Davitt Awards 2025
Celebrating 25 years of excellence in crime writing by Australian women. Entries are now open for the 25th Annual Davitt Awards for the best Australian womens’ crime and mystery books of 2024 Read more
Best holiday reads, 2024-2025
Sisters in Crime invited convenors, author members, Davitt Award judges and winners, and others to nominate their best holiday reads for 2024-2025. As you’ll note, they traverse an extraordinarily wide range of themes, locations, and interests. Some nominations are up-to-the-minute. Others are golden oldies. What they all offer, of course, are hours of reading pleasure and diversion. I loved the passion revealed in the responses. Discover what passed Hazel Edwards’ ‘hot water test’.
We Owe So Much to Agatha Christie
Kate Emery’s new book is set at a family beach holiday in Western Australia. My Family and Other Suspects is a mystery where, you know how it happens, there’s a murder and Ruth, the teenage murder mystery fan in the family, decides that she’s the one to investigate. As Kate says, it owes a lot to Agatha Christie.
The Last Trace
Best selling psychological thrillers are Petronella McGovern’s beat. She talks with Natalie Conyer about why and how she writes and her latest page turner, The Last Trace – a gripping thriller about siblings and secrets, and the traces we can never erase.
Red Herrings
Catch up with the latest crime events from around the nation. There are a couple of events before New Year but events don’t really get going again until late January. it’s heartening to see so many author events in Queensland – not just in Brisbane but in Gympie and Toowoomba. And, if you’re running around buying gifts for the festive season, don’t forget that giving a book offers so much reading pleasure as well as supporting authors and the publishing industry.
Painting the town red: Scarlet Stiletto Awards Night
What a night. What winners. Here is the lowdown on the 31st Scarlet Stiletto Awards night. Including all the winners.
WIN! Natalie Conyer’s Present Tense
Win a copy of Natalie Conyer’s much acclaimed, Ned Kelly winning debut novel, Present Tense. All members are automatically included in the draw at the end of each month. This is a ripping read set in South Africa, as it desperately tries to find a way forward post-apartheid.
Murder Monday: Sarah Barrie
Sarah Barrie has nine novels under her belt. She cut her teeth on romance but, luckily for us, threw her lot in with crime. Sarah spoke about her literary trajectory to Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem for the December Murder Monday. ln a past life, while gaining degrees in arts, science, and education, Sarah worked as a teacher, a vet nurse, a horse trainer, and a magazine editor, before deciding she wanted to write novels.
Crime Every Mountain
Women’s crime writing has risen to new heights. It’s left the dry, dusty plains behind and headed for the hills or rather the mountains – with thrilling and chilling consequences. Claire Sutherland (The Crag), Bronwyn Hall (The Chasm), and Erina Reddan (Deep in the Forest) will talk to Leslie Falkiner-Rose, convenor and keen skier, about the challenges they have faced trying to get to the top.
Stiletto Bites: hours (and hours) of listening pleasure
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories in 2023, Sisters in Crime, Susanna Lobez, actor-turned-barrister-turned-broadcaster-turned-true-crime-author, has been progressively narrating the winning stories in a podcast – Scarlet Stiletto Bites: Scintillating stories by Australian women. Find out how to listen here.
New Reviews
Every month Sisters in Crime brings you new reviews from women who write criminally good books.