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NEW RELEASES
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Deep Water by Peter Corris (pub. Allen & Unwin) Publisher's Synopsis : Stripped of his private detective licence and devastated by the murder of his partner Lily Truscott, Cliff Hardy travels to the US to help Lily's brother's tilt for a world boxing title. In San Diego he suffers a heart attack and undergoes a quadruple bypass. He meets nurse Margaret McKinley, an expatriate Australian who is concerned about the disappearance in Sydney of her father - renowned geologist Dr Henry McKinley.
Hardy undertakes to investigate in association with Hank Bachelor, his former associate who now runs his own agency. It turns out that McKinley had discovered a way to tap into the massive Sydney basin acquifier, a possible solution to the city's water problems. Working with Margaret who visits Sydney, Bachelor, and his daughter, Megan, Hardy confronts an old enemy and contending forces bent on exploiting the discovery and prepared to kill for it. Energised by the case and by his attachment to Margaret, Hardy obeys the strict rules for the restoration of his health - but in pursuing the truth and the malefactors, he makes his own rules. |
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What they don’t count on is a brutal bashing that turns political. The victim is connected. And for Detective Inspector Hal Challis, newly embarked on a relationship with his sergeant, Ellen Destry, this is not the best time to have the brass on his back. Especially when a bludgeoned corpse is found outside town and it becomes clear something much darker than adolescent craziness is going down.
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The Iron Heart by Marshall Browne (pub. Random House Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Franz Schmidt arrives in Berlin in January 1939 to take up the position of Chief Auditor at the Reichsbank, the financial heart of the Third Reich. He has been positioned there by the enigmatic von Streck, a high-ranking member of the Nazi party but one who has a different agenda to that of the Fuehrer. Schmidt realises he must tread very carefully to avoid the zealous and passionate Fraulein Brandt, who is determined to destroy anyone unfaithful to the Party. After the murder of a co-worker, Schmidt is driven, despite von Streck's orders to keep a low profile, to help the dead man's assistant, who is now in grave danger herself.
As the Gestapo's reach extends throughout the freezing city, Schmidt's brief becomes clear. He must steal a copy of the Reich's financing blueprint in an attempt to prevent the country's march to war. Iron Heart is the second novel featuring Franz Schmidt and confirms Marshall Browne's reputation as one of Australia's foremost crime writers. |
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Move To Strike by Sydney Bauer (pub. Pan Macmillan Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : Doctor Jeffrey Logan, daytime TV's most loved psychiatrist, has a top-rating talk show seen around the world. The perfect picture is completed by a beautiful, talented wife, Stephanie, who is the loving mother of their teenage son and daughter.
This cosy domestic scene is shattered by a bullet. Stephanie is killed instantly at the kitchen table, the hunting rifle used at close range causing catastrophic damage. When "Doctor Jeff" confesses to his wife's murder, Boston lawyer David Cavanaugh is appointed as his defence counsel. But Cavanaugh and Logan's dead wife went to law school together, and from what he remembers of his friend, nothing is making sense. Then the unthinkable happens – evidence starts pointing not to Doctor Jeff, but to Stephanie's son, JT. Soon, Cavanaugh realises that though this family has a dark secret, it may not be the one the popular Doctor Jeff insists on revealing to the world. With the Logan children unwilling to reveal what really happened, and Doctor Jeff one step ahead of his defence team, Cavanaugh must race to uncover the truth, before more lives, including those closest to him, are lost. |
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But then, just when everything seems to be going right, a local trainer hits a run of unusual bad luck and a young jockey dies under suspicious circumstances. With the help of a journalist friend, Kate, Punter begins to put the pieces together, and finds himself drawn into a tangled web of underworld crimes that are much more sinister than he had anticipated...
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The Killing Hands by P.D. Martin (pub. Pan Macmillan Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : FBI profiler Sophie Anderson is an expert at dealing with gruesome murder cases and psychotic serial killers. Her latest case, however, is like nothing she's ever seen before – the victim has had his throat ripped out.
The body is identified as a member of an Asian criminal organisation, and Sophie and her team suspect they've stumbled upon a gangland hit. But the butchered victim had been missing for fifteen years, presumed dead - so who lured him out of hiding to kill him? When Sophie uncovers a number of similar murders with links to organised crime, she realises she has a seasoned killer on her hands who leaves no forensic evidence. But how does he do it? Sophie is also grappling with more personal issues. Over-protective parents visiting from Australia, her erratic psychic skills and the growing distraction of her feelings for a fellow cop. But Sophie will have to focus on the job - they still have no idea who's behind the murder, or that another is being planned... one that will strike at the heart of the investigating team itself. |
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Dead and Kicking by Geoff McGeachin (pub. Penguin Australia) Publisher's Synopsis : When a movie about an Australian war hero takes Alby Murdoch to Vietnam, he discovers that some old soldiers never die and that it's not just the cameras doing the shooting . . . A job as stills photographer and some top-notch nosh were two good reasons for Alby Murdock to be in Saigon. The third was that he had to clear out of Sydney and the spy game for a while. But when Alby snaps a photo of the wrong passing cyclo, suddenly more action is taking place off camera than on. Alongside his old flame, the bootylicious Jezebel Quick – and his new friend, the alluring Inspector Hoang – Alby is thrust into the murky, watch-your-back world of casino crime lords, bent politicians, rogue expats, killer fish and ruthless celebrity chefs. |
