Best Suited 3+ Years
My fabulous freckles
are wonderful fun.
A hundred and twenty!
I’ve counted each one.

A gorgeous story about loving who you are – all the way down to the last freckle!

Best Suited 3+ Years
Mrs Koala runs the most popular beauty parlour in town, but she’s so busy with her clients, she doesn’t even know how many she has.

Best Suited 16+ Years
Jane is a contact tracer. She has to call a lot of people and some of them don’t want to talk. Various reasons-tax or immigration issues, infidelity. Domestic abuse.;;Jane knows all about that. She and her daughter Tara have spent years in hiding from Tara’s manipulative and terrifying ex. Now, as Jane talks to a close contact, she realises the woman on the phone is scared of the same man-and he’s close. Too close.;;Suddenly the past comes slamming back into the present as Jane realises she and Tara can’t keep running forever. One day, they’re going to be found.

Best Suited 16+ Years
Robyn Ayres works as the camp caretaker on Finch Island, a former leper colony off the coast of Queensland. Her current clients are a group of ex-military men who run a tough-love program for troubled teens. The latest crop looks like the usual mix of bad boys and sad boys. Then Robyn takes a second look at a kid called Darren. Last time she saw him his name was Aaron, and Robyn was his primary school teacher. And she was somehow at the centre of a vicious small-town custody battle involving his terrifying grandmother. Bruising classroom dynamics, manipulative parents and carers and horrendous small-town politics form the backdrop to a nail-biting thriller in which the tensions of ten years ago start to play themselves out, building to a violent climax in the present day. Robyn escaped the past once. Now it’s back-and this time there’s no way out.

Best Suited 16+ Years
Meg lives alone. A little place in the bush outside town. A perfect place to hide. That’s one of the reasons she offers to shelter Nerine, who’s escaping a violent ex. The other is that Meg knows what it’s like to live with an abusive partner.

Best Suited 10-14 years
Twelve-year-old Theophilus Grey – Philo to his friends – heads a team of linkboys who guide Londoners home through the dank eighteenth-century alleys by the light of their torches

Best Suited 10-14 years
The companion novel to Theophilus Grey and the Demon Thief is a fast-paced adventure as Philo graduates from petty fraud and street crime to high-level political espionage.

Best Suited 2-7 years
Barney is a dog who’ll eat anything and everything – and cause chaos while he’s doing it!

Best Suited 16+ Years
Fourteen-year-old convict Tom Clay lives in a shepherd’s hut in the bush, protecting his master’s sheep from wild dogs. When a vicious fellow shepherd returns to ensure there are no witnesses to his crimes, the bush-crafty Tom and his hapless mate Rowdy face a life-and-death battle to survive.

Best Suited 16+ Years
The story of a nineteenth century court case involving Thomas Guthrie Carr, a notorious, larger-than-life character who made his living as a mesmerist, phrenologist, public speaker and some say charlatan.

Thomas Guthrie Carr is charged by Eliza Gray with mesmerising her and raping her while she was under his influence. But if mesmerism and Mr Carr are shams, was Eliza raped?

In the tradition of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Charlatan is the story of a notorious nineteenth-century court case involving a larger-than-life character. With a driving narrative and novelistic pacing, this scrupulously researched account of the life of Thomas Guthrie Carr, stage mesmerist – who lied, fought and sleazed his way around Australia and New Zealand between 1865 and 1886 – is more than just a fascinating piece of social history. It’s also a mystery, a piece of true crime, and a delicately humorous portrait of a man whose eye for the main chance and ferocious pursuit of publicity made him an oddly contemporary figure.

With a star-studded supporting cast, including the Duke of Edinburgh, the Mad Dentist of Wynyard, the Nunawading Messiah, and a host of shady mesmerists, spiritualists, phrenologists and hired goons, Charlatan delves deep into a side of colonial history not often explored, and unearths a Victorian celebrity who should never have been forgotten …

Who is writing on the walls?

