Бри Ли0.0 'Scorching, self-scouring: a young woman finds her steel and learns to wield it' - Helen Garner
EGGSHELL SKULL: A well-established legal doctrine that a defendant must 'take their victim as they find them'. If a single punch kills someone because of their thin skull, that victim's weakness cannot mitigate the seriousness of the crime.
But what if it also works the other way? What if a defendant on trial for sexual crimes has to accept his 'victim' as she comes: a strong, determined accuser who knows the legal system, who will not back down until justice is done?
Bri Lee began her first day of work at the Queensland District Court as a bright-eyed judge's associate. Two years later she was back as the complainant in her own case.
This is the story of Bri's journey through the Australian legal system; first as the daughter of a policeman, then as a law student, and finally as a judge's associate in both metropolitan and regional Queensland-where justice can look very different, especially for women. The injustice Bri witnessed, mourned and raged over every day finally forced her to confront her own personal history, one she'd vowed never to tell. And this is how, after years of struggle, she found herself on the other side of the courtroom, telling her story.
Bri Lee has written a fierce and eloquent memoir that addresses both her own reckoning with the past as well as with the stories around her, to speak the truth with wit, empathy and unflinching courage. Eggshell Skull is a haunting appraisal of modern Australia from a new and essential voice.
'Brutal, brave and utterly compelling . . . I can't remember a book I devoured with such intensity, nor one that moved me so profoundly' Rebecca Starford, author of Bad Behaviour and co-founder of Kill Your Darlings
'Courageous, heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful' Liam Pieper, author of The Toymaker
'Sensitive and clear-eyed' Jessica Friedmann, author of Things That Helped
'A page-turner of a memoir, impossible to put down' Krissy Kneen, author of An Uncertain Grace
Рэйчел Браун0.0 The riveting inside story of a journalist’s cold-case investigation of a shocking murder.
Every cop has a case that dug its claws in and would not let go. For veteran detective Ron Iddles, it was his very first homicide case — the 1980 murder of single mother Maria James in the back of her Melbourne bookshop. He never managed to solve it, and it still grates like hell.
Maria’s two sons, Mark and Adam, have lived in a holding pattern longer than Rachael Brown has been alive. When the investigative journalist learned that a crucial witness’s evidence had never seen daylight, the case would start to consume her — just as it had the detective nearly four decades prior — so she asked for his blessing, and that of the James brothers, to review Maria's case.
In her exhaustive and exhausting 16-month investigation for the ABC podcast Trace, Rachael reviewed initial suspects, found one of her own, and uncovered devastating revelations about a forensic bungle and possible conspiracies that have inspired the coroner to consider holding a new inquest.
This is a mesmerising account, as Rachael traces back through her investigation — one that blew the dust off a 38-year-old cold case, gave a voice to the forgotten and the abused, and could have serious implications for two of the state’s most powerful institutions.
Mary Pershall0.0 The only way to comprehend this tragic story of mine is to write it.'
On the 10th of February 2017, there was a sentencing hearing for murder in the Victorian Supreme Court. The young woman in the dock, who sat quietly with her hands in her lap, had perfect skin and light-brown hair tied back as neatly as a private school prefect's. When the judge asked her to confirm her plea, the young woman answered in a clear and polite voice. 'Guilty, your Honour.'
That killer is Mary K. Pershall's beloved daughter Anna. She is twenty-eight years old, tall and beautiful, with an effervescent wit and a university degree in psychology. She also hears the voices of demons. After Anna finished uni, she just could not meet the demands of adulthood, and the voices became overwhelming. She attempted to silence them with alcohol and weed, with the abuse of her prescribed medication, and with ice. But the evil howling would not stop.
Award-winning author Mary K. Pershall brings a unique and insightful perspective to a story that is at once devastating and uplifting, and proves that a mother's love - even in its darkest hour - can shed light and provide hope to families in crisis
Дебора Сноу0.0 I'm sure you [will be] as shocked and bewildered by what you've learnt, as I was.' 'Afterword', Louisa Hope, Lindt Cafe hostage
On 15 December 2014, just ten days before Christmas, the unthinkable happened. A terrorist attack on Australian soil. For seventeen hours Islamic State-inspired gunman Man Haron Monis held his captives in a terrifying drama that paralysed Sydney and kept a nation glued to its television screens. Two hostages were killed and three seriously wounded. The others would have their lives changed for ever.
Despite the police leadership declaring it was well prepared for a terrorist attack, many shortcomings on the night revealed a response that fell seriously short of that promise. Deborah Snow lays bare what happened behind the scenes in the cafe as the hostages tried to keep themselves alive while waiting for a police response that didn't come. She also takes us into the police command posts as communications, equipment and decision-making structures broke down.
Hurtling towards its inevitable and tragic conclusion, Siege draws us into a vortex of police missteps, extraordinary bravery and profound grief to reveal what happened during that awful day. Shocking, compelling and revealing Siege will take its place as the classic account of these events.
Кейт Уайлд0.0 In 2009, in the NSW country town of Armidale, a mentally ill young man is shot dead by a police officer. Senior Constable Andrew Rich claims he ‘had no choice’ other than to shoot 24-year-old Elijah Holcombe — Elijah had run at him roaring with a knife, he tells police.
Some witnesses to the shooting say otherwise, though, and this act of aggression doesn't fit with the sweet, sensitive, but troubled young man that Elijah's family and friends knew him to be. The shooting devastates Elijah's family and the police officer alike.
