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Dark Desert Road
Family loyalty meets violent extremism in this gripping, high-stakes crime thriller
Brief Description
Dark Desert Road takes us on a hell-ride through the forgotten towns of Australia's Badlands, featuring unforgettable characters and a simmering plot. — Candice Fox Dark Desert Road feels ripped from the headlines, with the signature insight that is Tim Ayliffe's calling card. Kit McCarthy is...
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Dark Desert Road
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A fugitive sister. A dangerous father. A terror cell hiding in plain sight.
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Description
Dark Desert Road takes us on a hell-ride through the forgotten towns of Australia's Badlands, featuring unforgettable characters and a simmering plot. — Candice Fox
Dark Desert Road feels ripped from the headlines, with the signature insight that is Tim Ayliffe's calling card. Kit McCarthy is a good cop, strung out and struggling to adjust after closing a large child protection case. When Kit learns her twin sister Billie is in trouble, she will stop at nothing to find her, even if Billie has drifted so far into a world of conspiracy, sovereign citizens, and bikies that she might not want saving. A cracking, politically-savvy thriller from Australia's master of the art. — Hayley Scrivenor, internationally bestselling author of Dirt Town and Girl Falling
A cracking read, written with Ayliffe's signature flair and ability to reflect current fracture points into a gripping and propulsive story. A taut, urgent page-turner ... fiction built on a terrifying and confronting reality. — Michael Brissenden
Kit McCarthy hasn't seen her identical twin sister, Billie, in more than a decade. The sisters don't see eye to eye, which is understandable, considering Kit's a police officer and Billie followed their violent father into a life of crime.
Kit is no angel. Burnt out by years working in child protection, she has been accused of using excessive force in the arrest of a violent drunk. Kit has just been ordered to take time off work when she gets a frantic message from Billie, telling her she has a young son and that somebody is trying to kill her.
And then Billie disappears.
Determined to find her estranged sister, Kit's only lead comes after visiting their father in prison. Malcolm McCarthy claims Billie married a former United States Marine and has been living with a group of sovereign citizens in the desert country of the New South Wales Riverina.
Kit's journey to find Billie takes her through shuttered towns destroyed by drought, where everybody owns guns, nobody talks to cops, and people get lost for a reason.
Out here a war is brewing between a ruthless bikie gang and a separatist community that is re-engaging with society in the most violent way.
Kit will risk everything to find her sister and the nephew she never knew she had. But does Billie really want to be saved?
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781786587213
Publisher: Bonnier Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 06 January 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Echo
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 153.0mm
Height: 234.0mm
Weight: 419g
Pages: 400
Collections
About the Author
Tim Ayliffe is an award-winning author whose thriller novels have been informed by his 25-year global career as a journalist. He writes about crime, espionage, extremism and the global power games at play in the 21st century. He has been the Managing Editor of Television and Video for ABC News and also Executive Producer of News Breakfast. He is the author of the John Bailey series including The Greater Good, State of Fear, The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy - which won the People's Choice Award at the 2024 Danger Awards -and The Wrong Man. Tim's thrillers are also in development for TV. He lives in Sydney.
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The Greater Good
SET TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN. Like Michael Connelly’s Bosch, John Bailey will risk everything to get to the truth – and expose a deadly enemy. There’s nothing more dangerous than a man who can fall no further … ‘Ayliffe delivers a taut, nail-biting page-turner, stamping his mark on the modern day Australian thriller.’ Better Reading He had never...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2899Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
State of Fear
Set to be adapted for the screen. Like Michael Connelly’s Bosch, John Bailey will risk everything to get to the truth – and bring down the world’s most wanted terrorist. Catching the world's most wanted terrorist was supposed to be someone else's job... John Bailey has a history of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The former...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2899Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Enemy Within
SET TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN. Like Michael Connelly’s Bosch, John Bailey will risk everything to get to the truth – and expose a deadly enemy. Shortlisted for the 2022 Danger Prize. Shortlisted for the 2022 Ned Kelly Award. He heard a voice, someone calling out in the distance, followed by a loud fluttering of birds. Bailey looked up...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$2899Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Killer Traitor Spy
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SET TO BE ADAPTED FOR THE SCREEN. Journalist John Bailey and CIA officer Ronnie Johnson join forces to outwit their most deadly adversary yet. Winner, 2024 Danger Awards, People's choice award Shortlisted, 2024 Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Fiction ‘Ayliffe is a master of the genre.’ Sulari Gentill STEALING SECRETS IS A DEADLY GAME Someone wants Russian millionaire Dmitry Lebedev...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
The Wrong Man
The fifth novel in the John Bailey thriller series. Bailey is trying to solve two murders, ten years apart – unfinished business from his former flame Sharon Dexter. But will it cost him his life? When Sydney socialite Tottie Evans is found dead at a house in Palm Beach, Detective Holly Sutton is called in to investigate. She immediately suspects...Paperback$3799Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
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