DAVID PHILLIPS

Be a part of the Gold Rushes to California and Australia in the 1850s. Join convicts as they are transported from England to a hostile, distant land. Tramp across outback Australia with a swag on your shoulder. Share a drink with a great and famous colonial author and poet or an overnight camp with a notorious murderer. Go to war against the Boer in South Africa. Fight horrendous bush fires and sail the oceans in search of the lustrous pearl.Share some of the history in a series of stories where fiction is woven into the reality of a fledgling nation, Australia.Every life has a value.

Ella married into the magazine publishing empire, but she wanted to control it. There were no limits to the methods she would adopt to achieve her goal. Would she kill to achieve her objective?

Can one tiny woman, descended from a line tracing the history of the ninja, and taught the secrets of an ancient clan at her granfathers knee, go against the evil of a Chinese master spy and the most ruthless tong in the city? Can she come out on top against such odds? It began as a simple private investigation into the affairs of a cheating husband. It led Trent Bain and his friend and sometime partner, Hibari Okusu, into a nest of spies and cyber criminals and a city gang. Hibari used the power of the learned techniques to protect herself and taunt her enemies and, in the end, needed those powers to save her life.

Shortz!Series - A novella in the Settlement of Australia Series.A life in the 1900s in the growing country of Australia. Feel the joys of the good times and the heartache of loss; the pleasures of peace and the horrors of war; the bounties of good seasons and the devastation of drought.

The law tracks down the criminal and charges are laid. The courts place those found guilty in prison. In time, the criminal convinces a board that he, or she, is reformed and ready for release. Often, this is not the case. Some ex-cops decide to watch known repeat offenders and take justice to its full extent if the re-offend.A novella in the Shortz!Series

Who killed poor Melvin? It seemed an open-and-shut case but detective Dirk Morecombe was not so sure. Dumped from the case, he continued to investigate the murder and discovered a confusing array of motives among the group of suspects that developed as international intrigue and shady dealings became evident.

A lawyer takes on the task of defending a man who is plainly guilty of the murder charge.The boss of the defendants gang appears during the trial process to taunt and haunt him as he works to limit the damage to his client and, at the same time, plots revenge for crimes and sufferings of the past. He finds himself caught in the conflicts of the past while he deals with the urgencies of the present. The lawyer wonders: Could I be capable of murder?

Relive the horror of the vicious, bloody, dolphin hunts of Taijii, Japan and the hard life of the people of the area that resulted in young men being sent to Broome in far north-western Australia to life, and often to terrible death,as divers on the luggers plying the seas in search of the pearl. Join a chase through outback Australia as various groups are in pursuit of the man who has the ornamental koala package containing secrets of interest to Hong Kong, mainland china, Broome, Darwin and London. Meet a master jeweller and his wealthy clients at a Paris auction of a beautiful piece incorporating a magnificent pearl. Follow a cat burglar with interesting rivals and acquaintances. Feel the tension as Miles Howard negotiates with pearl company executives in Kobe, Japan and members of the Yakuza become involved in conflicts around and within the criminal cartels.

The Chinese cyber-terrorists hacked into the US government and US company systems and stole vital information. One man was given the job of tracking down the criminals involved.The trail led across the States, into Canada and finally to Hong Kong and Macau, before returning to United States home ground.With the help of his own hacker and a switched-on lady partner, Dan Miles finally got to the truths of the attack on his country.You can never stop the Chinese from stealing. The best you can do is make someone pay.

Country singer Judd Rich is frustrated. His gigs go well but he is getting nowhere and his next gig is out of Darwin, miles from country music action.Mick Turner is a drunk and feels he is washed up for good. He needs something to fire him up or he feels there may be nothing to live for.They meet by chance and for each of them there is a hope that they might find what it is that they each want so badly.Can Mick recreate the successes he was able to achieve in earlier days as a creative promoter? Can Judd create the songs he will need to be noticed and finally have a recognised CD?Judd meets Anne and falls in love. Will this help him or make things more difficult? Mick meets Veronica and they never can work out their feelings for each other.Cal Aitken joins the group. He can sing and he can play. How will this affect relationships within the troupe as they travel the Australian country?This is a story about people, country music people, travelling the country and pouring out their music to a growing number of dedicated fans.

A tong is Cantonese for a guild and includes secret societies and cartels. This is a story of a few weeks in Hong Kong when it is riven by hatred, murder, drug dealings and illegal share trades whilst surrounded by the lure and excitement of events at the Happy Valley racecourse and the glitter and opportunity of the city itself. It is the world of the underdogs and eventual winners and losers in a city where winning is everything.

Shortz!Series - this is a novella in the Settlement of Australia SeriesErnie Scrimshaw was a transported convict and arrived in Australia in the early days of settlement. He was severely treated and, finally, escaped to find a valley where he settled down. In time, after several trips back to Sydney, he established a small herd and a young family..The population was expanding and, with the aid of some friendly natives, they crossed the mountain range to the huge pastoral expanse of central New South Wales.They encountered a gang of cattle thieves, range wars, acts of revenge and restitution as they struggled to build a life in the outback of the country.Finally, the family headed deep into western New South Wales, only to experience further attacks and the hurt of family conflict.This is a tale of the early days of the cattle industry in a wild new land.

