![The Last Victim by Tracy Hall with Summer Land. The Last Victim by Tracy Hall with Summer Land.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/8bcc8dac-9fea-49ed-aaba-013c61209c86.png/r0_0_4914_2763_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Last Victim
Tracy Hall with Summer Land. Hachette Australia. $34.99.
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In 2017, Hall's life went from fact to fiction overnight when she discovered the man she'd been dating for nearly two years, Max, was actually one of Australia's most prolific conmen - Hamish McLaren. Also known as Hamish Watson. Also known as Hamish Maxwell. Suddenly "Max" was gone, along with the $317,000 in life savings Tracy had given him to invest. She would soon discover she was not Hamish's only victim - just his last. He had been honing his confidence game for decades, swindling people out of millions through investment and business scams.
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John Busst
Iain McCalman. NewSouth. $36.99.
Known to his enemies as "The Bingil Bay Bastard," Busst, a Bendigo-born Melbourne bohemian artist, moved to tropical Bedarra Island in North Queensland and underwent an extraordinary transformation to become one of Australia's most successful conservationists. In the 1960s and early '70s Busst led campaigns to protect lowland rainforests from destruction and the Great Barrier Reef from reckless resource mining for oil, gas, cement and fertiliser. Along the way Busst obtained the active support of five current or future prime ministers - Holt, Whitlam, Gorton, Hawke and Fraser.
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We Will Not Be Saved
Nemonte Nenquimo and Mitch Anderson. Hachette Australia. $34.99.
Born into the Waorani tribe of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest, Nenquimo was taught about plant medicines, foraging, oral storytelling, and shamanism by her elders. In recent years she has emerged as one of the most forceful voices in climate-change activism. She has spearheaded an alliance of indigenous nations and led her people to a landmark victory against Big Oil, protecting more than a half million acres of primary rainforest. In this memoir she and her husband Anderson, founder of Amazon Frontlines, dig into generations of oral history, uproot centuries of conquest and hack away at racist notions of Indigenous peoples.
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Terra Nova
Harrison Christian. Ultimo Press. $36.99.
Robert Falcon Scott's 1910 attempt to reach the South Pole is placed in jeopardy when Edward Evans joins as his second-in-command. They clash and Scott sends Evans back early, making the final push without him, only to find they have been beaten by the Norwegians. When Scott and his remaining men make their desperate return to base, they're met with an inexplicable shortage of supplies, leading to the tragic deaths of the entire party. Christian draws on fresh documents to examine the circumstances of Scott's death, throwing suspicion on Edward Evans and other officers.
![The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir by Sandie Docker. The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir by Sandie Docker.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/5a04d563-307e-4194-ae48-00dd07eb3c32.png/r0_0_4921_2767_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
The Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir
Sandie Docker. Penguin Random House. $34.99.
Sisters Eleanor and Maggie run the Lyrebird Lake Ladies Choir. When Eleanor enters the choir into the All Voices Championship, it offers the members a chance to make up for lost dreams. Single mum Hannah arrives, homeless and widowed and hoping for a new start with her son. With her angelic voice, Hannah could give the choir a winning edge. But when Eleanor hears her singing a long-forgotten lullaby, she is transported to her past, a traumatic time when two teenage girls were banished from their Irish homeland to a faraway country. Will Hannah's arrival mend old wounds, or will the secret she unknowingly carries tear the sisters apart?
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The Wren in the Holly Library
K.A. Linde. Pan Macmillan. $34.99.
Set in an alternate New York filled with monsters, this romantasy is loosely inspired by Beauty and the Beast. Street thief Kierse is trapped in a library - with a monster. By trespassing, Kierse has broken the fragile peace treaty between monsters and humans. But instead of killing her, Graves offers her a job. A chance to find out who she really is. Kierse has always known she's different. And there's that sense she has when danger is only a breath away. But if the old tales are true, there are worse things in the world than monsters. Like a threat more ancient than legend. Like Graves. Or like Kierse herself.
![Power and Obsession by Catherine McCullagh. Power and Obsession by Catherine McCullagh.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/38e7a959-2229-42a1-a7be-3f8685b7bb26.png/r0_0_4551_2559_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Power and Obsession
Catherine McCullagh. Big Sky Publishing. $32.99.
In this alternate history, Britain is occupied by the Nazis in 1941. Emilia Shaw works as a translator in London for SS General Oskar Voigt and is also a resistance spy. She is desperate to avoid the scrutiny of Voigt's security chief, Irish policeman Brendan O'Connor, and his brutal offsider, SS Colonel Hans Morser. The Duke of Windsor returns, controversially, and pressures the puppet government for his coronation, but is at the mercy of Hitler. As violence escalates,. Emilia is hunted by both the SS and the resistance, caught in the crossfire as the country threatens to implode.
![Death in the Air by Ram Murali. Death in the Air by Ram Murali.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/MxhEgQKUJhZgHxwVaKiqcq/cbd067b5-bf4b-49df-84e2-8499e25ec8a8.png/r0_0_4914_2763_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Death in the Air
Ram Murali. Allen & Unwin. $32.99.
Ro Krishna, who left his job under mysterious circumstances, has just checked in to Samsara, a spa in the Indian Himalayas. One of the guests - gorgeous, charismatic, well-connected, like most of them - is found dead. As everyone scrambles to figure out what happened, Ro is pulled into an investigation that endangers them all and threatens to spiral beyond the hotel walls. Because it turns out it's not just heiresses and Bollywood stars-to-be that have checked in: cocktail hour is over, and death is on the prowl.
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