Dr Sandra Thom-Jones, the winner of Sisters in Crime’s 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards 1st prize ($2000 plus the trophy), was always told that “autistic people can’t write fiction because we’re not imaginative or creative,” she said. Thom-Jones, who had previously won several awards in the national women’s short story competition, has well and truly proved those nay-sayers wrong with her latest story, ’Der Hölle Rache’.
“I’m still shaking,” she said. “Winning prizes in the 2023 Scarlet Stilettos was instrumental in convincing me that I could write crime stories people wanted to read, and motivated me to start work on my first novel. I was excited to make the shortlist again this year, but never dreamt I would actually win the coveted shoe.
“I write stories with quirky, and often neurodivergent, characters who don’t see the world like everyone else does. The characters in my stories share my passion for justice and equity, although I use a keyboard to vent my frustration where [in my story] Alice used a gun.”
Dr Thom-Jones, who lives in Healesville (VIC), is the ACU’s former Pro Vice-Chancellor, Research Impact and has both academic clout and creative verve. Her books, Growing in to Autism (Melbourne University Press, 2022), Autistics in Academia (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and Autistics at Work (Melbourne University Press, 2025) have been well-received and brought new levels of understanding to autism and the challenges of neurodiversity. Dr Thom-Jones is furthering her intellectual enquiry by undertaking a second doctorate – this time exploring the experiences of autistic parents.
Dr Thom-Jones was one of 31 shortlisted authors honoured at this year’s gala dinner – held on Friday night (21 November), for the first time at the William Angliss Institute in Melbourne. Scarlet was the prescribed dress code and, while the authors and their pals might be dedicated to crime and intricacies of law-breaking, they nearly all obeyed!
This year, 231 short stories competed for $13,050 in prize money. Over the lifetime of the awards, 5077 stories have been entered with 34 Scarlet Stiletto trophy and category winners going on to have books published. These include Cate Kennedy, Tara Moss, Angela Savage, Aoife Clifford, Ellie Marney, Josephine Pennicott, and Anna Snoekstra.
Award-winning Sydney author, Dinuka McKenzie, presented the awards after discussing her life in crime with host, Melbourne award-winning author, Amanda Hampson, creator of the popular Tea Ladies series.
Emerita Professor Christina Lee, a double-shoe winner, coordinated the final judging session and said in her report that the range and variety of stories were outstanding.
“There were bodies in all manner of libraries, retributions fast and slow, mysteries in historical settings and faraway places. There were stories set in cities and deserts, the future and the past, worlds real and imagined. The protagonists were women, children, animals and fantasy creatures.
“The authors’ tones ranged from light and hilarious to spooky and terrifying. There are stories from this year that will live forever in my head, stories in styles that I might never have chosen to read, but devoured with pleasure when they were assigned. Judging was, as always, a great joy, an education, and a chance to reflect on one’s own limited range of preferences and experiences.”
The Simon & Schuster Second Prize ($1000) went to Nette Hilton (Toowoomba, QLD) for ’Without A Word‘. She is best known for her children’s and young adult literature . . . and a couple of raunchy adult books. Nette says she is the sort of writer who can write about sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and completely forget that her family members can read – and they know her nom de plume. Her son only reached Chapter 4, but she earned additional street cred when the man who worked school maintenance realized who she was. [Absent from ceremony.]
The Sun Bookshop & Fremantle Press Third Prize ($800) was won by Jacqui Horwood (Clunes, VIC) for ‘Rebel Girl’. Jacqui is a library manager and on the board of Creative Clunes, which brings Clunes Booktown Festival to life every year. Jacqui is addicted to entering the Scarlet Stiletto Awards and has racked up a red shoe, a silver shoe, and two commendations. She has also been shortlisted for the Ada Cambridge Award and has been published in a couple of e-zines. One of these days, she says, she’ll finish a manuscript.
The Echo Publishing Award for Best Young Writer ($1000) went to 12-year-old Amber Woodburne, from Londrigan, Victoria, for ’A Midnight Murder‘. Mad about reading, Amber’s favourite genres are mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi. She has always been a keen writer – about all sorts of topics, and often featuring animals. Mary Shelley’s birthday was one day before entries for this competition closed, a cool coincidence that inspired Amber to include this significant date, August 30, in her story. Amber was accompanied by her parents and grandad, who collectively gave out an almightly yell when she was presented with the award.
The Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Award ($1250) went to Julia Harris (Casterton, VIC) for ’Return or Die‘. Julia is a journalist, author, and mum. She holds a Master of Arts in Writing and Literature and is completing a PhD in Young Adult Realism. Her work has been published in the TEXT journal, and she was awarded a 2025 Varuna Roderick Centre Fellowship. Through her imprint, Happy Harris Publishing, Julia has released four young adult novels that explore love, loss, courage, fear, and belonging.
The Melbourne Athenaeum Body-in-the-Library Library Runner-Up Award ($750) was won by Natalie Conyer (Mosman, NSW) for ’The Ghost Detective‘. Natalie is a writer and a crime fiction tragic. She’s a serial Scarlet Stiletto offender, still chasing that elusive red shoe. It was this competition, in fact, that gave her the confidence to write. She’s published two novels so far, Present Tense and Shadow City, with a third to come in 2026. A collection of her short stories, The Book Club & Other Stories, was published by Clan Destine Press in 2024. One of her other stories was highly commended.
The HQ Fiction Award for Best Thriller ($1000) was taken out by Tegan Huntley (Inglewood, WA) for ’Vanish‘. Tegan Huntley is a media and communications professional who turned to crime (fiction) because of her interest in exploring the psychology of what motivates ordinary people to do the unthinkable. Tegan’s short stories have been published in various anthologies, and in 2023 she won the Louie Award for fast fiction crime writing. This is her third time shortlisted in the Scarlet Stilettos. [Absent from ceremony.]
’Nan and Lila Investigate a Murder‘ by Alyssa Mackay (Springwood, QLD) won the Clan Destine Press Award for Cross Genre ($750). Alyssa is a Brisbane-based writer who loves a good mystery and a clever plot twist. She won the 2020 Thunderbolt Prize Emerging Authors Award and has been shortlisted for the Flash 500 Novel Competition and Stringybark Stories. This is the third year running she’s been shortlisted for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards. The Scarlet Stiletto is her favourite competition, and one day she hoped to see her story in a Sisters’ anthology. Though Alyssa prefers to stay under the radar, she’s hard to miss – tall, but not quite as tall as her towering pile of crime fiction books. [Absent from ceremony.]
The Kerry Greenwood Malice Domestic Award worth $750 went to January Gilchrist (Ashgrove, QLD) for ’The Art of Letting Go‘. January writes the kind of mysteries where women don’t wait to be rescued – they handle it themselves. A Richell Prize ‘longlister’ and published under a pseudonym in America for her historical cosies, her debut contemporary mystery The Final Chapter was released in 2025 and described as “sharp, thrilling, and gothic”. When she’s not plotting fictional murder, she runs a Pilates studio in Brisbane, where she teaches women that strength is about more than just fitness. January has a soft spot for flawed heroines, bad men getting what’s coming to them, and delivering the kind of justice in her stories that would get her locked up in real life. This is her first Scarlet Stiletto shortlisting. [Absent from ceremony.]
The ScriptWorks Great Film Idea Award ($500) was won by Sally Ross (Leichardt, NSW) for ’Reasonable Doubt‘. Sally has had stories in her head since she was a dreamy, bookish girl growing up in suburban Sydney. After a busy career in public service and raising two children, she finally has time to get some of those stories onto the page. An aspiring writer living in Sydney’s inner west, she is currently working on a feminist crime novel set among Sydney’s Italian community.
The Bolton Clarke Award ($1000) for Best Art and Crime Story went to Linda Brandon (South Tamworth, NSW), for ’The Spanish Connection‘. Linda writes predominantly crime fiction and her short stories have been shortlisted or highly commended for several competitions, including the Louie Award and the New England Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing. Linda loves a crime story with a great twist. She is currently working on a novel. [Absent from ceremony.]
Every Cloud Productions’ Phryne Mystery with History Award ($1000) was won by Liz Filleul (Mt Dandenong, VIC) for ’A Time for Crime‘. Liz writes cosy crime, feel-good fiction and the occasional darker tale. She won the Scarlet Stiletto Award in 2004, and was runner-up in 2007, 2011, and 2016. More recently, she was a finalist for the 2023 Derringer Award, run by the Short Mystery Fiction Society in the USA, with a cosy crime story that had been published by UK magazine The People’s Friend. Since 2020, she has had 50 stories and five serials published in The People’s Friend, and she has also written solve-it-yourself mysteries for US magazine Woman’s World.