Taken2"We cannot find our daughter. We need help. Please, will you come to us." Can Martin, a private detective battling with addiction to alcohol, find the missing girl as he battles with a cruel and crafty kidnapper? Can he stay sober, and safe, as he chases down the weird structure of the kidnap? And can he find and recover the missing girl before it is too late? Finally, will he find a way to beat his addiction as he finds himself caring for a woman he meets in the process of his investigations?

Would a grandson follow a dead mans trail all the way to the end of the line?Can a man, beaten down to nothing,ever make it back to where he has once been? Daniel Hart met Eliza Chambers. They fell in love.Could she marry so far below her station in life? Would he be prepared to live in her familys grand mansion?And then along came a war.On his return, Daniel felt the abject shame of the penniless while his fiance, Eliza, was a wealthy heiress.A desperate departure in search of fortune led to the heartfelt fear of a beggar on the streets of a dusty mining town. The rescue by a kindly businessman who saw a lonely loser down on his luck and bereft of hope.Would the eventual bonanza gold strike change Daniel?Years later, would utter financial ruin be the end of him?And how would Eliza reconcile her heart to his decision to search, yet again, for a bonanza to restore his pride? *Jacob Hart found the letters from Daniel when Eliza passed away. He resolved to follow those letters through the back-tracks of Australia, searching for the essence of the man who was his grandfather and for the old mans final resting place.He found all he was looking for at the end of the line.

If you like psychological crime fiction packed with action and suspense, youll love She-Venger.Two Murders. Are they related? Detective Dirk Morecombe ponders the motivation. Does a third body provide a clue? A female suspect emerges with whom Dirk becomes involved against his better judgement. As he closes in on the search for proof, the terms change and the hunter may become the hunted.The Back StoryAfter losing both parents in a car wreck, young Marta Zelic ends up in state care. Forced to grow up quickly, she eventually runs off to the city she is befriended by a prostitute who introduces her to the trade. Happy for a while, Martas life is ripped apart once more when a knife-ripped, naked body of her close friend and mentor was discovered on a roadside clearing. The killer was sent to prison and Marta prepared to wait as long as it would take to have her revenge.Dirk Morecombe, the detective in both cases, is convinced Marta is the vengeful killer of the man found dead and degraded in a roadside clearing but complications in the case make it hard to establish proof of guilt.Detective in a DilemmaEven as he seeks the proof that will convict Marta, he becomes emotionally entangled with her, leading to moments he wishes he could have controlled which cause him to doubt himself as a top detective.They come together in a bitter struggle for the final confrontation.Will he arrest her?Is there enough evidence to convict?Who will win the final exchange?This gritty hard-boiled detective thriller will have you on the edge of your seat. Click the Look Inside feature and start reading the first chapter now.

A novelette in the Shortz!Series of stories in the Settlement of Australia Series.Fascination with the mountain ranges leads to the life of travelling the country and a life involved in prospecting.Tragedy strikes the family to tear their world apart. Ongoing restlessness of the wanderer takes the family far into the outback of this far-flung country, from the paradise of the Blue Mountains to the desolation of the barren interior of the western hinterland.

Experience the early, exciting days at the Kimberley diamond mines in southern Africa through a friend of the famous Barney Barnato, one of the Kings of the Kimberley. Ask the questions that needed to be asked following his premature, tragic death. Feel the envy, hate and love engendered on the diamond fields.Live through the terror of the wars in Angola and Sierra Leone when the blood diamonds were used to pay the price of the human tragedies resulting from raging ambition. Imagine life in the Kalahari Desert and the connectios with the diamond industry.Follow a diamond heist in London through Monte Carlo to Antwerp, the City of Diamonds.Take a side trip to the Witwatersrand to the scenes of the great gold discovery in the Transvaal and engage with a diamond discovery in Peru and the life and death actions of those wishing to gain control of the mine. Meet the spirit of a famous early Indian diamond, the Koh-I-Nor.

A new colony needs news and the press will be a major purveyor of recent activities and actions affecting the population. One paper leads to another and competition can become bitter, leading to extreme measures in striving to be number one in the founding setllement of Sydney, Australia.A novella in the Settlement of Australia series.

When his father is murdered, a young Matthew West is left in charge of the family busines. There is a vindictive rival, with connections around the city, who plans to bring him down and take over the West family companies.A secret file, put together by a deceased ex-cop investigator, could help Matthew survive the attacks, but there would be a heap of trouble involved in finding it before those who wish him harm.His main rival deals with a biker gang in the distribution of drugs and is involved with so-called upright citizens in fraudulent land deals. Matthew has his friends but does not have a good relationship with the police.A new love brightened his life and, in the end, helped him to overcome some of his problems.Can Matthew save the business and survive the concerted attacks and will his relationship with Valerie Johnson survive the difficulties they face together?