Murders, Mysteries & Hauntings

by John Pinkney

The 'spectres' that stalk Western Australia's sinister shipwreck, the drowned man's face that invaded a police photograph, the terrifying power of the Aboriginal killing-bone; in this unique book, best-selling Australian author John Pinkney chronicles our most mystifying phenomena. Also, he presents extraordinary facts about unsolved homicides and unexplained disappearances, the Bogle-Chandler deaths, the Beaumont children, the baffling Murders by Moonlight, the killing of Juanita Nielson...and much more.

These pages offer you gripping insight into Australia's profoundest mysteries.

503 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

JOHN PINKNEY is a bestselling Australian author, screenwriter and journalist.

*His newest ebook is the novel Grave Injustice: An Afterlife Odyssey.

This dark, pacy science fiction thriller draws on John's career-long research into the paranormal - and the strange phenomena that may occur beyond the barriers of death.
Over the years, he has spoken to numerous people who clinically died and were then resuscitated - returning to describe landscapes and events of breathtaking beauty. The testimonies of these returnees from the brink inspired John to write Grave Injustice.
The narrative extends far beyond NDEs (near-death experiences.) It's set in Sydney and tropical Queensland; describing human love, courage and sacrifice, both earthly and transcendental.
Ranged against the young lovers are a corporate cell of scientifically accomplished soul-thieves,who draw their ideas from Dante's nine circles of Hell.
Terrifyingly, the novel portrays brutal conflict between good and evil. And it's hard, for a host of reasons, to predict which will prevail.


John Pinkney's other ebooks include Haunted: the Ghosts that Share Our World...Australia's Strangest Mysteries #1 and #2...A Paranormal File: An Australian Investigator's Casebook...The Mary Celeste Syndrome...Alien Airships Over Old America...Thirst: an Inheritance of Evil...The Girl Who Touched Infinity...The Key and the Fountain.
John's original screenplay Thirst, directed by Rod Hardy and produced by Anthony I. Ginnane won Best Horror
Film prize at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. His 3-act drama, The Face in the Mirror, was co-awarded Best Stage Play in the General Motors/Elizabethan Theatre Trust competition.
He has written several hundred drama episodes for TV - and his paperbooks, including such titles as Great Australian Mysteries 1 & 2, Haunted, Unexplained and Unsolved have been numerously reprinted. His 3-volume Mazeworld series has appeared in USA and UK and in translation through Europe. His logic puzzle books Think!, Think Again! and Wordgames have also been published internationally.
For many years John was a prominent writer with Australia's Age newspaper, subsequently moving his column, Pinkney Place to Rupert Murdoch's national daily The Australian. Here he covered the century's most extraordinary UFO case: the disappearance without trace of young pilot Frederick Valentich, after radioing Flight Services that he was being 'orbited' by a gigantic craft. [full story and photographs are in A Paranormal File.]
John has had a lifelong interest in the unsolved and unexplained. His fascination with the unknown took its most practical form when, with lawyer-friend Peter Norris, he co-founded the organization known today as VUFORS - the Victorian UFO Research Society. John and Peter collaborated to host the weekly radio series The Truth Behind UFOs and Do You Believe in Ghosts?
Over the years John Pinkney's broadcasts and columns have attracted a large mail from listeners and readers describing their brushes with the bizarre. Readers of his books continue the input.

Reviews

[Kirsti · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I saw this book and the author, I knew I'd want to read it! Unfortunately, instead of a brand new book, this one is actually two of his previous books in one edition. I have read Australia's greatest mysteries before, the second book contained within, but not the Haunted one, so that turned out to be OK. Plus, I hadn't read the Mystery part recently and had forgotten a few of the stories, so that turned out well too.

I love Pinkney's writing, it is both intriguing and highly readable. You no sooner finish one story then you want to read the very next, and this book can easily be finished in a small time frame because of this. Of course, you can also read one or two stories and then read something else, because each story is unique and individual. I read almost all of this while we had Thundersnow. Yep, a thunderstorm followed by snow in the Orange area, NSW. What are the chances?


Any of the books by this author are essential for Australian mystery fans. Anyone looking to know more about our quirky history should definitely try one of them. Just don't think this is a totally new book if you see it for sale like I did!

[Allen Tiller · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually previous works of Mr Pinkney's combined into one volume, and republished as a "new"work, which proved disappointing.

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and indepth look at a wide range of unexplainable events in Australia, most of which I'd never heard about before.

I don't believe in hauntings, but I was pretty intrigued by the various stories of strange happenings, most of which didn't seem to have an logical answer. Mysterious indeed! To say nothing of the UFO sightings and unsolved murders.

So, if that sort of thing interests you, I recommend this book.