will break your heart.Continue reading

The lives of three women weave together across centuries in the dazzling new book from the author of All the Birds Singing. As each woman's story unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that their choices are circumscribed, in ways big and small, by the men who seek to control them. But in sisterhood there is also the possibility of survival and a new way of lifeContinue reading

Hay, New South Wales, 1923. Martha, a classics scholar from the coast, comes to teach in a man's town in the outback. She falls in love with Henry, a local man, and they find their dream place on the river where they raise a family and breed a flock of sheep with fine wool. The unforgiving climate erodes their dreams. When Henry leaves, Martha takes on the outside work and learns to drive. Seven-year-old Anna is her main helper and confidante.Continue reading

Are you still a liar Set against the uneasy relationship society has with its own truth-telling in history, war and politics, Desire Lines is an epic story of love and the lies we tell ourselves to survive - and a moving reminder that even truths which seem lost forever can find their way home.Continue reading

A fun new spin on Nancy Drew and 'girl detectives'... Engaging, action-packed, fast-paced.Continue reading

An extraordinary memoir about secrets, life's shocking twists and unconditional love. How could I write about the importance of truth and not tell the whole truth myself?Continue reading

When ski patroller Vanessa Bell discovers human bones high on Mount Stillwell at Charlotte Pass ski resort, Detective Sergeant Pierce Ryder of the Sydney Homicide Squad is called in to lead the investigative team. Set within the stunning Snowy Mountains, this intriguing mystery uncovers deadly, long-buried secrets in the valleys and mountains of this iconic area.Continue reading

Like a dark unsettling road movie, Hide takes us on a chilling ride from 80s urban Britain to the menace of the Australian outback.Continue reading

Sadie Burke has been forced to be a good girl her entire life. As a banshee, she's the bottom of the ladder when it comes to the supernatural hierarchy. Weak. Condemned. Powerless. Silent. That's what she and her six sisters have been told their entire lives, since their species was first banished from Ireland.Continue reading

Maggie Cotton's life is a hot mess. In one day she's been dumped by her boyfriend, disinherited by her mum, and been kicked off the three-year degree course she's stretched to a decade. and that was before she received the letter saying she owed the government $70,000. But that's no reason to grow up, is it?Continue reading

A BRILLIANT YOUNG DOCTOR IS DEAD… AND SOMEONE HAS TO TAKE THE BLAME. Former refugee David Tran becomes the Golden Boy of Australian medical research. He invents a drug that could transform immunology. Eight volunteers are recruited for the first human trial, a crucial step on the path to global fame for David and windfall gains for his investors. But when David dies in baffling circumstances, motives are put under the microscope.Continue reading

He's guarding a dark secret, but so is she. Is the truth worth telling if it will destroy everything?Continue reading

Life sucks for Morgan Lohdi, otherwise known as Pig. Used as the school punching bag he's bruised and harassed and doesn't have anything resembling a friend. Maybe it would be OK if he could keep his mouth shut. But Morgan has a sarcastic tongue that others don't find funny.Continue reading

Three generations of women. Three heartbreaking choices. One unforgettable story.Continue reading

Being brilliant has never been this dangerous… When Dr Emma Sweeney stumbles across the victim of a hit and run outside Galway University late one evening, she calls her partner, Detective Cormac Reilly, bringing him first to the scene of a murder that would otherwise never have been assigned to him. Continue reading

An unexpected gift left at her daughter's fifth birthday party in the form of a little girl pitches Sydney mum Lisa Wheeldon into events both hilarious and life-changing. Liane Moriarty meets Marian Keyes with a touch of Christos Tsiolkas's The Slap in this hilarious, touching and clever novel that asks what wouldn't you do to save a child?Continue reading

Welcome to the place of new beginnings… Why had the house stayed empty so long?  Why had it never been sold? Lost, Found, Forgotten - Welcome to The Cottage at Rosella Cove, where three damaged souls meet and have the chance to rewrite their futures.Continue reading

The sequel to Candice Fox's stunning breakout novel Crimson Lake, which Lee Child described as 'one of the best thrillers of the year'. Continue reading

Profoundly moving and exquisitely written, Tara June Winch's The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed. But it is as much a celebration of what was and what endures, and a powerful reclaiming of Indigenous language, storytelling and identity.Continue reading

Elise isn't from the Mallee, and she knew nothing of its ways. Over the years Marjorie's mother's seesaws between fragile health and madness but events finally overwhelm her and her daughters.Continue reading

Secrets and lies throw three lives into chaos in the last days of the nineteenth century. Continue reading

Hitch is a raw exploration of consent and its ambiguities, personal agency and the choices we make. It's the story of twenty-something Amelia and her dog Lucy hitchhiking from one end of the country to the other, trying to outrun grief and trauma, and moving ever closer to the things she longs to escape.Continue reading

“The Orange Grove vividly recreates the lives, loves and fears of aristocratic women at the turn of the 18th century. Intrigues, jealousies, and the terror of being dependent on the whims of a selfish duc…the ladies of the chateau are brought alive in Kate Murdoch's fascinating second novel.”Continue reading

Joan Smokes is set in the early 1960s and centres on a woman who attempts to escape the past by travelling to Las Vegas. It tackles themes of reinvention, grief, trauma and love.Continue reading

All it took was a lapse…a momentary lapse…to bring Clementine Jones' world crashing down. Now she's living like a hermit in small-town Katinga, coaching the local footy club. She's supposed to be lying low, but here she is, with her team on the cusp of their first premiership in fifty years—and the whole bloody town counting on her, cheering her on.Continue reading