 | Currently I have many more books in the "waiting to be read" pile than I really have any hope of reading in the near future. Several of them seem to arrive each week at present, and sit on the shelves making me feel guilty. So I have decided to feature some of them, (mainly review copies forwarded to me by publishers), in a more or less weekly feature, so you get to consider whether you want to read them. My postings won't be reviews, just titles with publisher's blurbs. Some I may actually read in the near future and then do a proper review. I'd like to also stress that there is no rhyme or reason to my selections. Please note that this listing is in no way a recommendation for you to read a title, simply a chance for you to assess for yourself whether you would like to read it. I will also try to discover whether the book is available on Kindle, particularly for Australian authors which are not necessarily available overseas. |
published by Penguin Australia April 2013
ISBN 978-1-921901-53-9
Blurb
It's Christmas morning on the edge of the rugged Mortimer Ranges. Sarah Barnard saddles Tansy, her black mare. She is heading for the bush, escaping the reality of her broken marriage and her bankrupted trail-riding business.
Sarah seeks solace in the ranges. When a flash flood traps her on Devil Mountain, she heads to higher ground, taking shelter in Hangman's Hut.
She settles in to wait out Christmas.
A man, a lone bushwalker, arrives. Heath is charming, capable, handsome. But his story doesn't ring true. Why is he deep in the wilderness without any gear? Where is his vehicle? What's driving his resistance towards rescue? The closer they become the more her suspicions grow.
But to get off Devil Mountain alive, Sarah must engage in this secretive stranger's dangerous game of intimacy.
About the Author
Honey Brown lives in country Victoria with her husband and two children. She is the author of three books: Red Queen, The Good Daughter and After the Darkness. Red Queen was published to critical acclaim in 2009 and won an Aurealis Award, and The Good Daughter was longlisted for the Miles Franklin Literary Award and shortlisted for the Barbara Jefferis Award in 2011. After the Darkness was selected for the Women's Weekly Great Read and for Get Reading 2012's 50 Books You Can't Put Down campaign.
SILENT VALLEY, Malla Nunn
published by Pan Macmillan Australia 2012
ISBN 978-1-7426-1088-7
I've reviewed other books by Malla Nunn
Blurb
A remote town. A girl of rare and exquisite beauty. A murder that silences a whole community.
The body of a seventeen-year-old girl has been found covered in wildflowers on a hillside in the Drakensberg Mountains, near Durban. She is the daughter of a Zulu chief, destined to fetch a high bride price. Was Amahle as innocent as her family claims, or is her murder a sign that she lived a secret life?
Detective Sergeant Emmanuel Cooper is sent to investigate. He must enter the guarded worlds of a traditional Zulu clan and a white farming community to gather up the clues Amahle left behind and bring her murderer to justice. But the silence in the valley is deafening, and it seems that everyone – from the uncooperative local police officer, to the white farm boy who seems obsessed with the dead girl – has something to hide.
With no cause of death and no motive, Cooper's investigation is blocked at each turn. Can he tough it out, or will the small-town politics that stir up his feelings about the past be more than he can bear?
In this page-turning tale of murder and mystery, Nunn entangles us in a rich and complex web of witchcraft, tribalism, taboo relationships... and plain old-fashioned greed.
First published 2013 by St. Martin's Press and by Pan Macmillan AustraliaAn Eve Duncan novel.
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 only recently that this mystery was resolved and Eve could begin her journey to peace.
Now Jim Doane wants the same kind of answers that Eve always longed for. His twenty-five-year-old son may or may not be dead, and he has only burned skull fragments as possible evidence. But he cannot go to the police for answers without risking his own secrets and exposing his dark past, so instead he chooses a bold step to find the truth – a truth that takes Eve down a twisted path of madness and evil and into the darkest heart of her own history.
Doane needs Eve Duncan's skills and he'll do anything to get them.
I reviewed PANDORA'S DAUGHTER here.
GODS OF MISCHIEF, George Rowe
Published first by Touchstone and then Pan Macmillan Australia 2013ISBN 978-1-74261-307-9
Note this will not be published until late May/early June
It will be available on Amazon
Blurb
March 9, 2006, it's hours before one of the largest motorcycle gang busts in history. George Rowe has spent the past three years as an informant, working undercover with the Vagos, one of the most dangerous biker gangs in the country. His fiancee, a struggling heroin addict carrying their unborn child, is asleep next to him. She's got no idea who he really is, what he's done, or what's about to happen. Rowe wonders how did it go so far?
A gritty and harrowing memoir about human redemption and self-sacrifice, Rowe tells the story of the first private citizen to voluntarily infiltrate an outlaw motorcycle gang for the U.S. government. George Rowe, drug dealer, barroom brawler, and convicted felon, never thought he'd work for the feds. But when he watched the Vagos brutally and senselessly beat his friend everything changed. He decided to pay back his Southern California hometown by bringing down the gang that terrorised it. Rowe spent three brutal years juggling a double life – riding, fighting, and nearly dying alongside the brothers that he secretly hoped to put away for good. The road to redemption wasn't an easy ride. Rowe lost everything: his family, his business, his home – even his identity. To this day, under protection by the U.S. government, Rowe still looks over his shoulder, keeping watch for the brothers he put behind bars. They've vowed to search for him until the day they die.
I somehow doubt that I will read this one - it is true crime - but I will pass it on to hubby who likes non-fiction.
2 comments:
Kerrie - What a great idea for a feature. Thanks for sharing what you've got. And I know all about having many more books to read than time allows...
When I die they will probably put something on my headstone about all the books I left yet unread
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