A few bad apples gathered on Thursday 6 October 2022, withas well as some ring-ins from New Zealand, to celebrate the new Tasmanian Chapter of Sisters in Crime Australia at Frank’s Ciderhouse in the Huon Valley. Dr Angela Savage, CEO of Public Libraries Victoria, and Lindy Cameron, Vice-President of Sisters in Crime Australia were on hand to officially launch the new chapter.
Sisters in Crime Australia held its 2022 Annual General Meeting on Friday 28 October, following its Felony and Fun event at South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel. It had convened a delayed 2021 AGM on Zoom only five months earlier but needed to get back in sync with the schedule required by Consumer Affairs Victoria. Nevertheless, it has broken many records!
Minotaur Books has separate debut novel competitions – First Crime Novel (closes 16 December 2022) and Malice Domestic First Traditional Mystery Novel with Mystery Writers of America (closes 30 November 2022).
Janna Thompson, one of Australia’s most distinguished philosophers, and a long-time member of Sisters in Crime Australia, decided to turn her hand to crime when the pandemic hit Melbourne in 2020.The result is Lockdown (Clan Destine Press), a novel which explores how the invisibility of older women can provide the perfect cover for criminal investigations. Janna put the finishing touches to Lockdown before just before her death from multiple brain tumours in June at the age of 79.
For the October Crime Stack, Affirm Press has kindly offered 20 copies of Cut by Melbourne author and medical doctor Susan White. Cut is a thrilling, provocative novel set against the backdrop of a major Melbourne hospital’s surgical team in the time before #metoo blew the lid off institutionalised misogyny and sexism. Be a member and be in the running to win!
To celebrate its 90th anniversary, the ABC is posting classic TV dramas. One of these is Corelli. It is on a square screen but otherwise is as relevant today as it was in 1995. It is so much more than the set where Deborra-Lee Furness met Hugh Jackman. The portrayal of prison life is spot-on. From the first scene, you get a visceral feel for a prison: the noise, the bravado, the underlying menace, and the need for constant vigilance. The psychologists’ offices are squirrelled into the thick prison walls – the only light from high-set windows.
Shooting for fame could end your career … and your life. A sparkling mystery from a stylish new voice in crime fiction, in a book that will delight fans of Richard Osman and Kerry Greenwood.
Jacqueline Bublitz won an amazing two Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards on 27 August for Before You Knew My Name – Best Debut Book and the Readers’ Choice award. All 169 books in contention competed for this award as decided by the 500+ members of Sisters in Crime. Before You Knew My Name has the unusual distinction of being narrated by a dead woman. She spoke to Karina Kilmore, debut crime writer, journalist, and interviewer for Sisters in Crime Australia, about her novel approach and how she crafted her book.
