Showing results by publisher "Wavesound from W. F. Howes Ltd" in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

John Lacey lusts for power and knows that gold can bring him riches and influence beyond his wildest dreams. Only he knows the terrible crime he committed to attain that wealth. Years later, as Lacey ruthlessly presides over the town he built and named after himself, no one has the courage to question his power or how he wields it.

For Ellen Whitfield, the betrothal of her dear friend Harriet to Ellen's brother has brought both loss and solace. But when Harriet suddenly breaks off the engagement, ostensibly at the insistence of her deceased mother, Ellen is bewildered. And when she learns that Harriet is involved with a spiritualist group led by the charismatic Caroline McLeod, she fears losing her friend altogether.

Introducing the fabulous Ms Peregrine Fisher, niece of the famous Phryne Fisher, as seen on 7plus and Acorn TV. Peregrine Fisher is unexpectedly summoned to a meeting of the Adventuresses' Club of the Antipodes, where she learns some incredible news. When fellow adventuress Florence Astor is accused of murder, Peregrine jumps at the chance to help on the case. Detective James Steed, initially dismissive, quickly finds Peregrine's flair for investigating and headstrong nature leave him little choice.

Found dead in the Thames one frosty winter's morning, no one is sure whether she jumped or was pushed. The one person who may know the truth is the newest employee at Parker & Lane - the office temp, Eleanor. Eleanor has travelled to London to escape the repercussions of her traumatic childhood in outback Australia, but now tragedy seems to follow her wherever she goes. To her horror, she has no memory of the crucial hours leading up to Arabella's death....

Beautiful but impoverished Lina Dahlstrom is dying of tuberculosis and it seems that no one can save her. All hope is lost until an eccentric doctor, Carl Dance, becomes enthralled with Lina's charms and vows to do everything in his power to cure her. But when the illness inevitably claims Lina's life, Dance's obsession with her only grows and so begins a mad and criminal scheme to bring her back from beyond the grave and claim her as his own forever.

Paul Cutler is a former undercover operative, now working off the books for his handler, Malik Khalil. When Cutler is tasked with investigating the disappearance of an Australian marine scientist on a Taiwanese distant water fishing vessel, Cutler realizes that the apparent murder he's investigating points to a slew of much darker crimes. Onboard, Cutler discovers that the vessel's crew members are kept as slaves, subject to brutal punishment and forced to work long hours with little rest.

The calling card of the killer known as ‘The Jeweller' is as elegant as it is gruesome: a pair of ring fingers, separated from their owners, encircled by a band of wire, and delivered directly to Senior Detective Joe Capello. When the Jeweller taunts Joe and his team into meeting him in the diseased grounds of Barren Park, the consequences of that evening will have permanent repercussions for everyone involved. And for Joe, it gets personal.

In a busy street market, Abbie lets go of six-year-old Sarah's hand. She isn't a bad mother, just exhausted. When she turns around, her daughter isn't there. Six years later, Abbie is in love and getting married. But her fragile peace is constantly threatened: not knowing what happened to Sarah is like living with a curse. Then she receives a phone call from an unknown number. A man claims to know what happened to Sarah, but if Abbie tells anyone or fails to follow his instructions, she'll never find out. How far will Abbie go to know the truth?

Alison is an actress who no longer acts, Patrick a musician past his prime. The eccentric couple live an isolated, debauched existence in an old manor house in Scotland, a few miles outside their village. That is, until Patrick's teenage daughter, Neve, flees Australia to spend a year abroad with her doting, if unreliable, father, and Alison, the stepmother she barely knows. On the weekend of Neve's eighteenth birthday, her father insists on a celebratory feast to mark her coming of age. Despite Neve's objections, her mother Shannon arrives in Scotland to join the celebrations.

It all started with a ruthless murder. An ex-boxer and petty police informer was efficiently disposed of, sending a ghastly warning to others. That would have been the end of it, had not a shark, in a million to one chance, vomited up the victim's arm in an aquarium and shone an unwelcome light into some very dark places. With so much at stake, the guilty closed ranks, and gradually, with intimidation and money, and the murder of a mate who they feared would betray them, they re-imposed their control, and the light was turned off again.

