In a city where the guilty roam free, there are those who seek retribution…
After surviving the brutal siege of Srebrenica, Seka Torlak is trying to rebuild her life as a refugee in Melbourne, 1997. But her fragile peace is shattered when she spots a war criminal responsible for her father's death walking freely in the city. Determined to uncover his true identity and bring him to justice, Seka delves into an investigation that reveals a sinister underbelly of suburbia, where genocide deniers hide in plain sight. Haunted by memories of war and loss, Seka grapples with the raging conflict within her: the pursuit of justice versus the thirst for retribution. As she navigates this perilous path, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice for the truth. Will Seka find her salvation, or will she lose her soul in the process? Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page For publicity information please view Ghost Among the Gumtrees Media Kit below Bonus content-only available to newsletter subscribers
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Media Kit
Title: Ghosts Among the Gumtrees
Pub date: 1 February 2026
ISBN Print: 9781922871596
ISBN Ebook: 9781922871589
Rating: Historical Mystery
Hashtags: #GhostsAmongTheGumtrees #SekaTorlakSeries #AmraPajalic
#BosnianGenocide #Srebrenica #HistoricalFiction #mysterybooks #mystery #BosnianWar
Tagline: In a city where the guilty roam free, there are those who seek retribution…
Short: Melbourne, 1997, in a city that is a refuge to those escaping war and destruction, as well as a hiding place for war criminals seeking safe harbour, Seka exacts her retribution against the man responsible for genocide.
Medium tagline: After surviving the brutal siege of Srebrenica, Seka Torlak is trying to rebuild her life as a refugee in Melbourne, 1997. But her fragile peace is shattered when she spots a war criminal responsible for her father's death walking freely in the city. Haunted by memories of war and loss, Seka grapples with the raging conflict within her: the pursuit of justice versus the thirst for retribution. Will Seka find her salvation, or will she lose her soul in the process?
Blurb:
In a city where the guilty roam free, there are those who seek retribution…
After surviving the brutal siege of Srebrenica, Seka Torlak is trying to rebuild her life as a refugee in Melbourne, 1997. But her fragile peace is shattered when she spots a war criminal responsible for her father's death walking freely in the city. Determined to uncover his true identity and bring him to justice, Seka delves into an investigation that reveals a sinister underbelly of suburbia, where genocide deniers hide in plain sight.
Haunted by memories of war and loss, Seka grapples with the raging conflict within her: the pursuit of justice versus the thirst for retribution. As she navigates this perilous path, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice for the truth. Will Seka find her salvation, or will she lose her soul in the process?
Lead In Post
War Criminals Walk Free in Australia: New Novel Exposes Genocide Denial and the Fight for Justice
Award-winning author Amra Pajalić tears open one of the most uncomfortable truths of Australia’s post-war migrant story in her new novel, Ghosts Among the Gumtrees—a gripping tale of survival, justice, and reckoning.
Set in Melbourne in 1997, Ghosts Among the Gumtrees follows Seka Torlak, a young Bosnian refugee rebuilding her life after surviving the genocide in Srebrenica. Her fragile new beginning shatters the moment she recognises a familiar face on a suburban street: the man responsible for her father’s death—now living freely in Australia, blending into the quiet façade of everyday life.
Through Seka’s eyes, readers are confronted with the devastating reality that justice doesn’t always follow trauma—that some perpetrators live comfortably in new countries, untroubled by the horrors they inflicted. Pajalić draws directly on the historical record of war criminals who entered Western countries under false pretences, as well as the persistent machinery of genocide denial that continues to operate today.
Ghosts Among the Gumtrees is more than a novel—it’s a warning. Genocide denial is not an abstract threat; it’s active, corrosive, and often hides in plain sight. Pajalić challenges Australia to confront its own blind spots: How many perpetrators of atrocity have slipped through the cracks? And what do we owe to the survivors who recognise them?
Through sharp, emotionally charged storytelling, the novel refuses to let readers look away from the moral responsibility of justice. It interrogates the cost of silence, the trauma of recognition, and the dangerous ease with which truth can be buried—unless someone is brave enough to dig it up.
Pajalic states “I wanted to explore the reality of the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide where survivors were not only grappling with all they lost, but also with the fact that perpetrators were living normal lives, untouched by the law.
This is the second novel in Pajalić’s Seka Torlak series, following Time Kneels Between Mountains, and continues her mission to illuminate untold histories through rigorous research and lived experience. It is an unflinching, necessary narrative for readers of historical, literary, and crime fiction.
Excerpt
1-Silver Cross
1997
We followed Tom and Phuong-Vy a block and entered Chinatown through the large gate covered with a gold roof, the jade green pillars reaching the second floor of the buildings on each side where dragons were perched, red lanterns bobbing above us on each side of the street and casting a warm glow.
Phuong-Vy stopped suddenly, her foot awkwardly lurching as her heel caught in a drainage grate. Tom held her steady, and she didn’t fall.
“My hero,” she said, placing her hands on his chest and simpering.
