{"title":"Vikki Petraitis","description":"\u003cp\u003eVikki Petraitis delves into the darker corners of crime and justice with gripping narratives that blend true crime with compelling storytelling. Her works, such as \u003cem\u003eCops, Drugs\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eLawyer X and Me\u003c\/em\u003e, reveal complex characters and tangled investigations, offering readers an immersive experience in the world of law enforcement and criminal intrigue.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom chilling disappearances in \u003cem\u003eThe Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron\u003c\/em\u003e to the haunting stories in \u003cem\u003eThe Unbelieved\u003c\/em\u003e, Petraitis masterfully captures the tension and emotional depth of crime and thriller genres. These books provide insight into both the victims and those who seek justice, weaving suspense with real-life drama.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"the-unbelieved-by-vikki-petraitis-9781761067396","title":"The Unbelieved","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e‘So you believed the alleged rapists over the alleged victim?’ Jane’s voice took on an indignant pitch. ‘Girls lie sometimes.’ I nodded. ‘And rapists lie all the time.’\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Senior Detective Antigone Pollard moves to the coastal town of Deception Bay, she is still in shock and grief. Back in Melbourne, one of her cases had gone catastrophically wrong, and to escape the guilt and haunting memories, she requested a transfer to the quiet town she had grown up in.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut there are some things you can’t run from. A month into her new life, she is targeted by a would-be rapist at the pub and realises why there have been no convictions following a spate of similar sexual attacks in the surrounding district. The male witnesses in the pub back her attacker, and even her boss doesn’t believe her.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHers is the first reported case in Deception Bay, but soon there are more. As Antigone searches for answers, she encounters a wall of silence in the town built of secrets, denial, and fear. The women of Deception Bay are scared, and the law is not on their side. The nightmare has followed her home.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eChilling, timely, and gripping, \u003cem\u003eThe Unbelieved\u003c\/em\u003e takes us behind the headlines to a small-town world that is all too real and introduces us to a brilliant new voice in crime fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46522689159404,"sku":"9781761067396","price":34.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/28060903482814.jpg?v=1749041930"},{"product_id":"the-stolen-by-vikki-petraitis-9781761471667","title":"The Stolen","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003e‘Gripping, heartfelt, and intelligent, \u003ci\u003eThe Stolen\u003c\/i\u003e is an emotionally rich thriller that crackles with tension.’ Christian White, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Ledge\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘\u003ci\u003eThe Stolen\u003c\/i\u003e is compelling, down-to-earth Australian crime fiction that delivers on absolutely every page. Vikki Petraitis is the real deal!’ Hayley Scrivenor, author of \u003ci\u003eDirt Town\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eGirl Falling\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSenior Detective Antigone Pollard is fearless. Armed with a trained police dog, a black belt in judo, and the will to speak her mind, she faces opposition head-on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAfter six months, Antigone is feeling more settled in Deception Bay. The summer holiday season is off to a slow start and crime rates are down. But when a distraught mother calls the station to report her baby missing, Antigone and Wozza begin a race against time to find the baby and the person who brazenly took him.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the middle of the frantic investigation, Antigone's mother, Dr Jilly Pollard, arrives for an unexpected visit and shares a tragic family secret, which she needs Antigone's help to resolve. Antigone takes a DNA test that yields two surprising results.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnd just when things at the Deception Bay police station are running smoothly with a new commander, Senior Sergeant Amanda Filipovic, at the helm, circumstances change one stormy night. In the blink of an eye, Antigone's old boss, Bill Wheeler, is back, making the missing baby investigation harder every day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOnce again, Antigone faces the questions: who’s protecting the women? And what happens when we don’t believe them?