POSTPONED. The past is never dead: Kingston Libraries mystery and mayhem month.

POSTPONED DUE TO COVID. STAND BY FOR A NEW DATE!

Hauntingly, events of the past can often infiltrate the here-and-now with fatal consequences. Kingston Libraries and Sisters in Crime present newly-minted Melbourne crime novelists Amy Suiter Clarke, Suzanne Frankham and Ruth McIvor as they talk to award-winning author Leigh Redhead about such events that refuse to stay dead and buried.

Amy  Suiter Clarke hails from Minnesota where she has set her nail-biting debut novel, Girl, 11 (Text Publishing). Elle Castillo once trained as a social worker, supporting young victims of violent crime. Now she hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing or murdered children. Twenty years ago, The Countdown Killer terrorised the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days … then, mysteriously, the murders abruptly stopped. She follows up on a listener tip and, within days, a child is abduct­ed; it seems to fit into the TCK sequence. While police and media had long ago concluded that TCK was dead, Elle has never believed it. She hoped her investigation would lay that suspicion to rest, but instead, her podcast seems to be creating new victims.

Amy Suiter Clarke is a writer and communications specialist. She has a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing with Publishing at Kingston University and currently works for a university library in Melbourne.

Suzanne Frankham’s Shadow over Edmund Street (Journey to Words Publishing) is set in the harbour city of Auckland, her one-time hometown. In this mystery thriller, Edwina’s death is brutal; her silent killer leaves no clues. The murder seems unsolvable until a casual comment sends Inspector Alex Cameron trawling through the dead woman’s childhood. Can he uncover the link in time to save the next victim?

Suzanne Frankham trained as a scientist. Her short stories have won prizes in the 2014 and 2017 Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Awards and won the 2019 SD Harvey Award.

Ruth McIver’s I Shot the Devil (Hachette Australia) is a spellbinding story of murder, trauma and childhoods lost. Erin Sloane was sixteen when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too. Ativan, alcohol and distance dimmed her memories, but nearly twenty years later, an ageing father brings her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder. Her investigation propels her closer and closer to a terrifying truth and … and to danger.

Ruth McIver recently completed her PhD in true crime inspired fiction at Curtin University. Her first novel, Nothing Gold, was runner-up in the inaugural Banjo Prize (2018) and was one of seven novels selected to be pitched at the Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival (2014). I Shot the Devil won the 2018 Richell Prize for Emerging Writers.

Leigh Redhead has worked on a prawn trawler, as a waitress, exotic dancer, masseuse, teacher and apprentice chef. She is the author of the award-winning Simone Kirsch private eye series: Peepshow (2004), Rubdown (2005), Cherry Pie (2007) and Thrill City (2010). She has recently completed a stand-alone crime novel set in an alternative community in the early ’80s, as part of a PhD in Australian noir fiction.

This is a free event. Book sales courtesy Benn’s Books. Bookings are essential and can be made by phoning 1300 135 668, in person at any Kingston library branch, or by using the online booking service.

Venue
Kingston Arts Centre
979 Nepean Highway
Moorabbin

Additional information
Carmel Shute
0412 569 356
admin@sistersincrime.org.au