In this episode, John is joined by bestselling crime author Chris Hammer. Chris is best known for his thrilling novel Scrublands - which was adapted into a Stan TV series in 2023. Chris is also the author of Treasure & Dirt, adapted into a 6 part miniseries on ABC earlier this year. Chris’ latest novel Full Circle brings a new protagonist into the mix - Travis Somerland.

Full Circle has echoes of Succession and The Big Short, we get financial peril, millionaires, revenge, intrigue and redemption. John and Chris chat about his novels to date, how his Crime feels more ‘Old School’ and why character is so important to him.
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Page Turners with The Nile takes you behind the curtain of the literary world. Join bestselling novelist and publishing insider, John Purcell, as he digs past the promotional hype to uncover the real stories behind the books and the writers who create them.

Expect revealing, insightful, and often surprising conversations about a writer's true sources of inspiration, their private path to publication, and their honest reflections on the world around them. If you love books and want a deeper connection to the people who write them, this is your new favourite listen.

Presented by The Nile, your leading online bookshop.

Shop Full Circle: https://thenile.shop/FullCircleAU

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In this episode, John is joined by global bestseller Michael Robotham, whose books have sold over 8.5 million copies worldwide. Michael’s latest novel Tell Me Something True is remarkably the bones of the first novel he wrote, 40 years ago. Previously known as Blessed are the Meek, a twenty-something year old Robotham missed out on publication by one vote at an acquisition meeting, and left the manuscript in a bottom drawer.

Now hugely established, a global phenomenon and having his books adapted to screen - Robotham reimagined his 22 year old self’s novel, and brings it back to life as Tell Me Something True. In a candid conversation, John and Michael break down his experiences having his loyalty and success in Australia questioned, why it took him over a decade to write another book after his first, and how his experiences as a journalist and ghost writer have shaped his career today.

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Shop Tell Me Something True: https://thenile.shop/TellMeSomethingAU

Shop More Michael Robotham: https://thenile.shop/MichaelRobothamAU

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Books by Michael Robotham:

The Suspect (2004)
The Drowning Man (2005)
The Night Ferry (2007)
Shatter (2008)
Bombproof (2008)
Bleed for Me (2010)
The Wreckage (2011)
Say You’re Sorry (2012)
Watching You (2013)
If I Tell You... I’ll Have to Kill You (2013)
Life or Death (2014)
Close Your Eyes (2015)
The Secrets She Keeps (2017)
The Other Wife (2018)
Good Girl, Bad Girl (2019)
When She Was Good (2020)
When You Are Mine (2021)
Lying Beside You (2022)
Storm Child (2024)
The White Crow (2025)
Tell Me Something True (2027)

In this episode, John is joined by International Bestselling Author Holly Ringland. Holly is best known for her captivating novels, The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, as well as her National Bestselling Non-Fiction book The House That Joy Built. Holly’s new novel The World Beneath her feet is a story of homecoming, belonging, and the land that made us.

John and Holly discuss her prior success and how it strays from the experiences of most Australian homegrown authors, where inspiration strikes her and a little bit about her time living in England. Holly is a spectacular storyteller, so this episode is a treat.

Books Mentioned:
The Lost Flowers of Alice Heart (2019)
The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding (2023)
The House That Joy Built (2024)
The World Beneath Her Feet (2026)

Join us for a bonus episode of Page Turners, where Stacey sits down with David Schnauer for a casual Fireside chat. New Zealand once ranked among the world’s most prosperous nations. Not any longer. David’s book Uncomfortable Economics shows that New Zealand’s underperformance is not inevitable. It is the result of choices - cultural and political - that can be changed.

Stacey and David discuss their outlook on the New Zealand economy, how mindset can be changed to care about economics just as much as the All Blacks, and that the true end-game isn’t the short term gains of subsets of the community, its the greater quality of life for all New Zealanders.

In this episode, John sits down with Bestselling author of Sorrow and Bliss, Meg Mason. Meg shares details into her writing process (which often involved the discarding of full novels), some of the themes involved in her new novel Sophie, Standing There and how she convinced Elizabeth Strout to feature as a named character in the book.

John and Meg walk through their late in life journeys into reading, and spend a little bit of time nerding out over literature, Middlemarch, and the occasional exclusive nature of the literary world.

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Shop Sophie, Standing There: https://thenile.shop/SophieStandingAU

Shop More Meg Mason: https://thenile.shop/MegMasonAU

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In this episode, our Head of Books New Zealand, Stacey Collins steps into the host spot to interview a fellow Kiwi, romantasy blockbuster author Sarah A. Parker. A big fan of the Moonfall series, Stacey looks for insider details at the construction of complex magic landscapes, what inspired her to begin writing, and how long her creative process takes.

Sarah shares personal details about her journey to writing the Moonfall series, as well as the Crystal Bloom series - both still in the works. Will she give us a sneak peek into Moonfall Book 3? You’ll have to watch to find out.

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Shop The Ballad of Falling Dragons: https://thenile.shop/FallingDragonsNZ

Shop More Sarah A. Parker: https://thenile.shop/SarahAParker

Follow Sarah:
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Books Mentioned:

Crystal Bloom Series:
To Bleed a Crystal Bloom (2021)
To Snap A Silver Stem (2022)
To Flame A Wild Flower (2023)

Moonfall Series:
When The Moon Hatched (2024)
The Ballad of Falling Dragons (2026)
Moonfall Book 3: Unreleased

Join John Purcell on Page Turners as he chats with Shannon Kelly-White about her debut novel, Billie King: a bold, fast-moving Australian adventure about mothers, daughters, female bushrangers, and women fighting to survive on the margins. Shannon shares the inspiration behind the book, her love of the Australian bush, and her leap from nonfiction into fearless fiction.

Shop Billie King: https://thenile.shop/BillieKingAU

Follow Shannon Kelly-White:
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What would you do differently if you could live your choices again?

In this episode, host John Purcell sits down with bestselling Australian thriller author Petronella McGovern to unpack her mind-bending new novel, Every Time She Wakes.

When university careers counsellor Suze and her family are evacuated during a raging bushfire, their rescue van is hijacked. Following a terrifying crash, Suze doesn’t die—instead, she wakes up two weeks earlier. No one else remembers the horror. And then, it happens again. And again. With each shifting loop, the reality she knows slips further away.

John and Petronella dive deep into the mechanics of writing a high-stakes, time-bending mystery and the planning that goes into it. They also chat about Petronella’s backlist, and how she got her start in writing.

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Books by Petronella McGovern

Six Minutes (2019)
The Good Teacher (2020)
The Liars (2022)
The Last Trace (2024)
Every Time She Wakes (2026)