P-tales

P-tales are those stories by

David Arnault which have been

published in paperback

editions. These are also

available as digital files (pdf

directly from the author) and

some are available from

Amazon in kindle format.

The Kovic Files

The Kovic Files is a septet of novels following the transition of Dragan Kovic from the police force to his life as a civilian. Crime seems to follow Kovic and he becomes more and more sick and tired of criminals.

The Greater Crime (volume

one)

Four men are killed in the streets of Melbourne but there are no links to the men. They appear to have nothing to do with one another. Almost nothing. The search for more clues takes Kovic to the distant mountains of eastern Victoria, to a town on the edge, caught between the preservation of a way of life and the salvation of an entire ecosystem. The only people willing to stand behind a lie are those who don’t want to expose the truth: Kovic knows this to be true.

Sordid Ambition (volume two)

‘We have just enough religion to make us hate and not enough to make us love one another.’ One person is dead and a second lies dying in a Melbourne hospital. Only one person believes there might be a connection. Failure, hubris, despair and courage collide over two weeks in the heart of Melbourne. It is up to Kovic to find the key to unlock the mystery.

The Song of the Caged Bird

(volume three)

What good is freedom of speech if no one is listening? Rufus Stokes, a young Aboriginal boy, is found dead in a North Sydney lock-up, the circumstances identical to those surrounding the death of his father, 18 years earlier. While Chinese officials and mining executives criss-cross the country, wheeling and dealing billion dollar projects of global significance, a small group of high school students wants to find out what really happened to Rufus Stokes and why.

A Banquet of Consequences

(volume four)

He couldn’t seem to find anything in the world that didn’t lead him to grief. It was a wonder we weren’t all bowed by the weight of despair. A 14 year old girl disappears from her home village in Bolivia. Two women and a priest join forces to try to find the young girl and set her free before she disappears deeper into the ruthless business world of drug addiction, prostitution and slavery

Life Itself (volume five)

Live and love and defy the gods and their warrior angels. An innocuous but rational economic decision by a corporate power brings two people together, taking them from Melbourne to Istanbul and then to the Sudan, in a race to make sense out of the politics of water, all the while trying to keep one step ahead of a hired killer.

Death in a Featureless

Landscape (volume six)

When vision fails, other senses come into play. An Inuit hunter becomes the target of a killer when he refuses to allow his people to be the guinea pigs in corporate experiments. Kovic, full of grief, crosses the planet to visit his daughter on Baffin Island. Adrift in a dense fog, the players and their plots unravel while a deadly dialogue takes place between prey and predator.

Crimes Neither Seen nor Heard

(volume seven)

A school teacher from Melbourne travels back to his father’s homeland to try to uncover a mystery – was his brother really killed in the Balkan wars or is he ghosting around Europe for some unknown reason? Must love be sacrificed for justice? Is the truth hidden behind prison walls? In this, the final chapter in the Kovic files, the investigator is forced to examine his own past. Crimes Neither Seen Nor Heard is a love story, for love grows out of trust.

Visitors

Two tales of arrivals from the sea. The first novella is about an old man on a search for immortality, the second a young man caught up in a mystery so profound it threatens to turn him inside out. And yet, both tales are love stories: love for these two men, one young, one aged, is the answer to questions they never dared to ask.

The Virtue of Circus Dancers

A young man, caught up in a family tragedy, blames himself and begins a journey without destination. He wanders through the Dinaric Alps of Croatia and Bosnia spending small snatches of time with five people, each of whom has something to teach. After several months he is swept up by a small, travelling circus and finally finds his home as a member of this troupe of musicians and acrobats who exist on the shoulder of the civilised world. This is a heartwarming tale of redemption. And love.

The Three Whores of Bertolt

Brecht

Three women, three struggles, three adversaries. Three entwined stories spanning the centuries, linked by the predations of corrupt ambition, by history’s profound depths, by the love of life itself, and by courage. The Three Whores of Bertolt Brecht is a masterful prosecution of war, politics and religion, but it is a love story above all else, for without the love there would be no need to tell the tale. Three women, two young and one approaching the final years of her life, show humour, courage and defiance in the face of power and intimidation. And they support one another, even across time.

The Kōan of the Fisherman’s

Wife

This novella was a medalist in the 2012 International Independent Book Awards in the category of visionary fiction. The story has been described as a ‘feast for a hungry reader’, and the author as ‘an absolute gem of a writer.  His writing is fresh, original, thoughtful and unpredictable.’ In pre-tsunami Japan, a fishing boat is blown adrift in a storm. The one surviving fisherman finds himself floating in a sea of plastic surrounded by creatures he has never before seen. When he returns to Japan, it is only to collect his wife. But he has changed and his changes unlock a genetic trigger in everyone he touches. The Kōan of the Fisherman’s Wife tells the tale of a frightened world ignoring cautionary principles, and is a story about starting over, about transformation of lives and about salvation. But more than anything, it is a story of love, of devotion, of trust.