Garreth Hoyle is a true crime writer whose destructive love affair with hallucinogenic drugs has sent him searching for ghosts in the unforgiving mallee desert of Western Australia. Heading north through Kalgoorlie, he attempts to score off old friends from his shearing days on Banjawarn Station. His journey takes an unexpected detour when he discovers an abandoned ten-year-old girl and decides to return her to her estranged father in Leonora, instead of alerting authorities. Together they begin the road trip from hell through the scorched heart of the state’s northern goldfields. Love, friendship and hope are often found in the strangest places, but forgiveness is never simple, and the past lies buried just beneath the blood red topsoil. The only question is whether Hoyle should uncover it, or run as fast as his legs can take him. Banjawarn is an unsettling debut from Josh Kemp, winner of the 2021 Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript. Echoing Cormac McCarthy’s haunting border trilogy and narrative vernacular that recalls the sparse lyricism of Randolph Stow and Tim Winton, this is a darkly funny novel that earns its place amongst the stable of Australian gothic fiction.

Aum Shinrikyo and Japanese Youth offers insights into Japanese spirituality by analyzing the motivations of those who joined the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect. This group attracted worldwide attention after its poison gas attack on the Tokyo subways in March, 1995. Daniel A. Metraux explores the reasons that thousands of Japanese people, many of them youths, joined the sect. He questions why they joined it, what they expected of their membership, and why they stayed involved or left. Metraux finds that most of the members got involved for religious and social reasons and did not partake in the terrorist and criminal activities of the leaders of Aum Shinrikyo. In addition, the author examines how the Aum situation reflects a growing sense of alienation from the traditional Japanese religion and culture among some of the young and middle-aged Japanese people, providing important information about the present status of the Japanese people.

If you haven't seen a Discovery Channel gold-hunting show, you might picture a gold prospector as a relic of the Wild West: a TNT-toting, bearded old man wildly swinging a pick on the hunt for nuggets, guided by old maps, superstition, legends and instinct. It's still predominantly a man's world, and still often fanatical, but these days the golden dream attracts people from all walks of life—and 25-year-old Tyler Mahoney (Australian star of the Discovery Channel's Gold Rush series) is leading the way. Hailing from Kalgoorlie, Tyler is a fourth-generation gold miner and has seen up close how gold fever makes normally reasonable people do the most irrational things. From mysterious corpses in the desert to huge heists, backstabbings to life-changing finds, Tyler unearths hair-raising stories and legends from Australia's gold prospecting past and present, while sharing her experience forging her way in a traditionally male domain. She writes candidly about the push and pull of the gold world in her own life, as well as her struggles with bipolar disorder —a mental-health challenge that in some ways parallels the feast-or-famine nature of prospecting itself. With humor, grit and an infectious zest for life, "gold digger" Tyler Mahoney stakes her claim.

'a smart, daring and refreshing book.' - Weekend Australian 'deliciously sinister' - Herald Sun Why would anyone join a cult? Maybe they're unhappy with their current religion, or they want to change the world, or they're disappointed with their lives and want to find something bigger or holier that makes sense of this confusing, chaotic and dangerous world. Or maybe they just want to give themselves the best possible chance of having sex with aliens. Whatever the reason, once people are in, it's usually very difficult for them to leave. Cults have ways of making their followers do loopy, dangerous stuff to prove their loyalty, and in return they get a chance to feel secure within the cult's embrace, with an added bonus of being utterly terrified of the outside world. From the tragic JONESTOWN Kool-Aid drinkers to the Australian cult THE FAMILY to the fiery Waco climax of THE BRANCH DAVIDIANS, this book is a wide-sweeping look at cults around the world, from the host of the popular podcast ZEALOT. 'a piss-taker of rare boldness.' - Weekend Australian

As weaponry and warfare have become more complex and sophisticated, so the long-term effects have become more deadly. In Planet Earth Rosalie Bertell proposes that the key to understanding the impact of future wars lies in a close analysis of the past. She shows how the quest for military power has destabilized the delicate natural balance of the earth's ecosystem, causing widespread devastation in environmental, economic and social terms and calls for a new approach to security, which rises above national agendas to seek global solutions to a global problem.

There is a widely held belief in the imminent probability of nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons of mass destruction being used by terrorists against civilian targets. This edited volume critically assesses the suggestion that one safeguard against this possibility would be to strengthen existing international prohibitions against state- level acquisition of such weapons. A glimpse of the possible potential of terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction has been seen through the actions of the Tokyo Aum group, and through the use of chlorine by insurgents in Iraq. However, the extent of the real threat posed is as yet unclear, and safeguarding against it in developing countries will not be easy. This book assembles specialists in each category of WMD in order to examine the potential of expanding the three ‘classical’ arms control treaties in order to combat the threat posed by smaller terrorist groups, and draws conclusions as to the strengths and weaknesses of this suggestion.

Dangerous madmen or divinely inspired prophets? From murdering religious sects like the Assassins and the Thugs, to the orgies of the little known Khlysty and the self-mutilations of the Skloptzi; including modern day killers like the vicious Manson Family and the violent racism of the Ku Klux Klan - this book shows how cults and fanatics had such a powerful effect on the world.

Explores attempts by terrorists to acquire nuclear materials and fabricate nuclear systems and suggests that strict controls on nuclear weapons, materials, and expertise will reduce opportunities for terrorists to acquire them.

Analyzes the vast impact that Aum has had on Japanese society, including its appeal to Japanese youth. In-depth study of the question of civil liberties now that many Japanese wish to ban sects. Also details political questions raised by the Aum crisis, Aum's revivalist mission to Russia, and attempts by Aum and other New Religions in Japan to gain money and fame by pushing an "Armageddon" theme.