We moved into our new house because Mum liked the vibes. But those vibes turned scary when ghostly writing started appearing on the walls of Bethan’s room. Mum tried a few new-age tricks, but couldn’t stop the creepy nightmares. We even called in paranormal investigators, but they were totally stumped. That’s when I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Full of suspense, mystery and humour, the books in this series follow Allie as she investigates a number of possibly paranormal events with a mix of logic, intelligence and teenage attitude.

Who is the presence in the bedroom?

I wasn’t too keen on the Exorcists’ Club at first. I mean, playing about with ghosts can be dangerous. But when Bettina begged me to help her aunt contact a dead relative, I gave in. That’s what ghost hunters are for, right? If only I’d known what the seance would wake up.

Full of suspense, mystery and humour, the books in this series follow Allie as she investigates a number of possibly paranormal events with a mix of logic, intelligence and teenage attitude.

Who is waiting in the cave?

The Jenolan Caves Ghost Tour sounded like the perfect weekend for a ghost hunter. But I didn’t realise I was letting myself in for a whole lot more than just a haunted hotel and endless family squabbles. Something was on our trail. Something vicious, mysterious, and very, very smelly.

Full of suspense, mystery and humour, the books in this series follow Allie as she investigates a number of possibly paranormal events with a mix of logic, intelligence and teenage attitude.

Who is haunting the cabin?

After Eglantine vanished, I thought I was through with ghosts. Then I went on a school excursion to Hill End and found myself investigating a whole bunch of them. First there was the ghost of Granny Evans, pacing around the museum. And Eustace Harrow smashing things up in Taylor’s Cottage. But when two of my classmates disappeared, I realised things were about to get serious .

Full of suspense, mystery and humour, the books in this series follow Allie as she investigates a number of possibly paranormal events with a mix of logic, intelligence and teenage attitude.

Cadel Piggott is a seven-year-old genius with a knack for systems. He can do just about anything: disable home security systems, hack into government databases and commit credit card fraud. But when he gets in trouble with the police his parents are forced to take him to a therapist, Dr Thaddeus Roth. But Thaddeus is not who he seems and introduces the young Cadel to a world of genetically enhanced misfits who are determined to take over the world. It is only when Cadel meets Sonja, a disabled girl with a powerful mind that can match only his, that his emotions start to catch up with his intellect. But is it too late? Will the forces of evil subsume even this super-intelligent genius, as his whole world proves to be a house of cards?

In a thrilling conclusion to the Genius trilogy, Cadel must think like a criminal mastermind.

After abandoning a life of lies and mistrust, fifteen-year-old Cadel has finally found his niche. He has a proper home, good friends and loving parents. He’s even studying at university.

But he’s still not safe from Prosper English, who’s now a fugitive from justice and determined to smash everything that Cadel has struggled to build. When Cadel’s nearest and dearest are threatened, he must launch an all-out attack on the man he once viewed as his father.

Can he track down Prosper before it’s too late? And what rules will they both have to break in the process?

Sometimes, when it comes to fighting evil, one genius just isn’t enough.

Cadel Piggott’s been having a hard time since he chose to be good rather than evil. He doesn’t know where he was born. He doesn’t know who his father is. And he’s under constant threat from Prosper English – the criminal mastermind he helped to put in gaol.

Will Genius Squad be the answer to all Cadel’s prayers? Or is he right to question their motives? Deciding what’s good and bad is more difficult than Cadel could ever have imagined .

The smell was the first thing we noticed. It was a terrible smell that made us all cough: a smell of burning meat, with another stench overlaying it. Then we saw Firminus standing by the door.

He pointed.
‘Something’s trying to get in,’ he rasped.

You’ve lived your whole life in peace and safety. You think your future is all mapped out. But then something goes horribly wrong. You have to start running. And suddenly your world will never be the same again.

Imagine if you discovered your whole world was actually in a computer.

Noble is a knight with a heart that’s true and, well, noble. He must fight everything he encounters in his quest to reach the castle and free the princess. But he’s tired. Then one day Rufus comes along and turns his world upside down. Rufus has his own ideas about how to get ahead: don’t fight, negotiate! Don’t play by the rules! Suddenly, life is more interesting – and less painful – than ever before. But the new rules are harder to live by than the old ones. And can it be true what people are saying: that Noble actually lives inside a computer (whatever that is), and that Rufus is a computer virus?

