From the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series comes a story of love and survival. Lori Smyth-Owen isn't your average teenager - as you'd expect from the only girl in a family of twelve. Or they were a family, until their father took his own life to escape his bed-bound wife, too obese to leave her room.But for Lori and the remaining brothers, there is no escape from their volatile, mentally unstable mother. They raise themselves away from the gaze of the authorities, realising that though abandoned, they are now in charge. They can control everything, including their mother's food intake.In time, their mother emerges, after losing two-thirds of her body weight. But does she bring with her the seed of hope for a better future, or will all hell break loose?'The texture of the writing as well as the mind-boggling plots give her books a fatally addictive attraction' Saturday Age

After many tumultuous years spent grappling with the past, Jenny Hooper might have expected her latter years to be the best of her life, and they are - until tragedy strikes. Left floundering in a house full of memories, not all of them good, Jenny knows a reckoning is in order.But it won't be easy. History is beginning to repeat itself for Jenny's adopted daughter, Trudy, who finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship. Jenny and her older daughter, Georgie, can only stand by and watch as Trudy's life implodes.Meanwhile, half a world away in the UK, Cara and her husband Morrie nurture a devastating secret that keeps them at arm's length from Jenny.But most of all, Jenny wants to renew contact with the beloved son she lost decades before when she was at her lowest ebb. Only that, and having the chance to tell him the truth about what happened, will give her peace. But is it too late?

The third book in the dark and addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman"She trips the fine line of pleasure and pain that makes her a compulsive read ... Brilliant." Sun HeraldIn Moth to the Flame, Joy Dettman returns with another dazzling tale of the unforgettable characters of Woody Creek.The year is 1946. The war ended five months ago. Jim Hooper, Jenny Morrison's only love, was lost to that war. And if not for Jenny, he would never have gone."An eye for an eye," Vern Hooper says. An unforgiving man, Vern wants custody of Jenny's son, his only grandson, and is quietly planning his day in court.Then Jenny's father Archie Foote swoops back into town. Archie offers Jenny a tantalising chance at fame and fortune; one way or another he is determined to play a part in her life.Is Jenny's luck about to change, or is she drawn to trouble like a moth is drawn to the...

The complete short stories of the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series"Pure brilliance. This is a book to keep and treasure - you'll want to read it again and again." Sun-HeraldAt the beginning of her writing journey, Joy Dettman's charming, irascible, melancholy, wisecracking characters appeared in over twenty unique tales, many of which have won awards, many of which have never been published. Now, for the first time, Diamonds in the Mud and Other Stories is the complete collection of Joy Dettman's exquisite short stories. We meet an old coot in a rusty ute who picks up a hitchhiker, a neighbour reaches across the language divide to lend a helping hand, a grave digger might just have saved a young man's life, an exhausted farmer's wife lusts after a china cup, Granny Jordan is losing her marbles and an author is troubled by rats under the floorboards.Since...

A gripping post-apocalyptic tale from the acclaimed author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek seriesThe world as it was has been all but destroyed. Those few who survived the Great Ending are now ruled by an all-powerful group known as the Chosen, whose walled city encloses a diminishing population riddled with plague and threatened with extinction. Desperate to repopulate, the Chosen send searchers to capture every surviving female still living in the wild lands beyond the city for their new breeding stations.There is a girl with a name neither of her companions can remember, who is found by the Chosen's searchers living on a remote property. Since then, she has known little more than the life they enforce-a life dominated by their breeding program and genetic experimentation-while they immunise her and prepare to take her to their city.Then one afternoon a son of one of the Chosen arrives at the girl's farm, a boy who has fled from a life...

'Pearl in a Cage' ended in May 1939 when, just 15 years old, Jenny Morrison fled Woody Creek for a new life in Melbourne. She left behind a dysfunctional family, a town of small-minded gossips and, most tragically, a newborn baby - the product of a vicious rape. Yet just months later she is back - wiser and with an expensive new wardrobe - but with a second child growing in her belly. Cruelly labelled the 'town slut', she finds refuge in Gertrude, her kind-hearted, dependable granny and settles into a routine in the ever-expanding household. Jenny thrives and, daring once again to dream, leaves Woody Creek again and moves to Sydney, where at last it seems that the beautiful young songstress may find happiness... But can the past ever truly be buried? And will Jenny Morrison ever fulfil her destiny?