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘To read a Vikki Petraitis crime novel is to be let in on the secret of how things really work, both at a procedural level, and in terms of the best and worst ways humans behave. It was a treat to revisit Senior Detective Antigone Pollard as she unravelled another twisty and topical mystery with the help of her authentic and (mostly) faithful support crew. Like \u003ci\u003eThe Unbelieved\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Stolen\u003c\/i\u003e is a clear-eyed, fast-paced take on the reverberating effects of a crime on survivors and their community, making it a must-read for anyone who likes to go beyond the headlines, to where the true story waits.’ Jacqueline Bublitz, author of \u003ci\u003eBefore You Knew My Name\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLeave the Girls Behind\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘Vikki Petraitis knows how to draw us into a story and hold us there. She has the gift of making us become emotionally invested in her characters. If you begin \u003ci\u003eThe Stolen\u003c\/i\u003e, you \u003ci\u003ewill\u003c\/i\u003e finish it, and you will have experienced a richly satisfying range of emotions along the way.’ Robert Gott, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Port Fairy Murders\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eNaked Ambition\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003cb\u003e‘I couldn't put \u003ci\u003eThe Stolen\u003c\/i\u003e down. Vikki Petraitis has a way of getting under your skin, not just with her tight plotting, but with the emotional weight behind every chapter. Antigone Pollard is such a refreshingly real character: no clichés, no tropes, just a smart, tough, deeply caring cop doing the work. This isn't just crime fiction, it's fiction that makes you feel.’\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e Anonymous \u003ci\u003eCasefile\u003c\/i\u003e host\u003c\/b\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46593561657580,"sku":"9781761471667","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781761471667.jpg?v=1751006102"},{"product_id":"cops-drugs-lawyer-x-and-me-by-paul-dale-9780733643804","title":"Cops, Drugs, Lawyer X and Me","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHow did a kid from the country who dreamed of joining the Victoria Police, end up on the wrong side of the bars? There are a lot of reasons, and I hope this story will help clarify some of them, not only for you, the reader, but for me too, because a lot of the time I am left shaking my head, wondering how things went so wrong.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003ePaul Dale knows he is tainted. After almost fifteen years as a cop, working in Homicide and rising to the rank of Detective Sergeant in the Victorian Drug Squad, he saw the worst of what people can do. But when he was accused and jailed firstly for drug offences and then for murder, Dale realised the murky world he was navigating was going to take him under too.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDale dealt with crims like Carl Williams, Terry Hodson and Tommy Ivanovic on the Melbourne streets. But when a burglary ended in Hodson's arrest, Dale's life started to unravel. He turned to Nicola Gobbo, a lawyer and friend he thought could help: the lawyer who became known as Lawyer X.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eEventually exonerated of any crimes, Paul Dale's story reveals the shocking deals done at the highest levels of the Victorian Police Force and the damage wrought by Victoria Police's use of Lawyer X.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46829877723372,"sku":"9780733643804","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/5138333482449.jpg?v=1758265595"},{"product_id":"the-vanishing-of-vivienne-cameron-by-vikki-petraitis-9781761820830","title":"The Vanishing of Vivienne Cameron","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA murdered young woman; a missing wife; a forty-year mystery.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 1986 on Phillip Island, a young woman called Beth Barnard was savagely murdered and her boyfriend’s wife, Vivienne Cameron, went missing. The police immediately jumped to what they thought was the obvious conclusion: in a jealous rage, Vivienne had killed Beth and then herself. Vivienne’s body was never found.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut Vikki Petraitis wasn’t convinced. The official line didn’t explain all the evidence, and it certainly didn’t seem like the behaviour of a mother with two small boys. Fascinated by both the case and the bias it revealed in investigators, Petraitis wrote her first true-crime book about the murder, with Paul Daley, and decades later made a podcast on the case. Both brought new evidence and testimony to light, and asked questions that were not asked at the time.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNow, to mark the fortieth anniversary of Beth’s murder and Vivienne’s vanishing, Petraitis brings together all her discoveries and true-crime experience in a brilliant forensic investigation into what happened all those years ago, and why.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46953816981740,"sku":"9781761820830","price":41.