Great books set in Queensland
Cassandra – Kathryn Gossow
Is the future set like concrete or a piece of clay we can mould and change?
On a remote farm in Queensland, Cassie Shultz feels useless. Her perfect brother Alex has an uncanny ability to predict the weather, and the fortunes of the entire family hinge upon his forecasts. However, her own gift for prophecy remains frustratingly obscure. Attempts to help her family usually result in failure.
After meeting with her new genius neighbour Athena, Cassie thinks she has unlocked the secret of her powers. But as her visions grow more vivid, she learns that the cost of honing her gift may be her sanity.
With her family breaking apart, the future hurtles towards Cassie faster than she can comprehend it.
This book was shortlisted for the Best Fantasy Novel 2017 in the Australian Aurealis Awards.
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
Nevil Shute’s most beloved novel, a tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.
Jean Paget, a young Englishwoman living in Malaya, is captured by the invading Japanese and forced on a brutal seven-month death march with dozens of other women and children. A few years after the war, Jean is back in England, the nightmare behind her. However, an unexpected inheritance inspires her to return to Malaya to give something back to the villagers who saved her life. Jean’s travels leads her to a desolate Australian outpost called Willstown, where she finds a challenge that will draw on all the resourcefulness and spirit that carried her through her war-time ordeals.
Wings of Fear – Helene Young
Above the crystal-blue waters of North Queensland, Captain Morgan Pentland patrols the vast Australian coastline. When Customs Agent Rafe Daniels joins her crew, she is immediately suspicious. Why is he boarding her plane when she isn’t there? And why is he asking so many questions?
What Morgan doesn’t know is that Rafe has her under surveillance. Critical information about their Border Watch operations is being leaked and she is the main suspect, but when Morgan and Rafe are shot down in a tragic midair attack, they realise they have to start working together – and quickly. One of Australia’s most loved icons is the next target and they have only nine days to stop it.
Will they uncover details of the plot in time, or will the tension that is growing between them jeopardise everything?
He Died With A Falafel In His Hand – John Birmingham
John Birmingham has lived with eighty-nine people and kept notes on all of them. This is their story. A rat died in the room at King Street and we didn’t know. There was at least six inches of compacted rubbish between our feet and the floor. Old Ratty must have crawled in there and died of pleasure. A visitor uncovered him while groping about for a beer.
Last Drinks – Andrew McGahan
It’s a decade since the infamous Inquiry into corruption tore the state of Queensland apart. But for George Verney, disgraced journalist and bit-player in the great scandals of his day, the Inquiry has never quite finished. After ten years of self-imposed exile, drawn by the terrible death of a man who was his friend, he reluctantly returns to Brisbane, the city of his downfall. In a town he no longer recognises and through an underworld that has forgotten him, George must seek out the other hidden survivors of his times, to confront the truth about their common past.
Distance – Nene Davies
Forty-year-old Welsh mum Isobel Richardson can cope with most things: her husband’s redundancy, a shortage of money, three spirited kids and a demanding old house. She sees the loss of Leo’s job as a chance for new beginnings and her drive and determination propel the family towards a sparkling new life in Australia. Isobel’s mother Helen, however, is devastated. Cold and unsupportive, she rejects Isobel’s invitation to join in the family adventure and throws the guilt card firmly down on the table. When the family lands in Oz and the longed-for dream unfolds, unbearable guilt at leaving a broken Helen behind is compounded by the pain of missing absent son Ben – and all the while Mother Nature is hatching some plans of her own. Has the great Australian dream really eluded her after all?
The Shack By The Bay – Lea Davey
An isolated fishing shack on a beautiful bay in the Whitsundays provides Luke with a retreat where he can find peace and solitude. However, the discovery of family war relics, and a developing relationship with the beautiful Lily, connects family histories and reveals a story that threatens to destroy his chance at real happiness.
Will the wartime secrets prove to be the breaking point for a beautiful romance? Or can two families put the deeds of the past behind them?
Romantic and purely Australian, The Shack by the Bay captures the pristine beauty of the Whitsundays and the wartime memories of older Australians while introducing an eclectic blend of friends and family.