I wouldn’t have put it past her to be faking. As I watched them, the face from my nightmare appeared beside them. The thick black eyebrows above eyes so dark they looked black, the black hair I remembered as being dishevelled and long, now shorn short.
My stomach lurched, my skin breaking out in goose bumps as his craggy face took me back to that night of horror. Ninu was speaking next to me, but I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. My heart hammered in my chest, lungs tight as I fought for breath, my legs weak. Could it really be him? The man was looking up and didn’t see the woman who stopped suddenly in front of him, bumping into her. He smiled at her in apology, his hands holding her arm as she regained her balance, a gold tooth winking on his incisor. It was him. It was the bastard. Fear flooded my body, and my legs wobbled as I wilted.
“Seka,” Ninu shouted as he held me up, his brown eyes crinkled with concern. “Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but my chords were paralysed with fear. How to say the unspeakable?
Phuong-Vy tottered over to me. “You look like you’re going to faint.” Her icy hands gently touched my face, and as I met her fake blue eyes, I came back to earth with a thud. Which path do I follow? The path that led to my future, or back to my doomed past. My hands reached for the coin threaded through a necklace around my throat, and I rubbed the coin between my fingers.
“I have to go,” I said, my vocal chords struggling to form sound.
I broke from her embrace and ran, my eyes searching for the dark-haired man wearing a blue shirt. He bobbed ahead in the crowd to my left, and I ran to catch up, blind to the entreaties and pleas of my friends. He was at the Bourke Street tram stop, and as the 96 tram pulled up, he waited for the doors to open before stepping onto the street and up the stairs. I threw myself up the stairs of the doorway closest to me, the doors shutting with a hiss behind me. As the tram sped up, I looked out the window and saw Ninu watching me from the street corner, frowning with confusion.
I turned away, walking down the middle of the aisle until I spotted the man. He was sitting on the right-hand side, his back to me, looking out the window. I sat on the opposite side of the aisle and watched him as we travelled down Bourke Street, turning onto Spring Street and passing Parliament House, before continuing down Johnstone Street and into Collingwood. Where was he going?
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 forthcoming 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 Zora’s Story and essay about war criminals in Australia) https://www.amrapajalic.com/my-newsletter.html
BUY LINKS:
Pishukin Press:
Amazon (US): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FTTDNDRR
Amazon (AUS): https://www.amazon.com.au/Ghosts-Among-Gumtrees-Torlak-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FTTDNDRR/
Universal (International Amazon ebook & Wide Print): https://www.amrapajalic.com/ghosts.html
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242422591-ghosts-among-the-gumtrees
Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page
Pub date: 1 February 2026
ISBN Print: 9781922871596
ISBN Ebook: 9781922871589
Rating: Historical Mystery
Hashtags: #GhostsAmongTheGumtrees #SekaTorlakSeries #AmraPajalic
#BosnianGenocide #Srebrenica #HistoricalFiction #mysterybooks #mystery #BosnianWar
Tagline: In a city where the guilty roam free, there are those who seek retribution…
Short: Melbourne, 1997, in a city that is a refuge to those escaping war and destruction, as well as a hiding place for war criminals seeking safe harbour, Seka exacts her retribution against the man responsible for genocide.
Medium tagline: After surviving the brutal siege of Srebrenica, Seka Torlak is trying to rebuild her life as a refugee in Melbourne, 1997. But her fragile peace is shattered when she spots a war criminal responsible for her father's death walking freely in the city. Haunted by memories of war and loss, Seka grapples with the raging conflict within her: the pursuit of justice versus the thirst for retribution. Will Seka find her salvation, or will she lose her soul in the process?
Blurb:
In a city where the guilty roam free, there are those who seek retribution…
After surviving the brutal siege of Srebrenica, Seka Torlak is trying to rebuild her life as a refugee in Melbourne, 1997. But her fragile peace is shattered when she spots a war criminal responsible for her father's death walking freely in the city. Determined to uncover his true identity and bring him to justice, Seka delves into an investigation that reveals a sinister underbelly of suburbia, where genocide deniers hide in plain sight.
Haunted by memories of war and loss, Seka grapples with the raging conflict within her: the pursuit of justice versus the thirst for retribution. As she navigates this perilous path, she must decide what she is willing to sacrifice for the truth. Will Seka find her salvation, or will she lose her soul in the process?
Lead In Post
War Criminals Walk Free in Australia: New Novel Exposes Genocide Denial and the Fight for Justice
Award-winning author Amra Pajalić tears open one of the most uncomfortable truths of Australia’s post-war migrant story in her new novel, Ghosts Among the Gumtrees—a gripping tale of survival, justice, and reckoning.
Set in Melbourne in 1997, Ghosts Among the Gumtrees follows Seka Torlak, a young Bosnian refugee rebuilding her life after surviving the genocide in Srebrenica. Her fragile new beginning shatters the moment she recognises a familiar face on a suburban street: the man responsible for her father’s death—now living freely in Australia, blending into the quiet façade of everyday life.
