Episodes

Top international best selling author Dinah Jefferies is back with a stunning World War II epic, the first book in a new series that went straight to the top of the Sunday Times bestseller list. Daughters of War is a tale of three sisters, secrets, and bravery in the darkness of war-torn France. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: Why the theme of separation resonates in Dinah’s stories Her path from Asian set books to World War II The breakthrough book that made ...

Annie Seaton’s eco-romance is earning her a strong following, both in her Australian homeland and with readers in the United States, and it’s not difficult to see why. Her books celebrate some of Australia’s most remarkable locations, from the Daintree country to the Great Barrier Reef. That’s the setting for her latest book, Osprey Reef. Hi there, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Annie talks about the passion for her homeland that drives her romantic adventure stories. ...

Nadia Marks has turned her early childhood years in the Mediterranean into a fulltime career as a novelist, writing stories of facing heart break and finding new life and love in sunny climes – like Crete, Greece and Spain… Hi I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and in Binge Reading today Nadia talks about how she made the transition from working with top models and photographers on London magazines to her new career as a novelist talking about the restorative powers of sea and sunshine. We’ve got thr...

Chris Hammer writes bestsellers with a distinctly Australian flavor. His latest book, Treasure & Dirt, his fourth, is a gritty, hard-to-put-down crime thriller, and it’s no surprise that Chris is winning awards, as well as an international audience. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Chris talks about transitioning from journalism to successful fiction writing. He explains why he thinks Australian crime fiction is growing in popularity around the world, and the bl...

Paula McLain has enjoyed international success with her historical novels about Ernest Hemingway’s wives, but her latest book, When the Stars Go Dark, is a contemporary thriller tackling darker themes of child abduction and abuse. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Paula explains why her latest book is her most personal yet, why she’s drawn to writing stories about the “unclaimed and unmissed” people in our world, and how she never planned to be a Hemingway apolog...

Bestselling, much beloved crime fiction author JA Jance has more than 60 books to her name, in three different series, and she’s still going strong. She’s made feisty independent female leads like Arizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady, and news anchor turned investigator Ali Reynolds, into international reader favorites. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and on the show today JA explains why she uses that penname, JA, rather than her given name Judith, and she talks about the day her first h...

Australian author Garry Disher is recognized as the master of rural noir. His latest Hirsch novel, Consolation, won the 2021 Ned Kelly Best Crime Novel award in the last few weeks. It’s the fourth Ned Kelly award Garry has won. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler. In Binge Reading today Garry talks about how 40 years of writing has turned into something he might call “success” only in the last five years, and why he’s drawn to stories about good people living in an unforgiving world. We’ve g...

Anne Fortier is the author of two international best-selling dual timeline mysteries that dig deep into our favorite stories, stories that are deep in the psyche of Western culture. First in Juliet, exploring the Romeo and Juliet tragedy, and then in The Lost Sisterhood, the single-breasted Amazons of antiquity and asking, is there a secret Amazon chapter still operating out there, a bit like a female Knights of the Templar? They’re fanciful, inspirational books and Anne was a delightful interv...

Listen to Laura Kamoie, Stephanie’s co-author of several best sellers on the lives of Founding Women, on this Binge Reading episode, My Dear Hamilton. Stephanie Dray has found her sweet spot telling the stories of America’s “forgotten women”. Her latest blockbuster, The Women of Chateau Lafayette, is no exception. It’s a rollicking historical saga reaching across three centuries – from the French Revolution to the Second World War. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading tod...

Blanche d’Alpuget became fascinated with the 12th century as a teenager, but it took another 50 years before she was inspired to write a five-book series about the first Plantagenet King of England, King Henry II and his superstar wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the richest woman in Europe at that time. Between the two of them, they were two of the most outstanding monarchs England has ever had. I say inspired because when she talks about writing the series, she says that she sat down at her laptop...

Wendy Holden’s latest books feature Royal Sagas with two women who got on the wrong side of the Windsors – that’s Queen Elizabeth’s royal house, in case you didn’t know – and they both lived to regret it. My, how they lived to regret it. Crawfie, Queen Elizabeth’s very important World War Two governess, and Wallis Simpson, the woman whose name became synonymous with forcing a king’s abdication, both came out of their exchanges with the Windsors very badly. But have we been told the full story,...

Sara Sue Hoklotubbe writes contemporary mysteries from a unique Cherokee Nation viewpoint. She is a member of the Cherokee Nation herself and so is her lead character, Sadie. Sadie is an independent-minded entrepreneur with a keen sense of justice that gets her caught up in all sorts of tricky situations. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and today Sara talks about her latest book, Betrayal at the Buffalo Ranch, the fourth in her Sadie Walela mystery series. She recounts how a book that st...

