Author Night: Tim Ayliffe
Location
Umina Beach Book Nook
About
Get the inside scoop on Tim’s gripping new books at the Book Nook, hosted by Donna Cameron.
ABOUT TIM:
Tim Ayliffe’s crime thriller novels have been informed by his 25-year career as a journalist in Australia and around the world. He writes about 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 standalone novel, Dark Desert Road, and the ‘John Bailey’ series including The Greater Good, State of Fear, The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy and The Wrong Man.
Tim also writes thrillers for younger readers. The first book in his S.I.G.M.A. spy series – Web of Spies – was released in 2026.
Tim's novels are also in development for TV.
DARK DESERT ROAD
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?
WEB OF SPIES
When Ollie heads out for a run in the park, the last thing he expects to find is a dead body. But the real shock is that Ollie recognises the man. And somehow, he's connected to Ollie's father ... who vanished ten months ago.
And then he learns that the dead man was a spy.
With everything he thought he knew about his dad now in doubt, there's only one way for Ollie to get answers. He's going to have to solve the murder.
Armed with an old spy kit, a couple of bikes and a drone, Ollie and his friends Ella and George are about to step into a world that is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined ...
Tim Ayliffe’s crime thriller novels have been informed by his 25-year career as a journalist in Australia and around the world. He writes about 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 standalone novel, Dark Desert Road, and the ‘John Bailey’ series including The Greater Good, State of Fear, The Enemy Within, Killer Traitor Spy and The Wrong Man.
Tim also writes thrillers for younger readers. The first book in his S.I.G.M.A. spy series – Web of Spies – was released in 2026.
Tim's novels are also in development for TV.
DARK DESERT ROAD
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?
WEB OF SPIES
When Ollie heads out for a run in the park, the last thing he expects to find is a dead body. But the real shock is that Ollie recognises the man. And somehow, he's connected to Ollie's father ... who vanished ten months ago.
And then he learns that the dead man was a spy.
With everything he thought he knew about his dad now in doubt, there's only one way for Ollie to get answers. He's going to have to solve the murder.
Armed with an old spy kit, a couple of bikes and a drone, Ollie and his friends Ella and George are about to step into a world that is more dangerous than they could ever have imagined ...
ABOUT DONNA:
Novelist Donna M Cameron is an AWGIE nominated radio dramatist, award-winning playwright and short film writer.
Novelist Donna M Cameron is an AWGIE nominated radio dramatist, award-winning playwright and short film writer.
Her first novel, Beneath the Mother Tree, (2018) was listed as one of 2018’s top Australian fiction reads by the Adelaide Advertiser, was a finalist in the Screen Queensland/QWC’s Adaptable program and longlisted for the Davitt Awards. The manuscript of her second novel – The Rewilding, won her a 2020 KSP Fellowship, was runner up in a 2020 Writing NSW Award and gained her a 2021 Varuna Fellowship. It was published in ANZ in 2024 and was recently shortlisted for the Davitt Awards. Donna’s next book, Bloomfield, will be published by Transit Lounge Publishing in early 2027.