AustLit

'From fantasy master Garth Nix comes a new world of angels, heroes, gunpowder and high magic.

'The icon-maker and angel-summoner Liliath, long-believed dead, has woken from her century-long sleep to pick up the threads of a plan that has already destroyed one kingdom and may yet destroy another. To succeed, Liliath must bring together Agnez the musketeer; Simeon the doctor; Dorotea the mage; and Henri, one of the Cardinal's clerks, and take them into utmost danger ...

'Set in an alternate 17th century where angels can be summoned (and controlled) by those with a talent for magic, Angel Mage is an action-packed story of angels, heroes, gunpowder and high magic.'  (Publication summary)

'Paris, 1899. Emma Lacasse has been estranged from her older sister for nearly twenty years, since Caroline married a wealthy American and left France. So when Emma receives a request from Caroline to meet her, she is intrigued. Caroline invites Emma to visit her in New York, on one condition: Emma must tutor her shy, young niece, Isadora, and help her prepare for her society debut.

'Caroline lives a life of unimaginable excess and opulence as one of New York's Gilded Age millionaires and Emma is soon immersed in a world of luxury beyond her wildest dreams - a far cry from her bohemian lifestyle as a harpist and writer with her lover, Claude, in Montmartre.

'Emma hopes for an emotional reunion with her only family, but instead she finds herself in the vice-like grip of her charismatic and manipulative sister, who revels in the machinations of the ultra rich. As Emma begins to question her sister's true motives, a disaster strikes, and New York society is stripped bare - beneath the glittering exterior lies a seething nest of deceit, betrayal, moral corruption ... and perhaps even murder.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Wilbrook in Western Australia is a sleepy, remote town that sits on the edge of miles and miles of unexplored wilderness. It is home to Police Sergeant Chandler Jenkins, who is proud to run the town’s small police station, a place used to dealing with domestic disputes and noise complaints.
'All that changes on a scorching day when an injured man stumbles into Chandler’s station. He’s covered in dried blood. His name is Gabriel. He tells Chandler what he remembers.
'He was drugged and driven to a cabin in the mountains and tied up in iron chains. The man who took him was called Heath. Heath told Gabriel he was going to be number 55. His 55th victim. 
'Heath is a serial killer.
'As a manhunt is launched, a man who says he is Heath walks into the same station. He tells Chandler he was taken by a man named Gabriel. Gabriel told Heath he was going to be victim 55.
'Gabriel is the serial killer.'  (Publication summary)
 

'Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr. Henry Jekyll. Only Mr. Utterson, Jekyll’s faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor – because Jekyll was Hyde. 

'But as the man goes about charming Jekyll’s friends and reclaiming the estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life ... and questioning his own sanity.

'From the internationally acclaimed Australian author Anthony O’Neill comes Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Seek, an ingenious, original sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.' (Publication Summary)

''I promise,' said Rosa. 'I won't kill and I won't make anyone else kill.'

'I can't see the loophole. Since the guinea pig there's been nothing. Months now without Rosa killing as much as a mosquito.

'As far as I know.

'Che Taylor has four items on his list: 1. He wants to spar, not just train in the boxing gym. 2. He wants a girlfriend. 3. He wants to go home. 4. He wants to keep Rosa under control.

'Che's little sister Rosa is smart, talented, pretty, and so good at deception that Che's convinced she must be a psychopath. She hasn't hurt anyone yet, but he's certain it's just a matter of time. And when their parents move them to New York City, Che longs to return to Sydney and his three best friends. But his first duty is to his sister Rosa, who is playing increasingly complex and disturbing games. Can he protect Rosa from the world - and the world from Rosa?

'My Sister Rosa will have you on the edge of your seat from the very first page to the last.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A love bigger than a war. A beautiful woman lost. A mystery unsolved ... until now.

'2000: The wreckage of a downed WWII fighter plane is discovered in the forests near Russia's Ukrainian border. The aircraft belonged to Natalya Azarova, ace pilot and pin-up girl for Soviet propaganda, but the question of her fate remains unanswered.

'Was she a German spy who faked her own death, as the Kremlin claims? Her lover, Valentin Orlov, now a highly decorated general, refuses to believe it. Lily, a young Australian woman, has moved to Moscow to escape from tragedy. She becomes fascinated by the story of Natalya, and when she meets an elderly woman who claims to know the truth behind the rumours, Lily is drawn deeper into the mystery.

'From the pomp and purges of Stalin's Russia through the horrors of war and beyond - secrets and lies, enduring love and terrible betrayal, sacrifice and redemption all combine in this sweeping saga from Belinda Alexandra.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Heaven must be missing an angel ... The angel Bethany and her mortal love, Xavier, have already pushed the boundaries of Heaven with their relationship. In this conclusion to the Halo trilogy, the two take their love to the next, forbidden, step: they marry. At a time when they believe nothing will come between them again, they are faced with their most daunting challenge yet - The Sevens, a military order of angels designed to maintain balance in the universe. These soldiers won't stop until their job is done - capture the wayward angel and send her home. Beth discovers there is only one way back to Earth, but the cost is higher than she ever imagined. If she can survive, she can prove to Heaven and Earth that there is nothing stronger than the power of love.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

When a blackened skeleton is unearthed on a building site in the City of London, no one can have the slightest idea of its extraordinary link to a plot to assassinate the Queen of Englandover 500 years ago.

But there is one very conspicuous clue. On the index finger of the body's right hand is a gold ring topped with a brilliant, round emerald.

DCI Jack Pendragon has just transferred from Oxford to Brick Lane Police Station - in part to escape his own past. Immediately, he finds himself investigating three particularly gruesome murders. And he will need all the experience he has acquired from two decades on the force to track down a killer for whom an eerie obsession has become total madness. A killer who draws his murderous inspiration from a Renaissance family whose power and cruelty remain a living legend.