William Kent Krueger – Kent to his friends – was thrown out of college during his radical student years, and he says it was the making of him as a writer. Having recently published his eighteenth mystery in the Cork O’Connor series – the last nine of them all New York Times best sellers – we could hardly disagree. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Kent talks about the secret behind his remarkable success as a writer – and I bet it’s not what you think it is, why ...

Reavis Z. Wortham’s Red River mysteries have been favorably compared to extraordinary talents like Harper Lee and Elmore Leonard, but he says the most important thing for him is to tell a good story. With his books making Best Mass Market Paperback Awards two years running, Reavis is certainly doing that well. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and on today’s Binge Reading Reavis talks about his passion for preserving stories of small-town mid-20th century Texas before that world is lost fo...

Melissa Lenhardt’s Sawbones trilogy is a continuous adventure – one critic advised “consider the series like reading one as a 1200 page epic “ with a difference – it’s the historic Western frontier told from a woman’s viewpoint. That’s unusual in a genre once described to Melissa as “romance for men.” Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and Melissa talks about the three book saga that traces the life of a woman doctor in New York who is wrongfully accused of murder by powerful interests. She’...

Craig Johnson is a Wyoming rancher and a best-selling international author who writes westerns for people who may not normally read westerns – the fabulously popular Walt Longmire mystery series that has also been turned into a top rating six season Netflix show of the same name. The books and the show closely reflect the community and the landscape Craig calls home. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading episode Craig talks about the work of creating a country sher...

Jillian Cantor is a USA Today bestselling author whose latest book, Half Life, puts double Nobel Peace Prize winning physicist Marie Curie on a “what if” path of life, tracking two very different options she could have taken, and examining the outcome of both. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading Jillian talks about the movie that inspired Half Life, how Madame Curie’s scientific papers are still held in a lead box because of their high levels of radiation, and ho...

Belinda Alexandra is an international bestselling author with a whole string of blockbuster historicals to her credit, but she has taken a new path with her latest book, The Mystery Woman. It has been characterized by one reviewer as “Australian Gothic”, a story of secrets, lies and unexplained death in a 1950s country town. In some ways it has a few similarities to Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, or hints of it. Hi there, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler and today in Binge Reading Belinda talks abou...

Nadia Hashimi is a bestselling international author whose latest book, Sparks Like Stars, draws on her experience as an Afghan American physician who – like her protagonist in Sparks Like Stars – was on emergency call in New York on 9/11. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Nadia talks about the grief we all understand when mothers lose sons and fathers daughters, of her experience growing up in a culture overtaken by war, and writing stories that speak for those w...

Pip Drysdale has three bestselling psychological thrillers to her credit. Her latest, The Paris Affair, features Harper, an online journalist who goes to the City of Love to get over a broken heart and finds herself on the trail of a murderer – and the scoop of a lifetime. And as The Paris Affair’s tagline suggests: She thinks love can kill you. It turns out she might be right. Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and on Binge Reading today Pip talks about the passion she shares with Harper f...

Kirsty Manning’s lush dual timeline stories, dealing with family secrets and female friendships in international settings, have drawn favorable comparison with blockbuster authors like Penny Vincenzi. Her latest book, The French Gift, is a tale of loyalty and betrayal in World War II Germany and Paris today. It is based on the true story of an iconic French Resistance fighter and won’t disappoint. We’ve got three E-book copies of The French Gift to give away in our All New Aussies Giveaway. EN...

Polly Phillips’ debut thriller, My Best Friend’s Murder, deals with frenemies Bec and Izzy, who have been best friends forever. But there is a darker side to their friendship, and Bec is about to reach breaking point. Hi there, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Polly talks about the uncomfortable reality of intimate friendships that turn toxic, and the challenges of plotting a suspenseful domestic thriller. And we’re giving away three e-books of My Best Friend’s Murder i...

Jenny Ashcroft’s historical fiction reflects her many years living and working abroad. She does captivating romances that have been compared to the big names of popular fiction, people like Lucinda Riley and Kate Furnivall. Stories of family secrets and love doomed by misunderstandings of war set in Bombay, Singapore, Australia, and Egypt. Hi there, I’m your host, Jenny Wheeler, and in Binge Reading today Jenny Ashcroft talks about her latest book, Under the Golden Sun, set against the epic bea...

Monica McInerney’s best-selling and award-winning books explore the resilience and fragility of family bonds, whether in a single-mother family as in her latest book, The Godmothers, or in earlier ones like the hugely popular The Trip of a Lifetime. This one introduced, as one critic put it, “a huge-hearted and colorful family you’ll want to call your own”. Australian born and Dublin based when we’re not in pandemic, Monica tops reader popularity polls for warm family stories packed with emotio...