The Higher Realm

James Friel

The Higher Realm is an intense psychological drama and a suspenseful murder mystery that deftly draws the reader along. Sidney Chisholm discovers the five bodies of his neighbours, the Gilhooley sisters. They have been dead for some weeks. In a complex series of twists and turns, their mystery becomes the catalyst for unravelling the truth behind the unexplained disappearance of Sidney's young daughter, Tina, some fifteen years before. The Higher Realm is both uplifting and terrifying, and at times deeply claustrophobic in its portrayal of betrayal, compassion, trust, and sexual and emotional abuse.

This is a more literary work than most novels published in the crime and mystery genre ... There are intense moments of suspense ... A mischievous wit at work ... A multi-layered read with constant surprises and delights for the reader.
Margaret Murphy, best-selling crime author

The Higher Realm

Paperback, 256pp
205x135mm
ISBN: 9781921325038
RRP: AU$26.95
August 2007
World

"All those years and he had known only of them by a Christian name: Dierdra, the one he was to see on her black bin bag of a throne. Rounder, more lithe, healthier somehow, she was the one, in all those years of watching, he had imagined rescuing. That spoiled pearl of a face, he half-believed he had only to touch it to make it warm and blush. When they had sung in church one of their voices had always sounded to him richer and more soulful, less pure and, so, more human. He had always hoped that voice was hers. Now he would never know."

James Friel

JAMES FRIEL is the author of Left of North, Taking the Veil and Careless Talk. He has contributed to The Writers' Workbook, Time Out, Harper's & Queen, Fable, The Universe and Cercles. His shorter fiction has appeared in Pretext, Pool 1&2, Boomerang, Harrington's, Blithe House Quarterly and Etchings. He works regularly for radio and has adapted, most recently, Orhan Pamuk's Snow for BBC Radio 3, and The Remains of The Day for BBC Radio 4. He is the Course Leader for the MA in Writing at Liverpool John Moores University.

 


Pickle to Pie

Glenice Whitting

Rejected by his mother at birth and raised by his Grossmutter and Grossvater, Frederick Fritschenburg, a second generation Australian of German descent, is dying in hospital. At eighty years of age Frederick recalls a life torn by two world wars and the Great Depression-a life of uncertainty and anguish, of disappointment, human frailties and estranged relationships, where nothing seems as real as the special childhood bond that existed between him and his Grossmutter.

Pickle to Pie is a beautifully wrought and heartfelt exploration of family and cultural ties that melds humour and tenderness to bring tears of joy and sadness to the reader's eyes.
Liam Davison, author of Soundings and The White Woman

Pickle to Pie has that secret element. I just wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next. The story captivated me throughout.
Ian Harmstorf, President of the South Australian German Association

Pickle To Pie

Paperback, 256pp
205x135mm
ISBN: 9781921325021
RRP: AU$26.95
August 2007
World

Pickle to Pie is a superb addition to our country's fiction examining the human fabric that makes up the Australian psyche.
Wendy J Dunn, author of Dear Heart, How Like You This?

"Grossmutter said that I was squealing like a tortured mouse when she pulled me from mother's womb. One more squalling bundle in a crib in the dim parlour. It was Grossmutter who named me Frederick Joseph Heinrich Frank Fritschenburg. Over my cradle she sang of great ancestors and past riches. Told stories of Hänsel und Gretel lost in the forest, of witches and goblins and Onkel Gustav and Tante Teresa singing Auf Wiedersehen. Of tears falling on her piano that last night in Magdeburg."




GLENICE WHITTING has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne. For three years she was an on-line editor and columnist at Suite101.com, showcasing inspiring Australian women. Her published works include biographies, interviews, reviews, plays and numerous short stories. Her play, Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow, was produced during the 2002 Fertile Ground New Play Festival. She lives in Patterson Lakes, Victoria, with her husband.