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The law and the lawless
April 21, 2023 @ 6:30 pm – 10:00 pm
The Rising Sun Hotel, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne.
Three new novels by Australian women dive deep into the murky world of the criminal justice system.
In The Double Bind, the sequel to Loraine Peck’s The Second Son (both with Text Publishing), Amy and Johnny Novak have fled from Johnny’s criminal family to a seaside town but secrets abound. Can Amy keep her family safe from ‘The Snake’ or will she be forced to become Johnny’s partner in crime?
A family law judge is found murdered in her chambers in Mali Waugh’s debut novel, Judgement Day (Pan Macmillan Australia). Is this the work of a disgruntled complainant? Or an inside job by a jealous colleague? Or is there something even more insidious at the heart of this brutal act?
In Katherine Kovacic’s Seven Sisters (HarperCollins Publishers), a group of women meets in therapy. Each has lost a sister to domestic violence, and in each case, the perpetrator escaped justice. Fuelled by grief and anger, the women come up with a plan to redress the balance. I’ll kill yours if you’ll kill mine…
The three authors will debate the law and the lawless in all dimensions with Maggie Baron.
From magician’s assistant to crime novelist, it’s all about mastering the art of subterfuge for Loraine Peck, whose love of crime fiction propelled her to write the kind of book she loves to read: Crime thrillers. Loraine survived cancer twice so she could create her dream career and now she gets to decide who is going to die. The Second Son, Loraine’s debut novel, won the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for Best Debut Crime Fiction from the Australian Crime Writers Association. It was shortlisted for two Awards by Sisters in Crime and for a Danger Award by BAD Crime Sydney.
Mali Waugh has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Monash University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Melbourne.
She has previously worked in a library and a chocolate shop, and now works as a lawyer.
Judgement Day is her first novel.
Katherine Kovacic is the award-winning author of many short stories and books, including historical true crime, The Schoolgirl Strangler, the Alex Clayton art mystery series, and the TV-to-page adaption of Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries. She is a trained vet and has a PhD in fine art, When she’s not writing, Katherine works in the heritage sector and teaches the occasional dog training class.
Maggie Baron is a former convener and inaugural President of Sisters in Crime. She has judged both the Scarlet Stiletto and the Davitt awards. Maggie was a state forensic scientist for six years and has since worked in a number of roles which have taken her to the bottom of the ocean floor as a shipwreck conservator; to archaeology sites in North-East Syria; between the stacks at the State Library and down a deep tunnel, delivering Melbourne’s next underground railway. Maggie is working on her first crime fiction novel.
Tickets: Entry and dinner combined charge: $60 non-members; $55 concession; $52 Sisters in Crime and Writers Victoria members, $40 under 19. Please book by 12 pm Thursday 20 April. Tickets not sold prior to the event will be available at the door for $62/$58/$55/$50. Dinner upstairs from 6.30-7.30 pm.
Men or ‘brothers-in-law’ welcome.
Bookings: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/the-law-and-the-lawless-tickets-597534069487
Sun Bookshop stall: members receive a 10% discount
Additional information: Carmel Shute 0412 569 356 admin@sistersincrime.org.au