The First Stone

Reef is an embittered young offender, hardly able to contain his anger at the world over the death of his grandmother, the only person who had shown him any love. Seventeen-year-old Leeza is mourning the death of her older sister. A stone hurled in rage shatters both their lives and throws them together in the most unexpected way—and offers them a chance at healing.

In the autumn of 1992, two young women students at Melbourne University went to the police claiming that they had been indecently assaulted at a party. The man they accused was the head of their co-ed residential college. The shock of these charges split the community and painfully focused the debate about sex and power. 'This is writing of great boldness and it will wring the heart... an intense, eloquent and enthralling work...' - AUSTRALIAN 'This was never going to be an easy book to write, its pages are bathed in anguish and self-doubt, but suffused also with a white-hot anger...' - GOOD WEEKEND 'Travelling with Garner along the complex paths of this sad story is, strangely enough, enjoyable. The First Stone [is] a book worth reading for its writing...' - SYDNEY MORNING HERALD '... Garner has ensured one thing: the debate about sexual harassment... will now have a very public airing. And it will have it in the language of experience to which all women and men have access...' - AGE

Reef is back in Halifax for the funeral of Frank Colville, his former mentor. Memories of Frank compete with memories of Leeza and the terrible way their relationship ended. Mindful that the restraining order against him has been renewed by Leeza’s mother, Reef has no intention of staying in Halifax for long. Leeza, in the meantime, is feeling stifled by her mother’s “concern.” A first-year student at Dalhousie, she is kicking herself for not attending university out of town. Despite Reef ’s best efforts to stay away, circumstances push him and Leeza ever closer to each other. An eager political crusader wants to close Reef ’s former group home, and he will stop at nothing to get media attention, including manipulating news items. Reef is shocked to discover that he has been photographed outside Leeza’s house and, therefore, in violation of the restraining order. Finding himself at the centre of growing controversy, Reef is pushed to his limits. Before he leaves town, Reef must face his demons and make some tough choices or else risk losing everything he has worked for, including the only girl he has ever loved.

Readers and critics alike can’t resist New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby’s beloved Reverend Curtis Black series. Now the classic novel that introduced the trials and triumphs of a church family and their congregation is available in a beautiful new edition—and includes a letter from the author. Tanya Black has everything a woman could want: a fulfilling career, a beautiful daughter, an elegant home, and a handsome, charismatic husband who is pastor of a prominent Baptist church. And yet, none of it can hide the growing turbulence in her marriage. Her husband, Reverend Curtis Black, once a loving, devoted, and passionate partner, has grown remote, and Tanya is thrown into doubt about what she once cherished. When she uncovers disturbing truths, confirming scandalous rumors about Curtis, she questions all that she’s ever believed in. But it is when Tanya is dealt the worst kind of betrayal a woman can face that her life is changed forever. Plunged into a bittersweet journey of discovery, she finds herself learning painful new lessons about love, loyalty—and sensual temptation—and is forced to make some very hard decisions for her daughter, herself, and her future.

A year after her husband's death, young widow and art collector Diana Porteous listlessly roams the beach near her home. Her friend and agent Saul takes action, introducing her to his stylish, anarchic sister, Sarah, to pep her up. They plan that Di should rediscover her talents as a thief, as well as art expert, to recover stolen paintings - and begin with Steven, the neighbour's son, who is amassing works of art in a strange building in London, including work stolen from his mother. But if Di is interested in his illicit treasures, he is equally fascinated by hers - and in the secrets still held in that house by the sea.

It is late 1879 when James Murdoch finally returns to Scotland after a year-long adventure in South Africa. His wife, Barbara, is thrilled to see her husband again - and shocked when he reveals to her on the train ride home that he has been offered a partnership in the Kimberley diamond mine. But only moments after she agrees to follow him back to South Africa, their train plunges off the famous Tay Rail Bridge. The bodies of James and Barbara Murdoch are never recovered. Their young son, Henry, is now an orphan. Twenty years later, the South African War is just underway. In the course of his military duties, Captain Henry Murdoch interrogates Boer spies suspected of espionage a task that eventually leads him and his partner to uncover a Boer assassination plot against the British Army commander-in-chief in South Africa. Now, Murdoch must find a spy and trained assassin amongst the British ranks before he strikes. Fast forward to todays world, in which American Gordon Mackenzie is now leading the British Commonwealth War Graves Commission office in France. His role places him unknowing into the middle of a covert espionage ring involving misdirected funds and a kinky subculture. Mackenzie has no idea that his trusted colleagues are not who they claim to be. In this follow up to Severed Branch, a tale of espionage, greed, and shadowy syndicates emerges. Two men, in different times, are about to uncover hidden family secrets that link them and their futures together forever.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon. Orphaned by their mother’s death and their father’s disappearance and bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Moving from Addis Ababa to New York City and back again, Cutting for Stone is an unforgettable story of love and betrayal, medicine and ordinary miracles—and two brothers whose fates are forever intertwined.