A man is serving a life sentence for a murder he did not commit. Private investigator Paige Holden witnesses the execution of the man’s fiancé, the woman having handed the investigator evidence that proves his innocence. In No One Left to Tell (Karen Rose, Hachette), first on the highest new entries chart, PI Holden embarks on a mission to avenge the murdered woman and to set the innocent man free. Private Games (James Patterson, Century) is top of the bestsellers chart and in second place on the fastest movers chart, while Cabin Fever: Diary of a Wimpy Kid (Jeff Kinney, Puffin), down a spot from last week, is in second place on the bestsellers chart. Believing the Lie (Elizabeth George, Hachette) is third on the bestsellers chart and, for the second week in a row, first on the fastest movers chart–Weekly Book Newsletter.
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Published five years ago, Carrie Tiffany’s Everyman’s Rules for Scientific Living was a remarkably assured debut novel, recognised as such by the Miles Franklin and Orange Prize judges. She has brought the same clear-eyed intelligence about human relations and seamless narrative style to her second novel, Mateship with Birds. We are in familiar territory, in rural Victoria, this time post WWII rather than WWI. Harry is a divorced dairy farmer, living alone. His next-door neighbour, Betty, is a single mother of two who works at the town’s nursing home. We follow the vicissitudes of Harry and Betty’s daily and seasonal lives through their interactions, and those of Betty’s children, as well as through a window into the inner lives of both. The ‘mateship’ of the title, captured through the birdwatching episodes which feature throughout, is also a deceptive device, as Harry watches (and lusts after) Betty. At the same time, he earnestly attempts to give her son the s-x education he is so aware he himself lacked. This is a splendidly poised and wryly funny novel: human nature and relationships are as beautifully observed as the rich, circadian rhythms (I’ve not read better prose about the intimate intricacy of dairy farming) of country life. It is clever, original and richly rewarding.
Seventeen-year-old Dodie Farnshaw just wanted to finish high school, sit her Year 12 exams and get on with the rest of her life. Delivering a very important dead guy to Sydney just two weeks before her final exams was not in the plan. Neither was her parents going missing, becoming a fugitive and falling in love. And she certainly wasn’t anticipating a road trip that would change her life. Funny, vibrant and at times incredibly moving, The Reluctant Hallelujah is a beautiful novel about finding faith in the strangest of places. With a quirky cast of characters, this novel captures a wide range of relationships and skilfully explores that time in a teenager’s life when everything is changing. Sharp, clever and surprisingly amusing for a book about a dead man, Gabrielle William’s latest YA adventure is a bittersweet story filled with characters you’ll never want to leave behind, and a road trip you’ll wish was your own. This book will appeal to a 15-plus age group, and is a must-read for fans of William’s widely acclaimed first YA novel, Beatle Meets Destiny.
Peter Carey’s latest novel
The nephew of Bernard Fairclough, a wealthy and influential business magnate, has died and Inspector Thomas Lynley is sent in undercover to investigate. The official cause of death is ruled as an accidental drowning but when Lynley and his friends start digging, it becomes clear that the Fairclough clan is awash in secrets, lies, and possible motives for murder. 
In Melbourne, author Eleanor Catton and I appeared in a session called ‘New New Zealand Fiction’. If the session’s blurb in the program is anything to go by, the festival organisers envisioned us talking about our own work and its relationship to broader national themes. I don’t think they expected us to be grilled by the chair, expatriate Kiwi Sue Green, about why most New Zealand books ‘just aren’t any good’ (I did my best to disabuse her of this notion) and why Australians don’t read New Zealand writers and vice versa.
Jane Sullivan spoke about literary sexism in several forums during the week and her book 
Melbourne writer, blogger and bookseller A S Patrić tells David Cohen about his short-story collection The Rattler and Other Stories (Spineless Wonders). (See David Cohen’s review 
