The Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories turn 31 this year and are offering a record $13,400 in prizes. The first prize winner takes home $2000, donated by Swinburne University of Technology, plus the coveted trophy. Cate Kennedy is offering a new award for the Best Story Inspired by a Forensic Clue ($500). Closes 31 August 2024 – so start writing now, if you haven’t already.
On offer for the July Crime Stack are 20 copies of Girl Falling kindly donated by Pan Macmillan Publishing Australia. Award-winning Wollongong writer, Hayley Scrivenor displays again her razor-sharp skills for character, landscape and narrative. Join now and be in the running for a complimentary paperback copy of Girl Falling.
For this month’s Author Spotlight Deborah Challinor, a prolific author from across the ditch, spoke to Robyn Walton about her new historical novel, Black Silk & Sympathy (HarperCollins, 2024), set in Sydney in the 1860s – with a very unusual sleuth. She has had an interest in cemeteries and mourning and funeral traditions forever, she says. In 2018 she received a New Zealand Order of Merit award for services to literature and historical research.
Global best-selling author, Alison Goodman, asks if we have noticed a quiet revolution happening on our bookshelves and television screen. She’s talking about the rise and rise of the older woman amateur sleuth.
Twenty years ago, she would have been pressed to name more than Miss Marple as an example, but now we have Elizabeth and Joyce from the Thursday Murder Club, the new Marlow Murders team in the books by Robert Thorogood, Agatha Raisin in the books by MC Beaton, and Susan Ryeland in the Magpie Murders series, to name just a few.
A teenage girl goes missing and Nicola Miller fears for her own daughter…that she might be the killer. A fast-paced and gripping psychological thriller.
A security guard dies in a detention centre. A woman dares to speak out and stand up. This is an important and moving story about displacement and about the lengths you’ll go to find safety and love. And home.
The tea ladies are back and again find themselves in hot water. Sydney in the 60s is changing and there are mysteries galore; from national security to an intriguing treasure hunt.
Set on the Coral Coast of WA this outback thriller revolves around Katy who is on a road trip with a mission – to find her missing sister. Edgy and full of surprises.
A murdered judge. Two missing lawyers. And then another body turns up. This beautifully written story, set in and around Newcastle in NSW is a great winter read.
A pair of 12-year-old girls start to list and track the suspicious things in their neighbourhood, which happened to be the hunting ground of The Yorkshire Ripper. Wonderfully complex and gritty and beautifully written.