Closing 31 August: 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards with a record $11,910 in prize money
Sisters in Crime’s 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories is now open and offering a record $11,910 in prizes this year.
Murder Monday: Jane Sullivan
For the September Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to Jane Sullivan, crime author, and the literary columnist for Nine Newspapers. She has been a judge for Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards several times. Jane is the author of three novels, Little People, The White Star, and Murder in Punch Lane, her first crime novel, plus a memoir, Storytime. Murder in Punch Lane is set in Melbourne in 1868, and inspired by real events and people.
THE CRAG
A wonderful debut, set in the Wimmera. Skye is a paramedic with a passion for rock climbing. When Skye finds a woman’s body dumped in a pit behind an old settler’s cottage whilst walking her dogs, it sets off a chain of events that will lead to the revelation of more than one violent secret in the small community.
THE HATERS
An author releases her debut novel. She’s ecstatic. Then comes an aggressive one-star review online, and it triggers a campaign of terrible reviews and online harassment. Was it really a disgruntled reader who turned Camryn Lane’s life upside down?
MURDER IN PUNCH LANE
When dazzling theatre star Marie St Denis dies in the arms of her best friend, fellow actress Lola Sanchez, everyone believes it was suicide by laudanum overdose. Everyone except Lola. On the brink of stardom herself, she risks everything by embarking on a quest to find Marie’s killer.
THE MYSTERY WRITER
For fans of Rowland Sinclair, he’s on a break. In this standalone story, Sulari Gentill introduces us to Theo, a young woman who wants to write the biggest bestselling book in the world. She heads to the US where, to her utter shock, she finds herself the prime suspect in the death of another author.
THE HOUSESITTER
This one is hard to put down. Set in Tasmania, Em has come home from the US, partly to get away from her abusive Hollywood husband and the media frenzy of their split. But small things start to go awry almost immediately – then her mother disappears.
THE GALLOWS BIRD
This debut novel draws on the true stories of female convicts who are sent to Australia as punishment for their crimes. We meet Hannah Bird in London in 1833 and follow her to Sydney in a story that is as sweeping as it is sobering.
HANGMAN’S GAP
In small-town Hangman’s Gap in Queensland there is a John Doe in the local morgue. The suspicious death of a policeman has the town on edge. And then a third man dies. Plot twists will keep you guessing: who did it? And why?
THE LOST LIBRARY
A delightful story for the young and young at heart about a pop-up library which appears overnight. It is guarded by a cat, and a boy suddenly discovers there’s a mystery hidden in one of the books he borrows.
ALL YOU TOOK FROM ME
In this terrific debut, anaesthetist Clare Carpenter has just lost her husband and her memory in a single-vehicle accident. Her husband kept secrets, and someone is out for vengeance.