Corris Peter
Open File

Cliff Hardy, with his PI licence cancelled and his career in Sydney at an end, is preparing for a trip overseas. Cleaning out his office, he comes across an open file – an unresolved case from the late 1970s. He starts reading and is thrown back to his investigation of the disappearance of Justin Hampshire. At first glance it was a straightforward missing person matter, but the investigation took on twists and turns involving military history, Sydney criminals and corruption at high levels. To solve the Hampshire case Cliff had to travel from the south coast to the Blue Mountains. Thirty years later, unresolved questions about the file still prey on his mind.

Wood Charlotte
The Children

Charlotte Wood delivers a short, sharp shock of a novel that takes us into the heart of a family. When their father is critically injured, foreign correspondent Mandy and her siblings return home. In the intensive care unit the children sit, trapped between their bewildered mother and one another; between old wounds and forgiveness, struggling to connect with their emotions, their past and each other. But as they wait and watch over their father, there's someone else watching too: a young wardsman, Tony, who's been waiting for Mandy to come home. As he insinuates himself into the family, the pressure, and the threat, intensify and build to a climax of devastating force.

There is a serial child killer stalking the streets of Melbourne. The victims are killed gently, lovingly, a gold mark traced on their forehead. This killer doesn’t hate children. This killer believes in childhood innocence at any cost. Unflinching and morally uncompromising, El Dorado is the story of a friendship under siege, and the very long shadows that jealousy and betrayal can cast. It is both a complex thriller and a compelling reading experience from Australia’s maverick and most versatile poet.