’Franklin Has Questions ‘, a story by Sarah Mayo Tighe (Bundaberg, QLD), took out the Cate Kennedy Award for Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue ($500) – a photo of two scarlet stilettos, a notebook, and passport, abandoned in a garden. Sarah is a former lawyer from Sydney now living in Treviso, Italy—birthplace of tiramisu, prosecco, and plenty of everyday drama. While new to crime writing, she’s an amateur playwright with works performed internationally. She draws inspiration from the chaos, charm, and characters of Italian life (she’s married to an Italian, so there’s LOTS of drama!) as well as from her experiences in Australia. [Absent from ceremony.]
The Writers’ Victoria Crime and Punishment Award for the most satisfying retribution, a very popular award, went for the second year in a row to Laree Chapman (Bundaberg, QLD), for ’Killing Crows‘. The prize used to be getting to sit in a cell for 3 months at Old Melbourne Gaol. Now it’s an online course worth $300. Chapman draws on her early experiences living on remote Flinders Island to explore themes of isolation and resilience. In 2020, her adult historical crime story ’Hawker’s Road: The Hangman’s Noose‘ was placed second in the CYA: Everything’s A Genre Competition. Her story ’Smooth‘ won the 2024 GenreCon Short Story competition. [Absent from ceremony.]
Highly commended framed certificates went to:
- Lara Bailey (Diamond Creek, VIC) for ’Game Face’
- Alison Birrane (Floreat, WA) for ‘Bill Came Due‘
- Sue Clapton (North Lake, WA) for ‘One Wrong‘ [Absent from ceremony.]
- Natalie Conyer (Mosman, NSW) for ‘Here for You’
- Kathryn Errey (Halifax, SA) for ‘The Spinster Who Came Down off the Shelf’
- Dawn Farnham (Yokine, WA) for ‘Requiem for the Innocent’ [Absent from ceremony.]
- Kath Harper (Port Fairy, VIC) for ‘Cat and Mouse’
- Megan Heyward (Booker Bay, NSW) for ‘Small Treacheries’
- Julia Miller (Adelaide, SA) for ‘The Prize’
- Merryl Parker (Takone, Tas) For ‘Dingo’
- Alison Pascoe (Banora Point, NSW) for ‘The Boss That Wasn’t’
- Helen Richardson (Anna Bay, NSW) for ‘Washed Up’
- Bridget Robertson (Strathdale, VIC) for ‘The Outsider’
- Vicki Skidmore (Essendon, VIC) for ‘A Friend in Need’
- Nikki Thompson–McWatters (Blackheath, NSW)for ‘Why?’
- Katrina Watson (Balaclava, VIC) for ‘Affairs in Order’
- Jennifer White (Sandford, VIC) for ‘The Last Chapter’
Dinuka McKenzie launched Scarlet Stiletto: The Seventeenth Cut, an e-book collection of the 2025 winning stories, edited by Phyllis King ($5.00) Purchase here.
Also available is the paperback of the winning stories over the first 30 years, The Scarlet Stiletto: 30 Years of Mystery, Murder and Malice, edited by Lindy Cameron. (paperback $36.99; e-book $9.95). Purchase here.
A mystery judge – Susanna Lobez, fashionista, true crime author, broadcaster, and Stiletto Bites podcaster – presented the Better Red than Dead prizes for the best scarlet outfits to trophy winner, Sandra Thom-Jones, and Gene Blackley.
Raffle prizes – three big bags of women’s crime books – went to Gerry McLoughlin, Rob Benson, and Susanna Lobez. Susanna was also the successful bidder for Piccoli Portraits $1000 photography package.
Prizes were kindly sponsored by Swinburne University of Technology; Simon & Schuster; the Sun Bookshop; Fremantle Press; the Melbourne Athenaeum Library; the Kerry Greenwood estate; Every Cloud Productions; Bolton Clarke; Writers Victoria; HQ Fiction; Echo Publishing; Clan Destine Press; Cate Kennedy; and ScriptWorks.
The 33rd Scarlet Stiletto Awards close on 31 August 2026.
Info & author interviews: Carmel Shute, National Co-convenor, Sisters in Crime: 0412 569 356; admin@sistersincrime.org.au or go to www.sistersincrime.org.au