New Releases

At the Going Down of the Sun

At the Going Down of the Sun

1914- Brothers Thom and Archie Hogan are the best of friends who love nothing more than tinkering with their father's old biplane. They dream of one day flying over the wheatfields of their farm, but when Molly James arrives in town, matters of the heart come between them.

Beautiful and headstrong, Molly captures the attention of both young men, until war strikes and the brothers rush to enlist. Molly answers the call to nurse in London, and nothing is a game any more.

In the Middle East and Europe, war takes to the skies for the first time. There, Archie and Thom clash with legendary foes in a desperate quest for survival, even as a battle of hearts wages below. Tension between the trio looks set to implode - just as Molly is faced with a dangerous mission all on her own.

At the going down of the sun, heroes will rise, hearts will soar, and ANZAC legend will be made.
 

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Killarney

Killarney

Small Town. Big Secrets. The second Dana Gibson mystery.

Child protection worker Dana Gibson arrives in the sleepy rural town of Killarney with one goal in mind- locate the whereabouts of foster child Jayden Maloney and return him to care. What she isn't anticipating is an unexpected attraction to her colleague's younger brother Sean, or to become embroiled in their simmering family feud.

When criminal allegations surface against a member of the local parish and a police task force discovers an increase in drug trafficking across the border, Dana is forced to consider that Jayden's disappearance is not simply a case of a teen on the run. To complicate matters further, torrential rain causes the Condamine River to break its banks, and the town gets cut off.

As Dana continues to ask questions, tensions peak with the rising flood waters and she soon realises that the tight-knit community is not all that it seems. Long-held secrets start to unravel and loyalties are questioned, forcing Dana to make a decision about who she can trust and how much she is willing to fight for what she believes in.

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If I Should Lose You

If I Should Lose You

Camille works as an organ transplant nurse, counselling families through heart-rending decisions. But at home, her own daughter Addie is critically ill. When an invitation to curate an exhibit arrives from artist Jack Darcy, her late mother's lover, Camille is plunged into unresolved questions about her childhoood and her mother's life.

As Addie gets sicker, Camille wonders how far she will go to save her child - and how much of herself she can give when she has everything to lose.

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The Players

The Players

One hot summer, a group of university students gathers in an orchard to rehearse a play.

Veronika is born for a life on the stage while Felix seizes his last chance for creative freedom. Sebastian woos Veronika, and Cassie longs for Sebastian. Josh and Gloria each carry a secret they are unable to share.
 

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The Beauties

The Beauties

An incomparable beauty. A promise to a king. A portrait that can never be completed.

When Emilia Lennox loses everything after her husband’s lands and title are confiscated, her beauty is her best bargaining chip with the only man who can restore their fortunes: King Charles II himself.

But the king’s favour comes at a price. He will pardon Emilia’s husband only if she agrees to be his mistress. Torn, Emilia comes up with a condition of her own: she will consent, but not until her portrait hangs among the famed Windsor Beauties, a series commissioned by the Duchess of York to showcase the fairest women in the royal retinue.

For Henry Greenhill, ambitious assistant to the court painter, the opportunity to paint Emilia’s portrait is a chance to step out of his master’s shadow. But his sitter proves as evasive as she is beautiful, and with barely a sketch to show for his efforts, Henry’s career is on the line.

As the king’s patience wears thin, it’s clear that more than creative talent will be needed to capture this incomparable beauty on canvas ...

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The Engraver’s Secret

The Engraver’s Secret

Innocence and delight, guile and misapprehension, the hint of indifference, even disdain on her pretty features. Fickle, he called her, a mixture of surprise and confidence. She is all that and more, brought to life with the ink strokes of a genius.

Spanish Netherlands, 1620s: raised by her father Lucas to know her mind, Antonia Vorsterman sees everything that goes on in her world - all the rivalries and jealousies that course through the artists' studios and workshops of Antwerp.

Drawn into the lively household of the artist Peter Paul Rubens, whose work her father engraves for a living, Antonia begins to see a life of colour and possibility for herself - until Lucas entrusts her with a terrible secret that will alter the course of their family's future.

