It’s 1942, and war is raging in Europe and in the Pacific. The Japanese army is on Australia’s doorstep, and the small coastal Queensland town of Maryborough is on full war footing. What they are not prepared for is the arrival in the town of a troupe of incompetent actors whose unjustifiably self-confident leader, William Power, is determined to bring his daring production of Titus Andronicus to the barbarians of rural Australia.Unfortunately for the Power Players, the on...

‘It was suffocatingly hot, and the audience of howling children was viciously indifferent to the violence being done to my integrity as an artist by every ghastly syllable I was obliged to utter and by every mincing step I was obliged to take. As the foul smell of the ancient wig I was wearing wafted into my nostrils, I began to view the bombing of Darwin with something like nostalgia.’William Power, actor and sometime private inquiry agent, has returned from the Northern ...

Failed Shakespearean actor and would-be private investigator Will Power’s unique detective skills are, once again, in demand. The Japanese army is rampaging through the islands of the South Pacific, and Australia’s front line of defence is a top-secret, crack division of men embedded deep in the tropical wilderness of northern Australia. But something is threatening their vital, covert mission: one of this elite corps is a murderer, preying on his comrades, one by one.With a case t...

The fatally over-confident hero of Good Murder returns to pit his meagre detective skills against military intelligence, belligerent in-laws, a town full of G.I.s, and a creepy conspiracy to bring on an Australian sectarian nightmare.Failed Shakespearean actor and would-be private detective William Power returns to Melbourne in disgrace after his disastrous brush with theatre and murder in Maryborough. Bloodied, broken, but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling ...

‘Why, what is pomp, rule, reign, but earth and dust?And, live we how we can, yet die we must’What is the true meaning of power? Are some simply born to it or can it be acquired like a skill? Does it always breed corruption and greed or can it be a force for good? From kings to prisoners and from battle-fields to courts, Shakespeare’s peerless understanding of power and its repercussions remains as pertinent today as it has ever been.Selected from

Will Power has returned from the Northern Territory shaken, stirred and generally discombobulated. It is late 1942 and demeaningly enough, he finds himself playing a pantomime dame. If only this was his only worry… As his great hero, Shakespeare, once noted, ‘When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions.’ Can Will finally overcome his tendency to be the living embodiment of Murphy’s Law?

Failed Shakespearean actor and would-be private detective William Power returns to Melbourne in this wry sequel that re-creates the tension and fear of wartime Australia. Bloodied and broken but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling under war-rationing and full of cocky American soldiers and lands squarely in the bosom of his childhood home in Carlton, now dominated by his sister-in-law, the odious Darlene. But even Will’s contempt is tempered when, in the early hours of the mor...

It's 1942, and war is raging in Europe and in the Pacific. The Japanese army is on Australia's doorstep, and the small coastal Queensland town of Maryborough is on full war footing. What they are not prepared for is the arrival in the town of a troupe of incompetent actors whose unjustifiably self-confident leader, William Power, is determined to bring his daring production of Titus Andronicus to the barbarians of rural Australia. Unfortunately for the Power Players, the only gift William ...

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'As a champion catastrophizer, I can confirm that this book is a godsend' Dawn French'A must read and a great companion' Zoe Ball'Terrific... If I could eat a book it would be this one' Derren Brown'A wise, warm, compassionate guide to living we...

Private eye Jake Cardigan must derail an insidious plot by the ruthless Tek cartel to replace the US president with an android designed to do the group's dark biddingWilliam Shatner, the original face of Captain Kirk on TV's Star Trek, displays another side of his remarkable talent with his sixth excursion into a future world where the ubiquitous techno-drug Tek rules, and one man remains dedicated to wiping the scourge and its criminal suppliers from the f...

ONE OF THE MOST ACCLAIMED BOOKS OF THE YEARNAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY Washington Post • NPR • Financial Times • The Guardian • Booklist • New Statesman • Daily Telegraph • Irish Times • Dallas Morning News • Sunday Times • New York Post"A big, sprawling, ultimately stunning crime tableau." – Janet Maslin, New York Times

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice.What if the real power in conversation… wasn’t what you say—but what you don’t?In a world where everyone is talking, oversharing, and trying too hard to be heard, the people who win operate differently. They observe. They pause. They control the frame.This audiobook reveals the hidden psychology behind silence, influence, and social control—and shows you how to use it to your advantage in everyday life.Inside