'True crime adventure, bold memoir and investigative masterclass, but above all a breathtakingly original story.' - Robert Drewe, author of The Shark Net and The BodysurfersJean Kay, my skipper, fellow adventurer, my friend. My brother.Jean Kay, soldier of fortune, opportunist, embezzler, hijacker. In her youth, amidst the throes of a reckless grief, aspiring Australian writer Marele Day is caught up in a shipwreck adventure and forges an unlikely bond with an international fugitive travelling under a pseudonym. For the next thirty years they correspond before reuniting, both older and wiser, in France. Marele is now an accomplished crime writer, and while she knew of her travel companion's previous reputation as 'the hijacker with a big heart' and 'brother to the poor', she is intrigued to discover his connection to the disappearance of eight million francs and a secret dossier that made global headlines....

Mavis Levack has long held an ambition to become a private eye - in her own way. From the bowling club to the caravan site to the bingo hall, Mavis has all the panache and the intuitive investigative skills of Marele Day's legendary character Claudia Valentine.You're never too old, says Mavis Levack. If only she could remember what it is you're never too old for. Oh yes, that's right - a career, adventure. It's important for a woman to have a career. Heavens above, you can only play bowls so many days a week.Private investigating is what Mavis Levack has in mind, but unlike private investigators in those TV shows, Mavis doesn't have people conveniently dropping dead at her feet. Also, there's her husband, Eddy, calling her a busybody when really she is just an acute observer of human nature.Mavis Levack is desperate to give a career in crime-solving a go - before it's too late. A lack of clients is not enough to thwart Mavis. Armed with binoculars and a sturdy pair of...

A captivating novel of myths, magic, nuns... and sheep.Vegetation grows out of the mouths of stone angels, and sheep wander through the chapel. For Iphigenia, Margarita and Carla, the rhythm of nature and the rituals of the Church have joined to make an encompassing whole.They pray, they do their daily tasks and, at the nightly knitting circle, they tell stories - stitching into their work the bright colours of fairy tale and myth. Brambles have enclosed the monastery and the three nuns have forgotten the world outside.Until Father Ignatius pushes his way through the undergrowth in the hope of finding prime real estate. In seeking to protect the life they so cherish, the nuns find themselves capable of drawing on unimagined depths of resourcefulness.Rich in smells and texture, and often wildly funny, Lambs of God draws on beliefs and fears deep within us and weaves them into a tapestry of dazzling originality.'Lush and quirky, full of tangled stories,...

Claudia Valentine is pulled into a world of ancient treasures and modern Triad killings, through sleazy back streets and exotic oriental temples, where nothing is ever what it seems. Another sassy, witty and thrilling instalment in Marele Day's bestselling series.The New Year started with a bang in Sydney's Chinatown - and it wasn't just the fireworks. While the rest of the country were celebrating, the biggest bank job in Australia's history was taking place.The press dubbed it 'The Great Chinese Takeaway'. And inside those stolen safety deposit boxes were items of much more value than money.Claudia Valentine is called in by the Chen family who are desperate for the return of a gold key embellished by a dragon. The hunt for this family heirloom spins her into a world of ancient treasures and modern Triad killings, through sleazy back streets and exotic oriental temples. And, everywhere, nothing is as it seems.'Claudia Valentine rides again and it's a treat to renew...

An intriguing, understated and beautiful narrative, this is the story of a Buddhist monk, who has to travel to a remote fishing village on a task of love and duty, and a young woman who is also returning to the village of her birth.A novel of desire, duty and secrets, The Sea Bed follows the journey of a Buddhist monk who leaves the safe predictability of his mountain monastery and ventures into the world to carry out a fellow monk's dying request. When he encounters abalone diving women in a remote coastal village he is torn between dedication to his task and surrendering to desire. While the monk skirts around the edges of the sea women community, at its heart is Chicken, a young diver witnessing the extinction of a way of life that has been her family's for generations. If only her sister Lilli returned, perhaps somehow that would bring renewal. But the past and its secrets weigh heavily on Lilli and she had her own reasons for disappearing all those years ago....

Claudia Valentine must play a deadly high-tech game with the menacing overlord of Sydney's cancerous network of crime and corruption in Marele Day's wryly humorous, witty and fast-paced mystery.Mark Bannister, writing 'the bestseller of the century' is found dead at his computer - the victim of a murder so perfect that Claudia Valentine smells a rat... and wants it caught.The chase leads deep into the murky underworld of Sydney - a world where bright, tough Claudia must play a deadly high-tech game of cat and rat with the menacing overlord of the city's cancerous network of crime and corruption.Witty, wryly humorous and fast-paced, The Life and Crimes of Harry Lavender is a mystery with a twist, which brilliantly exposes the seamy action below the surface of the city's glittering facade.'Earns Day a place up there in the first league of female crime writers.' - Time Out'Sam Spade in a frock... it's almost more than flesh and blood can bear!...

Mavis Levack has long held an ambition to become a private eye - in her own way. From the bowling club to the caravan site to the bingo hall, Mavis has all the panache and the intuitive investigative skills of Marele Day's legendary character Claudia Valentine.You're never too old, says Mavis Levack. If only she could remember what it is you're never too old for. Oh yes, that's right - a career, adventure. It's important for a woman to have a career. Heavens above, you can only play bowls so many days a week.Private investigating is what Mavis Levack has in mind, but unlike private investigators in those TV shows, Mavis doesn't have people conveniently dropping dead at her feet. Also, there's her husband, Eddy, calling her a busybody when really she is just an acute observer of human nature.Mavis Levack is desperate to give a career in crime-solving a go - before it's too late. A lack of clients is not enough to thwart Mavis. Armed with binoculars and a sturdy pair of...

It is the start of a long, hot summer and Madalena Grimaldi has disappeared. Claudia is hired to find the missing schoolgirl but she's already working on a case - the death of Guy Valentine, her father.As Claudia searches the streets, looking for the ghost of her derelict father and for the mysterious man who can lead her to Madalena, she finds herself sinking into a world where, for many, rock bottom is only the beginning.'A marvel of subtle construction, Day's narrative has a lovely swoop, like a fall from grace, as Claudia confronts the inescapable, often destructive hold of the past. She creates a haunting atmosphere of restless searching and drifting, heightened by an underlying tone of dread.' - The Australian'Tough, modern and thoughtful.' - Daily Telegraph, London

A richly woven and evocative portrayal of Elizabeth Cook by the author of the acclaimed Lambs of God.In the great sweep of history, of winds, tides and seasons, there is a story of courage and survival that belongs not to a great sea captain, but to his wife.While James Cook circumnavigated the globe, travelling further than any man had before, Elizabeth Cook travelled with him in her thoughts, imagining the exotic, the sensual and the strange. There were months, sometimes years, with no word.But as James sailed into the blue, earning his place in history, Elizabeth Cook made discoveries of her own. Though she rarely left London, she was propelled on a journey into the far reaches of the human heart, a journey marked by James' departures and those of her six children, whom she lost one by one.This is a rich portrayal of the life of a woman whose passion and intellect matched that of her celebrated husband. It is a lyrical exploration of imagined interior...