• Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2007: winner for Chain of Evidence
• Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Award), International, 2002: winner for The Dragon Man
• Deutscher Krimi Preis (German Crime Fiction Award), International, 2000: winner for Kickback
• New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, Ethnic Affairs Commission Award, 1999: shortlisted for The Divine Wind
• Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Book of the Year: Older Readers, 1999: shortlisted for The Divine Wind
• New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, The Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature, 1999: winner for The Divine Wind
• NBC Banjo Awards, NBC Banjo Award for Fiction, 1996: shortlisted for The Sunken Road
• IBBY Honour Diploma, Writing, 1994 for The Bamboo Flute
• Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Award, Book of the Year: Younger Readers, 1993: winner for The Bamboo Flute
• The Canberra Times National Short Story Competition, 1986: winner for "Amateur Hour"

Novels

• Steal Away (1987)
• The Stencil Man (1988)
• Kickback (1991)
• Paydirt (1992)
• Deathdeal (1993)
• Crosskill (1994)
• The Sunken Road (1996)
• Port Vila Blues (1996)
• The Fallout (1997)
• The Dragon Man (1999)
• Past the Headlands (2001)
• Kittyhawk Down (2003)
• Snapshot (2005)
• Chain of Evidence (2007)
• Blood Moon (2009)

Short Story Collections

• Approaches (1981)
• The Difference to Me (1988)
• Flamingo Gate (1991)
• Straight, Bent and Barbara Vine (1998)

Young Adult

• The Bamboo Flute (1992)
• Ratface (1993)
• Ermyntrude Takes Charge (1995)
• Blame the Wind (1995)
• Restless : Stories of Flight & Fear (1995)
• Walk Twenty, Run Twenty (1996)
• The Half Dead (1997)
• The Apostle Bird (1997)
• The Divine Wind (1999)
• From Your Friend, Louis Deane (2000)
• Moondyne Kate (2001)
• Maddie Finn (2002)
• Eva's Angel (2003)
• Two-Way Cut (2004)

Children's

• Switch Cat (1994)

Edited

• The Man Who Played Spoons (1987)
• Personal Best (1989)
• Personal Best 2 (1991)
• Below the Waterline (1999)

Non-Fiction

• Wretches and Rebels: The Australian Bushrangers (1981)
• Writing Fiction: An Introduction to the Craft (1983)
• Bushrangers (1984)
• Total War: The Home Front, 1939-1945 (1985)
• Australia Then & Now (1987)
• Writing Professionally: The Freelancer's Guide to Writing and Marketing (1989)
• Writing Fiction: An Introduction to the Craft (revised edition) (2001)