Words and Nerds: Authors, books and literature.

Four years after the events of Into the Night, DS Gemma Woodstock is on the trail of a missing girl in a small coastal town.

'Every bit as addictive and suspenseful as The Dark Lake ... Sarah Bailey's writing is both keenly insightful and wholly engrossing, weaving intriguing and multi-layered plots combined with complicated and compelling characters.' The Booktopian

A fifteen-year-old girl has gone missing after a party in the middle of the night. The following morning her boyfriend is found brutally murdered in his home. Was the girl responsible for the murder, or is she also a victim of the killer? But who would want two teenagers dead?

The aftermath of a personal tragedy finds police detective Gemma Woodstock in the coastal town of Fairhaven with her son Ben in tow. She has begged to be part of a murder investigation so she can bury herself in work rather than taking the time to grieve and figure out how to handle the next stage of her life - she now has serious family responsibilities she can no longer avoid. But Gemma also has ghosts she must lay to rest.

Gemma searches for answers, while navigating her son's grief and trying to overcome the hostility of her new colleagues. As the mystery deepens and old tensions and secrets come to light, Gemma is increasingly haunted by a similar missing persons case she worked on not long before. A case that ended in tragedy and made her question her instincts as a cop. Can she trust herself again?

A riveting thriller by the author of the international bestseller The Dark Lake, winner of both the Ned Kelly Award and the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for a debut crime novel.

What if the only way to keep your job was to antagonise your boss?

‘I am absolutely terrified of losing a job I absolutely hate.’

Stephen Maserov has problems. A onetime teacher, married to fellow teacher Eleanor, he has retrained and is now a second-year lawyer working at mega-firm Freely Savage Carter Blanche. Despite toiling around the clock to make budget, he’s in imminent danger of being downsized. And to make things worse, Eleanor, sick of single-parenting their two young children thanks to Stephen’s relentless work schedule, has asked him to move out.

To keep the job he hates, pay the mortgage and salvage his marriage, he will have to do something strikingly daring, something he never thought himself capable of. But if he’s not careful, it might be the last job he ever has…

Warm, dramatic, and at times laugh-out-loud funny, with the narrative pull of a thriller, Maybe the Horse Will Talk is a love story, a reflection on contemporary marriage, and on friendship. It is also an unflinching examination of sexual harassment in the workplace and an exposé of corporate corruption that taps directly into the pulse of our times.

‘Australia’s outstanding social novelist’ (Times Literary Supplement), Elliot Perlman ‘...has many things working in his favor as a novelist: curiosity, erudition, daring and a gift for seducing readers into going along with him for the ride. He’ll get you where you want to go…’ (Washington Post)

The Burnt Country is an enthralling story of integrity, resilience and resistance, from the author of the bestselling The Woolgrower’s Companion.

The stunning new novel from the author of The Woolgrower's Companion, whom the Australian Women's Weekly described as ‘a wonderful new voice in literary rural fiction'.

A scandalous secret. A deadly fire. An agonizing choice.

Australia 1948. As a young woman running Amiens, a sizeable sheep station in New South Wales, Kate Dowd knows she’s expected to fail. And her grazier neighbour is doing his best to ensure she does, attacking her method of burning off to repel a bushfire.

But fire risk is just one of her problems. Kate cannot lose Amiens, or give in to her estranged husband Jack’s demands to sell: the farm is her livelihood and the only protection she can offer her half-sister Pearl, as the Aborigines Welfare Board threatens to take her away.

Ostracised by the local community for even acknowledging Pearl, Kate cannot risk another scandal. Which means turning her back on her wartime lover, Luca Canali ...

Then Jack drops a bombshell. He wants a divorce. He’ll protect what’s left of Kate’s reputation, and keep Luca out of it – but for an extortionate price.

Soon Kate is putting out fires on all fronts to save her farm, keep her family together and protect the man she loves. Then a catastrophic real fire threatens everything . . .

‘This sweeping epic set in rural NSW is about love, family and testing our mettle – and it’s compulsively readable. Just the thing for those lazy summer days’ Marie Claire on The Woolgrower's Companion

'Joy Rhoades’ Kate Dowd is Elizabeth-Bennet-meets-The-Drover’s-Wife . . . an accomplished debut' Sydney Morning Herald

When Connor Giannopoulos discovers a Monument under his high school, he doesn't have any idea how much his life is going to change forever. It turns out that immortality and strength beyond his wildest dreams is a bit more responsibility than he bargained for.

All 16-year-old Connor is trying to do is avoid his ex-best friend when he stumbles upon a trapdoor to a secret chamber under his school. But when Sally Rodgers breaks into the same secret chamber looking for an ancient being, things take an unexpected turn . . . and Connor's life will never be the same again.

Along with the mysterious Sally and, later on, his new friend Locky, Connor discovers the Monuments - gods who have been buried for generations - who created the world and hid themselves away from humanity to keep everyone safe. But now they're exposed and vulnerable, and Connor isn't sure who, himself included, can be trusted with the knowledge and the power these gods have.

