How does one solve a homicide with scant physical evidence, a sole witness unable to identify the killer, and the medical examiner assigned to the case has already ruled ‘death by natural causes’? Swamped, the police don’t have the time to investigate someone’s insistence that foul play had a hand in a friend’s sudden demise. However, to mollify concerns, former homicide detective Howard Pierce, now a private investigator, is contacted. Pierce accepts the assignment despite his heavy caseload, jumping at the chance to get involved. At first, it seems to Pierce the medical examiner, and the police have it right, leaving him no reason to get involved in the case. However, upon investigation at the scene, Pierce learns of something the killer carelessly left behind, convincing him he has a murder investigation on his plate. Follow Howard Pierce in his new and exciting role as a private investigator, a man with the know-how to get the job done—and the determination to bring a brutal killer to justice!

Ramona Koval's parents were Holocaust survivors who fled their homeland and settled in Melbourne. As a child, Koval learned little about their lives - only snippets from traumatic tales of destruction and escape. But she always suspected that the man who raised her was not her biological father. One day in the 1990s, long after her mother's death, she decides she must know the truth. A phone call leads to a photograph in the mail, then tea with strangers. Before long Koval is interrogating a nursing-home patient, meeting a horse whisperer in tropical Queensland, journeying to rural Poland, learning other languages and dealing with Kafkaesque bureaucracy, all in the hope of finding an answer. A quest for identity recounted with Koval's customary humour, Bloodhound takes hold of the reader and never lets go. It is a moving story of the terrible cost of war and of family secrets. Ramona Koval is a Melbourne writer, journalist, broadcaster and editor. From 2006 to 2011 she presented Radio National’s Book Show, and she has written for Age and the Australian. She is the author of By the Book: A Reader's Guide to Life, and Bloodhound: Searching For My Father. 'The line of questioning to which she subjects herself reminds me less of her gracious interviews and more of Helen Garner’s steady self-analysis...In Bloodhound, Koval is hunter and prey to truths that taunt and console.' Australian ‘She’s a shining presence in the world of literature, here in Australia and right across the globe...Her voice is always recognisable, invigorating, familiar to us and greatly loved.’ Helen Garner ‘Irresistible...generous, warm and fearless.’ Kerryn Goldsworthy ‘Her [Koval] accessibly written forays into the science of DNA and familial lineages, and what makes us who we are, is beautifully intertwined with her meditations on identity and belonging...Readers too will be deeply shocked by the atrocities outlined in Bloodhound. Such shock, however, is an important reminder that history should never be forgotten, and that books like Bloodhound should continue being written for generations to come.’ Books & Publishing ‘Written in the same jaunty, crisp but personal voice that made her so beloved as a broadcaster.’ Booktopia Buzz ‘Koval has penned a moving story of her quest for identity amid family secrets.’ Australian Jewish News 'Bloodhound is at its most gripping when it explicitly pits the child's prerogative to know her origins against everybody else's right to forget or remain forever ignorant...By book's end Koval has, in effect, synthesised and absorbed these stories into one story, her story, such that she claims an ownership of and a place in them that was, for this reader at least, fascinating but also somewhat disquieting.’ Sydney Morning Herald ‘Koval follows a fascinating scent. She makes us complicit in her pursuit of the past, as she tries to answer "what am I?”...This is a story which will resonate.’ Southland Times

Renowned Irish Culture vulture Mike Farragher turns a critical eye on himself in the pages of This is Your Brain on Shamrocks and provides a funny, sweet, and certainly irreverent take on life, spirituality, parenting, music, and heritage. Turn the pages and take a whiplash ride through the Irish American psyche!

Meet Hadjii. He’s got a loving family, a taste for making trouble, and a wicked sense of humor. His first book, Don’t Let My Mama Read This, is a rarity—an upbeat memoir about a blessedly normal childhood written by a natural-born storyteller. In it, he offers a warm, witty look at the pleasures and pitfalls of growing up in a close-knit Southern family, from a young man who’s just like you, only funnier.

In the coastal village of Maiden Rock, Maine, Quinnie Boyd's teacher has disappeared. Quinnie thinks it's a kidnapping case, but her mom, the town sheriff, just thinks the teacher has left town. Still, Quinnie's going to follow her instincts that something's wrong. Her investigation takes her through a damp and smelly marsh, a lobster pound, and more of Maine's messiest places. She even gets help from her glamorous new neighbor, Mariella. As the girls hunt for clues around Maiden Rock, they encounter a cast of unlikely characters. And if Quinnie's hunch is right, the search may lead them right into danger . . . This hilarious and page-turning debut is the perfect whodunit story for middle school sleuths.

'A tender and graceful study of parents and children, and a finely judged and measured attempt to capture the flitting, quicksilver shapes of what we keep and what we lose: the touch, the tone, the gaze of the past as it fades. It is a moving and beautifully achieved memoir, and a testament to the writer's skill and generosity of spirit.' —Hilary Mantel Before the devastating 'loss of her marbles', Mrs Royle, a nurse by profession, is a marvellously no-nonsense character, an autodidact who reads widely and voraciously, swears at her fox-hunting neighbours, and instils in the young Nick a love of literature and of wildlife that will form his character and his career. In this touching, funny and beautifully written portrait of family life, mother-son relationships and bereavement, Nicholas Royle captures the spirit of post-war parenting as well as of his mother, whose dementia and death were triggered by the tragedy of losing her other son—Royle's younger brother—to cancer in his twenties. At once poetic and philosophical, this extraordinary memoir is also a powerful reflection on climate crisis and 'mother nature', on literature and life writing, on human and non-human animals, and on the links between the maternal and memory itself.

That pesky, sneaky, window-peeking cat that wanders around the neighborhood, has cordially invited you to view and enjoy some more adventures of Kipper, Beauregard, and Tracker from THE TWO LABS AND A BLOODHOUND, that reside with their humans in North Pownal, Vermont. Chosen Pathways is a collection of short stories, some of which are told from the dogs' point of view of some actual events that have happened. However, the dogs were gracious enough to allow their momma to sneak in and record some fictional stories, for a fee of course. Please be advised that payment was delivered in the form of doggy treats, mostly the chicken and yam wraps that the dogs all so dearly love! So once again, kickback and relax, and enjoy the adventures of all, for every day is an adventure when you are owned by a dog. To view some colored photos of the dogs, please go to www.twolabsandabloodhound.com and follow the links.