For Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to acclaimed Adelaide author, Lainie Anderson.
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Lainie is the author of three novels, including two crime books, The Death of Dora Black and Murder on North Terrace, both published by Hachette Australia, and both featuring the real-life character, Kate Cocks, who, in 1915, became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary and with the same powers of arrest as men.
As a guardian of morality, Kate Cocks marched through Adelaide’s parklands whacking canoodling couples with a five-foot cane. Husbands caught abusing their wives, were made to kneel before her and recite the Lord’s Prayer. Protecting women’s virtue wasn’t her only agenda, though. Later in life, she set up a refuge for homeless women over fifty and, with the Methodist Church, established a home for unwed mothers with the aim of helping them keep their babies. But the Kate Cocks Memorial Babies Home had a darker legacy. Aboriginal children stolen from their mothers were taken there to be adopted out to white families.
In early 2024, Lainie completed a PhD with the University of South Australia, exploring the life of Kate Cocks and her books based on her research, are published under the title, Petticoat Police Mysteries.
Lainieworked as a journalist for more than three decades. In 2017 she travelled overseas on a Churchill Fellowship, visiting nine countries in seven weeks to gauge the significance of the historic Vickers Vimy aircraft at Adelaide Airport and retrace the route of Sir Ross Smith’s pioneering flight from England to Australia. It formed the basis for her first novel, Long Flight Home, and a documentary, screened on SBS.
More info https://lainieanderson.com.au/homehere.
Murder Monday interviews are available on Sisters in Crime’s YouTube channel at 6 pm once a month on a Monday.