Family Baggage

Things you might be surprised to find when cleaning out your deceased mother’s house:

a secret diary
a family mystery
a new lease on life.

Grief-stricken middle-aged sisters George, Kat and Annie give themselves a week to pack up their childhood home and divide their mother’s belongings. Beloved items are contested: an Eames chair, a collection of war medals, a learn-to-read book. The sisters – bossy Kat, mediator George and petulant Annie – are hampered by sibling rivalry, the prickly demands of their own offspring, the needs of their disabled younger brother and, in George’s case, the after-effects of a spot of adultery.

The discovery of a decades’ old diary divides the women further: not only do they learn what their mother really thought of them, they learn that she had a life entirely of her own. They are not the family they thought they were – and their mother was so much more than she seemed. This revelation might be the key to George’s freedom …

The Unusual Abduction of Avery Conifer

Two women abduct and hide out with their four-year-old granddaughter Avery, who they suspect is being harmed. They both love Avery … shame they can’t stand each other. A wise and witty novel for readers of Sophie Green and Brooke Davis.
What would you do to protect a child?

Beth’s daughter Cleo and Shirley’s son Daniel used to be married. Now Cleo is in gaol for supposedly contravening a family violence order, and Daniel has full-time care of their four-year-old daughter, Avery.

When Shirley suspects that Daniel is harming Avery, she enlists Beth to abduct their own granddaughter, even though the two women can’t stand each other. They are joined on the run across country Victoria by Winnie, Shirley’s own 89-year-old tech-savvy mother, and Harthacnut, Beth’s miniature schnauzer.

The abduction gives rise to crises both personal and social, as Shirley’s large and interfering family – including her toxic son – struggle to come to terms with her actions, amid a whirl of police investigation and media excitement. This heartfelt, wise, witty and wholly original novel explores the lengths we may go to for those we love, and the unintended damage folded into daily life.

Nefarious Doings

For Nell Forrest, life in the little town of Majic is not going smoothly. One of her five daughters has just swapped university for fruit-picking, another is about to hit puberty, while a third is suffering from middle-child syndrome. And it’s only been a few months since Nell lost her husband of twenty-five years. It’s no surprise, then, that she is even struggling to write her weekly column. But the floodgates of inspiration are about to open with a vengeance. Murder and mayhem, arson and adultery, dungeons and death threats – plus a detective who is getting a little closer than he should. It’s soon clear that nefarious doings  [Anchor]  are well and truly afoot.

Ill Gotten Gains

The country town of Majic is about to celebrate a milestone. It’s been 150 years since the founding father, Petar Majic, rode into the bush after a liquid lunch, vowing to build a house at whatever spot he reached by sunset. However, what happened next isn’t quite what town legend would have you believe. Secrets hidden for over a century slowly emerge and local columnist Nell Forrest will needs her wits about her as the mystery of Majic casts its shadow into the present day, putting her family in grave danger. It’s a race against time, literally.

Forbidden Fruit

Planting a tree in the backyard doesn’t usually unearth the remains of a former resident. But now amateur sleuth Nell Forrest has the police on her doorstep, a television crew next door, and once again she’s in the middle of a murder investigation. But this time it’s personal – so personal that it brings her long-estranged father back into the family fold, along with some very uncomfortable revelations about the proclivities of her parents when they were young. Who would have thought that the little town of Majic had ever been such a swinging place to live?

Dastardly Deeds

It was supposed to be the holiday of a lifetime …

When Nell Forrest’s life hits a speed bump (which is most definitely not a midlife crisis) a cruise around the Mediterranean seems like just the ticket. Unfortunately, that’s an idea shared by her mother, her ex-husband, his new partner, and a police detective with whom Nell has a stormy history.

Fortunately, meditation is just one of the many activities offered aboard the luxury liner, but Nell will need more than that to face what lies ahead. One of her shipmates is a cold-blooded murderer and they, like the cruise, have only just begun…

Stratification

A YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

In 2023, with global conflict escalating, a paranoid billionaire develops a force field designed to provide safety to those shielded beneath. Five hundred years later, the society under the shield is very different. Gods rule with an iron fist and the lives of everyone else revolves around serving their interests or reproducing the dwindling population. But the balance of power is about to shift. Now eighteen, Grady Pryndot sets out on the travels that mark her coming of age. Her mother has never told her the truth about her father. Her teacher has never told her the truth about her legacy. Grady is about to challenge the world order because Grady is not who she thinks she is. She is much, much more.

Broken

As opposed to most of the other novels, Broken is not light fiction. Instead it introduces Mattie Hampton, a woman who has just left her husband but is still desperately trying to find ways to mend her broken marriage. While Jake, Mattie’s husband, gravitates between understanding and frustration, and their two small children try to make sense of the separation, Mattie begins a physical and emotional journey that will ultimately see her committing the unthinkable.

Sticks & Stones

Mattie Hampton is back in this sequel to Broken – but six years have passed and a lot has changed, including her name, her address and her sense of self. Then one day she sees a face in a crowd and soon realises that it doesn’t matter how many years pass, or how much distance is created – some things never change at all.

The Family Tree

Kate Painter always wanted to be a writer, but life just got in the way.  Now however,  as the events of one traumatic year reverberate through her family, she rather unexpectedly gets her wish.  But life continues to trip her up and she soon discovers that nothing is as it seems, including her family tree.

Flying the Coop

All Chris wanted to do was teach her ex-husband a lesson, but somehow she ends up with a free range chook farm – when her only poultry experience is a childhood rooster that was repeatedly violated by the resident rabbit. So soon Chris finds herself in the country. Where the neighbours have deep secrets, her teenage daughter is bent on world domination, the bookkeeper is bent on revenge, and the alpaca is psychotic. By flying the coop she may have put all her eggs in one basket. [Anchor] And they’re each about to hatch.

Each Way Bet

It’s Melbourne Cup day and the Broadhurst sisters are having an each way bet by trading places. But the odds are against them when their family gets together and they have to cope with predatory females, elusive pregnancy tests, midnight breast examinations and a three-year old with a severe case of potty mouth. Will they make it to the home stretch? Will the Easter Bunny get his man? Will their mother crochet herself into oblivion? Spend a madcap Melbourne Cup day with these sisters  and find out if the race that stops a nation [Anchor]  can get things back on track.

ones a poner time

An entertaining cocktail of short stories born from half a century (and counting) of memories and musings. Two parts comedy and one part drama, with just a dollop of farce (because that’s life), this book is best enjoyed while curled up on the couch with  [Anchor] a box of chocolates.