Do you love stories set in the vast outback of Australia? Subscribe to my newsletter.
Share
R. Bownds Author - March Newsletter 2026 - Plenty of Freebies
Published 4 months ago • 3 min read
Hello to all my newsletter readers it's time once again to touch base.
It's hard to believe the first three months of 2026 has almost gone already. Nine more months like this and we'll be looking down the barrel at 2027 before we know it. I think our fast paced, rush here, rush there world today leaves us wondering ... where does the time go?
I still plan on releasing books 4 and 5 of The Mara Mysteries this year all going well.
Signed and Unsigned Paperbacks
I have paperback copies signed or unsigned of all my books available through my website or direct through my Payhip store. Including glossy cover paperback copies of the short story Murder on the Murray.
Murder on the Murray is also available as an ebook when you sign up to my newsletter. If you don't have a copy as yet grab yourself one. You won't get double newsletters if you're already a subscriber.
The recent floods through the outback of South Australia reminded me of several incidents back when we trapped rabbits in the 60s. This is one of those times.
The creeks through the outback are mostly dry unless spring fed but the lesson well learnt is never to pitch camp in a dry creek bed even if its the only source of shade available. One such time with no rain forecast my father decided for the comfort of the family and against his better judgement he did just that. We setup camp beneath several gum trees on a small raised patch of gravelly ground in the centre of an extremely wide dry creek bed. We camped there for several days, no rain, scorching hot and shade ... until.
One morning we crawled from our beds to find our little camp perched on an island in the middle of a fast rising creek. Luckily at this time the water wasn't anymore than knee high and us kids and Mum waded through carrying camping gear while Dad and my brothers hitched the car to the caravan and drove it, the truck and our trapping vehicle across.
What to remember in that country is, there may be no rain where you are but don't for a moment believe you are safe from flood. Those creaks come down fast and the storm the water came from could be miles away but it'll be upon you in no time.
The Mara Mysteries - Books 1, 2 and 3.
The Mara Mysteries Additional - A Weekend at Joe's
Check out this Australian mystery author. If you're into Aussie crime his DI Stratton series could be right up your ally.
S.J. Thiessen
Mystery crime author
Simon James (S.J.) Thiessen is a Tasmanian crime fiction author based in Hobart, where he lives with his wife Jane and two of their four children (the eldest two sons having left home to make the same mistakes Simon made at their age). After a career spent founding businesses, advising leaders, and consulting on workplace culture, Simon eventually admitted something to himself: he didn’t just want to write a novel—he wanted to be a novelist. The result are the Detective Inspector Terry Stratton mystery crimes; a growing series of Australian crime novels set firmly in lutruwita / Tasmania. Stratton is a detective who struggles with politics, distrusts authority, and prefers uncomfortable truths to convenient answers. Unsurprisingly, Simon relates. The series began with Crossing the Patriline, a prequel novel, and continues with Aether and Degrees of Retribution. While each book stands alone, the series builds a wider world of recurring characters, long grudges, and professional rivalries—where past decisions echo loudly into the present. Simon’s stories are shaped by his enduring love of classic and contemporary mysteries, and by themes he returns to often: justice and power, belonging and inclusion, dyslexia, identity, and resistance to systems that protect themselves before they protect people.
Hello Reader In my last newsletter I started the story of our trip from South Australia to Queensland back in 1969 including our encounter with the great train robber Ronald Biggs. After we dropped Ronald Biggs and the man he was travelling with off in St George we continued up the Moonie Highway. It was still raining and flood water lay everywhere to the point where it was dangerous to even drift one wheel off the bitumen in fear of being bogged or worse. Not great on a narrow road not much...
Hello Reader In my last newsletter I briefly touched on characters we meet over our lifetime and how these sometimes quirky and interesting people stay in our memories. Back in 1969 we were trapping rabbits in South Australia.Times were tough,Myxomatosis was spreading through the rabbit population like wildfire. This introduced disease wasn't only infecting the rabbits but the wildlife as well. I could tell some horror stories of the sights we saw but the authorities denied it all in their...
Hello Reader The Devil's Revenge Pre- order now live on Amazon. Release date 30th of June 2026. Some men hide in plain sight. That's what makes them dangerous. When Detective Senior Sergeant Mark Bannon is pulled from his posting in country Victoria and handed a cold case by Detective Superintendent Turner. A fourteen-year-old girl raped and murdered in an empty house for sale in Cheltenham. He inherits more than a file. He inherits a failed investigation, and the uncomfortable suspicion that...
