This week, the Melbourne weather has truly taken a turn into the bleak and blustery Autumn season ☔️

Even though we're warned every year about the unpredictability of the weather, it still comes as a constant shock to the system when you arrive to work bundled up in two jumpers and a raincoat, dripping your umbrella across the office floor, to leaving at 5pm in as few layers as socially acceptable.

As an ode to the turn in season, we think now's a great chance to highlight some of the titles you need to read this Autumn. Specifically, what Australian authors you need to read this Autumn. Because they're experiencing this weather too.

 

Jane Harper

Last One Out

Shop now

Jane Harper is the author of the international bestsellers The Dry, Force of Nature, The Lost Man, The Survivors and Exiles. The Dry and Force of Nature have been adapted into major motion pictures starring Eric Bana. The Survivors has been adapted into a Netflix TV series.

 Jane worked as a print journalist for thirteen years both in Australia and the UK, and now lives in Melbourne with her husband, two children, and two cats.

He had been here, that was clear from the marks in the dust. And he had been alone.

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.

Five long years later, Ro returns to Carralon Ridge for the annual memorial of Sam's disappearance. The skeletal community is now an echo of itself, having fractured under the pressure of the coal mine operating on its outskirts.

But Ro still wants answers. Only a few people remain. If the truth is to be found in that town, does it lie among them?

 

Shailee Thompson 

How To Kill A Guy in Ten Dates

Shop now

Shailee Thompson is a writer and educator based in Brisbane, Australia. She’s always had a penchant for women with smart mouths, soft hearts, and strong wills going up against extraordinary odds. How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is her debut novel. 

When cinephile Jamie Prescott attends a speed-dating event, she expects to meet some mediocre men and have a laugh – she doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at her table during a blackout. When the lights come back on, there are more bodies on the floor and the doors are locked.

Armed with makeshift weapons and her extensive knowledge of what not to do in a slasher, Jamie must figure out how to make it out of the building alive. But as the night progresses, she begins to suspect the killer is committing the slayings to woo one of the daters. Whatever happened to roses and perfume?

And why can’t Jamie stay focused on the important thing here, which is obviously not getting murdered, instead of being distracted by a few hot guys? Especially if one of those hot guys happens to be the bad guy…

Oops.

 

Courtney Peppernell 

The Last Poem

Shop now

Courtney Peppernell is an internationally bestselling author, known for her moving poetry and storytelling. A multi–million-copy selling writer, she lives on the south coast of NSW with her partner and spends her days writing, always accompanied by her beloved dogs and chickens.

Wren Paisley is living her dream: she’s a successful author and poet, she adores the New York brownstone she calls home and she’s about to marry the love of her life. But everything changes when her fiancée, Lucy, dies in a tragic car crash that leaves a young bystander paralysed. Unable to escape the media frenzy, Wren goes on a road trip, winding up in the charming small town of Everston, Colorado.

It feels fortuitous when she learns that the local library hosts a grief support group that reads, of all things, poetry. Hesitantly, she joins, and slowly begins to build community with the other members, including: Henry, a librarian mourning the loss of his brother; Emerson, a young woman recovering from a life-altering car accident; and Olivia, a complicated reporter who gives Wren butterflies. Finally, she can breathe again, and maybe even love again.

But how long can Wren keep her old life in the rear-view? Will she be able to build a new life in Everston, or will it all come crashing down when old truths come to light?

 

Fiona Lowe

The Drowning

Shop now

Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor and a family support worker. She spent her early years in Papua New Guinea where, without television, reading was the entertainment and it set up a lifelong love of books.

When she's not writing stories, she's a distracted wife, a sage to two adult sons, a rail trail cyclist, a volunteer in her community, and a newly addicted homecrafts 'show' entrant. She is often found collapsed on the couch with wine, knitting and her latest love, an audio book.

CC Cilento's best memories are of spending every summer holiday running wild in and out of the Friend family beach house with her cousins, James, Ollie, Felix and Lily. It's the next best thing to having brothers and sisters. They've continued the summer tradition into adulthood, getting together at the shack with its absolute beach frontage.

But now a bombshell has dropped: the four Friend siblings have officially inherited the property - along with an unexpected fifth share to CC. What starts out as the perfect gift, and a way of keeping the family connected forever, quickly devolves into an emotional power struggle. Half of them want to keep the legacy intact, while the others want to sell - and each side will do anything to make it happen. Soon, CC can't tell friend from foe.

When a body is found on the shack's beach, has this family dispute turned deadly?

 

Nagi Maehashi

Recipe Tin Eats: Tonight

Shop now

Nagi Maehashi is the voice, cook and photographer behind RecipeTin Eats. Nagi's first cookbook, Dinner, is the fastest-selling cookbook in Australian publishing history. In 2023, it became the first cookbook to win the Australian Book Industry Award's Book of the Year. Nagi and her celebrity dog, Dozer, live in Sydney, Australia.

Australia's favourite home cook, Nagi Maehashi, is back to solve the perennial problem of what's for dinner tonight ... and every night.

