Kelly Gardiner
President.
Kelly Gardiner writes historical fiction, fantasy and crime fiction for all ages.
Her latest book is Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, co-written with Sharmini Kumar. Previous books include The Firewatcher Chronicles; 1917, shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Young People’s History Prize; Act of Faith and The Sultan’s Eyes, both shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards; and the Swashbuckler pirate trilogy.
Goddess, a novel based on the life of the queer, sword-fighting cross-dressing opera star, Mademoiselle de Maupin, is being adapted for the screen.
Kelly taught writing at La Trobe University for many years and is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow. She now runs New Page writing retreats and masterclasses.
Lindy Cameron
Vice President. Interstate Liaison.
An independent publisher and crime writer, Lindy is author of the Kit O’Malley PI trilogy Blood Guilt, Bleeding Hearts and Thicker Than Water; the archaeological mystery Golden Relic; the action thriller Redback; and the sf crime Feedback.
She’s co-author, with Fin J Ross, of the true crime collections: Toxic: Cold-blooded Australian Murders; and Killer in the Family.
Lindy’s had the great honour of co-writing two short stories with Kerry Greenwood. Both feature Harriet Brookes: ‘A Wild Colonial’ for Sherlock Holmes: The Australian Casebook and ‘The Saltwater Battle’ for War of the Worlds: Battleground Australia.
She is also the Editor of Who Sleuthed It? an anthology of crime fiction featuring an international cast of writers and starring a host of animal sleuths.
Lindy is the Publisher of Clan Destine Press.
She is a founding member of Sisters in Crime Australia, and was recently appointed a Life Member in recognition of her contribution over three decades.
Moraig Kisler
Secretary
Moraig Kisler, blissfully retired, is delighted to take on the role of Secretary. She has worked as a law clerk, assistant to general counsel, and company secretarial assistant.
She holds an Advanced Diploma of Business (Legal Practice) and a Certificate in Corporate Practice and Administration.
Despite completing an Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing at RMIT, her novel The Saltworks remains unfinished. She dabbles in writing short stories and micro-fiction and is a Scarlet Stiletto category winner. Moraig reads widely, enjoys literary fiction and historical fiction, but her go-to genre is crime.
In her spare time Moraig reads, travels, chats about books and writing over coffee with friends, and herds two disobedient and psychopathic cats. She is a Davitt Awards judge.
Lesley Gillis
Treasurer
Lesley holds a Bachelor of Business with a major in Accounting. She has worked in a few industries (i.e. banking, confectionary, legal and the trucking industry) during her working life prior to taking her undergraduate degree and joining the public service. She is now a retired public servant and has recently moved back to Melbourne from Canberra where she spent most of her public service life. In her last job she managed a budget of $1.4 billion.
Lesley has been a keen horse rider, dressage judge and competition organiser, and still attends some large international competitions. For 25 years she was treasurer of the ACT Dressage Association and the National Capital Equestrian Association.
From an early age she cut her reading teeth on the old Mistresses of Crime – Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Marjory Allingham – and some American crime fiction notably Rex Stout and Raymond Chandler. She also reads science fiction, fantasy and travel memoirs. She has no intentions of ever writing a novel, preferring to enjoy others’ stories.
Ruth Wykes
Reviews, Davitts Judge Co-ordinator, Scarlet Stiletto Co-ordinator
Ruth Wykes is an author and editor who lives on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Ruth has co-authored two true crime books: Women Who Kill with Lindy Cameron and Invisible Women with Kylie Fox.
Ruth works as an independent editor and mentor and is currently writing fiction. In 2016 she won the coveted Scarlet Stiletto short story competition. In her previous life in Perth Ruth owned an independent monthly lesbian magazine, Women Out West, which she published for almost a decade.
In 2023 Ruth was on the judging panel for the Davitt Awards and enjoyed the richness and diversity of Australian Women crime writers. She has taken over Moraig Kisler as review editor.
In her free time Ruth enjoys coffee with friends, gardening, reading and writing, robust conversations, AFL football and attempting the occasional home renovation project. But Betty the Builder she is not, and some of her creations are unique. She shares her life with her cats, as well as the ringtail possums and various random wildlife that inhabit her back yard.
Carmel Shute
Chair, Programming and Events Committee
Carmel is the inimitable powerhouse behind Sisters in Crime.
Carmel helped found Sisters in Crime Australia in 1991 and has been a national convenor ever since. She was inspired by the new wave of feminist crime writers, including Sara Paretsky who founded Sisters in Crime in 1986 at Bouchercon, the premier US crime writing convention. Carmel loves the combination of politics, suspense, good writing and fun that women’s crime writing and Sisters in Crime has brought to her life.
