Here are 100 books that Cover the Bones fans have personally recommended if you like
Cover the Bones.
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As a professional counselor by trade, I’m fascinated by the machinations of the human mind, what drives us, and how our primeval urges can overcome our learned and acceptable behaviors. Accordingly, I enjoy both reading and writing books that expose and explore the dark side of our psyche and the dichotomy of human nature. I particularly appreciate stories that balance evil with redemption, rescue, or retribution.
What a deeply atmospheric, evocative read! I’d been meaning to dive into a Jane Harper novel for some time, and I’m so pleased this is where I chose to start. I’ve done what we Aussies call ‘The Big Lap’ a couple of times, touring around the coast of Australia, then up through the arid center, before exploring the remote reaches of Western Australia.
This book brings the vastness of this landscape to life so perfectly without overstating or overdramatizing it. This character-driven novel is compelling, leaving me with a sense of being intimately acquainted with the families living on the isolated properties … and of their fear, knowing a murderer may be in their midst.
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…
As a professional counselor by trade, I’m fascinated by the machinations of the human mind, what drives us, and how our primeval urges can overcome our learned and acceptable behaviors. Accordingly, I enjoy both reading and writing books that expose and explore the dark side of our psyche and the dichotomy of human nature. I particularly appreciate stories that balance evil with redemption, rescue, or retribution.
I adore anything Australian crime noir. Throw in the Outback as well, and I’m there!
This book is a compelling mystery. Slow burn and character-driven, it sucked me in and had me imagining the characters even whilst I wasn’t reading. An award-winning debut, I’ll definitely be adding this author’s future work to my TBR piles.
"Politically savvy, cleverly plotted...the kind of book that invites the ravenous language of binge reading: compulsive, propulsive, addictive."--New York Times Book Review
For fans of Jane Harper’s The Dry or Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects, a searing debut crime novel set in the Australian outback, where the grief and guilt surrounding an unsolved disappearance still haunt a small farming community…and will ultimately lead to a reckoning.
The tiny outback town of Nannine lies in the harsh red interior of Australia. Once a thriving center of stockyards and sheep stations, years of punishing drought have petrified the land and Nannine has been…
As a professional counselor by trade, I’m fascinated by the machinations of the human mind, what drives us, and how our primeval urges can overcome our learned and acceptable behaviors. Accordingly, I enjoy both reading and writing books that expose and explore the dark side of our psyche and the dichotomy of human nature. I particularly appreciate stories that balance evil with redemption, rescue, or retribution.
I wouldn’t recommend reading this book during a storm when there’s a chance of a power cut! Years back, I camped on the edge of a highway in the middle of central Australia–and even before this book came out, I knew I’d never do it again! The stars might be spectacular, but the isolation is an absolutely crushing force.
This book captures that essence perfectly–along with the relief of finding another human being on the road…quickly followed by the terror of realizing that person may not be who you think.
From the award-winning author of The Hunted comes a fast-paced, nailbiting outback thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
Pushing fifty and reeling from an ugly divorce, Paul has decided it's time for an adventure. With the Bee Gees on the radio and the open road ahead, he sets out into the middle of nowhere, open to whatever comes. But things take a sinister turn when he impulsively decides to pick up a hitchhiker. Clutching a ragged backpack with his eyes locked on the rear-view mirror, it's clear this twitchy young man is running from something.…
As a professional counselor by trade, I’m fascinated by the machinations of the human mind, what drives us, and how our primeval urges can overcome our learned and acceptable behaviors. Accordingly, I enjoy both reading and writing books that expose and explore the dark side of our psyche and the dichotomy of human nature. I particularly appreciate stories that balance evil with redemption, rescue, or retribution.
I love a tense, character-driven thriller, and this one was set in a remote town I’ve visited.
I love that the book is set in 1963, a decade that had particular significance for Australian women, their roles, and the expectations placed upon them.
It’s not fast-moving, but the setting is an almost palpable character in its own right. I found it dark, rife with corruption, violence, oppressive heat, and both the best and the worst of what Australia has to offer.
