The Peski Kids: Stuck in the Mud

Author:  R. A. Spratt Publisher/Year:  Penguin Random House Australia/2019 Publisher description Things are about to get messy for the Peski Kids as mud-run madness descends on Currawong! Chaos parachutes into Currawong when the annual Mud Run hits town. The Peski kids are soon swept up in the festivities. Or in April’s case, strapped to a …

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Dead Man Walking

Author: Kate McClymont (with Vanda Carson) Publisher/Year: Vintage Books Australia (Penguin Random House)/ 2019 Publisher description Employing her insider status and trademark wit, pace and intelligence, Kate McClymont unravels the complex business relationships between Michael McGurk and Ron Medich. Rumour has it that Sydney is full of corruption and crime, but no one expected to …

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The Satapur Moonstone

Author: Sujata Massey Publisher/Year: Allen & Unwin/2019 Publisher description The delightfully clever Perveen Mistry, Bombay’s first female lawyer, returns in an adventure of treacherous intrigues and suspicious deaths. India, 1922: It is rainy season in the lush, remote Sahyadri Mountains southeast of Bombay, where the kingdom of Satapur is tucked away. A curse has fallen …

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The Lost Girls

Author: Jennifer Spence Publisher/Year: Simon & Schuster/2019 Publisher description A haunting tale of love and loss that will make you think twice What would you do if you had the chance to change a pivotal moment from your past? How far would you go to save someone you loved? These are just two of the fateful …

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Painting in the Shadows

Author: Katherine Kovacic Publisher/Year: Echo Publishing/2019 Publisher description Art dealer Alex Clayton and conservator John Porter are thrilled to be previewing the Melbourne International Museum of Art’s (MIMA) newest exhibition, until they witness a museum worker collapse and badly damage a reportedly cursed painting. Belief in the curse is strengthened when MIMA’s senior conservator Meredith …

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Our Dark Secret

Author:  Jenny Quintana Publisher/Year:  Mantle (Pan Macmillan)/2020 Publisher description The crazy girls, they called them – or at least, Elizabeth liked to think they did. As a teenager in the late 1970s, she was clever, overweight and a perfect victim for the bullies. Then Rachel and her family arrived in town and, for Elizabeth, it …

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Squishy Taylor and the Secret Envelope

Author: Ailsa Wild Publisher/Year: Hardie Grant Egmont/2019 Reviewer: Kim Peterson Squishy Taylor and the Secret Envelope, the 11th book in the series by Ailsa Wild, is based on the adventures of 11-year-old Squishy Taylor. Neither I nor my nine-year-old companion had difficulty in following Squishy Taylor and the Secret Envelope as a standalone, despite not …

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The Girl in the Mirror

Author: Rose Carlyle Publisher/Year: Allen & Unwin/2020 Publisher overview Identical twins only look the same … Beautiful twin sisters Iris and Summer are startlingly alike, but beyond what the eye can see lies a darkness that sets them apart. Cynical and insecure, Iris has long been envious of open-hearted Summer’s seemingly never-ending good fortune, including …

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The Survivors

Author: Jane Harper Publisher/Year: Pan Macmillan Australia/2020 Publisher overview Kieran Elliott’s life changed forever on the day a reckless mistake led to devastating consequences. The guilt that still haunts him resurfaces during a visit with his young family to the small coastal community he once called home. Kieran’s parents are struggling in a town where …

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Billings Better Bookstore and Brasserie

Author: Fin J Ross Publisher/Year: Clan Destine Press/2020 Publisher overview Young Fidelia Knight arrives in Melbourne in 1874, alone except for her treasured companion, Samuel Johnson; well, half of him. To escape servitude, Fidelia hides each night in the renowned Coles Book Arcade. She loves words, you see, and wants to know them all. What …

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