Book: The Good Woman of Renmark

Summary: 1895, Renmark, South Australia. Maggie O'Rourke has always had a hard head. No man was going to tie her down to a life of babies and domestic slavery, even if that man was as good (and as annoyingly attractive) as Sam Taylor. Maggie is happily earning her own way as a maid in a house on the Murray River when disaster strikes. Forced to defend herself and a friend from assault by an evil man, she flees downriver on a paddle steamer. With death at her heels, Maggie begins to realise that a man like Sam might be just who she wants in her hour of need. As for Sam, well, Maggie has always been what he wants. The further Maggie runs, the more she discovers there are some things she cannot escape... What I Thought: Really enjoyable. Love the Murray River. Love fierce independent women too.

Book: The Ruin

Summary: Galway 1993 - Young Garda Cormac Reilly is called to a scene he will never forget. Two silent, neglected children - fifteen-year-old Maude and five-year-old Jack - are waiting for him at a crumbling country house. Upstairs, their mother lies dead. Twenty years later, a body surfaces in the icy black waters of the River Corrib. At first it looks like an open-and-shut case, but then doubt is cast on the investigation's findings - and the integrity of the police. Cormac is thrown back into the cold case that has haunted him his entire career - what links the two deaths, two decades apart? As he navigates his way through police politics and the ghosts of the past, Detective Reilly uncovers shocking secrets and finds himself questioning who among his colleagues he can trust. What really did happen in that house where he first met Maude and Jack? The Ruin draws us deep into the dark heart of Ireland and asks who will protect you when the authorities can't - or won't. What I Thought: Loved this! Great flawed characters. Ripping read. Bring on book 2.

Book: The Roadhouse

Summary: When aspiring actress Charlie Carver learns that her cousin Annabelle has died, she immediately leaves Melbourne to fly home to the remote family roadhouse east of Alice Springs. It has been years since her last visit and her relationship with her mother, Molly, is strained but Charlie is determined to patch up their differences. The reunion, however, is interrupted when Molly suffers a heart attack. With her mother airlifted out for life-saving surgery, Charlie is left to take the reins of the struggling family business, alongside friends old and new, including the captivating local stockman Mike. The authorities declare Annabelle to have taken her own life, but when a woman’s body turns up at an abandoned mine site, Charlie begins to wonder what else is being covered up, and why. Beginning a search for the truth, a perilous bush chase unfolds that threatens her own life, causing Charlie to wonder whether she ever knew Annabelle at all… What I Thought: Another fab McGinnis book. Just loving her books.

Book: The Ultimate Truth (Travis Delaney Investigates)

Summary: When Travis Delaney's parents die in a car crash, Travis is devastated. In a bid to pull himself out of his grief, he starts to look into the last case they were investigating at the private investigation agency they ran. What starts as a minor distraction soon becomes a sinister, unbelievable mystery - and Travis is determined to solve it. Why were his parents looking for a missing boy when the boy's family says he isn't missing? Where is the boy himself? And why would a man who is in surveillance photos taken by Travis's parents turn up at their funeral? As Travis searches for answers, he starts to have the chilling realization that the question he should be asking is the one he most wants to avoid: Was the accident that killed his parents really what it seemed? What I Thought: Really enjoyed this – new series added to the list!

Book: Ruthless (Special Forces Cadets)

Summary: The ghettos of Colombia are crawling with street kids. They have nothing, and are forced into lives of crime in order to get enough to eat. Their life expectancies are short, not least because the Colombian authorities allow paramilitaries to shoot them like rats. But it's with the street kids of Colombia that the cadets must become embedded. Some of these kids have been recruited by the Colombian cartels. The cartels are causing untold misery, both in Colombia and on the streets of the UK. The cadets must befriend the cartel kids in the hope that they will lead them into the heart of the drug lords' empire. But when you head into the lion's den, you must expect to be bitten. The cartel chiefs are the most ruthless people in the world, and they do not take kindly to the infiltration of their secret, violent world . . . What I Thought: Another great book in the series. Enjoying these.

Book: Pearl in a Cage

Summary: On a balmy midsummer's evening in 1923, a young woman - foreign, dishevelled and heavily pregnant - is found unconscious just off the railway tracks in the tiny logging community of Woody Creek. The town midwife, Gertrude Foote, is roused from her bed when the woman is brought to her door. Try as she might, Gertrude is unable to save her - but the baby lives. When no relatives come forth to claim the infant, Gertrude's daughter Amber - who has recently lost a son in childbirth - and her husband Norman take the child in. In the ensuing weeks, Norman becomes convinced that God has sent the baby to their door, and in an act of reckless compassion, he names the baby Jennifer and registers her in place of his son. Loved by some but scorned by more - including her stepmother and stepsister who resent the interloper - Jenny survives her childhood and grows into an exquisite and talented young woman. But who were her parents? Why does she so strongly resemble an old photograph of Gertrude's philandering husband? And will she one day fulfil her potential? What I Thought: Brilliant. A few too many characters and a bit long winded but gosh Dettman does the dark side of small town life well.