MONUMENTS is the first book in an exciting new duology from YA star, Will Kostakis.

Three generations of women. Three heartbreaking choices. One unforgettable story.

1969: Free-spirited hippie Jess James has no intention of falling for a soldier ... but perhaps some things are not in our power to stop.

1989: Jess's daughter, Jamie, dreams of a simple life - marriage, children, stability - then she meets a struggling musician and suddenly the future becomes wilder and complex.

2017: When Jamie's daughter, CJ, brings home trouble in the form of the coolest boy at school, the worlds of these three women turn upside down ... and the past returns to haunt them.

Spanning the trauma of the Vietnam War to the bright lights of Nashville, the epidemic of teenage self-harm to the tragedy of incurable illness, Love and Other Battles is the heart-wrenching story of three generations of Australian women, who learn that true love is not always where you seek it.

If you loved The Notebook, this is the novel for you.

In real life, they are enemies. Emma the know-it-all, Michael the bully, Fabian the coward, Tessie the weirdo and Sam the mystery. Online they are best friends, with one big thing in common: they are all sure they are adopted.

When they finally meet, they are horrified to find that the people they have been sharing their souls with are the people they hate. They decide to never speak again.

But avoiding each other is difficult in a small mountain town with only one high school.

It's also tough to ignore one another when they each begin to realise that what their parents are hiding is much more sinister than just adoption.

The five teenagers have a choice to make. Continue to live a lie, or come together to hunt down the truth, no matter how dangerous that may be. Because the real story of their parentage is much more terrifying than they ever could have imagined.

It is a secret that goes to the very heart of the town itself.

A gritty and clever thriller from long-time Penguin author Peter Goldsworthy.

Peter Goldsworthy's new novel features a blind detective determined to deliver justice to the man who shot him, even though his failed assassin has broken out of jail and is equally determined to finish the job. Cleverly structured around the five senses, and with the action confined to one week, it’s pacey and taut, with the cat-and-mouse tension leavened by lighter interludes.

Goldsworthy is interested in all that his protagonist cannot see, as he is forced to meet evil, acting on a trust in his senses, and the ineluctable mystery that is memory.

Winner of the inaugural Penguin Literary Prize.

Amelia stands beside a highway in the Australian desert, alone except for her dog and the occasional road train that speeds past her raised thumb.

After her mother’s funeral, Amelia was confronted by Zach and reminded of the relationship they had when she was a teenager. She feels complicit and remains unable to process what happened. So she ran. Her best friend, Sid, is Zach’s cousin and the one person in the world she can depend upon.

But, of course, the road isn’t safe either. Amelia is looking for generosity or human connection in the drivers she finds lifts with, and she does receive that. But she is also let down.

Hitch is a raw exploration of consent and its ambiguities, personal agency and the choices we make. It’s the story of twenty-something Amelia and her dog Lucy hitchhiking from one end of the country to the other, trying to outrun grief and trauma, and moving ever closer to the things she longs to escape.

Kathryn Hind, winner of the inaugural Penguin Literary Prize, writes with acuity, empathy and wisdom. She is a shining new light on the Australian literary scene.

Hi everyone! I'm Max Crack and this awesome book is all about me and my quests and my best friend Frankie!

Buried treasure, new school, doodles, peanut butter and honey toast, best friends, horrible blobs, mysteries, Meddlyslop, spelling bees (hard words, harder words), more doodles, comics, World War Undies ... this book has it ALL.

This is a specially formatted fixed-layout ebook that retains the look and feel of the print book.

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Jules Faber is a cartoonist, caricature artist and illustrator.

In addition to his WEIRDO books, Jules has illustrated THE KABOOM KID and 'The Leo Da Vinci' series. In 2014, Jules and Anh Do were awarded the Book of the Year for Younger Readers at the Australian Book Industry Awards for the first book in the WEIRDO series. They also took out the Best Designed Book for Children and Best Cover at the Australian Book Design Awards as well as an Honour in the KOALAs.

WEIRDO 3 was nominated for three awards in 2015 and The KABOOM KID series was also nominated for Best Designed Series at the ABDAs.

Jules conducts regular workshops at schools and learning centres for those wanting to learn more about caricaturing, comic strips, comic book layout, scriptwriting, storyboarding, animation and general cartooning.

When he's not writing disgustingly epic books for kids like SQUIDGE DIBLEY DESTROYS THE SCHOOL and THE TURNERS trilogy, Mick Elliott is a TV producer and literacy ambassador for THE AUSTRALIAN READING HOUR.

For almost two decades he worked at Nickelodeon Australia, producing programmes such as SLIMEFEST, CAMP ORANGE, SLIME CUP, THE KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS, PLAY ALONG WITH OLLIE and squillions of commercials.