Item category 1: Historical Fiction

In 1892, the grisly murders of Whitechapel prostitutes by a killer dubbed Jack the Ripper remain a terrifying enigma. And in a packed Old Bailey courtroom, Superintendent Thomas Pitt's testimony causes distinguished soldier John Adinett to be sentenced to hang for the inexplicable murder of a fri...

Poppy is on the road again, desperately trying to catch up with her brother. When she meets a mysterious Chinese boy, she thinks she might finally be getting closer to finding Gus and solving the mystery of the Chinese letter with the very special dragon seal. In Wahgunyah, she makes contact with...

The Federation celebrations are fast approaching but Rose hardly has time to get excited - so many other marvellous things are happening in her world, including her first real cricket match! But then she has a nasty accident, her best friend disappears and Aunt Alice is thrown in gaol. Can Rose s...

Rose's journey continues in this, the second of four books about a Federation girl who's determined to do things her way. Rose's Mother and Aunt Alice are fighting again, and Rose is caught in the middle. So when it looks as if Aunt Alice might leave, it's up to Rose to fix things! Will Rose ever...

Rose is finally allowed to go to school! But Rose has never been to school before - will she be able to keep up? Will she fit in? And will she be allowed to join the cricket team? In the meantime, change is afoot in Melbourne: Federation is imminent, and the suffragette movement is gathering forc...

It's 1918, and it feels to Alice as if the war has been dragging on forever. It's four years since Alice's father went away to be a doctor for the army and when Papa Sir stops writing home, his family sense that something is wrong, and for the first time they contemplate the fact that he might no...

It's 1849 and Nellie O'Neill is arriving in South Australia on a ship bringing orphan girls from Irish workhouses. Nellie and her best friend, Mary, have left the famine in Ireland far behind, and are full of hopes and dreams for the future. Nellie longs to learn to read, to be part of a family o...

The Olympics are over, and everyone is feeling flat - including Lina. As she reads the newspaper every night with her father, Lina finds out that some of the Hungarian athletes have stayed behind and are hiding in Melbourne so they don't have to face the fighting in their homeland. Lina begins to...

It's 1956 and the Melbourne Olympic Games have finally arrived! The whole city is buzzing with excitement and Lina can't wait to go along as a reporter for the school magazine. Now is her chance to prove to everyone that she's a real writer, and nothing could be more important until Lina makes a ...

It's 1956 and Lina has won a scholarship to a wonderful girls' school. As hard as she tries, fitting into St Brigid's isn't easy - especially when she's the only Italian and the only student from a poor family.

It's 1941 and the war is changing Pearlie's life every day. Darwin is full of soldiers, there's a spy on the loose, and people are turning against Pearlie's best friend, Naoko, just because she's Japanese.

It's 1941 and school is almost over not just for summer, but forever. Darwin could be bombed any day, and everyone Pearlie knows is leaving for a safer place. Animals and pets of all kind are being left behind, and Pearlie can't bear it. But can she rescue them all? And what will happen when it's...

The boy was murdered in Auschwitz. The killer isn't a Nazi. Poland, 1944: Adam Lapid used to be a police detective. Now he's a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz. Reduced to a slave after losing his family in the gas chambers, Adam struggles to find a reason to carry on living. But when a boy is found ...

In World War II England, orphaned siblings William, Edmund, and Anna are evacuated from London to live in the countryside, where they bounce from home to home in search of someone willing to adopt them permanently.

In September 1883, the South Australian town of Fairly huddles under strange, vivid sunsets and enormous dust storms. One of its own has gone missing - six-year-old Denny Wallace - and the whole town is intent on finding him.

It's 1808... and Grace's world is about to change - from her tough life as a mudlark on the River Thames in London, to the adventures and challenges she faces as a servant girl in a new country. Journey with Grace across all four exciting stories about a convict girl who's given a second chance.

All her life, Zofia has found comfort in two things during times of hardship – books and her best friend, Janina. But no one could have imagined the horrors of the Nazi occupation in Warsaw. As the bombs rain down and Hitler’s forces loot and destroy the city, Zofia finds that now books are also ...

An incredible story of one woman's courage and determination to reunite her family in the aftermath of surviving Auschwitz. 1945, Ester Pasternak walked out of the gates of Auschwitz barely alive. She survived against devastating odds, but her heartbreaking journey is only just beginning. In the ...

1814: Ashore on leave, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd learns of a dismal harvest and general hardship among the population. In Germany, Napoleon Bonaparte is celebrating victories that once again make his name feared throughout Europe. An armistice is signed and while the Allies lick their wounds Bonapa...

21 June, 1815. London may be cheering the news of Napoleon's surrender at Waterloo, but Lady Petra Forsyth has little to celebrate after discovering that the death of her viscount fiancé three years earlier was no accident. Instead, it was murder, and the man responsible is her handsome, half-Sco...

England 1940: Paris has fallen to the Third Reich. Farmer John Cook and society heiress Lady Margaret are waiting for the day when German tanks roll across the green fields of their homes. Both are ready for the moment they will disappear into the woods and the fields to carry out their top-secre...

Everything in the Kingdom of Arrow is a lie. Leith of Grey has nothing left, except his dying sister and his battle-scarred human body, fuelled by rage and hardened by years of fighting. So when the chance comes to fight as a gladiator in a vicious, bloodthirsty tournament, he seizes it with both...

1942: As the Vichy government hunts for Jews across France, Claudette Pelletier, a young and talented seamstress and lover of romance novels, falls in love with a Jewish man who seeks shelter at the château where she works. Their whirlwind and desperate romance before he must flee leaves her preg...

Tyrannical communist rule based on state terror begins as the repressive regime launches a campaign of international espionage. Working against all odds, British lieutenant Ben Fletcher goes undercover to level the score and to gain vital nuclear intelligence for the West. Pursuing the same goal,...

1942, Warsaw: Young Zofia finds herself leading a double life when she is enlisted to help the fearless Irena Sendler save hundreds of Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto. Every night, Zofia risks her life to shepherd the children to safety. But when the worst happens, she is forced to make he...

In the distant highlands, a puma named Dusk is killing shepherds. Down in the lowlands, twins Iris and Floyd are out of work, money and friends. When they hear that a bounty has been placed on Dusk, they reluctantly decide to join the hunt. As they journey up into this wild, haunted country, they...

When orphaned Jake Harding is sent away from his adoptive home aged just seven, he does not understand why... Forced to make his own way in the world, Jake falls in with a gang of petty thieves, who make their living lifting valuables from those who are better off. At 16, he crosses paths with th...

Venice, 1486. Across the lagoon lies Murano. Time flows differently here - like the glass the island's maestros spend their lives learning to control. Women are not meant to work with glass, but Orsola Rosso flouts convention to save her family from ruin. She works in secret, knowing her creation...

Elektra, and Atalanta, a propulsive, empowering retelling of Hera, reclaiming her as a feminist hero Even the gods must have their queen. When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother Zeus overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at his side. But as they establish their reign on M...

The Battle of Evesham has been fought and lost. The King is triumphant, Simon de Montfort is dead, and Adam de Norton is a prisoner, stripped of everything he once honoured and prized. Escaping from captivity in the grim castle of Beeston, Adam becomes a fugitive in a country in turmoil. Branded ...