Showing results by narrator "Taryn Ryan" in All Categories

I am cooking spaghetti, his favourite, while he plays in the garden. But when I look up, he’s gone. I call the police, my hands shaking so much that I hit the wrong digits twice. "My son is missing." When the police turn up, I’m trapped in the web of my lies. I have hidden the truth from eight-year-old Riley, my little boy who loves climbing trees and always has scraped knees. I have hidden my secret from everyone.

"Your son is missing," they say, and life as I know it is over. "Where would he go?" the police ask. "Where would he be?" my daughter begs. My heart races as images flash in my mind. The cabin we rent every autumn, surrounded by fiery-red maple trees. Voices raised. Tears falling. A marriage falling apart. And worst of all my husband telling our child, Theo, to run. The rest is a blank in my memory. If I close my eyes I can almost see it. A betrayal that has left me alone, in tatters, grieving for what we had.

Elizabeth is Joe’s foster mother, but she loves him like her own. The five-year-old, who adores superheroes and watching the birds outside, is the child she has dreamed of. As she looks into the garden, where he was playing just moments ago, her heart feels like it has been ripped from her chest. She was meant to save Joe from his birth mother who almost harmed his chances at life. The woman who has been trying to desperately get him back. She was meant to protect Joe from her husband. The man who, right now, lies to the police, saying he was making breakfast when Joe disappeared.

Angela and Nellie plan to live with a family friend in Western Australia. When their ship from England docks, they learn that she has died in a tragic accident. What will the future hold for the young sisters?

Crime fiction is the single most popular genre in international publishing, and Australia has some of the finest practitioners when it comes to walking the mean streets and nailing the bad guys. Australia's best crime writers - Michael Robotham, Kerry Greenwood, Shane Maloney, Peter Corris, Tara Moss and more - share the secrets to their success, their best-ever writing tips and their favourite 'must reads'. An ideal guide for aspiring writers and crime fiction fans alike.

An insurance investigation sounds pretty harmless, even if it is for 'Unusual Happenstance'. That's not usually a clause Normals use—it covers all-purpose hauntings, angry genii loci, ectoplasmic home invasion, demonic possession, that sort of thing—but Susan Beckett's claimed three times in three months. Her house keeps getting inundated with mud, but she's still insisting she doesn't need or want help... until the dry-land drownings begin.

It’s a dream come true for Frances Palmer: a voyage from Australia to England on the Empress of the Sea, together with her fiancé, Jack Sullivan, and her uncle Sal, a.k.a. ‘Salvatore the Magnificent’. They’ve been hired to entertain the passengers with magic tricks and daring stunts. But all is not well below deck, with jealousy and larceny ruffling the cheerful atmosphere. Frances and Jack soon find themselves in stormy seas, together with newfound allies.

Kree Garrett's younger brother Seth is all the family she has left, so when he goes missing while working in the Australian outback, she races from America to join in the search. To everyone's relief, Seth is rescued just in time by local volunteers and Kree finds, in an abandoned historic Cobb & Co coach house, the opportunity to thank the community she's fallen in love with. But it isn't only the town she's fallen for.... 

Paige and Nick are happy. They have a beautiful home, a loving family, and most importantly, they would do anything for each other. Now, they are having a baby, and it feels like all their dreams are coming true. But joy turns to despair when they discover that Paige has a rare, life-threatening heart condition and they lose their longed-for child. Heartbroken, the couple must accept the reality that they may not become parents after all. Just as they begin to come to terms with their loss, Paige unexpectedly falls pregnant again. 

Verity Fassbinder thought no boss could be worse than her perfectionist ex-boyfriend - until she agreed to work for a fallen angel. The angel is a jealous - and violent - employer, so she's quit working for the Weyrd Council and sent her family away. The angel has tasked Verity with finding two lost treasures. That would be hard even without a vengeful Dusana Nadasy on her heels. And Inspector McIntyre won't stop calling: the bodies of Normal women who disappeared decades ago are turning up, apparently subjected to Weyrd magics.

