Media Bites Apr 2024

City in Ruins DON WINSLOW

Black Silk and Sympathy Tatiana Caldwell’s childhood in London is idyllic and filled with the love of doting parents. But when they die in quick succession, she’s left heartbroken and destitute, and at seventeen emigrates to Sydney in 1864, determined to build a new, financially secure life for herself. After an apprenticeship as an undertaker’s assistant with Crowe Funeral Services, Tatty marries owner Titus Crowe. Titus himself soon dies and Tatty inherits the business and becomes Sydney’s only female undertaker. But then rival funeral director Elias Nuttall, intent on acquiring Crowe Funeral Services, publicly accuses Tatty of deliberately poisoning Titus. She must find a way to stop him before he ruins her, and embarks on exposing Nuttall’s own gruesome secrets, a mission that takes her from the cemetery at midnight, to house-breaking, to Sydney’s criminal court, to the lunatic asylum. Black Silk and Sympathy is a riveting and realistic story of Sydney in the 1860s, of death laid out in front rooms, of funeral processions and mortuary trains, and of survival, reinvention and determination. Released: 03/04/24 TPB | 400pp DEBORAH CHALLINOR deborahchallinor.com Day One Stonesmere will never be the same again… When a lone gunman enters a primary school in a beautiful Lake District town, the effects of the tragedy radiate through idyllic Stonesmere with devastating consequences. At the epicentre of the tragedy is Marty, daughter of the teacher who dies trying to protect her pupils. Her actions in the immediate aftermath change the trajectory of her life forever. As news of the shooting spreads across the country, rumours of inconsistencies begin to surface, festering online. Conspiracy theorists start questioning what happened, and for outsider Trent Casey, this new community offers him a chance to step into the spotlight. With events spiralling out of control, Marty and Trent’s lives become irreversibly entwined and the true story is gradually revealed. Eight years later, Marty must piece together her memories of that fateful day and face up to the part she played. Day One is a tender, heartbreaking novel about community, tragedy, and the lasting power of love from the bestselling author of Girl A . Released: 03/04/24 TPB | 384pp ABIGAIL DEAN www.abigail-dean.com AU $32.99 NZ $37.99 Imprint: HarperCollins

Death of a Foreign Gentleman STEVEN CARROLL Who killed Martin Friedrich? Cambridge, UK, 1947. Martin Friedrich, a German philosopher who is in Cambridge to give a series of lectures, is cycling through an intersection on his way to give a lecture when a speeding car runs through him and kills him. A grisly death for one of the finest minds of the age. Shortly afterwards, Detective Sergeant Stephen Minter, an Austrian-born, cockney Jew, whose parents were interned during the war as enemy aliens, stands over the body of Friedrich contemplating the age-old question - who did it? Because Friedrich might be one of the finest minds of his age, but

Sometimes you have to become what you hate to protect what you love. Danny Ryan is rich. Beyond his wildest dreams rich. The former dock worker, Irish mob soldier and fugitive from the law is now a respected businessman - a Las Vegas casino mogul and billionaire silent partner in a group that owns two lavish hotels. Finally, Danny has it all: a beautiful house, a child he adores, a woman he might even fall in love with. Life is good. But then Danny reaches too far. When he tries to buy an old hotel on a

prime piece of real estate with plans to build his dream resort, he triggers a war against Las Vegas power brokers, a powerful FBI agent bent on revenge and a rival casino owner with dark connections of his own. Danny thought he had buried his past, but now it reaches up to him from the grave to pull him down. Old enemies surface, and when they come for Danny they vow to take everything - not only his empire, not just his life, but all that he holds dear, including his son. To save his life and everything he loves, Danny must become the ruthless fighter he once was - and never wanted to be again. Ranging from the gritty back rooms of Providence, RI to the power corridors of Washington, DC and Wall Street to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, City in Ruins is an epic crime novel of love and hate, ambition and desperation, vengeance and compassion. Released: 03/04/24 TPB | 368pp www.donwinslow.com

he’s also problematic. Arrogant, a womaniser, he was also, in the 1930s, a member of the Nazi Party. As Stephen is soon to discover, there is no shortage of suspects. Friedrich was hated by almost everybody, even those who loved him. Is there any sense to his death or was it just a case of rotten, random luck? Has the universe spoken? Or are there more sinister factors at work? From one of Australia’s finest, critically-acclaimed writers, Death of a Foreign Gentleman is a playful mixture of detective story and literary fiction that examines the question of how to live a meaningful life in an indifferent, random, post-god world. Released: 03/04/24 TPB | 304pp

AU $32.99 NZ $37.99 Imprint: Fourth Estate

AU $34.99 NZ $37.99 Imprint: HarperCollins

AU $32.99 NZ $36.99 Imprint: Hemlock Press

FICTION

FICTION