Media Bites 20220809_v5

SEP TEMBER 2 022 – F ICT ION

TR AC E Y L I E N All That’s Left Unsaid

traceylien.com There were a dozen witnesses to Denny Tran’s brutal murder in a busy Sydney restaurant. So how come no one saw anything? ‘Just let him go.’ Those are words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother Denny out to celebrate his high school graduation. That night in 1996, Denny – optimistic, guileless, brilliant Denny – is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in Cabramatta, a Sydney suburb facing violent crime, an indifferent police force, and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history. Returning home for the funeral, Ky learns that the police are stumped by her brother’s case: several people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claims to have seen nothing. As an antidote to grief and guilt, Ky is determined to track down the witnesses herself. With each encounter, she peels away another layer of the place that shaped her and Denny, exposing the trauma and seeds of violence that were planted well before that fateful celebration dinner: by colonialism, by the war in Vietnam, and by the choices they’ve all made to survive. Tracey Lien’s extraordinary debut is at once heart-pounding and heart-rending as it pulls apart the intricate bonds of friendship, family, culture and community that produced a devastating crime. Combining evocative family drama and gripping suspense, All That’s Left Unsaid is both a study of the effects of inherited trauma and social discrimination, and a compulsively readable literary thriller that expertly holds the reader in its grip until the final page. B E L I NDA A L E X ANDR A A world in chaos. Two very different women. And the mystery of the man who may connect them. The stunning new novel from beloved Australian storyteller Belinda Alexandra. Paris 1946: Sabine Brouillette is a war crimes investigator with the French secret service. She lost her family, including her young son, when her Resistance circuit was betrayed near the end of the war. New evidence comes to light that the traitor was a British double agent who went by the codename the ‘Black Fox’. Now her quest for revenge has a single focus – find the Black Fox and kill him. Sydney 1946: Landscape designer Diana White has been waiting six years for her husband, Casper, to return from the war in Europe. Her son, Freddy, was only a baby when his British-born father joined the RAF. But Casper is a changed man when he returns from the convalescent hospital in England where he has spent the past year under mysterious circumstances. No longer the easygoing personality Diana fell in love with, he is now darker and more secretive. Soon Sabine and Diana find themselves on a collision course – one seeking vengeance, the other willing to go to any lengths to protect her family. The French Agent

Released: 07/09/22 TPB | 400pp AU $32.99 NZ $34.99 Imprint: HQ Fiction

belinda-alexandra.com

Released: 07/09/22 TPB | 400pp AU $32.99 NZ $35.00 Imprint: HarperCollins

F ICT ION