Carmel is an historian by trade, has worked as a union organiser at the ABC, and a media officer in local government and the trade union movement. She runs her own PR business Shute the Messenger.
Carmel was recently appointed a Life Member of Sisters in Crime in recognition of her contribution over three decades.
Dawn Farnham, Sarah Evans, Sam McKinnon and Lisa Ellery
Western Australia
Dawn Farnham began her author’s life while living in Singapore where her six historical novels are set. After moving back to Perth, she got a taste of her future when she won the Scarlet Stiletto short story Body in the Library prize in 2013. She finally turned to novel-length crime in 2021 for Tokyo Time, the first in a detective series set in Japanese Occupied Singapore.
Sam McKinnon is an aspiring crime fiction writer based in Geraldton, 418km north of Perth. She is a voracious reader of historical and mystery novels, and for the last five years has been a judge in the Daphne Du Maurier Mystery Writing Competition out of America.
Sarah Evans is an English ex-pat ex-journo who married an Aussie and moved to a 20-acre hobby farm 260 km south of Perth where they aimed for self-sufficiency and home-schooled four kids. A crime and romance writer, Sarah’s short stories have won a host of awards including six category prizes in the annual Scarlet Stiletto Awards. She’s the author of the Eve Rock rom-com crime series, Operation Paradise, Bad Habits and the forthcoming Rogue Runner.
Lisa Ellery, raised on a farm near Esperance on WA’s south coast, studied law and arts at the University of Western Australia. She worked as a lawyer in the goldmining city of Kalgoorlie- Boulder for a decade from 1998 before starting her own law firm there, working predominantly in commercial and mining law. Her debut novel, Private Prosecution, was published by Fremantle Press in 2021. It was followed by Hot Ground in 2025 after Lisa sold her law practice to scale back her non-writing commitments. She still lives in Kalgoorlie with her geologist husband and divides her time between the law, running and writing.
Siobhan Mullany and Alexandra Larach
New South Wales
Siobhan Mullany is a Sydney-based writer. She worked as a criminal defence lawyer and is a past winner of the Scarlet Stiletto Award. Her non-fiction has been published in legal journals and her short stories published by Sisters in Crime. She also reviews TV crime shows for Sisters in Crime.
Alexandra Larach is a Sydney based event manager and writer. She has yet to publish her debut novel but loves talking about the writing process and discussing your various thoughts and theories on new ideas.
Alexandra has been working in the for-purpose industry for the past five years and carries the tenets of the sector in everything she does. Having studied a Masters in policing, intelligence and counter terrorism Alexandra is fascinated by human behaviour and the judicial process.
Samantha Battams
South Australia
Samantha Battams has worked as a public health researcher and teacher, consultant, health service administrator and community development worker. She has a passion for history, travel, French language, reading and writing. Apart from studies in psychology, sociology and public health, she studied English literature at university.
Samantha recently published two books: a true crime tale about the notorious 19th-century Richmond Poisoner (The Secret Art of Poisoning, 2019, self-published); and, with Les Parsons, a biography on 20th-century South Australian pioneer aviator Harry Butler (The Red Devil, 2019, Wakefield Press). She is currently working on the sequel to her first novel. Samantha joined Sisters in Crime in 2019 and was keen to start up the Adelaide chapter.
Poppy Gee and Harrie Blake
Queensland
Poppy Gee and Harrie Blake share the convenor role in Queensland.
Harrie Blake is a crime and speculative fiction writer based in Brisbane and saw her two loves combined together in her third novel – The Mysterious Death of an Illuminator, a Steampunk Murder Mystery. Harrie has worked in both IT and people management and holds bachelors in cognitive science and laws and a masters in education.
Poppy Gee is a Brisbane based writer with two internationally published crime novels: Bay of Fires and Vanishing Falls, both set in Tasmania where she grew up. Her background is in journalism. Poppy has a masters in creative writing from the University of Queensland.
More info coming soon
Tasmania
More info coming soon.
Past national convenors
Sisters in Crime has had many convenors – each has given generously of their time and talents, for which we thank them.
Special recognition in the form of Lifetime Membership has been awarded to the following women who were convenors for 10 years or longer:
- Robin Bowles
- Phyllis King
- Cathy Martin
- the late Vivienne Colmer
- Sue Turnbull
- Ann Byrne
- Caz Brown