In a town submerged with secrets and corruption, there are those who seek the truth…
Seka Torlak, now a journalism cadet, relocates to the tranquil town of Riverwood in 1998, seeking a fresh start. However, her peace is short-lived when she stumbles upon a cold case involving the murder of a former Vietnam Vet. Driven by a grieving mother's plea for justice, Seka begins to uncover a web of secrets that this seemingly idyllic town has buried deep. In her quest for truth, Seka befriends Dawn Winter, a fellow Bosnian woman haunted by the loss of a friend and ostracized by the townspeople for her tributes to the fallen. As Seka digs deeper, she finds herself entangled in a dangerous game of deceit and loyalty, facing ghosts of the past and present. Will she unravel the truth and deliver justice before it’s too late, or will the town's dark secrets consume her? Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page For publicity information please view Mad Dawn Winter Media Kit below Bonus content-only available to newsletter subscribers
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Historical Research notes
Historical research notes to support secondary school learning with a resource kit that contains:
- History of Srebrenica
- Survival in Srebrenica during the siege
- Urban/rural divide
- Intermarriage
- Veiling in Bosnia
- Women in war
- Peacekeepers
- Islamophobia
Reviews
Coming soon
Media Kit
Title: Mad Dawn Winter
Pub date: 1 May 2026
ISBN Print: 9781922871619
ISBN Ebook: 9781922871602
BUY LINKS:
Amazon (US): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FTZ3CWTP
Amazon (AUS): https://www.amazon.com.au/Dawn-Winter-Seka-Torlak-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FTZ3CWTP
Universal (International Amazon ebook & Wide Print): https://www.amrapajalic.com/dawn.html
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242446018-mad-dawn-winter
Prices (in USD):
Print: $19.99
E-Book: $3.99
Length: 240 Pages
Prices: (in AUD)
Print: $24.99
E-book: $4.99
Rating: Historical Mystery
Hashtags: #MadDawnWinter #SekaTorlakSeries #AmraPajalic #AustralianCrimeFiction
#HistoricalCrime #Nashos #NationalService #PostnatalPsychosis
Tagline: In a town submerged with secrets and corruption, there are those who seek the truth…
Short: Riverwood, 1998, in a small Australian country town that is close-knit and peaceful, Seka discovers a cold case of a former Vietnam Vet and unearths the layers of secrets hiding the truth behind his murder.
Medium tagline: In 1998, journalism cadet Seka Torlak arrives in the seemingly tranquil town of Riverwood seeking a fresh start, only to uncover a cold case surrounding the murder of a former Vietnam veteran. Driven by a grieving mother’s plea for justice, she begins to expose a web of silence, corruption, and loyalties rooted in the long aftermath of war. Will she unravel the truth and deliver justice before it’s too late, or will the town's dark secrets consume her?
Blurb:
In a town submerged with secrets and corruption, there are those who seek the truth…
Seka Torlak, now a journalism cadet, relocates to the tranquil town of Riverwood in 1998, seeking a fresh start. However, her peace is short-lived when she stumbles upon a cold case involving the murder of a former Vietnam Vet. Driven by a grieving mother's plea for justice, Seka begins to uncover a web of secrets that this seemingly idyllic town has buried deep.
In her quest for truth, Seka befriends Dawn Winter, a fellow Bosnian woman haunted by the loss of a friend and ostracized by the townspeople for her tributes to the fallen. As Seka digs deeper, she finds herself entangled in a dangerous game of deceit and loyalty, facing ghosts of the past and present. Will she unravel the truth and deliver justice before it’s too late, or will the town's dark secrets consume her?
Lead In Post
A Crime Novel Confronting the Aftermath of Vietnam and Australia’s Culture of Silence
A crime novel shaped by the Vietnam War, Australia’s National Service legacy, and the silenced reality of postnatal psychosis
Australian author Amra Pajalić releases Mad Dawn Winter, the third novel in her Seka Torlak mystery series—a crime novel that refuses to separate personal collapse from national history.
Set against the long afterlife of the Vietnam War, the novel draws on the legacy of Australia’s National Service scheme (Nashos), returning soldiers, and the quiet devastation carried into suburban homes long after the fighting stopped. The book interrogates what happens when war trauma is never treated, never named, and instead mutates inside families, marriages, and communities.