A fast-paced story with a hilarious combination of characters that pushes the boundaries of space and time.

I still hadn’t fully absorbed the terrible possibility that I might actually be a werewolf. A werewolf. I kept stumbling over that word; it made no sense to me. How could I be a werewolf? Werewolves didn’t exist.

When Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in hospital with no memory of the night before, his horrified mother tells him that he was found unconscious. At Featherdale Wildlife Park. In a dingo pen.

He assumes that his two rambunctious best friends are somehow responsible, until he discovers that they’re just as freaked out as he is. Then the mysterious Reuben turns up, claiming that Toby has a rare and dangerous ‘condition’. Next thing he knows, Toby finds himself involved with a strange bunch of sickly insomniacs who seem convinced that he needs their help.

It’s not until he’s kidnapped and imprisoned that he starts to believe them – and to understand what being a paranormal monster really means.

‘If being a vampire were easy, there wouldn’t have to be a reformed vampire support group.’

Nina became a vampire in 1973 when she was fifteen, and she hasn’t aged a day since then. But she hasn’t had any fun either, because her life is so sickly and boring.

It becomes even worse when one of the other vampires in her therapy group is staked by a mysterious slayer. Threatened with extinction, she and her fellow vampires set out to hunt down the culprit. Trouble is, they soon find themselves up against some gun-toting werewolf traffickers who’ll stop at nothing.

Can a bunch of feeble couch potatoes win a fight like this? Is there more to being a vampire than meet the eye?

Best Suited 16+ Years
The story of two fiercely strong women, mother and daughter, one determined never to explain her choices and the other equally as determined to dig deeply and unrelentingly for the truth.

Charlotte Atkinson was born into a life of privilege. Raised by a widowed mother on a vast and wealthy estate near Sutton Forest, New South Wales, she and her three siblings enjoyed an idyllic early childhood in the great stone house still known today as Oldbury.

But in the summer of 1836, a violent incident in the Belanglo wilderness set off a chain of events that transformed Charlotte’s existence. Inexplicably, as a result of this affair, her mother was prompted to marry again – thereby surrendering her property, fortune and offspring to Charlotte’s vicious and degenerate new stepfather, George Barton. His presence turned Oldbury into a place of madness and terror, casting a shadow so long that it continued to haunt Charlotte for years after his somewhat mysterious death.

Based on fact, this astonishing tale features a memorable cast of characters, including Australia’s first female novelist and one of the country’s earliest, most notorious serial killers. Jinks confirms her reputation as a masterful storyteller with a meticulously researched exploration of public shame and private passion, set against the brooding backdrop of the Southern Highlands.

Best Suited 16+ Years
In 1814, Dorothea Brande leaves the quiet harmony of her Devonshire home and accompanies her officer husband, Charles, to the colony of New South Wales. Here she endeavours to escape the harshness of the landscape – and the appalling brutality of common existence – by cultivating an English garden with the help of her convict manservant, Daniel. Together, in the creation of this garden, two bereft and disoriented people find a new strength and a special kind of refuge.

But while Dorothea begins to adapt to the unforgiving environment, her husband is increasingly destroyed by it – until at last they stand on opposite sides of an unbridgeable gulf.

Absorbing, deftly handled and beautifully written, The Gentleman’s Garden is a wonderful, romantic novel of a woman’s difficult personal journey in a time of a developing Australian society.

When Marcus and his mother arrive at the Diamond Beach Caravan Park, it is one big disappointment. For a start, it’s nothing like the Diamond Beach that Marcus’s mother remembers from her childhood, and Marcus can think of a hundred better ways of spending his holiday than in their crusty old caravan.

But it doesn’t take long for the caravan to reveal its secret. And as Marcus is swept into the craziest, scariest holiday ever, he will need to use every ounce of his ingenuity to escape Miss Molpe’s trap before it’s too late.

Best Suited 16+ Years
Suddenly Grace knew. Her heart began to hammer; she looked around wildly. ‘He’s here,’ she gasped. ‘He’s found me. He’s bloody found me!’

