Sergeant 'Hex' Rexford is the detective who caught the infamous serial killer Dr. Witcherton. Now, with a series of gruesome murders unfolding inside Coast Sanctuary - a hospital for the criminally insane - Witcherton claims to know who's behind them. Hex takes the case, determined to uncover the truth, even as his own body is failing him.

Beth Thompson is desperate to keep her children safe. Her violent ex is stalking her, her son's behaviour is growing strange, and his beloved teddy bear, Theo, might be more than just a toy. When an elderly woman offers Beth a remote cottage, it feels like a chance to breathe - but safety is an illusion.

Meanwhile, true crime podcasters Eve and Zane are chasing the story of the murders. But as Eve edges closer to the truth, the danger closes in.

As past and present collide, and the body count rises, the threads connecting them all begin to tighten - and something terrifying is watching from the dark.

The players call it The Game. There are just two rules:

No killing close to home.

No Killing outside the game

But what happens when those rules get broken?

When the drowned body of a troubled teenager is recovered from a river in Maine's Kennebec Valley, and a young woman disappears from a small rural town, they draw the attention of the private investigator named Charlie Parker.

Now Parker will be forced to confront a band of men without morality and without loyalty, not even to one another, in a place where the very darkness is alive.

Because something has emerged from the shadows, something very bad.

And it wants revenge.

At a glitzy gala in the ballroom of the Hotel Ritz, young American tourist Maisy Bell meets an intriguing man and accepts his charming offer to take her on a day trip.

But when Maisy doesn't return to the Ritz the following day, alarm bells ring and Maisy's aunt Clementine tries to file a missing person's report. The Paris police laugh the request away. Plenty of tourists 'disappear', having lost themselves in foolish flings. After all, summer in Paris is the perfect time for lovers. Then Clementine Bell receives a ransom note ...

Enter investigative reporter Charlie James. As she follows Maisy Bell's designer footsteps around Paris, Charlie is plunged into a heady world of diamonds, haute couture, opera, bohemian wine bars and extravagant soirees in grand country châteaux, before being pulled into the sordid underworld.

A beautiful summer dayWhen young nurse Claire Davidson goes missing on the riverbank, the only clues left behind are her phone and shoes.

A mystery that sweeps the nationPeople disappear all the time, but this case sparks an online frenzy. Amateur investigators descend on the rural idyll. Is Claire Davidson just the story of a swim that went wrong, or could there be truth to the conspiracies?

A killer growing bolderThen another woman is discovered dead in the river. Jake Jackson, a former detective who came to the countryside searching for peace, must investigate before more lives are lost.

Faye's ex-husband is dead, but she is threatened by her father who is still on the run from prison. The man who should be her safety net is her greatest fear.

But it's not just Faye that's in danger.

Faye also has to protect her loved ones and her life's work, the Revenge company. Faye gathers her circle of women and enlists the help of the only man she trusts to plan the final revenge.

But will she succeed, now that her father seems to be working with a criminal network and is more dangerous than ever?

Three gifts. Three victims. One deadly game.

Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found.

Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient - and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim.

Detective Sergeant Judith Lee is smart and experienced, but this is no ordinary case. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable. And she's convinced that somehow, it connects back to Alexis Turner.

As she races to uncover the connection between three seemingly unrelated people, Judith discovers she's no longer just investigating the game - she's being forced to play.

Acting on a confidential tip, Detective Sergeant Stilwell and his deputies watch a plane land in the middle of the night and drop a duffel bag of drugs at a remote airstrip in the mountains. But their sting quickly goes sideways. While Stilwell chases the fleeing pick-up man, shots are fired on the runway and the plane takes off unharmed.

An internal inquiry puts Stilwell on the bench until he is cleared of responsibility, but there's no way he's going to sit on his hands-instead, risking his already shaky standing, he begins a secret investigation.

After discovering a piece of key evidence in lost and found, Stilwell follows the lead all the way to the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit and Detective Renée Ballard in Los Angeles. But they soon realise they are on the trail of a criminal who revels in taunting the authorities.

This case is wider than anyone ever imagined-and more dangerous than they had foreseen.

Never underestimate a tea lady. Sydney, 1968. When a popular local man is murdered, police are quick to pin the blame on his glamorous model fiancee, who has since disappeared. But Hazel suspects a criminal cover-up and rallies the tea ladies to investigate; a quest that brings danger right to her door. Meanwhile, Merl's long-buried family secret threatens to unravel her carefully constructed life. When she stumbles on evidence that her detective son-in-law is corrupt, she's forced to swallow her pride and reunite with the other tea ladies, enlisting their help to expose him. Betty becomes immersed in a local theatre group where there is more drama offstage than on it, further complicated by her infatuation with the enigmatic leading man. Irene aspires to a new career as a debt collector but her first case has more frustrations and obstacles than she bargained for, even with the help of a new weapon. 

When security and fire alarms go off simultaneously all around the world, setting off a panic, the signal is traced back to China. As world leaders scramble to respond, mother and daughter Vivien and Alice Li are called to the White House in hopes Madame Li can decode the Chinese intentions.

Alice is a first-generation Chinese-American food blogger. A Chinese dissident who escaped China after Tiananmen Square, Vivien is now a globally recognized human rights activist and passionate advocate for a free and democratic China. While it makes some sense that the President would turn to Vivien, what isn't clear is why they'd want to talk to Alice.

Caught up in the chaos, Vivien and Alice are uniquely placed to stop the next, cataclysmic attack. But there are forces deep within both the American and Chinese governments intent on stopping mother and daughter. The estranged pair, who excels at misunderstanding each other, must figure out how to work together.

The increasingly frantic search for answers takes the women from the Oval Office to an office building in Akron, Ohio, from the noodle shops of Hong Kong to the necropolis of the first emperor. Along the way they must decode an old legend, and an old language invented by women, for women.

The Last Mandarin is the story of a mother and daughter, as well as a compelling international thriller about the precarious balance of power across the world, and within a family. And what happens when both break down.

Someone will die here this morning, at this suburban train station. It will happen in the next five minutes when the 7:06 to London Victoria arrives.

Take note of their positions. The child, the mother, the businessman, the old woman and the gambler.

One of them will die despite your attachment to them. There is probably one you want to get rid of. You don’t have to admit who. But perhaps you should ask yourself why.

The train has stopped.

Someone is dead.

Was it who you chose?

It wasn’t your fault …

So why, dear reader, do you feel so guilty?

Five stories. Five minutes until a life ends. Unfolding in real time, FIVE doesn't just tell a story; it provokes, unsettles, and lingers. By weaving together the stories of those complex, flawed lives, Bannister creates a tapestry of human struggle, resilience, and hope. FIVE offers no easy answers, but rather a nuanced exploration of the human condition in all its messy complexity.