At the centre of the novel is Dawn Winter, a Bosnian Australian woman ostracised by her town and haunted by a death no one wants to remember. As journalist Seka Torlak investigates a decades-old murder, she uncovers a web of buried violence that stretches back to Vietnam-era Australia—where men were sent to war by lottery, returned damaged, and expected to resume “normal life” without complaint.
The novel also confronts postnatal psychosis, a condition that has historically been misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or erased from public conversation. Rather than treating maternal breakdown as a personal failing or narrative shock device, Mad Dawn Winter situates it within a broader ecosystem of untreated trauma, gendered silence, and institutional neglect.
“This book exists because certain stories are still too uncomfortable to tell neatly,” Pajalić says. “We like clean war narratives. We like motherhood framed as instinctive and redemptive. We don’t like the mess left behind when both of those myths collapse.”
Blending crime fiction with historical reckoning, Mad Dawn Winter continues the Seka Torlak series’ project of exposing how violence—whether state-sanctioned or domestic—doesn’t disappear. It embeds itself. It waits. And eventually, it demands to be confronted.
The novel will appeal to readers of literary crime, historical fiction, and Australian stories that interrogate national myths rather than celebrate them.
Excerpt
1-Exiled
1998
I eased into my Toyota and turned onto River Road, the main road that ran parallel to the Guru River that hugged the town of Riverwood, the sun winking off the murky surface of the water as I drove. I passed by the Welcome to Riverwood sign, population 2,985, when I saw a woman walking with red roses in her arms. She turned down the path by the river. I stopped the car on the shoulder of the road, took the camera from the passenger seat beside me, and followed.
I’d walked down by the river yesterday with Ninu. I’d been told there was a beautiful gorge for swimming and we’d found it walking from my house, reaching the clifftop overlooking it. We’d had to climb down a winding path among the brush, but now as I followed the woman, I realised this was the other path to get to the gorge that most people from town used.
When Ninu and I had reached the gorge, we’d found a tree with flowers tied to it, a tribute to someone who had passed, probably drowned. I’d thought then it might make a good story about tributes and the people who left them, but to do that I’d need to track down the person leaving the tribute and now she’d landed in my lap, so to speak.
The woman walked to the tree and took down the dry and old flowers, tying the new bouquet with a red ribbon. I lifted the camera to my eye, framing a shot of her standing there, holding her hands up as if she were praying, the clifftop in the background behind her. The woman rubbed her hand over her face in a familiar gesture. I lifted my eye from the camera viewfinder and looked at her. Almost like how Muslims pray.
I let the camera hang around my neck and approached her.
‘Excuse me,’ I called, not wanting to startle her.
The woman glanced at me, but didn’t respond.
‘I work at the Riverwood Times and wanted to talk to you about your tribute.’
The woman walked toward me. I waited, a smile on my face. She brushed past me, continued walking without staying a word. I turned to look, bewildered by her cold shoulder. When she’d vanished from sight back up the road, I turned back around and walked to the tribute. I framed the shot of the red roses tied with the red ribbon to the pole, the yellow grassland on the banks swishing in the wind, the river murky and undulating in the current. I made a note to ask for drowning statistics at the police station. The breeze fluttered over me, raising goose pimples on my arms. I rubbed my arms, feeling as if someone had walked over my grave.
I dawdled at the gorge, giving the woman time to leave so I wouldn’t bump into her, feeling slightly embarrassed like I’d committed a faux pas. Who was she? While the townspeople I’d met so far viewed me as an exotic species with my ethnic name, Seka Torlak, the cause of much curiosity in this mostly Anglo town, everyone had been friendly and hospitable. This was the first time someone had been rude, and I didn’t know what I had done to cause this kind of reaction. Was she one of those who hated refugees and saw me as an interloper because of my migrant background? While no residents had been outwardly rude, I had overheard some conversations in the street and the way some townsfolk viewed migrants.
Author Bio:
Amra Pajalic is an award-winning Australian author, educator, and indie publisher known for crafting compelling stories that blend heart, humour, and heritage. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, and resilience, often drawing from her Bosnian background.
She won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of the year awards and her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award.
She is the author of the Sassy Saints series and the Seka Torlak historical-mystery series, beginning with Time Kneels Between Mountains, and the second book Ghosts Among the Gumtrees, and companion essay collection that examine the legacy of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide
When she's not writing, Amra is podcasting on Amra’s Armchair Anecdotes, mentoring emerging writers, and delivering workshops across Australia on self-publishing, writing craft, and creative resilience.