Through Seka’s eyes, readers are confronted with the devastating reality that justice doesn’t always follow trauma—that some perpetrators live comfortably in new countries, untroubled by the horrors they inflicted. Pajalić draws directly on the historical record of war criminals who entered Western countries under false pretences, as well as the persistent machinery of genocide denial that continues to operate today.
Ghosts Among the Gumtrees is more than a novel—it’s a warning. Genocide denial is not an abstract threat; it’s active, corrosive, and often hides in plain sight. Pajalić challenges Australia to confront its own blind spots: How many perpetrators of atrocity have slipped through the cracks? And what do we owe to the survivors who recognise them?
Through sharp, emotionally charged storytelling, the novel refuses to let readers look away from the moral responsibility of justice. It interrogates the cost of silence, the trauma of recognition, and the dangerous ease with which truth can be buried—unless someone is brave enough to dig it up.
Pajalic states “I wanted to explore the reality of the aftermath of the Srebrenica genocide where survivors were not only grappling with all they lost, but also with the fact that perpetrators were living normal lives, untouched by the law.
This is the second novel in Pajalić’s Seka Torlak series, following Time Kneels Between Mountains, and continues her mission to illuminate untold histories through rigorous research and lived experience. It is an unflinching, necessary narrative for readers of historical, literary, and crime fiction.
Excerpt
1-Silver Cross
1997
We followed Tom and Phuong-Vy a block and entered Chinatown through the large gate covered with a gold roof, the jade green pillars reaching the second floor of the buildings on each side where dragons were perched, red lanterns bobbing above us on each side of the street and casting a warm glow.
Phuong-Vy stopped suddenly, her foot awkwardly lurching as her heel caught in a drainage grate. Tom held her steady, and she didn’t fall.
“My hero,” she said, placing her hands on his chest and simpering.
I wouldn’t have put it past her to be faking. As I watched them, the face from my nightmare appeared beside them. The thick black eyebrows above eyes so dark they looked black, the black hair I remembered as being dishevelled and long, now shorn short.
My stomach lurched, my skin breaking out in goose bumps as his craggy face took me back to that night of horror. Ninu was speaking next to me, but I couldn’t hear anything he was saying. My heart hammered in my chest, lungs tight as I fought for breath, my legs weak. Could it really be him? The man was looking up and didn’t see the woman who stopped suddenly in front of him, bumping into her. He smiled at her in apology, his hands holding her arm as she regained her balance, a gold tooth winking on his incisor. It was him. It was the bastard. Fear flooded my body, and my legs wobbled as I wilted.
“Seka,” Ninu shouted as he held me up, his brown eyes crinkled with concern. “Are you okay?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but my chords were paralysed with fear. How to say the unspeakable?
Phuong-Vy tottered over to me. “You look like you’re going to faint.” Her icy hands gently touched my face, and as I met her fake blue eyes, I came back to earth with a thud. Which path do I follow? The path that led to my future, or back to my doomed past. My hands reached for the coin threaded through a necklace around my throat, and I rubbed the coin between my fingers.
“I have to go,” I said, my vocal chords struggling to form sound.
I broke from her embrace and ran, my eyes searching for the dark-haired man wearing a blue shirt. He bobbed ahead in the crowd to my left, and I ran to catch up, blind to the entreaties and pleas of my friends. He was at the Bourke Street tram stop, and as the 96 tram pulled up, he waited for the doors to open before stepping onto the street and up the stairs. I threw myself up the stairs of the doorway closest to me, the doors shutting with a hiss behind me. As the tram sped up, I looked out the window and saw Ninu watching me from the street corner, frowning with confusion.
I turned away, walking down the middle of the aisle until I spotted the man. He was sitting on the right-hand side, his back to me, looking out the window. I sat on the opposite side of the aisle and watched him as we travelled down Bourke Street, turning onto Spring Street and passing Parliament House, before continuing down Johnstone Street and into Collingwood. Where was he going?
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 forthcoming 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 Zora’s Story and essay about war criminals in Australia) https://www.amrapajalic.com/my-newsletter.html
BUY LINKS:
Pishukin Press:
Amazon (US): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FTTDNDRR
Amazon (AUS): https://www.amazon.com.au/Ghosts-Among-Gumtrees-Torlak-Mystery-ebook/dp/B0FTTDNDRR/
Universal (International Amazon ebook & Wide Print): https://www.amrapajalic.com/ghosts.html
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242422591-ghosts-among-the-gumtrees
Please be aware that trigger warnings could contain spoilers and so I have included them on my themes page
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Dyslexic Format Edition—printed in Dyslexic Open font in 14 point.
Large Print edition—printed in Large Print Open Sans No Italics font in 18 point font size.
Audiobooks AI—narrated by artificial intelligence using Google technology.
Audiobooks—narrated by performance narrators are also in process.
All books are also available in ebook, paperback and hardcover editions.
Large Print edition—printed in Large Print Open Sans No Italics font in 18 point font size.
Audiobooks AI—narrated by artificial intelligence using Google technology.
Audiobooks—narrated by performance narrators are also in process.
All books are also available in ebook, paperback and hardcover editions.
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