So what happened in that Armidale laneway — and how could it have been avoided? Waiting for Elijah is the culmination of journalist Kate Wild's six-year investigation — an investigation that not only seeks to answer these questions, but also poses some vitally important ones of its own: Why is it still taboo to talk about mental illness in our society? Is it fair to expect police to be first responders in mental health crises? If the community insists this job belongs to police, how can these interactions be improved?
Written with clear-eyed compassion and a compelling narrative drive, Waiting for Elijah is an account of a tragedy that didn’t have to happen. It is also an intense, forensic deconstruction of the extended legal proceedings that followed, and a heartbreaking portrait of a family’s grief.
Сара Эпштейн0.0 We don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.
Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing.
As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again. And she realises Mallory is the key to unlocking the truth about a dark secret connecting them. Does Sparrow exist after all? Or is Tash more dangerous to others than she thinks?
Small Spaces is a gripping young adult thriller from debut Australian author Sarah Epstein, perfect for 14+ fans of Fleur Ferris and Rebecca James. Read more about the author and her novel at www.sarahepsteinbooks.com
“A beautifully crafted psychological thriller. I couldn’t put it down.” Fleur Ferris
“This gripping debut messes with your head and makes you doubt your own senses. Sarah Epstein smashes it out of the park.” Ellie Marney
“A deliciously creepy YA thriller that reeled me in, made my heart race and kept me guessing to the very end.” Rachael Craw
Крисси Книн0.0 When Jessica’s partner disappears into the dark Tasmanian forest, there is of course the mystery of what happened to him. The deserted car; the enigmatic final image on his phone.
There is the strange circle of local women, widows of disappeared men, with their edgy fellowship and unhinged theories.
And the forest itself: looming hugely over this tiny settlement on the remote tip of the island.
But for Jessica there is also the tight community in which she is still a stranger and Matthew was not. What secrets do they know about her own life that she doesn't? And why do they believe things that should not—cannot—be true. For her own sanity, Jessica needs to know two things. Who was Matthew? And who—or what—has he become?
Kate Hendrick0.0 When Lindsay meets Elias the signs aren’t promising. She’s a grungy introvert who doesn’t want to talk to anyone. He’s a teen fashionista who can’t shut the hell up.
But since Lindsay tracked down a runaway kid, word’s got around that she knows how to find people. And Elias is looking for his birth mother. And he has money, and Lindsay’s perpetually broke… So that’s how this oddest of odd couples teams up.
But the thing is, Lindsay wasn’t actually trying to find the runaway. It’s just how she looks at the world. Not idly, like most people, but really looking. Scanning every house, every face, every car. That’s because someone is missing in Lindsay’s life: her identical twin Frankie, who disappeared when they were eight. Since then, her parents have kept themselves busy. And angry. And Lindsay has been…looking.
In Elias, despite their differences, she might have found someone to look with.
Janet Lee0.0 To lose one husband may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like murder.
Louisa Collins was hung in New South Wales in 1889. She was tried four times for the alleged murders of her two husbands. In three of those trials the juries could not agree that she was guilty. At her fourth trial the testimony of Louisa's young daughter, May, contributed to Louisa's conviction.
Intimately reimagined from Louisa's perspective, with a story that just might fit the historical facts, this clever and compelling novel visits Louisa in her prison cell as she reflects on her life and the death and loss that have dictated her fate.
Will she confess? Or was an innocent woman brutally hanged?
Дервла Мактирнан4.3 It's been twenty years since Cormac Reilly discovered the body of Hilaria Blake in her crumbling Georgian home. But he's never forgotten the two children she left behind...
When Aisling Conroy's boyfriend Jack is found in the freezing black waters of the river Corrib, the police tell her it was suicide. A surgical resident, she throws herself into study and work, trying to forget - until Jack's sister Maude shows up. Maude suspects foul play, and she is determined to prove it.
DI Cormac Reilly is the detective assigned with the re-investigation of an 'accidental' overdose twenty years ago - of Jack and Maude's drug- and alcohol-addled mother. Cormac is under increasing pressure to charge Maude for murder when his colleague Danny uncovers a piece of evidence that will change everything...
This unsettling crime debut draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland and asks who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't. Perfect for fans of Tana French and Jane Casey.
Carly Nugent0.0 The last time William Shakespeare and Virginia went missing Cassie found them sitting on a coiled hose behind the fire station, and Dad called her ‘Cassie Andersen, Peacock Detective’. So this time she knows what to do—she’ll look for clues and track them down. But the clues lead her in an unexpected direction and Cassie finds herself investigating a confusing mystery about her family.
The Peacock Detectives is a warm and engaging story for middle-grade readers about dealing with change and finding out who you are.
Джейн Харпер4.2 Квинсленд, самые жаркие и засушливые территории Австралии.
Два брата, Натан и Баб Брайт, впервые за несколько лет встречаются на границе своих обширных владений. У могильного камня, настолько старого, что никто уже не вспомнит, кто именно там похоронен, они находят тело их среднего брата, Кэмерона. Нет ни следов борьбы, ни каких-либо улик. Все говорит о том, что причиной смерти стали жара и обезвоживание. Что же заставило Кэмерона выйти под палящее солнце? Какую загадочную цель он преследовал? Натан пытается найти ответы, и одна за другой начинают вскрываться давно забытые и тщательно скрываемые семейные тайны.
