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Let’s make a list of what we’re going to be reading in May 2025!
Our TBR for May is packed with Aussie and International crime fiction, supernatural intrigue, cosy romance and classic Sherlockian goodness!
‘Treasure & Dirt’ by Chris Hammer
You don’t need to ‘sign up’ or have ‘special elite access’ to join the Fishbird Central Book Club. Just read along with our chosen book for the month, and let us know how you like it!
Join us over at the Fishbird Central Substack and let us know your thoughts on our Book Club pick or anything you’re reading in May 2025. We’d love to chat with you in the newsletter comments!
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We encourage you to always source books from your local independent bookshop. However, we understand this is sometimes not practical based on location or budget.
Therefore, this post contains Amazon affiliate links. This means, if you click on the link and purchase the book from that link, I get a few dollars at no extra cost to you! This way we can both restock our TBR stack! 😀
Happy Reading, Friends!
Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'Treasure & Dirt' Back Blurb:
In the desolate outback town of Finnigans Gap, police struggle to maintain law and order. Thieves pillage opal mines, religious fanatics recruit vulnerable young people and billionaires do as they please. Then an opal miner is found crucified and left to rot down his mine. Nothing about the miner’s death is straightforward, not even who found the body. Sydney homicide detective Ivan Lucic is sent to investigate, assisted by inexperienced young investigator Nell Buchanan. But Finnigans Gap has already ended one police career and damaged others, and soon both officers face damning allegations and internal investigations. Have Ivan and Nell been set up and, if so, by whom? As time runs out, their only chance at redemption is to find the killer. But the more secrets they uncover, the more harrowing the mystery becomes, as events from years ago take on a startling new significance. For in Finnigans Gap, opals, bodies and secrets don’t stay buried forever.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the ‘Ghosts of Gotham‘ series.
'Ghosts of Gotham' Back Blurb:
Irresistibly drawn to mysteries, if only to debunk them, reporter Lionel Page exposes supernatural frauds, swindlers, and charlatans. His latest case is an obsession―at least for an ancient and wealthy heiress: verify the authenticity of a lost Edgar Allan Poe manuscript circulating through New York City’s literary underworld. But the shrewd Regina Dunkle offers more than money. It’s a pact. Fulfill her request, and Lionel’s own notorious buried past, one he’s been running from since he was a child, will remain hidden. As Lionel’s quest begins, so do the warnings. And where rare books go, murder follows. It’s only when Lionel meets enigmatic stranger Madison Hannah, his personal usher into the city’s secret history, that he realizes he’s being guided by a force more powerful than logic…and that he isn’t just following a story. He is the story. Now that the true purpose of his mission is revealing itself in the most terrifying ways, it may finally be time for Lionel to believe in the unbelievable.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'Still' Back Blurb:
Darwin, Summer, 1963. The humidity sat heavy and thick over the town as Senior Constable Ned Potter looked down at a body that had been dragged from the shallow marshland. He didn’t need a coroner to tell him this was a bad death. He didn’t know then that this was only the first. Or that he was about to risk everything looking for answers. Late one night, Charlotte Clark drove the long way home, thinking about how stuck she felt, a 23-year-old housewife, married to a cowboy who wasn’t who she thought he was. The days ahead felt suffocating, living in a town where she was supposed to keep herself nice and wait for her husband to get home from the pub. Charlotte stopped the car, stepped out to breathe in the night air and looked out over the water to the tangled mangroves. She never heard a sound before the hand was around her mouth. Both Charlotte and Ned are about to learn that the world they live in is full of secrets and that it takes courage to fight for what is right. But there are people who will do anything to protect themselves and sometimes courage is not enough to keep you safe.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the ‘Detective Konrad‘ series.
'The Darkness Knows' Back Blurb:
A frozen body is discovered in the icy depths of Langjökull glacier. The victim: a businessman missing for thirty years. The case: impossible to solve. Until now. Konrád, the retired policeman who originally investigated the disappearance, is called back to reopen the case that has weighed on his mind for decades. Then a woman approaches him with new information that she obtained from her deceased brother. Will this be enough to solve the mystery at last? Can Konrád uncover the poisonous secrets and cruel truths that have built up over the decades?
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the ‘Dream Harbor’ series.
'The Pumpkin Spice Cafe' Back Blurb:
When Jeanie’s aunt gifts her the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the small town of Dream Harbor, Jeanie jumps at the chance for a fresh start away from her very dull desk job. Logan is a local farmer who avoids Dream Harbor’s gossip at all costs. But Jeanie’s arrival disrupts Logan’s routine and he wants nothing to do with the irritatingly upbeat new girl, except that he finds himself inexplicably drawn to her. Will Jeanie’s happy-go-lucky attitude win over the grumpy-but-gorgeous Logan, or has this city girl found the one person in town who won’t fall for her charm, or her pumpkin spice lattes.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'The Island' Back Blurb:
After moving from a small country town to Seattle, Heather Baxter marries Tom, a widowed doctor with a young son and teenage daughter. A working vacation overseas seems like the perfect way to bring the new family together, but once they’re deep in the Australian outback, the jet-lagged and exhausted kids are so over their new mom. When they discover remote Dutch Island, off-limits to outside visitors, the family talks their way onto the ferry, taking a chance on an adventure far from the reach of iPhones and Instagram. But as soon as they set foot on the island, which is run by a tightly knit clan of locals, everything feels wrong. Then a shocking accident propels the Baxters from an unsettling situation into an absolute nightmare. When Heather and the kids are separated from Tom, they are forced to escape alone, seconds ahead of their pursuers. Now it’s up to Heather to save herself and the kids, even though they don’t trust her, the harsh bushland is filled with danger, and the locals want her dead. Heather has been underestimated her entire life, but she knows that only she can bring her family home again and become the mother the children desperately need, even if it means doing the unthinkable to keep them all alive.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a standalone novel.
'The Murder Rule' Back Blurb:
First Rule: Make them like you. Second Rule: Make them need you. Third Rule: Make them pay. They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system. They think I’m working hard to impress them. They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row. They’re wrong. I’m going to bury him.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is Book One in the ‘Wyatt‘ series.
'Kickback' Back Blurb:
Wyatt plans to hit a suburban law firm for the settlement money in its safe. But he’s working with cowboys, and the lawyer planning to rip off her boss is a little too mysterious for his comfort. Wyatt’s as good as they come, but everything needs to go like clockwork—and you can’t always plan around human frailty. This is the perfect introduction to an exquisite series: hard-boiled Melbourne in the time of video rentals and answering machines, paper money, Datsuns and Customlines. It’s as sinewy and efficient as Wyatt himself, superbly crafted and relentlessly tense. And it gets even better from here.
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Series or Standalone?:
This is a Sherlock Holmes novel.
'Hound of the Baskervilles' Back Blurb:
The story revolves around the legendary detective, Sherlock Holmes, and his loyal companion, Dr. John Watson. They are entrusted with the task of investigating the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville, believed to be the victim of a family curse that involves a demonic hound. As Holmes and Watson delve deeper into the mystery, they must employ their wit and courage to unravel this complex web of secrets and deceit. Will they be able to solve the mystery before the hound claims another Baskerville? The answer lies within these pages.
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