I’m a thriller writer with civilian protagonists who find themselves caught in situations way outside their comfort zones. They’re not people to whom guns or regular weapons are accessible or familiar. Consequently, I need my characters to have access to other weapons, and I find these in the environments in which I set my stories – elements that offer both defensive and offensive potential. Whether it be a dangerous natural feature (like a chasm), or a deadly creature, (I love a crocodile or snake), there needs to be something on offer. This is also what I admire in other authors – that harnessing of environmental weaponry that can make stories so exciting.
The Chasm is about Andy King, a vet who left her childhood home in the Stonefield valley ten years ago when her boyfriend, Will Hoffman, went missing. She’s back in the area for a short work stint – close enough to the mountains that she feels their special magic, but far enough away from Stonefield that she hopes to go undetected by those who believe that Will is likely dead and that it was Andy who killed him. The Chasm is ultimately about friendship and community and standing up against evil to defend the people we love. Readers can expect an emotionally layered thriller where the forest broods, the criminals lurk, the people care, and the pace races.
The Lost Man is ultimately about family dynamics and how abusive control can manifest over generations.
Jane Harper is superb at revealing the relationship layers and nuances, all the while under the watch of some of the harshest environment Australia has to offer. As a tension raiser, she couldn’t have used her setting better, and who doesn’t love the Australian midday sun as the murder weapon? Brilliant.
Two brothers meet in the remote Australian outback when the third brother is found dead, in this stunning new standalone novel from Jane Harper
Brothers Nathan and Bub Bright meet for the first time in months at the remote fence line separating their cattle ranches in the lonely outback.
Their third brother, Cameron, lies dead at their feet.
In an isolated belt of Australia, their homes a three-hour drive apart, the brothers were one another’s nearest neighbors. Cameron was the middle child, the one who ran the family homestead. But something made him head out…
Third in the Mark Ariti series, Broken Bay is still a great stand alone, and especially awesome in terms of having an unusual weaponised setting. Sinkholes. Who would have thought that beautiful and mysterious environment could be so innately deadly?
South Australian farmers have apparently been popping in rubbish, (down the sinkhole chute), for decades, cluttering up what are already such dangerous places. Margaret Hickey has weaponised one of them further to make it the perfect murder implement, and I loved the originality.
From the author of the bestselling Cutters End and Stone Town, a captivating new crime novel featuring Detective Mark Ariti. Old loyalties and decades-long feuds rise to the surface in this stunning crime novel, set in a spectacular Australian landscape known for its jagged cliffs and hidden caves. Detective Sergeant Mark Ariti has taken a few days’ holiday in Broken Bay at precisely the wrong time. The small fishing town on South Australia’ s Limestone Coast is now the scene of a terrible tragedy. Renowned cave-diver Mya Rennik has drowned while exploring a sinkhole on the land of wealthy farmer…
Jo Nesbo needs no introduction as a master of the thriller genre, and The Snowman is a chilling example of his skill.
A serial killer walking among the community, building snowmen that look inside the homes of his victims. As far as weaponising the environment, and specifically the snow, Nesbo has nailed it. The tension is as dark as the long nights, and the terror is all the colder because of that snow.
I read it in a tropical Rio summer, yet still had to wear a jumper for days.
The Whispering is set in the far northern Queensland tropical rainforest, a thick, densely-foliaged environment that is in turn pulsing with humidity and whispering with the strong winds of an approaching cyclone.
There are enough natural features (boulders, creeks, thorny vines) to make this a dangerous place on its own, but throw a deadly character or two in there, and it gets beyond creepy. Lando harnesses the edginess incredibly well, and readers know from the get go that the place is like a weapon only leashed by a safety catch. Always just one click away from lethal.
The whispering wild will take your child if you dare to look away ...
The stunning Aussie crime debut from the winner of the 2021 Banjo Prize for Fiction.
Shortlisted for the 2023 Courier-Mail People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award.
Callum Haffenden swore he'd never return to Granite Creek. But, thirty years after a life-shattering accident, he's thrust back into the clutches of Far North Queensland and a local legend he worked hard to forget.
When a man goes missing in the rainforest, the past begins to resurface, breathing new life into memories of previous tragedies - two…
Sarah Barrie delivers such a great cast of characters – she mixes police, criminals, ex-criminals, and civilians to deliver a melting pot of quirky and process-driven people destined to clash.
Retribution’s urban environment is familiar to us all, but Barrie’s use of various settings and their respective weaponry is highly skilled. From building sites that combine heights, fragile safety fencing, and sharp impaling points, to dark and dangerous train tunnels, I loved being shifted from place to place and the exposure to each individual setting’s armory.
Even before she introduces the guns, there was always choice, and I was kept in suspense about which weapon would prove to be the deadly one.
In 1662, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. Awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it.
Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They discover their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected? They fear their choice of new home is no coincidence. Unexplained events hint at threats or warnings to leave. They become convinced the village remains cursed despite their friends’ denials. Who can they trust, and who are potential enemies?
In 1660, a man is wrongly executed for signing the death warrant of Charles I. While awaiting execution, he asks to speak with a priest, to whom he declares a curse on the village that betrayed him. The priest responds with a counter-curse, leaving just one option to nullify it. Over four centuries later, Faith and James move to the country to start a new life and a family. They learn that their village lives under the curse uttered by the hanged man. Could their arrival be connected? Faith and James fear that their choice of a new home is…
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