Families can be havens of love and affection, but they can also be crucibles of crime where abuse and resentment create an explosive mix. At the family core there are usually secrets – deep, dark secrets – as three new novels demonstrate: Nicola Moriarty’s You Need to Know, Erina Reddan’s The Serpent’s Skin and Lyn Yeowart’s The Silent Listener.
Join us as we explore these issues and more along with Robyn Walton at our upcoming author panel.
The event is free to watch through YouTube from 6pm (AEDT) on Friday 26 March. You can also help support the work we do to promote women’s crime writing by donating $10 and go in the draw to win a $150 book pack (details below).
You Need to Know (HarperCollins Publishers), Nicola Moriarty’s sixth novel, is a family drama about the secrets we keep, the lies we tell and the truths that won’t stay hidden. The holidays are here. The extended family has gathered. The cars are packed and the convoy sets off. The cottage is a few hours’ drive – but not everyone will live to see it…
Nicola is a novelist, copywriter and mother. Her previous works include Free-Falling; Paper Chains; The Fifth Letter; Those Other Women and The Ex.
The Serpent’s Skin (Pantera Press), Erina Reddan’s debut novel, centres on the 1968 disappearance of ten-year-old JJ’s mother. The four children in this devout Catholic family survive as best they can in a cloud of their father’s lies and clear misery. Fourteen years on, JJ has a new life, but she finds herself being pulled back into the unsolved mystery. While pretending to have made peace with her father’s dishonesty, she organises a final farewell for her mother so they can put the past behind them. Will the tragic truth finally set them all free?
Erina writes adult mystery crime books and young adult novels. She has worked with words, ideas and stories all her life, winning a Walkley Award for her work as an ABC foreign correspondent. She has a PhD in creative writing from La Trobe University on girl warriors and ball gowns and has taught writing at Latrobe University and Writers Victoria.
The Silent Listener (Viking), Lyn Yeowart’s debut novel, is set in the dark, gothic heart of rural Australia; it propels the reader back and forth between the 1940s, 1960s and 1980s. In the cold, wet summer of 1960, eleven-year-old Joy Henderson lives in constant fear of her father. She tries to make him happy, but, as he keeps reminding her, she is nothing but a filthy sinner destined for hell…
Lyn is a professional writer and editor with more than 25 years experience in writing and editing everything from captions for artworks to speeches for executives, along with poetry, fiction and non-fiction books, and textbooks. The Silent Listener is loosely based on events from her childhood in rural Victoria. She is now happily ensconced in Melbourne, where there are lots of books and a vibrant writing community, but very little mud.
Robyn Walton reviews crime fiction and other books for the Weekend Australian. Her author interviews and reviews can be found on the Sisters in Crime Australia website. She also writes on Australian art. Robyn was a book editor and writer (winning the Australian-Vogel’s literary award) before moving into university teaching and research. Her PhD is from La Trobe University, her earlier degrees are from University of Sydney.
Help us to keep supporting women crime writers
If you would like to support Sisters in Crime Australia and the work it does for Australian women crime writers, please donate $10 by going to https://toxic-families-child-victims.eventbrite.com before Wednesday 24 March, 4pm.
Three lucky donors will win a $150 pack of crime books, kindly donated by publishers. Unfortunately, this bonus is restricted to Australian residents – international postage is just too expensive!
The pack will include:
- You Need to Know, Nicola Moriarty (HarperCollins Publishers)
- The Serpent’s Skin, Erina Reddan (Pantera Press)
- The Silent Listener, Lyn Yeowart (Viking)
plus one of these book pairs:
- Widows’ Revenge, Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)
- Undara, Annie Seaton (Mira)
OR
- You Don’t Know Me, Sara Foster (Simon & Schuster)
- Barrenjoey Road, Neil Mercer and Ruby Jones (ABC Books)
OR
- Fusion, Kate Richards (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin)
- Dead Man Walking, Kate McClymont with Vanda Carson (Vintage).
A video link will be posted on the Sisters in Crime Facebook page, and sent to members and supporters via the e-newsletter, A Stab in the Dark.
Info: Carmel Shute, Sisters in Crime, National Co-convenor; 0412 569 356; admin@sistersincrime.org.au