Bridget and Simone aren't friends. But their daughters are in the same dance troupe, so they're flying to Los Angeles for the girls to perform at Disneyland. Simone's daughter Zahra is indisputably a leader in the group, but Bridget's daughter Becky is a talent on the rise. Simone and her husband are accustomed to business class, but Bridget is less comfortable there. Both lonely women are surprised to find something in common, until Bridget discovers images of Zahra and other dancers that shock her. Are they exploitative or art?

On a balmy Townsville night in 1944, young serviceman Warwick Meale is found beaten to death under a bridge. The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer - until now. Nearly 80 years on, Warwick's descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off the case and chases the leads that were there all along. The Boy in the Dress exhumes secrets of life on the home front during World War II, where tensions between soldiers boiled over, new expressions of sexuality flourished and the threat of invasion catapulted the status quo into disarray.

A serial killer is stalking the streets of Sydney, hell-bent on recreating scenes from the Fabrica, the 16th-century foundation text of modern European anatomy. His cold, methodical attacks have the city on edge, but the serial killer may not even be the darkest player. Desperate for a breakthrough, decorated homicide detective David Murphy draws into the case his art-historian sister, Joanna, and his wife, Sylvia. Unravelling the mystery of who is behind the killings pushes each beyond the limits of what they thought possible.

Carla is a young doctor striving to become the first female surgeon at a prestigious Melbourne hospital. When a consultant post opens up, she competes with her lover for the job and thinks she can be judged on merit. But an assault after a boozy workplace dinner leaves her traumatised and struggling to cope with the misogyny coming from every corner of her workplace. Recovering her fragmented memories from that night, Carla begins a fight for justice which will shake the foundations of the hospital she loves.

This is the truly remarkable life story of the notorious Ethel Livesey, a serial fraudster and confidence trickster who became a media sensation after she ran out on her society wedding in 1945 and later was arrested for obtaining goods by false pretences. With a prologue by Ethel Livesey's granddaughter, this extraordinary tale of Australia's greatest fraudster is told for the first time in rich and fascinating detail.

In 1999, art dealer Alex Clayton stumbles across a lost portrait of Molly Dean, an artist’s muse brutally slain in Melbourne in 1930. Alex buys the painting and sets out to uncover more details, but finds there are strange inconsistencies: Molly’s mother seemed unconcerned by her daughter’s violent death, the main suspect was never brought to trial despite compelling evidence and vital records are missing. Alex enlists the help of her close friend, art conservator John Porter, and together they sift through the clues and deceptions that swirl around the last days of Molly Dean.

Meet Daphne Buckley, a psychiatrist in search of a great love. He hasn't turned up yet. But surely he will. He could be any one of the respondents to her old-fashioned 'looking for love' classified. He could be one of the men her overbearing mother tries to set her up with, or even someone she already knows. It doesn't matter. Daphne is determined and brainy and prepared to bend all the rules. With old school friend Celeste by her side and her mother's grooming tips for unkempt leg hair, love is likely just around the corner.

Meet the Jansen family: Since the weekend of the party–the one twenty-two year old Liv can’t remember, the one that left her covered in bruises–she’s been locked out of her bedroom by a padlock. Her parents are behaving oddly and her best friend won’t respond to her texts. Maybe she really was out of control that night. The guilt is getting to her father, Janus. He brought his family from Australia to L.A. to chase his dream of seeing his novel on the big screen, and he can’t let them down. Not again. But he’s not sure he can do what is necessary to keep this secret hidden.

Alex Morgan - policeman, soldier and spy for Intrepid, the black ops division of Interpol - commits to the toughest mission of his career, and his chances of survival are slimmer than ever. Sent deep into the shadows of Europe’s criminal underbelly, Morgan’s mission is to overthrow an oligarch and bring a spy in from the cold. But his target is closer than he knows. As old friends reemerge, it becomes clear that the very heart of Morgan’s black ops division faces destruction, and trust, it seems, is little more than a commodity to be bought and sold.

All it took was a lapse...a momentary lapse...to bring Clementine Jones’ world crashing down. Now she’s living like a hermit in small-town Katinga, coaching the local footy club. She’s supposed to be lying low, but here she is, with her team on the cusp of their first premiership in 50 years - and the whole bloody town counting on her, cheering her on.