'From screen to page, Matt Nable's ability to breathe life into vivid characters shines against the grittiness of the harsh Australian landscape.' - Jane Harper, author of The Dry
'a thrilling, heart-stopping novel that fans of The Dry are going to love' - Weekender
'Nable renders the past both tangible and real and it's riveting' - Sue Turnbull, The Age
'must read' - Who Weekly
Darwin, Summer, 1963.
The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland.…
As a full-time travel writer for 30 years, I’ve travelled all over Australia and am still constantly surprised and thrilled by new places. Ask me what my favourite place is, and it’s impossible to choose! From the grandeur of Western Australia’s Kimberley and the red ochre colours of the Outback to the deep blue of the oceans and lush rainforests...I love it all and I love sharing my discoveries – both in cities and on the long and winding roads – with readers. When I’m not travelling or writing about it, I’m usually planning the next trip!
Australians love a road-trip – the longer, the better. This book, by one of Australia’s top driving holiday experts, is jam-packed with information and advice to make yours as easy as possible. Driving is definitely the best way to see our vast continent, and the route maps and distance lists are hugely useful. It’s a great resource on where to stay – everything from swank hotels to camping spots – and what to do. Want to know the best time of year to visit a certain place? That’s covered too.
In Ultimate Road Trips: Australia,author Lee Atkinson highlights 40 of the best driving holidays around Australia.
Each chapter includes information on things to see and do, detailed route maps and a handy list of distances to help you plan your trip, as well as lots of useful advice on family-friendly attractions, where to eat and the best hotels, guesthouses, caravan parks and camping spots. You'll also find details on the best time of year to visit, driving tips and a guide to surviving a road trip with a back seat full of kids.
My own experiences have made me a strong believer in the potential of journeys, big and small, to change our lives and the way we navigate the world. I made a journey in highly unusual circumstances, a journey that became a pilgrimage, and I think I know now that devotion is the key to transformation on the road. It may be the key to everything, in fact. That’s what I want to read about. Devotion is what every one of these books has in abundance, as well as care for the task, total honesty, and no fear of feeling.
This was the book that, more than any other, enticed me to adventure. Robyn, her camels, and Diggity the dog felt like my people—yes, the animals, too. Robyn was many things I hoped I could be: brave, tenacious, and integrous.
This book gave me the confidence to forge on with planning my journey long before I knew why I was drawn to making it. For me, Robyn’s approach exemplifies why we should follow our hearts’ irresistible pull, however unreasonable. If we cannot, at first, explain what motivates us, then so much the better—more to discover along the way.
Crossing the Australian desert in the most essential way possible, borne out of a desire to be alone, has a purity and vitalness to it that is more than enough of an explanation for me.
A revised, reissued fortieth anniversary edition of this prize-winning, bestselling account of one woman's solo journey across 1,700 miles of Australian Outback
'I experienced that sinking feeling you get when you know you have conned yourself into doing something difficult and there's no going back.' So begins Robyn Davidson's perilous journey across 1,700 miles of hostile Australian desert to the sea with only four camels and a dog for company.
Enduring sweltering heat, fending off poisonous snakes and lecherous men, chasing her camels when they get skittish and nursing them when they are injured, Davidson emerges as an extraordinarily courageous…
I love learning about how the world we know came to be the way it is. That’s another way of saying I love history. But not the dry, boring history we all remember from school. I want to know more about the entrepreneurial risk-takers, eccentric inventors, and strange circumstances that somehow shaped the world we know today. I want to be fascinated. What’s more, I want to laugh and be entertained while I’m reading and learning. I want every page to reward my attention with some amazing fact or a hearty laugh. That’s what the books on my list do. I hope you love them as much as I have!
I love this book so much it made me want to write books. Seriously. This is the book that inspired me. Until I read this book (way back in 2000), I didn’t know non-fiction could be so informative, compelling, AND funny—all at once. But Bryson showed me it’s possible. Sure, he’s a witty writer. But I think Bryson’s real weapon is that he does his research.
He digs up the fascinating, bizarre, and downright unbelievable facts about his subject—in this case, the continent of Australia—then seamlessly weaves them into a compelling narrative that keeps readers looking forward to each intriguing nugget of information waiting for them to discover next. It wasn’t until the end that I realized I’d learned as much as I’d laughed.
Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. This time in Australia.
His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Country is his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines…
As a full-time travel writer for 30 years, I’ve travelled all over Australia and am still constantly surprised and thrilled by new places. Ask me what my favourite place is, and it’s impossible to choose! From the grandeur of Western Australia’s Kimberley and the red ochre colours of the Outback to the deep blue of the oceans and lush rainforests...I love it all and I love sharing my discoveries – both in cities and on the long and winding roads – with readers. When I’m not travelling or writing about it, I’m usually planning the next trip!
The Australian Outback is a must for anyone who wants to see this country in all its diversity. Far from being just desert, the Outback is varied and fascinating. While this book only covers Queensland, it is a rich introduction to what the Outback offers. Photojournalist Danielle Lancaster knows it well, and the large-format images bring the scenery, wildlife, history, and towns of Queensland’s Outback to life. Whether you are interested in National Parks, dinosaur fossils, desert dunes, stunning gorges, or history, there’s plenty of interest here. As well as an introduction to places you may want to see, it’s also a beautiful souvenir.
I arrived in Sydney in the 90s knowing as much as one brief peruse the Berlitz Guide could provide me. For the next 25 years I immersed myself in its beautiful harbour and beaches whilst writing four novels, all set in my hometown of London. But when I sat down to write my fifth novel, The Unforgiving City, set in 1890s Sydney, I drew a complete blank. What was my adopted city’s history? Did it even have one? If so, where was it? By the time I’d finished the novel I’d unearthed a whole other, hidden, Sydney. I will never view my new home town the same way again.
I first read Voss– Patrick White’s 1957 fictionalised account of the doomed expedition and eventual disappearance of German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt - 25 years ago at university. I returned to it a couple of years ago as I embarked on my fifth novel, similarly set in 19th century Sydney, recalling how I enjoyed the novel in my earlier reading but finding myself, in this my second reading two decades later, utterly blown away by White’s stunning and bitingly witty evocation of mid-1800s Sydney society.
Voss describes an epic journey, both physical and spiritual. The eponymous hero, Johann Voss, is based on Ludwig Leichhardt, the nineteenth-century German explorer and naturalist who had already conducted several major expeditions into the Australian outback before making an ambitious attempt to cross the entire continent from east to west in 1848. He never returned. White re-imagines his story with visionary intensity. Voss's last journey across the desert and the waterlogged plains of central Australia is a true 'venture to the interior'. But Voss is also a love story, for the explorer has become inextricably bound up with Laura Trevellyn,…
I started reading crime fiction as a teenager, so maybe it was inevitable that one day I would start writing it. I began with short stories, but then found an idea for a novel that wouldn’t let me go. One small paragraph about a tape recording left by a dead man. The books I love reading now are often set in small towns and communities, like the one I grew up in, where normal people tend to hide the worst secrets! Hidden motivations and seeing how the past plays out in the present are two elements I love in crime fiction—they help to work out who the killer is.
Tiverton, the setting for this book, is a typical outback small town—derelict houses, one pub, a harsh landscape, and a policeman back in uniform after a corruption scandal back in the big city. Hirsch’s patrol area is huge and he’s often as much a social worker as a police officer. He’s an outcast in all senses of the word, but his dogged determination to do his job right leads him into all sorts of trouble. I love the setting, the endless roads, the eccentricities of people living in the back of nowhere, and the murder mystery that takes you where you (and Hirsch) least expect it.
'Disher shows that he is a top-class writer' - THE TIMES
'Vivid and visceral, combined with Disher's usual deft plotting' - GUARDIAN
'One of Australia's most admired novelists' - SUNDAY TIMES ________________________________________
ONE DEAD-END POSTING. ONE DEAD BODY. A TRAGIC ACCIDENT? THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO THINK...
Constable Paul 'Hirsch' Hirschhausen is a whistle-blower. Formerly a promising metropolitan detective, now hated and despised, he's been exiled to a one-cop station in South Australia's wheatbelt. So when he heads up Bitter Wash Road to investigate gunfire and finds himself cut off without backup, there are two possibilities. Either he's found…
