Family Matters (Hannah Tree: Private Detective Book 6)

Secrets. Changes. Murderers. This Is Normal Life for Hannah Tree.

Back from Guatemala and six months pregnant, private investigator Hannah Tree is trying to keep her world steady. Instead, she agrees to help Nell, a seventy-six-year-old woman accused of murdering her sister in a nursing home—a case that appears tragic but straightforward. At the same time, Hannah’s brother Perry, newly released from prison, lies in a coma.

What begins as a domestic crime soon fractures into something far more complex. Witnesses die. A trafficked child vanishes. Encrypted files stored in a Queensland bank vault hint at a manuscript powerful enough to provoke violence. A single word—UNICUS—keeps resurfacing, linking nursing home fraud, missing police records, and a respected city club with dangerous connections.

As Hannah and her team dig deeper, they uncover evidence of a sophisticated criminal network operating behind a veneer of respectability. With each revelation, the risks escalate. Shots are fired. Friends are injured. Bail is revoked. And Hannah becomes a target.

Torn between her ambivalence about impending motherhood, her fractured family, and her relentless need for truth, Hannah must decide how much she is willing to risk—her career, her safety, even her unborn child—to expose a system built on exploitation and silence.

A tightly woven crime thriller blending family drama with high-stakes investigation, this latest Hannah Tree novel explores corruption, loyalty, and the cost of uncovering the truth.

Discover what UNICUS really means—and follow Hannah Tree into her most dangerous case yet.

Excerpt from the book

I didn’t get the rubbishing I expected when I rocked up at rehearsal on my first day back. Only a few salutes in passing after eight weeks away left me feeling like a dog that’s been relegated to an outdoor kennel instead of being the one on the sofa. Everything there was running like clockwork. Everyone knew what they were doing and was doing it. Nobody took any notice of me except to bundle me out of the way.

I was slinking away when Gloria came up behind me, swung me around, and grabbed me in a bear hug. While I appreciated the sentiment, being that close to anyone here today was the last thing I wanted. She stiffened and pulled away, her eyes wide, and her jaw dropped. I stared straight into her eyes, shook my head, and mouthed, ‘Not one word.’

Nick, now my husband, and I had been away in Guatemala for two months. Long enough for me to have to wear a large baggy jumper to hide my growing belly. I was now nearly six months pregnant, and I didn’t want anyone to know.

Gloria stood stock still, her face bright pink, staring at me until a tall woman I had never seen before directed her to the stage. This person was dressed in black dance gear except for multi-coloured leg warmers and pink and yellow sports sneakers. She gave me a perfunctory glance, turned her back, and pranced away, yelling at the top of her voice.

‘New dance master,’ Gloria said, grinning at my confusion before following her without a backward look. I headed for my old spot in the stage manager’s corner, hoping to find someone who cared enough that I was back to fill me in on where we were up to. Like a female dance master?

I’d timed my return this way, so I shouldn’t have been miffed. I knew the show opened in just over a week, so everyone would be busy, and I could avoid having to explain anything. My boss, and dear friend Charlie, was in the corner. But he was so busy examining a massive folder of cue sheets for the new show that he didn’t even look up, just waved a vague hand and kept going. I shouldn’t have been upset. I’d always wanted to be just… there… but I was.

My phone rang. Phones weren’t allowed to ring during rehearsals. If you had any business that required phone contact, they were supposed to vibrate. I looked up.

Every eye in the place was fixed on me and all looked cross. Well, I had wanted to be noticed.

I ran down to the dressing rooms where I could answer in peace. But there was no peace. The place was buzzing as Kevin, our costume designer, barked orders at minions who bustled about with half-finished, finished, and barely begun accessories, trimmings, and all the trappings of an over-the-top space odyssey that was to open in ten days.