Source: Publisher's Blurb

'Nothing much happens in the sleepy town of Venus Cove.

'But everything changes when three angels, Ivy, Bethany and Gabriel are sent from heaven to protect the town against the gathering forces of darkness. They work hard to conceal their true identity and, most of all, their wings. But the mission is threatened when the youngest angel, Bethany, is sent to high school and falls for the handsome school captain, Xavier Woods. Will she defy the laws of Heaven by loving him?

'Things come to a head when the angels realize they are not the only supernatural power in Venus Cove. There′s a new kid in town and he′s charming, seductive and deadly. Worst of all, he′s after Beth.'

'The angels and Xavier must work together to overcome the dark forces - but will Beth survive the battle?' (From the publisher's website.)

'Mickey Carlyle disappeared, in a building with only five floors and eleven flats ? How is this possible? Everyone knows that Mickey Carlyle is dead and a man is in prison for her murder, except Detective Inspector Vincent Ruiz, who cannot stop searching for her and will not give up hope that she is still alive. Vincent is found one night, shot and with a picture of Mickey in his pocket; he seems to have amnesia. After being accused of faking amnesia and under investigation by his colleagues he retraces his steps, and relives that night with the help of a psychologist. Facts, not memories will tell him what happened to Mickey Carlisle. ' (Publisher's blurb)

Queen Scheherazade is kidnapped from Baghdad and must tell a story to save her own life, having told stories for many years to save the lives of other women.

'Ninth-century Baghdad, legendary crossroads of the East. It is nearly twenty years since Scheherazade spun her tales for a thousand and one nights, the tales that saved her life and immortalised the city that she had never seen - until now. But almost immediately she is kidnapped by a party of hashish-chewing assassins from under the Caliph of Baghdad's nose. An ancient prophecy leads the Caliph to despatch an unlikely crew of sailors on a rescue mission. As they venture deeper into the unforgiving desert, losing camels, supplies, and all sense of dicrection, Scheherazade must face her abductors alone. And once again begins to spin a tale to save her life... An adventure full of wit, danger and incident, murder and mystery, poetry and philosophy - and testament to the power of the imagination - Scheherazade sweeps from the historical realities of Arabian life into a world of magic carpets and miraculous beings, seamlessly weaving fact, fiction and fable into a novel rich with all the heady power of the Arabian Nights.'

Source: Back cover

'Sixty Lights is the captivating chronicle of Lucy Strange, an independent girl growing up in the Victorian world. From her childhood in Australia through to her adolescence in England and Bombay and finally to London, Lucy is fascinated by light and by the new photographic technology. Her perception of the world is passionate and moving, revealed in a series of frozen images captured in the camera of her mind's eye showing her feelings about love, life and loss. In this confident, finely woven and intricate novel Jones has created an unforgettable character in Lucy; visionary, gifted and exuberant, she touches the lives of all who know her.' (Publication summary)

'Evelyn is a clever orphan at the Fountainbridge Institute for Destitute Girls. Enchanted by a cheerful lamplighter who fires the streetlamp outside her window each evening, she mesmerizes the other girls with flights of fancy. In a time before Freudian awareness of sexuality and the subconscious mind, such tales are forbidden by the institute's governor, who warns Evelyn to cease her nocturnal storytelling.

'Evelyn defies him - and is cast out of the orphanage and sacrificed to a shadowy figure claiming to be her long-lost father. Who is this man, and why does he lock Evelyn away in a hunting lodge?

'Years later, the mutilated body of a professor of ecclesiastical law turns up on one of Edinburgh's finest streets; the grave of a famous colonel is ravaged; a shady entrepreneur is slaughtered while dashing for a train; and a retired lighthouse keeper is ripped to shreds while walking his dog -- all this after Evelyn, now a young woman, has reappeared in the city.

'What connects the victims? And what of Evelyn, anguished and appealing, who repeatedly claims to have dreamed the murders in great detail - each time blaming a mysterious "lamplighter"?

'Leading the official investigation is Carus Groves, a conceited yet effective police inspector desperate to cap his unremarkable career with a sensational case. Heading up the unofficial investigation is a disillusioned professor of logic and metaphysics, Thomas McKnight, and his assistant, Joseph Canavan, a strapping young gravedigger. Using reason, intuition, philosophy, and luck, these men race to solve the murders and unveil the source of Evelyn's torment, and in so doing penetrate the very gates of Hell.'

Book Jacket. Scribner, 2003. (Libraries Australia record).

'Raymond Maillot is a lustful young notary who prefers wine, women and song to the pursuit of professional renown. But when he's employed by Father Amiel, a sober Dominican monk charged with investigating a particularly shocking murder, his life begins to change. Now Raymond is torn between his taste for irresponsible pleasures and his desire to find refuge in the Church. His journey of self-discovery, however, begins with a severed penis.' (Source: Libraries Australia)

'Renowned psychologist Joseph O'Loughlin has it all-a thriving practice, a devoted, beautiful, fiercely intelligent wife, and a lovely young daughter. But when he's diagnosed with Parkinson's, O'Loughlin begins to dread the way his exceptional mind has been shackled to a failing body, and the cracks in his perfect existence start to show.

'At first, O'Loughlin is delighted to be called in to a high-profile murder investigation, hoping his extraordinary abilities at perception will help bring a killer to justice. But when O'Loughlin recognizes the victim as one of his former patients, an emotionally disturbed young woman who nearly brought ruin upon him, O'Loughlin hesitates-a fateful decision that soon places O'Loughlin at the top of the lists of both a bullish detective, and a diabolical killer.' (Publication summary)