9 Fiction Reads That Prove the Past Never Stays Buried

Beneath the glamorous hotel openings, the storm-felled gum trees, the train platforms and the storm-tossed refugee boats, these are books about women carrying secrets — and what it costs to either keep them or finally let them go. Whether it’s a jewel thief blackmailed into espionage, three sisters scattered by tragedy, or a mother whose fixation on a decades-old murder consumes her life, this list keeps returning to the same question: what happens when the past refuses to stay buried? Here’s what’s on shelves now, and what ties it all together.

Glamour, intrigue and two women who will gamble their lives to survive. Set across two timelines, jewel thief, Sabine Winters, finds herself being blackmailed into becoming a spy in December 1939 at the grand opening of Australia’s most glamorous and talked about hotel, the Wrest Point Riviera. In February 1973, Jenny Davies career choice creates a devastating chain of events that could destroy her life as she knows it at the grand opening of Australia’s most glamorous, talked about and controversial hotel, the Wrest Point Hotel Casino.
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In 1990, a boat of asylum seekers leaves war-torn Sri Lanka, bound for Australia. When a mother dies on the journey, her three young daughters are separated and scattered across the country. Decades later, with so much lost and changed, can they find their way back to each other? Beautiful and heartbreaking, this is the story of women who rise from loss to reclaim their stories, rebuild their lives, and step into the fierce beauty of their own becoming. A powerful new novel from the award-winning author of Untethered.

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From the bestselling author of The Radio Hour comes this charming but pointed look at the tumultuous extraordinary decade of the 1960s, and the effects of the pill, rebellion and new ideas on ordinary Australian women as alongside shorter skirts and the Beatles, they embrace freedom. When the new contraceptive pill arrives women can suddenly sense freedom. But powerful forces are aligned against women’s reproductive choice and a fight begins. A fight that takes on their own doctors, the might of the Catholic church, and the outdated morality of previous generations.

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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.
On a train platform, five strangers unknowingly face a chilling countdown: one of them will die in five minutes. In this gripping tale narrated with a sharp tongue, the five main characters – a child, a mother, a businessman, an old woman, and a gambler – will draw you in with their stories of fate, sacrifice, and the relationships we build and those we break.
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World-famous author Arthur Fletch is dead. His final novel, the most anticipated book in history, remains unfinished. But the ending won’t write itself. When six struggling authors are invited to Fletch’s private Scottish island and presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, the plot thickens: whoever writes a worthy ending will receive a game-changing book deal and two million dollars. Why have they been chosen to attend? Who is behind the invitation? And just how far would they go to secure a place on the bestseller list?

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The lives of an ailing detective, an abused mother, and a true-crime podcast duo intersect as a serial killer stalks their city. 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. A mother’s worst fear, a killer on the loose, a darkness visible… A gripping page-turner for readers of Candice Fox and Karin Slaughter from an award-winning author.

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A taut, claustrophobic exploration of what it means to be haunted – by our past, by fractured relationships, by a place we thought we knew and by our own unreliable memories. In the Victorian Highlands, a ghost gum falls in a storm. Tangled in its roots are the bones of a small child and the tattered remains of her clothing, including a pair of bright-red sneakers. When Single mum Jude returns home to Kiln Creek to care for her ailing mum she is confronted by disturbing occurrences. Strange smells, inexplicably wet footprints, a voice in the night.
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The Findlay family history has long been steeped in secrets, tragedy, and dark rumours of madness. Generations of its women have been haunted by a dangerous luring melody and an insatiable longing for the sea. Weaving historical fiction with folklore and Tasmanian gothic, this is a gorgeously atmospheric debut that explores memory and self. A tale of madness and miracles, secrets and sins, myth and reality, and the tenacity and resilience of women in the face of impossible choices.

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Fourteen years ago, Nell Masters witnessed Bryony Sanders getting into a stranger’s car. When Bryony was found murdered Nell became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was and her fixation led her down a dangerous path. Now, all these years later, she is certain someone is following her. Has someone from her past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?

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