Belgium, present day: haunted by the recent loss of her mother, art historian Charlotte Hubert moves to Antwerp to research her hero, the Baroque master Rubens, and to seek answers about the father she's never met.

But a startling discovery hidden inside an ancient map folio turns Charlotte's quiet academic life into a dangerous hunt for long-lost treasures, missing for 400 years. In the shadowy cloisters of the university, where ambition, obsession and violence run deep, nothing is as it seems.

Charlotte is certain of one thing - no one can be trusted.

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Pheasants Nest

Pheasants Nest

She wonders if they have discovered her missing yet. Has it broken in the news? Who has been assigned to cover her story? Have they started spooling through her social media and pulling out photographs? Constructing a narrative about who she is and what possible reason any person has to kidnap or (let's be frank) kill her? She tries not to let out the whimper that's building in her sternum, at the thought that he might. Kill her, that is. He might kill her.

Kate Delaney has made the biggest mistake of her life. She picked the wrong guy to humiliate on a girls' night out and now she is living every woman's worst nightmare. Kate finds herself brutalised, bound and gagged in the back of a car being driven god knows where by a man whose name she doesn't know, and she is petrified about what's in store for her.

As a journalist who is haunted by the crimes she's had to report over her career, Kate is terrifyingly familiar with the statistics about women who go missing-and the fear and trauma behind the headlines. She knows only too well how those stories usually end.

Kate can only hope the police will find her before it's too late, but she's aware a random crime is hardest to solve. As the clock ticks down, she tries to keep herself sane by thinking about her beloved boyfriend and friends, escaping into memories of love and happy times together. She knows she cannot give way to despair.

As the suspense escalates, Kate's boyfriend Liam is left behind, struggling with his shock, fear and desperation as the police establish a major investigation. The detectives face their own feelings of anguish and futility as they reflect on the cases they didn't solve in time and the victims they couldn't save. They know Kate's chances of survival diminish with every passing hour.

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The Pyramid of Needs

The Pyramid of Needs

Linda Taylor is livestreaming her glamorous life as an alternative health guru when she trips over in front of her followers ? and can't get up. When Linda's children, Jack and Alice, find out she's broken her hip and can't care for their ailing father or pay her bills, they decide to help. There's just one problem: Jack hasn't spoken to Linda since he came out as a trans man over a decade ago.

As the family gets together in Noosa and thunder clouds gather overhead, will family ties be enough to disentangle years of hurt, prejudice and pyramid-scheme brainwashing? Or will Jack have to cancel his mother for good?

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Close to Death

Close to Death

Richmond Upon Thames is one of the most desirable areas to live in London. And Riverview Close - a quiet, gated community - seems to offer its inhabitants the perfect life.

At least it does until Giles Kenworthy moves in with his wife and noisy children, his four gas-guzzling cars, his loud parties and his plans for a new swimming pool in his garden.

His neighbours all have a reason to hate him and are soon up in arms.

When Kenworthy is shot dead with a crossbow bolt through his neck, all of them come under suspicion and his murder opens the door to lies, deception and further death.

The police are baffled. Reluctantly, they call in former Detective Daniel Hawthorne. But even he is faced with a seemingly impossible puzzle.

How do you solve a murder when everyone has the same motive?

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The Library Thief

The Library Thief

The library is under lock and key. But its secrets can't be contained.

After he brought her home from Jamaica as a baby, Florence's father had her hair hot-combed to make her look like the other girls. But as a young woman, Florence is not so easy to tame - and when she brings scandal to his door, the bookbinder throws her onto the streets of Manchester.

Intercepting her father's latest commission, Florence talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall to restore its collection of rare books. Lord Francis Belfield's library is old and full of secrets - but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife.

Then one night, the library is broken into. Strangely, all the priceless tomes remain untouched. Florence is puzzled, until she discovers a half-burned book in the fireplace. She realises with horror that someone has found and set fire to the secret diary of Lord Belfield's wife - which may hold the clue to her fate . . .

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Shellharbour City Libraries acknowledges the traditional custodians of Dharawal Country and recognises their continued connection to the land. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and the contribution they make to the life of this City.