Kirjahaku

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MUD LITERARY PRIZE 2023'beautiful and lyrical' The ConversationCynthia was just about to turn sixteen when the unthinkable happened. Her mother was taken away by the police, and her father left without a word three months later. After that night, Cynthia began to walk in slow circles outside the family home looking for traces of her sister Mallory - she's sure that she must be somewhere else now, wherever that is.Cynthia knows that she doesn't belong here. Her mother never belonged here either. This is the place of violence. Despair. The long dry. Blood caked under the nails. Desperate men. Long silences. The place where mothers go mad in locked bedrooms, where women like Cynthia imagine better futures. As a threatening wind begins to dry-whirl around her, seldom seen black clouds form above, roll over the golden-brown land - is that Mallory she can hear in the growling mass? In the harsh drought-stricken landscape of outback Queensland a woman can be lost in so many ways. The question is, will Cynthia be one of them?Defiant, ferocious and unyielding - The Furies is a debut novel by Mandy Beaumont that explores the isolation felt by so many women, and how powerful we can be when we join together. It puts her firmly on the literary map, blazing forth from the terrain of Charlotte Wood, Margaret Atwood and Carmen Maria Machado, with a unique and breathtaking power. 'Expect this debut novel to collect a swag of awards' Courier Mail'a rallying cry . . . vivid, visceral, ferocious' Carmel Bird, The Age'stays with you . . . Beaumont's prose shines' The Saturday Paper'The Furies is unapologetically feminist in its preoccupations' The Conversation'Mandy Beaumont . . . firmly places herself in the same league as Australian contemporaries such as Charlotte Wood, Sophie Laguna and Hannah Kent. As beautiful as it is gut-wrenching, this is a debut that pulls no punches' Newcastle Herald

That afternoon, when the police and then my mother finally arrived, they found me sitting beside Marlowe holding her hand and talking to her: about a boy I had a crush on, about the buttery yellow jumpsuit I had seen in a shop window that would look perfect on her; about those two cups of half-drunk coffee sitting on the table. Who was with you, Marlowe? In March of 1989, Emmerson Kerr is alone. One morning listening to her Walkman, a newsreader's words stop her dead. 'A warning to our listeners that this story is graphic in nature. The body of an 84-year-old woman has been found in the foyer of her apartment building on Sydney's lower North Shore ... ' Emmerson stood, held in place like an anchor, like a nail in wood, like the breath of a frightened woman alone in her home. She listened to the details and remembered back to that day, twelve years before, in her grandmother's Paddington studio. The 1977 murder of Marlowe Kerr - Sydney's art darling and socialite, a woman known for her lavish parties and her world-famous designs, but known to Emmerson as her colourful, loving grandmother - never solved. And now, years later, a terrifying string of crimes against older women will begin, will force ageing female residents to lock themselves inside their homes. They will be in a state of constant fear. And, as the killer's reign of terror escalates, and Emmerson starts to unearth her beloved grandmother's shady past, she becomes increasingly convinced that the same person who killed Marlowe is also responsible for the depravity that is now unfolding in the city she has always called home. Could Emmerson be the link to solving Marlowe's murder and help catch the killer before they kill again? Taut, chilling and unforgettable, The Thrill of It explores the mind of a killer and the power of a granddaughter's love. A masterful and explosive crime novel by Stella Prize longlisted and critically acclaimed author Mandy Beaumont. 'An emotional tornado of a book. Be warned: it will suck you in and spit you out a changed person' THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLY 'A fast-paced and entertaining read. Fans of Laura Elizabeth Woollett's Beautiful Revolutionary and Australian crime authors such as Garry Disher and Tom Baragwanath will appreciate this novel' BOOKS+PUBLISHING 'Superbly understated . . . Beaumont exhibits a deep understanding of the mind, motivations and behaviour of this human who has let himself become a monster' ARTSHUB