On the night of 9 December, around 25 brave women beat their various ways through the Covid ennui, the wet evening, and the Sydney traffic to the Women’s Club in inner-city Sydney. Glasses in hand, canapes on plate, they began to ‘kill Covid for Xmas’ by making new friends, discovering new thoughts and ideas. Soon enough they were sitting in a circle, being quizzed by the prodigiously well-informed Professor Sue Turnbull – thus increasing both their store of crime trivia and moments of laughter.
‘Making up for lost crime’ (the evening’s theme) really got going as the evening darkened. In our first ever Speed Crime session six authors rose, in turn, to convince their audience that their books, their imagined/real/possibly real crimes were the ones to inhabit the Christmas stockings and late-night terrors of audience members, their friends, and relatives alike.
We heard from – here in alphabetical order – Ashley Blunt, B.M. (Bernadette) Allsopp, Kata Kiss, L.A. Larkin, Marie McMillan, and Shirley LaPlanche.
This showcase of women’s crime writing (with a sliver or two of romance and speculation) is a great example of what Sisters in Crime does so well – brings an audience together to hear of, see, taste, and celebrate women’s crime writing in all its many guises. So, google the authors, and read their books.
P.S. If you’re a NSW member and want to know more about and/or perhaps become actively involved in the NSW chapter, please email Ann.