Sisters in crime Readings Book Launch: Outrageous Fortunes

Join us to celebrate the launch of Lucy Sussex’s and Megan Brown’s Outrageous Fortunes: The Adventures of Mary Fortune, Crime-writer, and Her Criminal Son George (Black Inc).

This is the gripping story of Australia’s first female crime writer and her career-criminal son. When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne with her infant son in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. The Victorian goldfields were just the place. After a time selling sly grog and a bigamous marriage to a policeman, Mary became a pioneering journalist and author.

A collection of Fortune’s crime stories, Nothing but Murders and Bloodshed and Hanging (Verse Chorus), is also being launched.

Lucy and Megan will be in conversation with Philomena Horsley, a long-time member of Sisters in Crime, a Davitt Awards’ Judge, and a Scarlet Stiletto trophy winner. She is also a medical anthropologist with expertise in autopsies, death and dying; family and domestic violence; and women’s health.