Popular Oceanian Crime Books

Find crime books written by authors from Oceania for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge. (14)

1.

After Story by Larissa Behrendt EN

0 Ratings
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
When Indigenous lawyer Jasmine decides to take her mother Della on a tour of England's most revered literary sites, Jasmine hopes it will bring them closer together and help them reconcile the past. Twenty-five years earlier the disappearance of Jasmine's older sister devastated their tight-knit community. This tragedy returns to haunt Jasmine and Della when another child mysteriously goes missing on Hampstead Heath. As Jasmine immerses herself in the world of her literary idols - including Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters and Virginia Woolf - Della is inspired to rediscover the wisdom of her o... continue

2.

Aue by Becky Manawatu EN

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Description:
WINNER OF THE JANN MEDLICOTT ACORN PRIZE FOR FICTION WINNER OF THE MITOQ BEST FIRST BOOK OF FICTION WINNER OF THE NGAIO MARSH AWARD FOR BEST CRIME NOVEL auē (verb) to cry, howl, groan, wail, bawl. (interjection) expression of astonishment or distress. Taukiri was born into sorrow. Auē can be heard in the sound of the sea he loves and hates, and in the music he draws out of the guitar that was his father’s. It spills out of the gang violence that killed his father and sent his mother into hiding, and the shame he feels about abandoning his eight-year-old brother to a violent home. But Taukiri’s... continue

3.

Birnam Wood : A Novel by Eleanor Catton EN

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Description:
A gripping psychological thriller from Eleanor Catton, the Booker Prize-winning author of The Luminaries, Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its wit, drama, and immersion in character. A brilliantly constructed consideration of intentions, actions, and consequences, it is an unflinching examination of the human impulse to ensure our own survival. Birnam Wood is on the move . . . Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever n... continue

4.

Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
In Hayley Scrivenor's Dirt Creek, a small-town debut mystery described as The Dry meets Everything I Never Told You, a girl goes missing and a community falls apart and comes together. When twelve-year-old Esther disappears on the way home from school in a small town in rural Australia, the community is thrown into a maelstrom of suspicion and grief. As Detective Sergeant Sarah Michaels arrives in town during the hottest spring in decades and begins her investigation, Esther's tenacious best friend, Ronnie, is determined to find Esther and bring her home. When schoolfriend Lewis tells Ronnie t... continue

5.

Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Four dead queens. Three days to catch a killer. Two forbidden romances. One shocking twist you won’t see coming. Seventeen-year-old Keralie Corrington may seem harmless, but she’s, in fact, one of Quadara’s most skilled thieves and a liar. Varin, on the other hand, is an honest, upstanding citizen of Quadara’s most enlightened region, Eonia. He runs afoul of Keralie when she steals a package from him, putting his life in danger. When Varin attempts to retrieve the package, he and Keralie both find themselves entangled in a conspiracy that leaves all four of Quadara’s queens dead. With no other... continue

6.

Missing, Presumed Dead : The Double Murder Case That Shocked Australia by Mark Tedeschi EN

Rating: 3 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
It was the double murder case that gripped Australia, and former Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC is finally able to share all the shocking details. Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan were both happy, healthy, affluent, middle-class women from conservative, loving families. Such women are hardly ever among the ranks of the missing. They were not hitchhikers, or associates of drug dealers, or unhappy with their family relationships, or suffering from mental health issues. Dorothy Davis and Kerry Whelan came from different parts of Sydney, mixed in quite different circles, and led completely differ... continue

7.

Overkill by Vanda Symon EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Description:
First published in New Zealand by Penguin Books (NZ) in 2007.

8.

See What You Made Me Do : Power, Control and Domestic Violence by Jess Hill EN

Rating: 4 (1 vote)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Domestic abuse is a national emergency- one in four Australian women has experienced violence from a man she was intimate with. But too often we ask the wrong question- why didn't she leave? We should be asking- why did he do it? Investigative journalist Jess Hill puts perpetrators - and the systems that enable them - in the spotlight. See What You Made Me Do is a deep dive into the abuse so many women and children experience - abuse that is often reinforced by the justice system they trust to protect them. Critically, it shows that we can drastically reduce domestic violence - not in generati... continue

9.

Stolen by Lucy Christopher EN

Rating: 5 (2 votes)
Country: Oceania / Australia flag Australia
Description:
Sixteen year old Gemma is kidnapped from Bangkok airport and taken to the Australian Outback. This wild and desolate landscape becomes almost a character in the book, so vividly is it described. Ty, her captor, is no stereotype. He is young, fit and completely gorgeous. This new life in the wilderness has been years in the planning.He loves only her, wants only her. Under the hot glare of the Australian sun, cut off from the world outside, can the force of his love make Gemma love him back? Thestory takes the form of a letter, written by Gemma to Ty, reflecting on those strange and disturbing ... continue

10.

The Cleaner : A Thriller by Paul Cleave EN

0 Ratings
Description:
A police department janitor named Joe investigates what is thought to be the seventh Christchurch Carver murder, except that Joe knows for certain that the latest homicide is the work of a copycat killer.