A movement tugged at the corner of her eye and she whirled – but it was only the piece of old tyre slowly revolving where it hung from the peppercorn tree. Beyond it, the land was still.

A shocking murder wakes an ancient evil in outback New South Wales.

A truck-driver, a schoolboy, a retired bank manager and an eccentric country woman are among the people trapped on the Silver City Highway – caught in a supernatural quest for justice and a nightmarish journey that never seems to end.

Best Suited 16+ Years
He is my master, and a great man. Yet I would have preferred to escape his notice. ‘Hide yourself,’ he told me, and I obeyed – perhaps too well. No inquisitor likes to be outwitted.

I just want to be left alone. Is that too much to ask, after so many years of faithful service?

Helie is a former spy of the famous fourteenth-century inquisitor Bernard Gui. Now he is living under an alias, trying to forget his past life of deception and intrigue. But a chance meeting once more brings him to the notice of the Inquisition; he is obliged to infiltrate a new heretical group, and find out what happened to the last spy sent to do so. Was he murdered or did he flee?

Helie soon finds himself caught up in a dangerous conspiracy involving outlawed beliefs and human remains. The trouble is he no longer has the stomach for such an investigation – because his heart is beginning to betray him.

Set in a period when France was rocked by religious strife, The Secret Familiar is a tense and thrilling tale of treachery, faith and ultimate truths.

Wham! So here I am, standing in a sea of dirt, with a big mad Templar lobbing rocks at my head. Wham! Like some kind of martyr. Wham! He throws like a catapult.

Wait – don’t tell me. You are.

It’s twelfth-century Jerusalem, the time of the Crusades. Shrewd and scrappy Pagan has been plucked from the streets to work for Lord Roland, a Templar knight. Set against a background of mounting tension as Saladin’s infidels close in on the Holy City, Pagan’s Crusade is an exciting and exuberant tale of medieval adventure.

‘How terrible to think that for all these years, I’ve missed out on the joys of hunting. The thrill of standing behind a bush for half a day. The breathless excitement of gnat bites. The gut-wrenching sound of dogs sniffing each other’s genitals. Now I can see what all the fuss is about.’

It’s 1188, and the infidels have conquered Jerusalem. Forced into exile, Pagan escapes to France with his Templar lord, the noble Roland. But Lord Roland’s homecoming is less than joyful – his violent family clash both with their neighbours and with each other. At the centre of this bloody feud stands the highly principled Esclaramonde, a woman whose enigmatic character and heretical religious beliefs both disturb and attract Roland. And Pagan, too, has some unpalatable truths to confront.

Monks, monks, monks. Monks everywhere . crammed together on their chapter-house seats like bats in a cave. Like crows around a corpse.

Pagan is back! After renouncing the sword in Pagan in Exile, Pagan and his noble Lord Roland become novices at the Abbey of Saint Martin, where they will prepare to learn the twelve steps of humility and take the oath of obedience. But as Pagan soon finds out, neither humility nor blind obedience comes easily to him. And while Roland sets his eyes firmly on the face of God, the more worldly Pagan discovers just how corrupt and dangerous life in a monastery can be.

The enemy.

I’ve read so much, but I just can’t imagine it.

Languedoc in 1209 is a dangerous place. When the delicate, bookish Isidore becomes scribe to Pagan Kidrouk, Archdeacon of Carcassonne, he is plunged into the real world – Pagan’s world, and that of his beloved Lord Roland, and Roland’s enigmatic older brother, Lord Jordan. But this is the year in which papal forces from the north begin their bloody crusade against the Cathar heretics. And the battle line is moving closer to Carcassonne.

‘We’ve forbidden her to speak. We’ve stuffed her mouth with tow. We’ve shaved off her hair, once or twice. We’ve even locked her in that chest over there. And she remains incorrigible. She’s eaten up with sin, Holy Father, I don’t know what to do with her any more.’

At sixteen, Babylonne is desperate. She’s been starved and beaten, she’s endured six bloody sieges, and now her aunt wants her to marry a crazy old man who thinks he’s a giant olive.

Can she trust the mysterious priest who’s been spying on her, claiming to be a friend of her father’s? Or would it be better to fight – and perhaps die – in the long, vicious war with the French?