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BY JAMES PHELAN

Sam is a Dreamer. One of the 13, whose dreams - and nightmares - can become real. These individuals will not only save the world, but change it forever. They are our last hope in the battle against evil. They just don't know it yet.

Sam is the first of the 13 to be uncovered. He begins his desperate mission in Vancouver, and sets off across the globe to find the other twelve Dreamers and locate the scattered artifacts needed to save the world from the ultimate evil. But will they be strong enough to outmaneuver an army of trained agents, thwart security officials at museums, libraries, government facilities, and archaeological sites, and face the terrifying figure that haunts their dreams?

The adventure continues online at www.thelast13.com, where additional content extends the storyline of each book.

Melbourne. Scholastic. 2013. 214p.

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MICHAEL CHABON

A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939.

A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition. From the shared fears, dreams, and desires of two teenage boys, they spin comic book tales of the heroic, fascist-fighting Escapist and the beautiful, mysterious Luna Moth, otherworldly mistress of the night. Climbing from the streets of Brooklyn to the top of the Empire State Building, Joe and Sammy carve out lives, and careers, as vivid as cyan and magenta ink.
 
Spanning continents and eras, this superb book by one of America’s finest writers remains one of the defining novels of our modern American age.

4th ESTATE • London. Harper Collins.. 2010. 634p.

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BY JULIAN LEATHERDALE

In the murky world of Kings Cross in 1932, aspiring crime writer Joan Linderman and her friend and flatmate Bernice Becker live the wild bohemian life, a carnival of parties and fancy-dress artists' balls.

One Saturday night, Joan is thrown headfirst into a real crime when she finds Ellie, her neighbour, murdered. To prove her worth as a crime writer and bring Ellie's killer to justice, Joan secretly investigates the case in the footsteps of Sergeant Lillian Armfield.

But as Joan digs deeper, her list of suspects grows from the luxury apartment blocks of Sydney's rich to the brothels and nightclubs of the Cross's underclass.

Death in the Ladies' Goddess Club is a riveting noir crime thriller with more surprises than even novelist Joan bargained for: blackmail, kidnapping, drug-peddling, a pagan sex cult, undercover cops, and a shocking confession.

From the shadows of bohemian and underworld Kings Cross, who will emerge to tell the real story?

Sydney - Meldourne• Auckland • London. Allen & Unwin.. 2020. 398P.