YA Crime – Is it all grown up?

Three authors – Ellie Marney, Sarah Epstein and Lili Wilkinson  – talk to Jacqui Horwood about how their Young Adult crime novels are transgressing the traditional boundaries with themes of sex, drugs, violence and much more …

Award-winning Guilford author, Ellie Marney, originally conceived her latest YA crime/romantic suspense novel, No Limits, as a spin-off to her first trilogy, the Every series. It’s a story about a rough-diamond boy and a police sergeant’s daughter going head-to-head with a crystal meth cartel in rural Victoria. But the drug crime themes and the slightly older protagonists made the book an awkward fit for her earlier series, which was more Sherlock-y, had more derring-do, and featured lots of hot kissing. When her usual publisher passed on No Limits, she decided to self-publish as Bearded Lady Press.

Ellie won the Scarlet Stiletto Award in 2010 for her short story ‘Tallow’ and the Davitt Award (Young Adult) in 2015 for Every Word. She hosts #LoveOzYAbookclub and is an Ambassador for the Stella Prize Schools Program. Her next YA novel, Circus Hearts, is due out in September, also with Bearded Lady Press.

Sarah Epstein is the author of a gripping YA debut thriller, Small Spaces (Walker Books Australia). It features Tash Carmody who has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory has never spoken about the week she went missing. As disturbing memories resurface, Tash starts to see Sparrow again … The twisted plot will have you guessing to the end.

A writer, illustrator and designer, Sarah grew up in suburban Sydney and now lives in Melbourne with her husband and two sons. Click here to read Robyn Walton’s Q&A with Sarah.

Lili Wilkinson is the author of eleven books, including ‘romcrimes’ Pocketful of Eyes and The Zigzag Effect. Pocketful of Eyes, a mystery set in the taxidermy department at the Museum of Natural History, earned Lili the description of ‘coolgeekgirl Agatha Christie’. The Zigzag Effect, a mystery involving a stage magician, touches on secrets, what’s real and what’s just clever trickery, and a disappearance that seems only too real. Her next book, After the Lights Go Out, due out in August, is a disaster survival story about a Doomsday prepper.

Lili established insideadog.com.au and the Inky Awards at the Centre for Youth Literature, State Library of Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Melbourne and is a Stella Schools ambassador.

Compere Jacqui Horwood is a librarian, a denizen of the inner west, former Sisters in Crime convenor and current Davitt Award judges’ wrangler. Her crime stories have appeared in e-zines and anthologies, and have been shortlisted for various competitions. She likes her crime hardboiled and her eggs sunny-side up. Jacqui won the 2003 Scarlet Stiletto Trophy and the special Silver Stiletto Trophy presented in 2016 at SheKilda3, Sisters in Crime’s 25th anniversary.

Venue
The Rising Sun Hotel (upstairs – no lift)
cnr Raglan Street and Eastern Road, South Melbourne
Melways map 57 H2;
Free on-street parking after 6 pm
Trams 1, 12 or 55 or St Kilda Road trams

Tickets
$15/$10 Sisters in Crime and Writers Victoria members/concession
Tickets not sold prior to the event will be available at the door for $17/$12Dinner upstairs from 6.30 pm (bookings not necessary)
‘Brothers-in-Law’ welcome

Bookings: Eventbrite 

Sun Bookshop stall: members receive a 10% discount

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