Painting the town red: Celebrating 31 years of mystery, murder, and malice with Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Crime writers and fans gathered at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel on Saturday night (23 November) to paint the town red as they celebrated the 31st anniversary of Sisters in Crime’s Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories. Scarlet was the prescribed dress code and, while the authors and their pals might be dedicated to…
Davitt Awards 2025
Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women turn 25 next year and we plan to celebrate in style. Entries are now open! EarlyBird closes 31 November 2024.
Murder Monday: Hayley Scrivenor
Multi-award-winning Sydney author, Hayley Scrivenor, spoke to Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem For the November Murder Monday. Hayley’s debut, Dirt Town, was a number-one bestseller in Australia and won several awards, including the UK Crime Writers’ Association New Blood Dagger Award, the ABIA for General Fiction Book of the Year, a Lambda Literary Award and Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Award for best debut book in 2023. Her latest novel is Girl Falling.
Red Herrings
Catch up with the latest crime events from around the nation. Things are quitening down a bit as the end of the year approached but there are still many opportunities to hear from authors about their books, and to stock up for the gift-giving season. Giving a book offers so much reading pleasure and it supports authors and the publishing industry.
Pip Drysdale, The Close-Up
Love the twisty, turny plots of Pip Drysdale? Twenty copies of her latest The Close-Up are up for grabs in the November Crime Stack draw for members only. The Close-Up is an electrifying, dark and (of course) twisty thriller that follows a young novelist, once full of promise but now failing to live up to it, who becomes embroiled in the life of a hot movie star… and his stalker.The Crime Stack is a benefit for Sisters in Crime members. Every month there are 20 books to win in a random draw of members.Join now and be in the running for a complimentary paperback copy of The Close-Up
221B Baker Street, werewolves, and me: Narrelle M. Harris
Think every re-working or re-imagining of the great Sherlock Holmes has already been done? Think again! Melbourne’s Narelle M Harris brings us The She-Wolf of Baker Street. The simple question is: what if Mrs Hudson was a werewolf? And it’s a wild ride.
When things go wrong
New Zealander Charity Norman, author of Home Truths (Allen & Unwin, 2024) spoke to Sisters in Crime’s Robyn Walton about her latest novel, Home Truths. She chose to set it in North Yorkshire because she knows and loves it – and in the years 2019-2020 because the Covid pandemic triggered a perfect storm of isolation, anxiety and the explosion of online disinformation.
2024 AGM: Carmel Shute stands down as Secretary
Carmel Shute, who helped co-found Sisters in Crime Australia in 1991, stood down as Secretary at the 2024 Annual General Meeting on Friday 25 October, following its TV Noir event at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. She is being replaced by former President, Moraig Kisler, who is fresh from a year’s break. Carmel will continue to work on programming. A committee of eight was elected unopposed.
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.