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Best new fiction: quick links
Best new fiction
Seed, Bri Lee – 30 September
Biologist Mitchell is committed to the environment and the growing global antinatalist movement. For one month each year he lives with his colleague Frances in a utopia of radical equality and scientific dedication in Antarctica. They are concluding the Anarctos Project: a seed vault in an isolated, secret location. It is a biodiversity insurance policy against humanity’s devastating effects on the rapidly warming planet.
A Great Act of Love, Heather Rose – 30 September
Van Diemen’s Land, 1839. A young woman of means arrives in Hobart, with a young boy in her care. Leasing an old cottage next to an abandoned vineyard, Caroline Douglas must navigate an insular colony of exiles and opportunists to create a new life on this island of extreme seasons and wild beauty.
The Road Trip, Tricia Stringer – 30 September
Two caravans, four adults and a journey through Australia’s heart – the trip of a lifetime, right? Wrong. A wise take on the joys of travel with those you might dislike the most but love the best.
Twisted River, James Dunbar – 30 September
When charity worker Cate and website designer Rory return from their European holiday, they make a nightmare discovery.Their credit cards have been cancelled, their bank account has been emptied, and their phones and internet have been cut off. Their home in the New South Wales coastal town of Kiama has been rented out as a holiday let, and their dog and pet-sitter have disappeared.
The Worse Thing I’ve ever done, Clare Stephens – 30 September
It’s an ordinary Tuesday morning when Ruby Williams’ name starts trending online. She’s uploaded an interview that has outraged journalist Felicity Cartwright, a social media personality who has built her profile by policing exactly what women are allowed to say and how they’re allowed to say it. Ruby is at the centre of a brutal public shaming, watching on in horror as her reputation is torn apart.
The Soldier’s Daughter, Fiona McIntosh – 30 September
Violet Nash has grown up in the shadows of her father Charlie’s shattered dreams. It’s been years since he walked away from the battlefields of France, a WWI hero but his heart in tatters, only to see it broken all over again in the worst way possible. In search of a new beginning, they set sail for Tasmania, Australia to fulfill his dream of setting up a whisky distillery.
One story, Pip Finkemeyer – 30 September
In the chaos of 2010s Silicon Valley, a tech company’s meteoric rise culminates in a devastating fall. Dot Van Jensen, the trailblazing CEO-turned-fugitive, narrates her story from a hidden corner of Indonesia. A scandal has painted her as the villain who fractured democracy and paved the way for a darker future. But is the truth as cut and dry as the headlines seem to imply?
Best Australian Ghost Stories, Graham Seal – 30 September
Have you ever seen, heard or felt something that cannot be rationally explained? Australia is troubled by the departed spirits of convicts, bushrangers, drovers, nurses and miners. People have seen spectres in pubs, theatres, lighthouses, asylums, and by lonely waterholes.
Everyone in this bank is a thief, Benjamin Stevenson – 30 September
What if an Agatha Christie style murder mystery happened inside Ocean’s Eleven? …Ten suspects. Ten heists. A puzzle only Ernest Cunningham can solve.
Mad Mabel, Sally Hepworth – 30 September
In 1959, at just 15 years of age, Mabel Waller became the youngest Australian in history to be convicted of murder. In 2025, on a quiet Melbourne lane, an elderly man is found dead by his neighbour, 81-year-old Elsie Fitzpatrick. No one suspects any foul play. Until they discover Elsie’s past. In the 1950s, her name was not Elsie. It was Mabel.
Legacy, Chris Hammer – 30 September
Martin Scarsden flees an assassination attempt but lands in even more trouble with a deadly family feud leaving him at death’s door in Chris Hammer’s next crime novel. Fleeing for his life, he learns that nowhere is safe, not even the outback. The killers are closing in, and it’s all he can do to survive.
In the Name of the Trees, Merlinda Bobis – 1 October
In a Philippine ritual of retrieval, Lola Narra tries to heal her granddaughter Dao who was paralysed in an accident that killed her father. They live in Canberra, far from the healing trees of their first home in the village of Iláwod where the story began. But between the Philippines and Australia, the land knows, the trees know: wound on wound on wound
Left Behind, Martine Kropkowski – 1 October
Two couples – Annabelle and Luke, Des and Julianni – embark on a camping trip to K’gari, a picturesque island off Queensland’s coast. Things have been tough lately, but this holiday is just what they need – white sands, clear waters, a chance to decompress and reconnect. But there is an unnerving electricity in the air and Annabelle starts noticing strange occurrences.
