Author Spotlight - Sisters in Crime Australia

Natalie Jayne Clarke interviewed by Lucy Sussex. Picture of Natalie Jayne in a fake leopard print coat.

Bloody Scotland: Natalie Jayne Clark on The Malt Whisky Murders

Sisters in Crime roving reporter Lucy Sussex is attending the crime festival Bloody Scotland. As a taster, here is an interview with Natalie Jayne Clark, author of The Malt Whisky Murders (Polygon, 2025), shortlisted for Bloody Scotland Scottish Crime Debut. It’s a darkly comic sapphic tale, as much about neurodivergence as it is about women in the male whisky industry. And also a good noir fun read. And Natalie recommends her favourite tipples.

Angie Faye Martin author on a black background for an author spotlight.

A stunning new voice: Angie Faye Martin

Melaleuca is a beautifully written, absorbing crime novel that introduces us to a stunning new voice to Australian women’s crime fiction. Angie Faye Martin is a stunning new voice and here she writes about how she got to here and why.

Mystery, Intrigue and History: Jacquie Pham

Jacquie Pham’s debut novel has landed and it is a spellbinding historical murder mystery that transports readers to the lavish yet treacherous world of 1920s French-colonial Vietnam—a setting rarely explored in fiction with such depth and intensity. She talks with Robyn Walton about why this story and how it developed.

Finding the creative trigger: Catherine Jinks

Multi published, multi award winning Catherine Jinks talks to Robyn Walton about writing, the creative trigger and how she wrote her current book.

Grief, Ghosts and Healing: Alicia Thompson

Playing with the whodunnit conventions, Ex from Alicia Thompson is a slow uncovering of the impacts of those close the the event. Alicia Thompson talks with Natalie Conyer about how she developed the story, the importance of notebooks (dated!) and where she found the starting point amongst all the story lines, themes and key plot points.

Antarctic Noir: Riley James

Antarctic Noir! This is certainly a twist on the ‘isolated community” + murder plot! They’re in Antarctica…how isolated is that? Riley James talks to Ruth Wykes about the writing of The Chilling. It’s s certainly a twist on the ‘isolated community” + murder plot! Riley James talks to Ruth Wykes about the writing of this page turner…

Black background with words Author Spotlight and head of Hayley Scrivenor

Girl Falling: Hayley Scrivenor

How do you follow up on a number one best seller that has won multiple awards? Hayley Scrivenor’s latest – Girl Falling – is an exploration of friendship .. and what happens when it turns bad. How did she come to write it? How did she get it down ‘on paper’?

Petronella McGovern is the author spotlight

The Last Trace

Best selling psychological thrillers are Petronella McGovern’s beat. She talks with Natalie Conyer about why and how she writes and her latest page turner, The Last Trace – a gripping thriller about siblings and secrets, and the traces we can never erase.

When things go wrong

New Zealander Charity Norman, author of Home Truths (Allen & Unwin, 2024) spoke to Sisters in Crime’s Robyn Walton about her latest novel, Home Truths. She chose to set it in North Yorkshire because she knows and loves it – and in the years 2019-2020 because the Covid pandemic triggered a perfect storm of isolation, anxiety and the explosion of online disinformation.

Author Spotlight: Writing a bold, wild woman

For the October Author Spotlight, New Zealand author Barbara Sumner spoke to Georgina Baron-Ross, about her debut novel, The Gallows Bird (Pantera Press). This novel whisks readers away to 19th-century London. Meet ‘Birdie,’ a young woman of lowly station with grand ambitions. Despite her humble beginnings, Birdie believes she is destined for finer things, driven by the legacy of her aristocratic mother. But then she becomes a convict bound for Botany Bay.