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/f67ce88137a75b3836ed6680c1f0aabb.jpg?v=1762371629"},{"product_id":"once-a-copper-by-vikki-petraitis-9780648066330","title":"Once a Copper","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOnce a Copper\u003c\/em\u003e, always a copper. At least that's how it seems for Brian 'The Skull' Murphy, long-retired but sought out by a trail of journalists and cops who regularly beat a path to his door. Once known as Australia's toughest cop, The Skull was both charged with manslaughter (and acquitted), then awarded a Valour Award for bravery in the line of duty. It is these two sides to the complex man that intrigue audiences to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA non-drinking, Catholic family man, The Skull didn't fit the 1950s police mould and often found himself on the outer among his colleagues. Dodging crooks and corruption on both sides of the thin blue line, The Skull carefully cultivated a reputation for being a 'mad bastard'. Over 40 men felt the sting of his bullets, and many more felt the sting of his fists.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBut behind Australia's toughest cop lay a personal secret of sexual abuse which Murphy shares publicly for the first time, in the hope that it will help others. This abuse formed the kind of police officer he later became—tough on the bad guys, but fiercely protective towards victims.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWith today's political correctness and strict rules of conduct, there will never be another big personality copper like Brian 'The Skull' Murphy. This is his story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072637124844,"sku":"9780648066330","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/20023083482418.jpg?v=1765121965"},{"product_id":"the-unbelieved-by-vikki-petraitis-9781761472985","title":"The Unbelieved","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cb\u003eSOON TO BE A MAJOR ABC TV SERIES\u003c\/b\u003e\n\n\u003ci\u003e'So you believed the alleged rapists over the alleged victim?' Jane's voice took on an indignant pitch. 'Girls lie sometimes.' I nodded. 'And rapists lie all the time.'\u003c\/i\u003e\n\nWhen Senior Detective Antigone Pollard moves to the coastal town of Deception Bay, she is still in shock and grief. Back in Melbourne, one of her cases had gone catastrophically wrong, and to escape the guilt and the haunting memories, she'd requested a transfer to the quiet town she'd grown up in.\n\nBut there are some things you can't run from. A month into her new life, she is targeted by a would-be rapist at the pub, and realises why there have been no convictions following a spate of similar sexual attacks in the surrounding district. The male witnesses in the pub back her attacker and even her boss doesn't believe her.\n\nHers is the first reported case in Deception Bay, but soon there are more. As Antigone searches for answers, she encounters a wall of silence in the town built of secrets and denial and fear. The women of Deception Bay are scared and the law is not on their side. The nightmare has followed her home.\n\nChilling, timely and gripping, \u003ci\u003eThe Unbelieved\u003c\/i\u003e takes us behind the headlines to a small-town world that is all too real - and introduces us to a brilliant new voice in crime fiction.\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Allen \u0026 Unwin Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47072921518316,"sku":"9781761472985","price":27.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/7e7c38776424c372227a99c33350822e.jpg?v=1765137763"},{"product_id":"the-reckoning-by-vikki-petraitis-9781761823855","title":"The Reckoning","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhen the system fails, justice must take another form.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen two convicted rapists walk free on appeal, the town of Deception Bay splits down the middle. The men swagger onto a packed cricket ground on Australia Day to a hero’s welcome. Before lunch is over, dozens of people fall ill. Among them, the newly released men.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAs panic rips through the town and emergency services buckle, Detective Antigone Pollard and her partner, Wozza, scramble to figure out what has happened. Is it an accident? Or was this deliberate?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Antigone’s mother, a doctor, vanishes while responding to a call for help, Antigone enters a desperate race to find her. But time is running out.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAntigone faces a choice and, this time, she doesn’t wait for permission. With no good options left, she does what she always does – relies on herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Reckoning\u003c\/em\u003e is an unflinching, morally uncompromising crime novel about thwarted justice, institutional failure, exacted revenge and the price paid when the system looks away.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Simon \u0026 Schuster NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47745321959660,"sku":"9781761823855","price":32.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781761823855-the-reckoning.jpg?v=1781500484"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/vikki-petraitis.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}