Author Blogs - Sisters in Crime Australia

Breaking into crime: Amanda Hampson

Amanda Hampson, the author of the best-selling The Tea Ladies and its sequel The Cryptic Clue, fell into crime (writing, not indulging) almost by accident. For twenty years, her work had fallen in the vague area of ‘commercial women’s fiction’ but when her 2021 release got smashed by lockdowns, she decided to change it up and do something quite different. Crime is one of the genres she enjoyed reading and she was keen for the challenge. The crossover to a specific genre instantly made her work more marketable.

From the mountains to the sea: Lee Christine

The scene of the crime is all important for Lee Christine. Her three novels in her Snowy Mountains crime trilogy, Charlotte Pass, Crackenback, and Dead Horse Gap are set in and around the small towns and ski resorts of New South Wales, an area she was very familiar with. So, when it was time to pick up her pen or her next novel, Glenrock, she felt it was important to give her readers a strong sense of place once again – this time in the region around Newcastle that has changed enormously since the closure of BHP twenty-five years ago.

FNQ – The home of Tropic Noir: Caroline de Costa

Caroline de Costa first discovered FNQ – Far North Queensland – in 1994 when she came to do a locum in Cairns Hospital. The town had more of a frontier atmosphere then. She was soon hooked by the land, by the work, and by the people. It’s no surprise that when she decided to try her hand at crime fiction, she chose to set it in country she loves.

From fact to fiction: A.M. Stuart

Terror in Topaz, A.M. Stuart’s fourth Harriet Gordon Mystery (set in Singapore in 1910), was released in October. The story behind the story – the murder of William Steward by his lover, Ethel Proudlock, in 1911 – shocked the world of colonial Malaya. It became a cause celebre, immortalised in William Somerset Maugham’s novel, The Letter, that later became a film.

Dreaming of Manderley (and Mailbu): Jill Cantor

Inspired by all the women who wrote gothic mysteries before me, I wrote my own modern-day take on one with The Fiction Writer. But I also wanted to explore what it means to create original work, what it means to be a struggling writer, and who owns any story.

Trauma and the healing gift of writing: Sonya Leeding

Sonya Leeding was always an aspsiring writer but it became incredibly important when, on 29 May 2011, her life changed forever when her policeman husband was killed by an armed robber – one of the biggest crime stories that the Gold Coast had experienced.

The tricky art of interpreting crime: Brooke Robinson

Working as an interpreter in the criminal justice system is fascinating and high-stake. Brooke spent years researching how the presence of an interpreter impacts criminal trials and police interviews. It’s not just what the interpreter says. Where the interpreter is physically positioned in the room – beside the person who is being questioned, or across from them etc – is also crucial.

Fixing it with Trixie: Nicole Morris

A childhood spent reading Trixie Belden novels inspired Nicole Morris to devote herself to the cause of missing persons. When she gets a new missing persons case, she feels like Trixie. She thinks how can I help find this person? What will I write that might reach the person who knows what happened? Find out more here and learn about Nicole’s book, Vanished: True Stories from families of Australian missing persons.

Can the past be really left behind?: Chris Stuart

Over her years working as a humanitarian aid worker, Chris Stuart would return home between assignments, but couldn’t really talk about what she had seen or done and some her stories made for uncomfortable listening. She learned it was easier to remain silent, but the stories, the inequity, the tragedies were ingrained in her head and cemented in her heart.

Across the kala pani from India to Fiji: Nilima Rao

Nilima Rao’s debut novel, a historical crime fiction novel titled A Disappearance in Fiji is set in Fiji in 1914, which is a fairly unusual time and place to set a novel. She is often asked – why Fiji, why 1914? The setting is of particular significance to her family. In researching and writing this novel she learned of the sacrifices made by her great-grandparents, that led to the privileged life that she now enjoys