She wanted everything, but was sure to be denied. She would kill to get her way, and she did.

While Ella plots against Hartley, in Australia,  for future control of the business, he finds himself involved in bringing down a pedophile ring in London.

PUBLISH AND DIE

Who killed poor Melvin? It seemed an open-and-shut case but detective Dirk Morecombe was not so sure. Dumped from the case, he continued to investigate the murder and discovered a confusing array of motives among the group of suspects that developed as international intrigue and shady dealings became evident.

Who Killed Melvin Spark

MINSTRELS!

Can a drunk ex-advertising guru help a struggling country singer from deep in the Northern Territory all the way to the stage at the Tamworth Country Music Festival?

The law tracks down the criminal and charges are laid. The courts place those found guilty in prison. In time, the criminal convinces a board that he, or she, is reformed and ready for release. Often, this is not the case. Some ex-cops decide to watch known repeat offenders and take justice to its full extent if they re-offend.

A novella in the Shortz!Series

VIGILANTe

Ernie Scrimshaw was a transported convict and arrived in Australia in the early days of settlement. He was severely treated and, finally, escaped to find a valley where he settled down. In time, after several trips back to Sydney, he established a small herd and a young family..

They crossed the mountain ranges to the huge pastoral expanse of central New South Wales.

They encountered a gang of cattle thieves, range wars, acts of revenge and restitution as they struggled to build a life in the outback.

This is a tale of the early days of the cattle industry in a wild new land.

CATTLE KINGS

A novelette in the Shortz!Series of stories in the Settlement of Australia Series.

Fascination with the mountain ranges leads to a life of travelling the country dedicated to the search for precious and otherwise valuable deposits of rich ore.

Tragedy strikes the family to tear their world apart. Ongoing restlessness of the wanderer takes the family far into the outback of this far-flung country, from the paradise of the Blue Mountains to the desolation of the barren interior of the western hinterland.

MEN of IRON

When the ships arrived at Sydney in the early days of settlement of Australia, they brought convicts, the military and free settlers. A combination of these groups were to form the beginning of a huge pastoral industry.

These groups would become involved in thefts, illegal use of land, plotting and planning but, above all, would found the wool industry on the back of the merino, covertly and cleverly acquired despite the efforts of Spain to protect their breed.

WOOL DYNASTY

Press Baron

A new colony needs news and the press will be a major purveyor of recent activities and actions affecting the population. One paper leads to another and competition can become bitter, leading to extreme measures in striving to be number one in the founding settlement of Sydney, Australia.

A novella in the 'Settlement of Australia' series.

She-Venger

Marta lost her family - then lost her best friend, murdered in cold blood. She knew the killer and the way it was done. She took her revenge, then waited for the law. The law was Dirk Morecombe.

Matter of Guilt

A lawyer takes on the task of defending a man who is plainly guilty of the murder charge.The boss of the defendant's gang appears during the trial process to taunt and haunt him as he works to limit the damage to his client and, at the same time, plots revenge for crimes and sufferings of the past. He finds himself caught in the conflicts of the past while he deals with the urgencies of the present. The lawyer wonders: Could I be capable of murder?

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Can a young man get to know his deceased grandfather by following a trail of letters from a lonely soul in search of the life he lost and can never regain?

Follow the trail through the mining towns of outback Australia. 

First, follow Daniel Hart from war to down-and-out  to wealth to ruin.

Then follow Jake on his voyage of discovery - all the way to the end of the line.

End of the Line

TONG!

A tong is Cantonese for a guild and includes secret societies and cartels. This is a story of a few weeks in Hong Kong when it is riven by hatred, murder, drug dealings and illegal share trades whilst surrounded by the lure and excitement of events at the Happy Valley racecourse and the glitter and opportunity of the city itself. It is the world of the underdogs and eventual winners and losers in a city where winning is everything.

Shortz!Series - A novella in the Settlement of Australia Series.

A life in the 1900's in the growing country of Australia. Feel the joys of the good times and the heartache of loss; the pleasures of peace and the horrors of war; the bounties of good seasons and the devastation of drought.

Looking Back

Nuggets

Be a part of the Gold Rushes to California and Australia in the 1850's. Join convicts as they are transported from England to a hostile, distant land. Tramp across outback Australia with a swag on your shoulder. Share a drink with a great and famous colonial author and poet or an overnight camp with a notorious murderer. Go to war against the Boer in South Africa. Fight horrendous bush fires and sail the oceans in search of the lustrous pearl.

Share some of the history in a series of stories where fiction is woven into the reality of a fledgling nation, Australia.

Every life has a value.

Experience the early, exciting days at the Kimberley diamond mines in southern Africa with the famous Barney Barnato, one of the 'Kings of the Kimberley'. Live through the terror of the wars in Angola and Sierra Leone when blood diamonds were used to pay the price of human tragedy resulting from raging ambition. Follow a diamond heist in London through Monte Carlo to Antwerp.

DIAMONDS

Relive the horror of the vicious dolphin hunts of Taijii, Japan, of the hard lives that resulted in young men being sent to Broome, in north-western Australia to a life, and often a terrible death, as divers on the luggers, plying the seas in search of pearl. Join a chase through outback Australia in pursuit of a valuable package. Meet a master jeweller and his wealthy clients at a Paris auction of a brilliant  pearl.

PEARLS