Dicks Vs Dames: Sisters in Crime@St Kilda Writers’ Festival

Go here to buy tickets. $15-20 and booking is essential.

Sisters in Crime Australia presents the return of the Great Crime Writing Debate, Dicks versus Dames.

The opposing teams of crime writers will argue each other’s case.

Debate Topic: “The female of the species is deadlier than the male” (to quote Rudyard Kipling)

Prosecutor: Angela Savage

Kafka said “a non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity” – which currently makes Prosecutor Angela Savage a monster! To make matters worse, she holds a PhD in Creative Writing, giving her the Bond-villain-like name of Doctor Savage.

In the AFFIRMATIVE are the Dicks: Robert Gott (lead detective), R.W.R. McDonald, and Hugh McGinlay.

Robert Gott is the author of eight novels. They are all set in the 1940s. What he does essentially is to sit at home and make shit up. This is the meaning of fiction. He was born in Maryborough in Queensland and, as always, he would like you to take this into consideration and perhaps admire this courageous admission.

R.W.R. McDonald is the award-winning author of The Nancys, who, allegedly, pre-Covid days would spend a great deal of time away, dressed as an elderly aunt, writing murder mysteries under the pen name of ‘Jessica Fletcher’.

Hugh McGinlay is the author of the Catherine Kint mystery series and is known for making noises into microphone. He has a very loud laugh, which occasionally makes people think that he is also funny. 

In the NEGATIVE are the Dames: Vikki Petraitis (lead detective), Narrelle M Harris and Leigh Redhead.

Vikki Petraitis is a true crime author of so many books, she’s lost count. She’s also tried her hand at podcasting and to her surprise, had about a bajillion downloads. Vikki is undefeated in the Dicks vs Dames debates. Because women are always right.

Narrelle M Harris is a dame who writes about other dames, and also dicks, and frequently various kinds of fang fatales, hard spirits, and soft cases that sing like canaries.  She might write about murder, bloody deeds, broken hearts, and silver linings but she ain’t deadly – just misunderstood.

Leigh Redhead is a crime writer, noir scholar, and femme fatale and thus eminently qualified to answer the question that has vexed philosophers and scientists for thousands of years: Is the female of the species, in fact, deadlier than the male? Dr Redhead lives in Melbourne and, when she’s not coercing her latest spouse to sign insurance papers, she enjoys double-crossing her lovers and fleeing to Mexico with all the cash.

The winning side will be decided by the clap-o-meter.