Published...Or Not

By Her Hand is Marion Taffe's debut novel where the protagonist must write her rage to win her war. Laura McCluskey takes us to an isolated island off the west coast of Scotland where superstition and resistance hamper a murder investigation in her debut novel, The Wolf Tree.

Peter Norris writes about his upbringing with his career criminal father who was a bank robber and jail escapee in the memoir, The Bank Robbers Boy. Kate Grenville talks about her latest work, Unsettled.

A cicada leaves a shell of its former self behind suggesting a past life and this notion is played upon in Ella Ward's novel, The Cicada House.

Kate Solly has written a cosy crime book ‘The Paradise Heights Craft Store Stitch Up’.Family saga mixes with macabre happenings in ‘First Name Second Name’ Steve MinOn has a dead man walking back through four generations of family history to recover his lost identity. 

Her Gramps has dementia and it is through a time slip that Charlotte relives the moon landing and brings sparks of awareness and her own empathy to him and others in the aged care facility, in Anna Ciddor’s ‘Moonboy’.Several months after her father's death, Belinda Probert discovers that his name is actually Roy. She outlines the journey of discovery that followed in her book, ‘Bill's Secrets - cl...

Alice and Teddy are two women on the fringes of criminality who begin to realize they are implicated in drug running and murder in Fiona Hardy's novel, 'Unbury the Dead'.Three people from different generations, backgrounds and work, form an unlikely connection and this friendship alters the course of their lives in Andrea Goldsmith’s ‘The Buried Life’

It is not only communicating with the spirits of the dead that is perplexing for Ellen but her feeling towards one of the other members of the family that make up the church in ‘The Spirit Circle’ by Tara Calaby, an intriguing historical mystery. Geraldine Brooks' memoir, ‘Memorial Days’, addresses the nature of loss and grief as she comes to terms with the unexpected death of her husband, Tony Ho...

Jennifer Wolfe thinks she is fighting just for her family but her survival and the truths she could reveal could bring down a dictatorship. She becomes ‘The Hunted’ in Tayla Holborow’s adventure story. ‘The Thrill Of It’ takes us into the malevolent world of a serial killer dispatching old women.  Mandy Beaumont bases her version on real life events in Sydney of the 1990’s.  

Lili Wilkinson's, "Unhallowed Halls', is set on the Scottish moors. It is where dark academia and demons collide.  Should the creative arts be inviolable or should artists use their knowledge for personal gain. This is one of the concepts in Alex Miller's latest novel, The Deal.

The stories and songs coming from a writing course in a women’s prison, brings black humour and a little understanding of these women’s lives and crimes in Valerie Colyer’s ‘Tales that talk to you’Geoff Parkes takes us to the backwater town of Nashville in New Zealand where a Finnish backpacker, Sanna Sorensen, goes missing. The whole town is full of suspects and secrets making the truth hard to e...

Thuy On, once again, explores, language, love and the arts in her latest poetry collection, ‘Essence’.Grace had to contend with grieving parents, conflicted staff and hounded by relentless media for the decision she made at the beach and then the consequences to come to her in this page turning thriller ‘Three Boys Gone’ by Mark Smith.     

‘You Must Remember This’ by Sean Wilson is an eloquent jumble of a family story with a tender portrait of Grace and her slippages of memory with dementia. When a well-meaning community is challenged by the homeless living close by, it is how they act individually and as a group that make this such a wryly humourous and readable fiction. The book is ‘The Campers’ by Maryrose Cuskelly.

Blue Lake by David Sornig is part history, part biography and part personal reflection on a much overlooked part of Melbourne's landscape. Situated to the west of the city lies a tract of land, Dudley Flats, that was once a lagoon but embodies the social, industrial and cultural changes to Melbourne over time. It was a marshland, waste dump, shanty town and shipping centre but is still often overl...

