Davitt Awards 2026
Entries are now open for the 26th Annual Davitt Awards for the best Australian women’s crime and mystery books of 2025.
crime books
32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards: Go wild in scarlet!
Sydney-based award-winning author Dinuka McKenzie will present Sisters in Crime’s 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short stories, after first discussing her life in crime with award-winning author, Amanda Hampson.
Stillwater runs deep: Tanya Scott
A gritty Melbourne crime thriller where old secrets collide with deadly new threats. Luke Harris, a disability worker living in St Kilda, has worked hard to bury his violent past. Now he’s back in Melbourne, chasing a quiet life, a normal job, his own house and a dog. But Luke’s old life isn’t done with him . . .
Are writers’ retreats worth it? January Gilchrist
Most writers return from retreats with renewed enthusiasm rather than finished manuscripts. But enthusiasm is underrated. After months of struggling with that Gothic novel, I’d forgotten that writing could feel urgent and exciting. Sometimes the most valuable thing about a retreat is how much it changes your perspective on the writing life itself.
Fabulous, feisty, fun & Phryne: How we celebrated the life of Kerry Greenwood
Over 140 Sisters in Crime and Brothers-in-Law gathered at the Hotel Windsor’s Grand Ballroom on Sunday (28/9) for Fabulous, feisty, fun & Phryne to pay tribute to the life and legacy of Kerry Greenwood. It was a grand location and a grand occasion. Almost everyone was ‘frocked up for Phryne’ – or ‘suited up’, as the case may be. As the host of the event, Sisters in Crime’s Ambassador Sue Turnbull remarked, Kerry would have been proud, and jealous she could not be there.
Murder Monday: Meeti Shroff Shah
For Murder Monday Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to award-winning copywriter, content writer and author, Meeti Shroff Shah, who is based in Mumbai and is the creator of the Temple Hill mystery series.
Win a copy of Hot Ground
Fremantle Press is generously donating twenty copies of Hot Ground by Lisa Ellery for this month’s Crime Stack. Detective Jessy Parkin – sent to policing purgatory in the aftermath of a tainted investigation – is tasked with finding Max Cochrane, a veteran prospector who has vanished into thin air.
There’s Nothing Like a Dame: Denise Mina & Bloody Scotland
Sisters in Crime’s roving reporter Lucy Sussex is attending the crime festival Bloody Scotland in September. As a taster, a wee dram, she interviewed Tartan noir author Denise Mina who has produced twenty award-winning crime novels, plus plays, comics, and graphic novels since 1996.
“Women’s crime writing has come of age”: Sisters in Crime’s 25th Davitt Awards winners announced
“Australian women’s crime writing has well and truly come of age,” says Ruth Wykes, the Judges’ Coordinator for Sisters in Crime’s 25th Davitt Awards for best women’s crime and mystery books, which were announced on Friday night [5/9] in Melbourne’s Angliss Restaurant. “The Davitt Awards have transformed the literary landscape over the past three decades. …
THE MEDUSA SITUATION
JUST ANNOUNCED: SHORTLISTED for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards, this book opens with Greek Gods who have retired to modern day Sydney for an easy life. Or so they think.