The One Remaining, Paula McLean – 1 October
Hilary Mason is 13 when her sister Elaine disappears. She fears someone close to the family is involved but represses her suspicions. As an adult, Hilary becomes a successful novelist. In her 50s, she comes upon a stack of her old diaries, which document the trauma she’s endured. She decides she is ready to face the hidden backstory of her life.
The Maskeys, Stuart Everly Wilson – 1 October
Locals see George Maskey as a hollow braggard who is at least partly responsible for the crime and drug related death Naples has seen over the years. His wife blames him for the death of their teenage twins. His gay stepson regards him as a racist homophobe. And Serenade Theadora – the town’s famed mystic – sees him in equal parts as good and bad. But George, the family patriarch, is not the star of this story.
The Warrumbar, William J Byrne – 14 October
On the day man first walks on the moon13-year-old Robbie Brennan meets Moses, an old man camped by the side of the road. Over the following months, Robbie is drawn to Moses’ stories – tales of hardship, war, and redemption – unearthing a past entwined with his own.
Do we deserve this? Eleanor Elliott Thomas – 14 October
Bean Halloway, lone nobody in a family of ambitious somebodies, is still figuring out what she wants from her life. She always says she doesn’t care about money – but will that still be the case when she finds herself in possession of a lottery ticket worth millions?
The Detective, Matthew Reilly – 21 October
For 150 years, women have been going missing. And all of the investigators who went in search of them – from 1877 to the present day – have disappeared, too. Now Sam Speedman, a most unique private detective, is on the case. Brilliant, direct and disarming, Sam is … different. He’s not your average private detective. But then again, this isn’t your average case.
The Lucky Sisters, Rachael Johns – 21 October
Adopted twins Nora and Stevie Lucky have always been close, despite being total opposites.
When their mother dies, Nora convinces Stevie to search for their biological parents, only to come face-to-face with a life-changing revelation that sends them spiralling in opposite directions.
With their careers, love lives and even their sisterly bond at risk, they’re going to need more than luck to survive.
The Long Night, Christian White – 28 October
Em has lived a quiet life and is now looking for love and a potential escape from her small hometown. When a masked man kidnaps her in the dark of night, though, she is drawn into a terrifying world.
The Hiding Place, Kate Mildenhall – 28 October
When Lou sees an ad for a long-abandoned mining town up for sale, it doesn’t take her long to convince her sister and their oldest friends to go in on the idyllic property buried in the bush – a place where the four families can hide away on weekends, get back to nature and unstick the kids from their screens. But things start to go wrong before they even arrive for their first camping trip …
Last One Out, Jane Harper – 28 October
In a dying town, Ro Crowley waits for her son on the evening of his 21st birthday. But Sam never comes home. His footprints in the dust of three abandoned houses offer the only clue to his final movements. One set in. One set out.
Read: Best new fiction books September 2025
A Disappearing Act, Jo Dixon – 28 October
Bestselling author Marnie Elliott has invited her three oldest friends to a secluded holiday house in Tasmania. On the surface it’s an excuse to catch up and drink champagne – but really, Marnie’s there to escape the fallout from an upcoming exposé. Sure, she’s told some lies over the course of her career… but this time the allegations go further… Did Marnie even write the books that made her millions?
The Transformations, Andrew Pippos – 28 October
In the fading glow of Australia’s print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it’s an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and a painful past, George is one of nature’s loners.
The Underworld, Sofie Laguna – 28 October
Martha Mullins is a misfit. Her mother is glamorous, aloof and judgemental. Her father, mostly absent. Academic and shy, Martha finds herself fascinated by the underworld, a place she learns about in Roman mythology classes at school. To Martha, the underworld and its divine inhabitants provide a place of refuge, escape, imagination and desire.
The Tangled Web, Tea Cooper – 28 October
Maitland 1892 When Viola’ Oswald’s beloved brother Sebastian dies of a hereditary blood disease, Viola suspects her stepfather, prestigious surgeon Elias Sinclair, has used Sebastian’s illness to enhance his reputation. But Viola has no proof until she discovers a letter within the pages of Sebastian’s favourite book – Lamb’s Tales of Shakespeare.
Chosen Family, Madeleine Gray – 28 October
Set in Sydney over 18 years, Chosen Family follows Nell and Eve as they grow into themselves, as they both love and destroy each other. From school, to university, to careers, to motherhood, Nell’s and Eve’s is a relationship that is a life-raft that is also a poison apple that is also a Medusan stare, frozen in time.