When Captain Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia, he renamed many of the landmarks.  In ‘Warra Warra Wai’ the names and stories of these landmarks are explained as well as how the Indigenous Australians were impacted by this uninvited visitor.  Darren Rix and Craig Cormick have recorded and researched this most interesting book. 

Ghost Cities by Siang Lu is an epic tale. Historical China with paranoid emperors finds a parralel with megalomaniaical film directors in the present day where empires are build on false promises. But Lu's story goes into the very foundation of language and social attitudes where we begin to question the foundations of what we believe and how social truths are formed. And there are real 'ghost cit...

Peter Rose, long time editor of ABR, talks about the recent edition '2024 Books of the Year', with over 40 contributors. David, Lisa and Jan add the books that resonated with them over the year on Published or not, and we alll discuss different aspects of reading, writing and reviewing.

'Thoroughly Disenchanted' is Alexandra Almond's take on a fictional world where magic casts a spell on us all and keeps us in thrall without us even knowing.'The Lost Book of Magic' is the last in a fantasy trilogy for middle grade readers by Amelia Mellor.

The subtitle says it all – ‘A celebration of joyful rebellion, glorious women and cats’, it is also factually interesting and beautifully illustrated. The author is Anna Go-Go and the title is ‘Cat Lady Manifesto’.Iain Ryan's latest novel,’ The Dream’, is a dark noir thriller set against the backdrop of corruption and dysfunction that was prevalent in Queensland before the Firzgerald Inquiry.   

A rabbit and a grandmother come to stay during lockdown. Will this help a grieving family heal in Melanie Cheng’s ‘The Burrow’.Ginny Dilboong has a unique way of publishing her poetry. She plants her compositions in the earth and by so doing affirms her indigenous ties to the landscape in Nardi Simpson’s book ‘TheBelburd’.  

‘Six Summers of Tash and Leopold’ by Danielle Binks is a beautiful middle-grade novel for contemporary tmes. Zoe’s Elevator Pitch to her agent says it all…….“A thriller writer who starts dating a celebrity has to deal with a psycho fan who uses everything in her first book against her. The police can’t help her, nobody can help her…except maybe the man she loves “ or can he? in Pip Drysdale’s crim...

Darren Rix and Craig Cormick have co-authored ‘Warra Warra Wai’. It is a richly researched book telling of Captain Cook’s Endeavour visit and what happened then, from both historical records and indigenous story telling. Writers block can be a very debilitating condition made all the more problematic when stranded on a remote island where the mythology of the landscape and fellow attendees with su...

'Little Puggle's Christmas' is a beautiful Christmas book by Vikki Conley with an Australian setting. The 70's were a time of social revolution and one of the epicentres of the ferment was London where Grace has travelled. Her meeting with Marigold is pivotal to her journey of self discovery which is all revealed in Mira Robertson's novel, 'Grace and Marigold'.

Rosalie Ham completes her trilogy of The Dressmaker with ‘Molly’, the mother who challenged society’s norms in wanting changes, fairness for women in the work place and sensible underwear. A humorous and well-crafted story which explains how her daughter, Tilly Dunnage, grew up in Dungatar. Yannick Thoraval’s book ‘The Marriage Gap’ challenges the conventional notions of marriage and prompts reads...

As ‘The 113th Assistant Librarian’ Oliver’s life now has seven cats, hundreds of deadly books and he has to learn how to stop people dying in the library.  Stuart Wilson has written a magical tome for parents to enjoy reading to their primary aged kids and remember books can be dangerous!  After reading Gabriel Bermoser's novel, The Hitchhiker, you will forever reconsider assisting strangers waiti...

Managing a boutique hotel overlooking a surf beach in Sri Lanka sounds like paradise. Dasha Ross writes about the joy and disasters of trying to do this with her husband John Pinder in ‘Big Trouble Coming’. Tigest Girma creates a world where mortals and vampires coexist in 'Immortal Dark' where betrayal, violence and romance are intertwined and life is tenuous.