Tinsel Munroe has busted her guts to get where she is. Yet her dream of working in radio hasn’t turned out to be everything she hoped it would. Sure, she has her own show—aptly titled The Graveyard Shift—where she celebrates the sounds of cult-cinema, but the wage is barely enough to cover her rent and the midnight hours are putting a strain on her relationship with her boyfriend. Even after three years at Melbourne’s coolest station, she’s seemingly no closer to a prime-time slot.

When Olivia Molly Rogers was crowned Miss Universe Australia, she knew exactly what she wanted to shine a light on: her struggles with disordered eating and anxiety. While many of her Instagram followers are eager for her fashion, art and insanely cute dog content, the heart of Olivia's audience is there for her refreshingly honest voice on body positivity and mental health.

Spilling Secrets: Planet Catlabrator is awash with water and the catralabs are drowning. When Space Agent Star Girl is sent to investigate with SA Asteroid she learns that some mission buddies are more trouble than they're worth. Can she work with Asteroid to save the planet and its alien catralabs?

Sydney journalist Chloe Brown is left devastated when her long-term boyfriend finally admits he never wants children. Impulsively, she takes a job on a small country newspaper in Queensland's far north to escape disappointment. But she soon realises that no place is free from trouble or heartache. The grouchy news editor, Finn Latimer, is a former foreign correspondent who has retreated after a family tragedy. Emily, the paper's elegant, 60-something owner, is battling with her husband's desertion. Meanwhile, the whole town is worried when their popular young baker disappears. 

In 1841, Australia's first children's book was published, the anonymous writer known only as 'a lady long resident in New South Wales'. The identity of the author was one of the most puzzling literary mysteries until 1981, when she was finally given a name: Charlotte Waring Atkinson. Today, her great-great-great-great-granddaughters Kate Forsyth and Belinda Murrell are also celebrated authors. They grew up on stories about Charlotte's life of love, grief and violence - and her struggle to assert an independent spirit.

1931. Frances Palmer is overjoyed when her brother, Rob, returns to Adelaide as a racecourse veterinarian. But all is not well on the turf, and when a man is murdered, there's only one suspect - Rob. Frances and her boyfriend, charming night-club owner Jack Sullivan, along with ex-vaudevillian Uncle Sal and their friends, have only one chance to unmask the real murderer by infiltrating the racecourse. The odds are against them...luckily, putting on a dazzling show where everything depends on sleight of hand is what they do best. But nothing is a dead cert against a cold-blooded killer.

Space Captains Star Girl, Supernova 1, Comet XS, Asteroid, Galactic 6, Star Cluster and others are sent on action-packed rescue missions in this thrilling collection: Dark Secrets, Sticky Tricks, Good vs Evil and Make or Break.

This collection includes New Girl, Odd One Out, Winning Moves, Three's a Crowd, Beach Wipe Out, Toxic Talk, Shut Down and Double Cross, starring Star Girl and her space cadet friends.

2019: Bethany Kristensen faces her toughest challenge to date, skippering the family charter business. With rivals doing their utmost to undercut her prices and reputation, the Kristensens' operation hangs by a thread. Winning the tender for a new scientific research program headed out to the farthest edge of the reef is her last chance to keep the business going. But when rumour and vandalism turn to outright sabotage, things take a drastic turn...

Sometimes you have to fall apart so that you can start again... After five years stuck in the wrong marriage, 33-year-old Emma is finally free. Her husband has moved out, her son Freddie is making friends, and her parents are finally trying to stop micro-managing her life. On a celebratory night out with her three best friends, Emma meets Finn. Young, dimpled and irresistibly Scottish Finn. Between landing her dream job, stolen moments with Finn, and precious time with Freddie, Emma is happier than she has ever been. Then one accident changes everything and Emma's life.