The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes

Author: Lauren Beukes Publisher: Harper Collins Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: The future is not as loud as war, but it is relentless. It has a terrible fury all its own.” Harper Curtis is a killer who stepped out of the past. Kirby Mazrachi is the girl who was never meant …

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Good News, Bad News by Maggie Groff

Author: Maggie Groff Publisher: MacMillan Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 9781742611938 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: Intrepid investigative journalist Scout Davis has given herself a holiday, but when Hermione Longfellow accosts her in the supermarket, she stops to listen. Most people in Byron Bay are aware of the eccentric Anemone sisters. Always dressed in black, …

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The Red Road by Denise Mina

Author: Denise Mina Publisher: Orion Copyright Year: 2013 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: 31st August 1997 Rose Wilson is fourteen, but looks sixteen. Pimped out by her ‘boyfriend’ and let down by a person she thought she loved, she has seen more of the darkness in life than someone twice her age. On the …

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The Ghost Riders of Ordebec by Fred Vargas

Author: Fred Vargas Publisher: Random House Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 9781846555862 No of Pages: 360 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: ‘People will die,’ says the panic-stricken woman outside police headquarters. She has been standing in blazing sunshine for more than an hour, and refuses to speak to anyone besides Commissaire Adamsberg. Her daughter has …

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The Children of the King by Sonya Hartnett

Author: Sonya Hartnett Publisher: Penguin/Viking Copyright Year: 2012 ISBN: 9 780670 076130 No of Pages: 266 Review By: Sue Nankervis Book Synopsis: Three children have been sent to live in the countryside safe from the war in London. When they find two boys hiding in a castle, the past and future come together to make …

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The Shadow Tracer by Meg Gardiner

Author: Meg Gardiner Publisher: Michael Joseph (Penguin) Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 9 781405 914567 No of Pages: 358 Review By: Sue Nankervis Book Synopsis: Sarah Keller is a young single mother living in Oklahoma with her five-year-old daughter, Zoe. Her day job is to hunt out people on the run and bring them to justice. …

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Mad Men, Bad Girls and the Guerilla Knitters Institute – 2013 Davitt Award – Adult – by Maggie Groff

Author: Maggie Groff Publisher: Pan Mac Millan Australia Copyright Year: 2012 ISBN: 9781742610795 Review By: Sue Turnbull Book Synopsis: When a secretive American cult moves to the Gold Coast, freelance journalist Scout Davis’s investigative antennae start quivering. She sets out to expose the cult’s lunatic beliefs and bizarre practices, but when she learns the identity …

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Taking Eve by Irish Johansen

Author: Iris Johansen Publisher: St Martin’s Press Copyright Year: 2013 ISBN: 1250019982 Review By: Kylie Book Synopsis: Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan’s mission is to bring closure to the families whose loved ones have vanished. She knows their anguish—her own beloved daughter, Bonnie, was taken from her when Bonnie was just seven years old. It is …

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The Woman Before Me by Ruth Dugdall

Author: Ruth Dugdall Publisher: Text Publishing Copyright Year: 2012 ISBN: 9781921922893 Review By: Angela Savage Book Synopsis: They came for me, just like I knew they would. Luke had been dead for just three days. Rose Wilks’ life is shattered when her newborn baby Joel is admitted to intensive care. Emma Hatcher has all that …

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