Social media handles
Website: http://www.amrapajalic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amrapajalicauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmraPajalic
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amrapajalic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmraPajalicAuthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amra-pajalic
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3310015.Amra_Pajalic
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B005C8AIDY
Newsletter sign up (receive a FREE ebook copy of bonus story Art’s Fall and essay about Vietnam War Vets in Australia) https://www.amrapajalic.com/my-newsletter.html
Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page
Pub date: 1 May 2026
ISBN Print: 9781922871619
ISBN Ebook: 9781922871602
BUY LINKS:
Amazon (US): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FTZ3CWTP
Amazon (AUS): https://www.amazon.com.au/Dawn-Winter-Seka-Torlak-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FTZ3CWTP
Universal (International Amazon ebook & Wide Print): https://www.amrapajalic.com/dawn.html
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242446018-mad-dawn-winter
Prices (in USD):
Print: $19.99
E-Book: $3.99
Length: 240 Pages
Prices: (in AUD)
Print: $24.99
E-book: $4.99
Rating: Historical Mystery
Hashtags: #MadDawnWinter #SekaTorlakSeries #AmraPajalic #AustralianCrimeFiction
#HistoricalCrime #Nashos #NationalService #PostnatalPsychosis
Tagline: In a town submerged with secrets and corruption, there are those who seek the truth…
Short: Riverwood, 1998, in a small Australian country town that is close-knit and peaceful, Seka discovers a cold case of a former Vietnam Vet and unearths the layers of secrets hiding the truth behind his murder.
Medium tagline: In 1998, journalism cadet Seka Torlak arrives in the seemingly tranquil town of Riverwood seeking a fresh start, only to uncover a cold case surrounding the murder of a former Vietnam veteran. Driven by a grieving mother’s plea for justice, she begins to expose a web of silence, corruption, and loyalties rooted in the long aftermath of war. Will she unravel the truth and deliver justice before it’s too late, or will the town's dark secrets consume her?
Blurb:
In a town submerged with secrets and corruption, there are those who seek the truth…
Seka Torlak, now a journalism cadet, relocates to the tranquil town of Riverwood in 1998, seeking a fresh start. However, her peace is short-lived when she stumbles upon a cold case involving the murder of a former Vietnam Vet. Driven by a grieving mother's plea for justice, Seka begins to uncover a web of secrets that this seemingly idyllic town has buried deep.
In her quest for truth, Seka befriends Dawn Winter, a fellow Bosnian woman haunted by the loss of a friend and ostracized by the townspeople for her tributes to the fallen. As Seka digs deeper, she finds herself entangled in a dangerous game of deceit and loyalty, facing ghosts of the past and present. Will she unravel the truth and deliver justice before it’s too late, or will the town's dark secrets consume her?
Lead In Post
A Crime Novel Confronting the Aftermath of Vietnam and Australia’s Culture of Silence
A crime novel shaped by the Vietnam War, Australia’s National Service legacy, and the silenced reality of postnatal psychosis
Australian author Amra Pajalić releases Mad Dawn Winter, the third novel in her Seka Torlak mystery series—a crime novel that refuses to separate personal collapse from national history.
Set against the long afterlife of the Vietnam War, the novel draws on the legacy of Australia’s National Service scheme (Nashos), returning soldiers, and the quiet devastation carried into suburban homes long after the fighting stopped. The book interrogates what happens when war trauma is never treated, never named, and instead mutates inside families, marriages, and communities.
At the centre of the novel is Dawn Winter, a Bosnian Australian woman ostracised by her town and haunted by a death no one wants to remember. As journalist Seka Torlak investigates a decades-old murder, she uncovers a web of buried violence that stretches back to Vietnam-era Australia—where men were sent to war by lottery, returned damaged, and expected to resume “normal life” without complaint.
The novel also confronts postnatal psychosis, a condition that has historically been misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or erased from public conversation. Rather than treating maternal breakdown as a personal failing or narrative shock device, Mad Dawn Winter situates it within a broader ecosystem of untreated trauma, gendered silence, and institutional neglect.
“This book exists because certain stories are still too uncomfortable to tell neatly,” Pajalić says. “We like clean war narratives. We like motherhood framed as instinctive and redemptive. We don’t like the mess left behind when both of those myths collapse.”
Blending crime fiction with historical reckoning, Mad Dawn Winter continues the Seka Torlak series’ project of exposing how violence—whether state-sanctioned or domestic—doesn’t disappear. It embeds itself. It waits. And eventually, it demands to be confronted.
