Published...Or Not

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.    

Lynette Clarke has written about strangers in London sharing rooms with no personal space. Some will find work, fall in love and forge friendships but one will be driven to violence in ‘The Rat Cage’. Finding time to be yourself given the travails of life besetting you is at the core of Sophie Green's novel, 'Art Hour at the Duchess Hotel'.  

Guilt, hope and recrimination are at play in Matthew Hooper's debut novel, A Cold Season. The Little Clothes by Deborah Callaghan is about grabbing onto life and claiming your place in it.are

Casey Nott has written a novel about motherhood, identity and loss in ‘Forgotten’.Fay works as a translator but it is her choice of lover and employer that lead to betrayal, ambition and questioning what love means in Jessie Tu’s ‘The Honeyeater’.

Amanda Willimott has written an historical thriller, based on an actual trial of a werewolf. ‘Winter of the Wolf' is also about the power of law and religion for educated men while many women had no voice at all for fear of being charged with witchcraft. Keshe Chow takes us back to imperial China and the notion that behind every mirror lies an alternate universe waiting to escape their duty of mim...

Displacement can be the shift in location from a country, a city or a family. All of these aspects come to life when Aliya and her daughter choose to move to rural New South Wales in Jumaana Abdu’s debut novel ‘Translations’.The pieces of our lives, the influences and experiences, are like a mosaic joining together to make a whole that may be stranger than we imagine. This is evident in 'Mural' by...

Household debt takes on a new meaning when you are a former assassin seeking retribution for the death of a child while, at the same time, trying to manage your domestic life. Mark Mupotsa-Russell explores these dilemmas in his novel, ‘The Hitwoman's Guide to Reducing Household Debt’.Melbourne is the city. It and the characters who just want to be heard are given a voice in ‘The Degenerates’. They...

'Together We Fall Apart' is Sophie Matthiesson's novel about running away and coming home against a backdrop of addiction.'The End and Everything Before It' is Finegan Kruckemeyer's first novel where the tale twists upon itself highlighting the development of a town over the course of time where legend and life are intertwined.

A small town but with a dark history and when an old woman tells a secret from the past, there is a mystery to unravel and a crime to solve in Amy Doak’s YA novel ‘Eleanor Jones Can’t Keep a Secret’.Courtney Collins explores the universal connection between women that transcends time, cultures and countries in her novel, 'Bird'.

Jack Dunne wants a future for his son but Australia has an occupational force which wants to eradicate the last hill of resistance and that's where their home is.  'Outrider' is an action packed fiction, a story of survival and hope by Mark Wales. J P Pomare has us delving into the cold case morder of the Primrose family some seventeen years after the event in his latest novel, '17 Years Later'. I...

Movie reels, photographs a camera and letters link two women 100 years apart in this parallel story of history and the complication of relationships in ‘The Lost Letters of Rose Carey’ by Julie Bennett.     'The Infant Vine' is Isabella G. Mead's debut collection of poetry that explores new life and motherhood with particular associations with nature that are often intriguing and thought provoking...

A teenage girl is influenced by both her mother and an adult friend, but it is only after a tragedy she learns how she fits into complex society of family and friendships and becomes her best self in ‘Jade and Emerald ‘ by Michelle See-Tho. Scott Wilson takes us into the realm of super-forecasters gauging the economic, political, and military temperature for global political powers in his novel, '...

‘If You Go’ by Alice Robinson, is a domestic sci-fi about motherhood and what we pass onto our children. Marnie’s daughter has a raging drug habit and a repellent boyfriend. She can see the danger for her grandchildren. Her determination to keep them safe means she has to trust some strangers who become friends in ‘’Edenhope’ by Louise Le Nay.

Tim Ayliffe weaves a web of intrigue in 'The Wrong Man' where deaths of young women two years apart have a mysterious connection linked to a serial killer. The corruption within the police force impedes the investigation and there is a suggestion a not so innocent man has been framed. Fred is kind and has so much love to give, but no one to give it to. Mistaken identity gives him not only security...

‘The Glass House’ by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion delves into the challenges faced by both psychiatric patients and clinicians as they seek diagnoses and an equitable path forward with their lives. ‘Murder in Punch Lane’ has well known people as suspects in Jane Sullivan’s gothic crime novel set in the laneways of 19th century Melbourne.

 Before mobiles there were letters and that’s how three friends from the past communicated. The letters were found and three friends from now want to solve the mystery of who they were and what happened to them.  In solving the mystery they also learn about themselves in 'Return to Sender' by Lauren Draper.'Naked Ambition' is Robert Gott's hilarious look at politicians, the Archibald Prize and Chr...

A child walks out of the Wimmera desert in Lia Hills' novel, The Desert Knows Her Name'. She is an enigma that others, all with their own agends, try to solve.'Portraits' by W. H. Chong is a collection of  more than 300 drawings of artists, writers, musicians and thinkers.

Lindy Cameron, Hugh McGinlay, Narrelle Harris and Robert Gott talk all things crime while constantly being interrupted through the Radiothon Program.