From the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series"Dettman ... is brilliant at depicting the seemingly inconsequential murmurs of small-town life" Sun-HeraldFor forty-four years Stella Templeton has been a dutiful daughter and a good citizen, living in Maidenville, population 2,800 where nothing happens.Until one hot summer afternoon.An ugly act has lifted the respectable skirts of Maidenville and mystery starts to surround the daughter of the local minister. Then the disappearance of a sixteen-year-old boy adds to the neighbourhood confusion. Does something rotten lurk behind the neatly trimmed hedges and white picket fences that divide this sleepy town? No-one comes close to knowing the dreadful truth-but after forty-four years of doing the right thing, Stella Templeton is starting to blossom..."Dettman writes compulsively readable stories" The Age

The fourth book in the dark and addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman"Dettman writes compulsively readable stories" The Age"The bombshell conclusion was worthy of a Thomas Hardy novel" Good ReadingThe wind is whispering in Woody Creek... Change is in the airIt's 1958 and Woody Creek is being dragged - kicking and screaming - into the swinging sixties.Cara and Georgie are now young women but, raised separately, they have never met. They've both inherited their mother's hands, but that's where their similarity ends.Despite a teenage mistake looming over Cara's future, she still believes in the white wedding and happily ever after myth. Georgie, however, has seen enough of marriage and motherhood, and plans to live her life independent of a man.But once the sisters are drawn into each other's lives, long-buried secrets are bound to be unearthed,...

The sixth and final book in the addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman"an adept storyteller" Sydney Morning Herald"a compulsive read" Sun-HeraldIn The Tying of Threads, the final instalment of the beloved Woody Creek series, we return to the small timber town where it all began...As the new millennium draws ever closer and Woody Creek struggles to survive, one thing becomes clear - in order to face their futures, Jenny and her daughters must first make peace with their pasts. If it's not too late.Georgie: Independent and spirited, Georgie is her mother's daughter through and through. But after a house fire takes the life of her sister, Margot, and burns her home to the ground, Georgie is lost. She flees town with nothing but a cardboard box and the determination to be somebody, anybody, else.Cara: After almost losing her adopted daughter, Cara's...

The penultimate book in the dark and addictive Woody Creek series from bestselling Australian author Joy Dettman"Dettman writes compulsively readable stories" The AgeAs Woody Creek draws Joy Dettman's much-loved cast of characters back into its grip, confessions, discoveries and truths seem certain to explode in the most shocking of showdowns...Woody Creek is preparing for its centenary celebrations - but for many of its townspeople it's just another reminder of the old days, before so-called progress roared through the town, altering everything in its wake.Not for Georgie though. As the clock ticks over to 1970, she's determined that the new decade will be the one that sees her finally break free.For Cara, Woody Creek will forever be tied to a devastating mistake that cannot be undone. She's vowed never to set foot in the place again.Meanwhile, Jenny's estranged son, Jim, has inherited an estate in the...

From the bestselling author of Mallawindy and the Woody Creek series comes a moving story about being set free. "Dettman knows how to tell a story" The Sunday AgeSally De Rooze is almost thirty. She survived the accident that killed her father and brothers. Her mother never forgave her for that. But she survived her mother too. Surviving is what she does best. Farmer Ross Bertram, who offers her his acres and safety, is the answer for a while. Until he starts pushing for a wedding. Sally wants ... wants more. Wants to know great love. Wants to find herself. One year. That's what she wants. One year of freedom in the big, bad city. Her survival skills are tested in the urban sprawl and she discovers more about herself than she had ever dared to imagined.

In The Silent Inheritance, the author of the bestselling Woody Creek series brings another unforgettable cast of characters to life in a brand new story."an adept storyteller" Sydney Morning Herald"Dettman writes compulsively readable stories" The AgeSarah Carter, mother of twelve-year-old Marni, is raising her daughter alone in a small granny flat in suburban Melbourne. A serial killer, dubbed 'The Freeway Killer', is headline news and when Marni's classmate is abducted from the mall where Sarah and Marni shop, their city no longer feels safe. Detective Ross Hunter's investigation into the abduction leads him to dead ends - until an unrelated incident sends him to the door of Freddy Adam-Jones, an unscrupulous barrister, who is guarding a secret that could ruin his life. When an unexpected windfall changes the lives of Sarah and Marni, their sudden wealth opens doors long closed, and threatens to cast...