Following on from her record-breaking first cookbook, Dinner, Nagi brings us Tonight with more than 150 brand-new foolproof, flavour-packed recipes, 800 variations on those recipes and 3000 possible combinations that match formulas (including the world-famous Charlie sauce) with different ingredients.

There are crave-worthy crowd-pleasers - try slow-baked Italian meatballs in a rich tomato sauce with bubbling melted cheese or fall-apart Asian chicken cooked in a sticky-sweet soy glaze.

 

Sally Hepworth

Mad Mabel

Shop now

Sally Hepworth is the New York Times bestselling author of nine novels. Sally writes incisively about family, relationships and identity. Her domestic thriller novels are laced with quirky humour, sass and a darkly charming tone. Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia, with her family and one adorable dog.

In 1959, at just fifteen 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.

She is known around the world as Mad Mabel. But is she mad? More importantly, is she guilty?

When the police open a new investigation and the media descend upon her, the elderly Mabel decides it's time to set the record straight.

In a world first, at the age of 81, Mabel Waller is speaking.

 

Cameron Sullivan 

The Red Winter

Shop now

Cameron Sullivan was born in Perth, Western Australia. After several years working and studying in Italy and the UK, he returned to Australia and settled in Melbourne, which is the best place for Australians who actually enjoy the winter. He works as a copywriter and will easily lose a weekend to a good book, a new recipe or games of any kind, from tabletop DnD to pub trivia.

A devastating love story.
A bewitching twist on history.
A blood-drenched hunt for purpose, power, and redemption.

In 1785, Professor Sebastian Grave receives the news he fears most: the Beast of Gévaudan has returned, and the French countryside runs red in its wake.

Sebastian knows the Beast. Twenty years ago, it nearly cost him his life to bring the monster down. Now, he has been recalled to the hunt by Antoine Avenel d'Ocerne, an estranged lover who shares a dark history with the Beast and a terrible secret with Sebastian. With the help of his indwelling demon, Sarmodel - who takes payment in living hearts - Sebastian must return to Gévaudan for a final reckoning, while the Beast is poised to plunge the continent into war.

 

Mikayla Bridge

Of Flame and Fury

Shop now

Mikayla Bridge is a fantasy author living in Melbourne, Australia. She can often be found playing board games, drinking too much coffee, and lovingly tormenting her characters. She grew up on a small-town farm and completed a BA with Honours in Political Science and International Relations. Raised on horror movies and musical theatre, her writing is often a love letter to both.

A fiery alliance. An explosive secret. The race is on.

Phoenix racing: it's profitable, it's deadly. No one knows this better than Kel Varra and her crew, the Crimson Howlers. They live on the edge of survival.

When a mysterious tech billionaire offers them a place at his training facility, it gives them hope but also forces Kel to team up with Coup, her arrogant, infuriating rival.

Embroiled in political scheming, volatile phoenix magic and a smouldering romance, Kel and Coup discover a conspiracy that threatens them all.

For in this world of extreme stakes, there are two options only: win or burn

 

Jessica Mansour-Nahra

The Farm

Shop now

Jessica Mansour-Nahra was a communications consultant and writer in Brisbane, London and Sydney, before tree-changing to a hamlet in Wiradjuri country, where she wrote her debut novel, The Farm.

Jessica now lives with her husband and their beloved dog in Tasmania. Jessica holds degrees in history and law from The University of Queensland.

The radio sputters out and the cows disappear . . . It is suddenly deeply quiet, with the bird calls and crunch of rolling tyres the only sounds. I twist slowly to look out the back window; the gate has long since disappeared.

When 37-year-old Leila suffers a health tragedy, she doesn't recover as quickly as she expected. Her partner, James, suggests a year away from the city - they'll stay on his family farm, where the wide, open spaces and clean country air will help her come to terms with her grief.

But the property is remote and the house oppressive. Leila is disturbed by strange noises, fleeting visions and intrusive dreams. James worries that her medication is causing hallucinations.

As Leila's isolation grows amid the haunted landscape, so does her suspicion that she isn't 

 

Holly Brunnbauer

What Did I Miss?

Shop now

Holly Brunnbauer is a multi-award-winning emerging fiction author with numerous accolades in writing competitions across Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. She first caught the writing bug via blogging and later transitioned into copywriting. Holly's now a sought-after virtual assistant for published and aspiring authors.

Based in rural Victoria, she spends her time with her husband, two rambunctious boys and a cheeky pug, planning and building their off-grid country home. The outdoors is her happy place.

Makayla has many regrets: a Chiko Roll impulse buy, not visiting the Big Pineapple and marrying her high-school dud.

Now, newly divorced, determined to hold on to her independence and facing the Big Three-O, Makayla makes a list of all the things she missed out on while her friends were single and running amok in their twenties.

But when her one-night stand turns up again, and a revenge plot on her ex spirals out of control, she has to decide if some things are worth missing. And if Makayla can't sort herself out before her birthday, she might face the biggest regret of her life.

A fresh and feisty romantic comedy about what happens when you meet someone special before truly knowing yourself.