The novel will appeal to readers of literary crime, historical fiction, and Australian stories that interrogate national myths rather than celebrate them.
Excerpt
1-Exiled
1998
I eased into my Toyota and turned onto River Road, the main road that ran parallel to the Guru River that hugged the town of Riverwood, the sun winking off the murky surface of the water as I drove. I passed by the Welcome to Riverwood sign, population 2,985, when I saw a woman walking with red roses in her arms. She turned down the path by the river. I stopped the car on the shoulder of the road, took the camera from the passenger seat beside me, and followed.
I’d walked down by the river yesterday with Ninu. I’d been told there was a beautiful gorge for swimming and we’d found it walking from my house, reaching the clifftop overlooking it. We’d had to climb down a winding path among the brush, but now as I followed the woman, I realised this was the other path to get to the gorge that most people from town used.
When Ninu and I had reached the gorge, we’d found a tree with flowers tied to it, a tribute to someone who had passed, probably drowned. I’d thought then it might make a good story about tributes and the people who left them, but to do that I’d need to track down the person leaving the tribute and now she’d landed in my lap, so to speak.
The woman walked to the tree and took down the dry and old flowers, tying the new bouquet with a red ribbon. I lifted the camera to my eye, framing a shot of her standing there, holding her hands up as if she were praying, the clifftop in the background behind her. The woman rubbed her hand over her face in a familiar gesture. I lifted my eye from the camera viewfinder and looked at her. Almost like how Muslims pray.
I let the camera hang around my neck and approached her.
‘Excuse me,’ I called, not wanting to startle her.
The woman glanced at me, but didn’t respond.
‘I work at the Riverwood Times and wanted to talk to you about your tribute.’
The woman walked toward me. I waited, a smile on my face. She brushed past me, continued walking without staying a word. I turned to look, bewildered by her cold shoulder. When she’d vanished from sight back up the road, I turned back around and walked to the tribute. I framed the shot of the red roses tied with the red ribbon to the pole, the yellow grassland on the banks swishing in the wind, the river murky and undulating in the current. I made a note to ask for drowning statistics at the police station. The breeze fluttered over me, raising goose pimples on my arms. I rubbed my arms, feeling as if someone had walked over my grave.
I dawdled at the gorge, giving the woman time to leave so I wouldn’t bump into her, feeling slightly embarrassed like I’d committed a faux pas. Who was she? While the townspeople I’d met so far viewed me as an exotic species with my ethnic name, Seka Torlak, the cause of much curiosity in this mostly Anglo town, everyone had been friendly and hospitable. This was the first time someone had been rude, and I didn’t know what I had done to cause this kind of reaction. Was she one of those who hated refugees and saw me as an interloper because of my migrant background? While no residents had been outwardly rude, I had overheard some conversations in the street and the way some townsfolk viewed migrants.
Author Bio:
Amra Pajalic is an award-winning Australian author, educator, and indie publisher known for crafting compelling stories that blend heart, humour, and heritage. Her work explores themes of identity, belonging, and resilience, often drawing from her Bosnian background.
She won the 2009 Melbourne Prize for Literature's Civic Choice Award for her debut novel The Good Daughter, re-released as Sabiha's Dilemma (Pishukin Press, 2022). The anthology she co-edited, Growing up Muslim in Australia (Allen and Unwin, 2014), was shortlisted for the 2015 Children's Book Council of the year awards and her memoir Things Nobody Knows But Me (Transit Lounge, 2019) was shortlisted for the 2020 National Biography Award.
She is the author of the Sassy Saints series and the Seka Torlak historical-mystery series, beginning with Time Kneels Between Mountains, and the second book Ghosts Among the Gumtrees, and companion essay collection that examine the legacy of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide
When she's not writing, Amra is podcasting on Amra’s Armchair Anecdotes, mentoring emerging writers, and delivering workshops across Australia on self-publishing, writing craft, and creative resilience.
Social media handles
Website: http://www.amrapajalic.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amrapajalicauthor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmraPajalic
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@amrapajalic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmraPajalicAuthor/
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/amra-pajalic
Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3310015.Amra_Pajalic
Author Central: https://www.amazon.com/~/e/B005C8AIDY
Newsletter sign up (receive a FREE ebook copy of bonus story Art’s Fall and essay about Vietnam War Vets in Australia) https://www.amrapajalic.com/my-newsletter.html
Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page
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