From bloody deeds to bold ideas, these eight books will quicken the pulse

The long weekend means that, for most of us, there’s even more hours to devote to reading as we savour the last of the holiday lull. These eight new releases include something to suit pretty much everyone – there’s even (whisper it) “the ultimate beach read”.

FICTION
PICK OF THE WEEK
A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage
Asia Mackay, Wildfire, $32.99

Hazel and Fox are trying to be an ordinary suburban couple for the sake of their baby. They’re quite good at keeping up appearances. They used to be serial killers, after all, living the high life and murdering those who deserved it with a deep sense of vocation that hasn’t left them. When Hazel fell pregnant, they decided to trade high-flying homicide for a more bourgeois dream, and it’s easy for Fox – he gets to be a businessman. For Hazel, the adjustment is nigh impossible, and the stultifying world of new mums’ groups brings out her cynical, impulsive side; she misses the cutthroat world she left behind. Against the odds she makes a new friend, but when she succumbs to her killing urges, suspicion is drawn to the door of this seemingly perfect pair, and the police might yet connect them to historical murders, too. Will they get caught, leaving their child effectively orphaned, and how can this fractious odd couple possibly get away with it all without the body count rising? From this entertaining premise, a dark satire on suburban life and motherhood unfurls.

The Cicada House
Ella Ward, HarperCollins, $32.99

Ella Ward’s debut novel follows Caitlin, a woman who receives a sizeable inheritance on her 40th birthday. She has lived for many years in a North London terrace with her husband, Paul, and intends to spend her windfall travelling the world with him on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Except she doesn’t, because Paul tells her he’s in love with someone else, and the revelation blindsides her. Caitlin gets drunk. She books a ticket to Australia to get as far away from the mess as possible, unable to cope with the stress of losing a relationship that has become part of her identity. What begins as an escape becomes a rediscovery of who she is and a homecoming and re-evaluation with more sex and salt (and yes, cicadas) than the routine Caitlin had fallen into in the UK. The Cicada House starts by pressing most of the Eat Pray Love buttons, if that is your thing. The novel sprawls from luxurious cheeses and liquor and leisure to the harsher beauties of the Australian landscape and, a bit weirdly, gets more literary, almost turning into a different book as it goes on.

That Island Feeling
Karina May, Macmillan, $39.99

Nothing makes me want to crawl back into my coffin quite like a puff calling a book “the ultimate beach read”, but That Island Feeling is deftly turned genre romance, and that’s much more difficult to write than it looks. Ultra-organised Andie Alcott is planning a girls’ trip – a getaway to comfort her freshly divorced best friend Taylor – on the island that hosted her parents’ honeymoon 30 years before. She needs a break too. Being a carer to a parent with dementia has taken its toll, and chasing “that island feeling” and learning to relax is an ordeal for someone as other-directed and tightly wound as Andie. Enter Jack, a barefoot Pearl Island resident, and a host of unforeseen events that Andie can’t plan for – not least falling in love. Karina May has an effortless command of genre, writes brisk and realistic dialogue, sketches entertaining characters (including eccentric islanders) and has a gift for comedy while investing the romantic arc with more emotional and psychological heft than usual. It is quite relaxing.

Rural Dreams
Margaret Hickey, Penguin, $22.99
This short fiction collection set in rural and regional Australia contains a range of narrative styles, genres and voices, although anyone who grew up in the country will find familiar and often comforting terrain. Margaret Hickey is, among other things, a crime writer, and the best short story, The Precipice, is far from comforting. It’s a tense psychological mini-thriller – almost novella length – about a group of women bushwalking and the shadow of domestic violence that follows them, and it’s just as compelling now as when it was written. Other stories demonstrate a talent for irreverent comedy, with abrasive encounters between city slickers and country folk and those who shift uneasily between worlds. There’s the odd squib not worth the paper it’s printed on – an inarticulate and glib one written in bare half-sentences doesn’t justify itself in complexity, but that’s a rare miss in a collection devoted to eclectic portraits of rural lives.

NON-FICTION
PICK OF THE WEEK
A Political Memoir
Robert Manne, La Trobe University Press, $59.99

Political commentator Robert Manne has always gone his own way, locking horns or aligning himself with people on both ends of the political spectrum. One of the more impressive qualities of this engagingly written memoir is the way Manne’s political convictions are depicted as continually evolving, the constant being his experience of growing up in a post-Holocaust Jewish family. The mix of influences, from Melbourne Uni in the 1960s (an intriguing section of the book) to the present day and his fervent support of Indigenous and climate change causes, is truly diverse. In the range of concerns and its historical sweep, this is an admirable, well-rounded portrait of someone engaging with, and attempting to make sense of, his times.

Portia Geach
Dr Julie Cotter, Joyce Press, $37.95

Artist and activist Portia Geach (1873-1959) has largely slipped through the cracks of history in regard to her artistic and political contributions to Australian life. This biography is, in part, an act of retrieval. Born in Melbourne, Geach studied at Victoria’s National Gallery School, and was the first woman to be accepted into London’s Royal Academy. While producing art that was positively reviewed, she became a trailblazing feminist, forming the NSW Housewives Association (receiving flak for being a self-described “bachelor boy”). We learn a lot about her art, studies and influences, but not so much about her inner life, possibly due to limited source material. Still, this is a richly documented, poised portrait of an important historical figure who helped pave the way for women artists who followed.

What’s the Big Idea?
Eds Anna Chang and Alice Grundy, Australia Institute Press, $34.99

When the federal government recently changed the stage 3 tax cuts, creating a fairer system for lower-income workers, it was, says Michael Kirby in his introduction to this collection of essays – influenced by years of research from the Australia Institute. It was just one of the achievements he lists in this celebration of the institute’s 30-year history. The essays cover a wide variety of topics: former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis argues that Australians must not be afraid of big government, saying it’s a myth that only the private sector innovates; Louise Adler tackles the question of protest and philanthropy in the arts; Amy Remeikis laments the timidity of increasingly centrist governments in Australia; and Sally McManus argues for a worker voice in business at the decision-making level. Bold ideas, engagingly written.

Australian Cricket’s Best of the Best
Dan Liebke, Affirm, $34.99

This light-hearted history of the Allan Border Medal is a mixture of the actual and the hypothetical. Comedy writer Dan Liebke not only looks at the recipients over the past 24 years, but also goes back to the 1880s, the beginning of Test cricket and the players who would have won. This often provides the most interesting passages in the book, taking in such characters such as the demon Fred Spofforth, whose bowling heroics more or less created Test cricket. Bradman, of course, dominates the 1930s and 1940s, along with Betty Wilson, whose achievements with bat and ball make her a stand-out choice. Liebke also incorporates checkered moments in the ceremony itself, from the drunkenly farcical to the seedy. An amusing compendium for cricket fans to dip into between innings.

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