Natalie King Series

THERE ARE CURRENTLY FOUR BOOKS PUBLISHED (AUSTRALIA & 3 IN UK) IN THIS SERIES: 

1. MEDEA’S CURSE 

Released January 28th 2015 with Text publishing order here or on Amazon.

Out in B format March 24th 2016.  Legend Press UK released it on October 3rd 2016

Wavesounds released the Audio version in April 2016.

On BuzzzFeeds top 19 Australian books in 2015

Shortlisted (adult and debut) for the 2016 Davitt (Sisters in Crime) Award

A psychiatrist gets pulled into a missing child enquiry through her prior involvement with an infanticide case, and her attraction to the married prosecutor. As a result she puts her reputation and life on the line.

This is a book about infanticide, about mental illness and the complex developmental and social contexts that place children at risk. It is also about deception and integrity in relationships and about boundaries.

Forensic psychiatrist Natalie King works with victims and perpetrators of violent crime. Women with a history of abuse, mainly. She rides a Ducati a size too big and wears a tank top a size too small. Likes men but doesn’t want to keep one. And really needs to stay on her medication.

Now she’s being stalked. Anonymous notes, threats, strangers loitering outside her house.

A hostile former patient? Or someone connected with a current case? Georgia Latimer—charged with killing her three children. Travis Hardy—deadbeat father of another murdered child, with a second daughter now missing. Maybe the harassment has something to do with Crown Prosecutor Liam O’Shea—drop-dead sexy, married and trouble in all kinds of ways.

Natalie doesn’t know. Question is, will she find out before it’s too late?

Also on Amazon here

Brief talk on Youtube here

2. DANGEROUS TO KNOW

“Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know” Lady Caroline Lamb on Lord Byron

Second in the Natalie King series, released  March 29th 2016 in Australia, March 15th 2017 in UK

Featured in the Big Book Club July 2016

Audiobook also available read by Gail Knight.

Psychiatrist Natalie King’s research supervisor needs her help. But is it to get over the death of his first pregnant wife or to plan the murder of his second?

A cat and mouse game where only one can win…and the stakes are her sanity…as well as her life.

The second in the Natalie King series, which can be read as a stand alone, will be released by Text publishing in April 2016 and along with Medea’s Curse, in the UK in 2016/2017 by Legend Press, and the audio version with Wavesound. Set along the south west Victorian coast (the house that inspired the location is still standing after the horrendous 2015 Christmas bush fires, though many others were sadly lost) sees Natalie out of her comfort zone in more ways than one.

3.THIS I WOULD KILL FOR

Third in the Natalie King Series, shortlisted for the Davitt awards adult crime novel award in 2019, published in Australia January 2018, out in UK July 2018:

Psychiatrist Natalie King is the expert witness in a vicious child custody battle.

”Buist has given us a three-dimensional heroine and richly imagined scenes of conflict in public and private” The Australian March 10-11

“highly insightful and succinctly presented….suspenseful compelling reading” Otago Daily Times 27/4

“you may never be able to look at your children’s drawings in the same way again…” Sue Turnbull, Sydney Morning Herald March 16th

Natalie is dragged into a child custody dispute which appears to be more about bad behaviour than mental illness; but getting it wrong could mean handing over a child to an abuser. Or giving it to a parent who has fabricated the story.

Is Jenna gaming the system, or is Malik as dangerous as she suggests? Natalie’s personal life is in disarray: is that affecting her judgment? Liam O’Shea’s ex-wife is out for blood—and either Liam or her former lover Damian could be the father of the unborn child she’s trying not to think about.

Court dramas, cultural clashes, media backlash and the narrow line between confidentiality and risk create an explosive mixture that forces Natalie to make life and death choices.

How far will a parent go to keep—or save—their child?

4. LOCKED WARD

Sue Turnbull’s review of Locked Ward “Its’s like a MidSomer Murder but with a difference…and all the better for it”

The Blurb “Agatha Christie style locked-room mystery…some red herrings, a range of other issues playing out, and Buist delivers a satisfying resolution although without the drawing room scene” “Locked Ward is a fitting (temporary?) end to a fascinating and in some ways unique Australian crime series.”

Natalie King may be a psychiatrist but that doesn’t mean she can make her baby go to sleep. Sienna wants to party through the night – and that might trigger Natalie’s bipolar disorder.

Sleep school at Southside Private hospital turns out has its own hazards. It’s bad enough that Natalie doesn’t want to be there, that she wants to keep her professional status quiet, and that she’s seen enough of group therapy to know it’s not her thing. But then someone arrives who knows her all too well.

Luckily she’s out of the unit before the murder happens. Unluckily she knows everyone involved, including the cops. They think they have an open and shut case. Natalie is convinced they’ve locked the door on the wrong woman.