Patricia Cornwell. Hachette. $34.99.
Patricia Cornwell once tattooed a supermarket-bought turkey to test how the mark on its skin would fade. Best known for her thrillers about crime pathologist Dr Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell gets forensic on her own life in this memoir tracing her childhood traumas, her start as a police reporter and her success as an author. She reveals she was drugged and raped by a cop while covering crime in North Carolina for the Charlotte Observer - an experience reflected in her first Scarpetta book, 1990's Postmortem. To recapture her earliest memories, including abuse as a five-year-old, she exhumed a 300-page university thesis about her eating disorder written when she was 19, under her birth name Patsy Daniels.
Margarita Nazarenko. Hachette. $34.99.
Sydney-based TikTok life coach and Being Her podcaster Margarita Nazarenko dedicates her second book (after 2024 guide to relationships The New Rules) to "every woman who thought she had to be chosen, until she chose herself". Billed as "not another book about boundaries or breakups - it's about identity", Unbothered ponders "the art of letting go to find yourself" and offers advice on how to detach from situations and relationships that stop you making the most of yourself and your life. "If something falls apart because you stopped contorting yourself to hold it together, it was already cracked," she writes. "Detachment didn't break it; detachment told the truth."
Louis Lefebvre translated by Pablo Strauss. Scribe. $36.99.
A professor emeritus of biology at McGill University in Québec, Canada, Louis Lefebvre has built a database cataloguing the fascinating behaviour of almost 1700 species of bird and more than 4400 remarkable examples of their innovation, intelligence and problem-solving that fly in the face of the age-old "bird brain" insult. Blending his encyclopaedic knowledge of bird cognition with engaging anecdotes about their ingenuity, this book examines the evolutionary forces that have shaped avian intelligence, including urban environments: from crows using cars as nutcrackers to cockatoos crafting tools. And, when a bird species learns a new technique, how do their innovations spread?
Patrick Mullins. Scribe. $36.99.
Mark Twain called it "a two-volume mystery!" The extraordinary tale of a Sydney solicitor who incited a campaign in 1895 to free a man he knew was guilty of attempting to murder his wife with arsenic, who lost his reputation and ability to practise law, and who embarked on a decades-long political career to regain it all. Canberra academic and biographer Patrick Mullins combs comprehensively through the case of Richard Meagher, a very Australian history mystery of hubris, disgrace and redemption set against some of the nation's formative moments, including Federation, the rise of Labor and the conscription debates of World War I.
Wendy Lynn Newton. Macmillan. $34.99.
Hilary's life is turned upside down when she finds her husband of 30 years, newly retired engineer George, dead on the way to his beloved compost heap. In a fit of grief, she destroys the immaculate garden George had devoted his life to. When strangers knock at her door announcing themselves as the Secret Garden Club and offering to restore the garden, she learns about a fellowship that George never told her about. Will his secret break her heart all over again or show her how to grow a new life of fulfilment and friendship? This heartwarmer is the debut novel of Tasmanian Wendy Lynn Newton.
Arianne James. HQ Fiction. $32.99.
Another debut novel from Tasmania, this atmospheric historical fiction by Arianne James weaves the mythological selkies of folklore into a family saga dripping with Tasmanian gothic. It's 1923 and Isla Findlay lives with her parents on a wild stretch of coastline in a rambling mansion haunted by dark whispers. When her estranged aunt visits, long-repressed memories of the selkie stories of Isla's childhood resurface, along with disturbing dreams of seals and an eerie song she can hear even in her waking hours. It seems Isla, her mother and her aunt must reckon with angry ghosts that have not been properly laid to rest.
Fonda Lee. Orbit. $34.99.
Fantasy and science fiction author Fonda Lee's epic Green Bone Saga has been translated into 15 languages. This new standalone sci-fi revenge story catapults a battleworn samurai on a final mission deep into a world of corporate espionage and dark secrets. Isako is a legendary swordswoman, but every legend must end. When her long-time client unexpectedly retires, she plans to follow - to walk out into the frozen wasteland of their planet with her head held high and her family enriched by her legacy. But when a rival offers her a final mission, it's one she cannot refuse. What she uncovers will change humanity's existence in the stars forever.
Natalie Gregory. Juniper. $34.99.
Set in Thailand from 1976 to the present, this haunting and hopeful exploration of grief, motherhood and cultural identity follows Lin from England to Bangkok to care for her dying mother. Amid pro-democracy protests clashing with the military government and an ambitious new king, Lin feels like a stranger in her home country. In a bid to feel closer to her mother, she tries to cook her favourite dish only to find the recipes missing and an old political leaflet in their place. Lin sets off with her baby to the countryside to find answers and hopefully discover more about herself and her culture.
Love books? Us too! For more reads and recommendations, browse our Arts & Entertainment page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.
