Revelation Beach
Revelation Beach is one of the most vivid and intense books I have read in a long time. The first few pages make a powerful statement that the rest of the book more than measures up, they also make it personal.
crime fiction
From fact to fiction (and back again): Vikki Petraitis
Since her first true crime book, The Phillip Island Murder, 32 years ago, Vikki Petraitis has notched up 18 true crime books, several podcasts that have reached millions of people, and she now has two novels under her belt. The first, The Unbelieved, is being made into a TV series, Dustfall, to screen on the ABC next year – and Anna Torv stars.
Best holiday reading, 2025-2026
Looking for some great holiday reading for the summer? Relax. Sisters in Crime has once again invited convenors, author members, Davitt Award judges and winners, and others to nominate their favourite holiday books for your reading pleasure over the summer. It was great to see the breadth of the books selected, which covered a wide …
The public fascination with poison narratives
The infamous mushroom murders in Victoria have rekindled interest in poison and crime. The South Australian chapter hosted a popular event on 10 December with Marg Castles from the University of Adelaide interviewing writer and Sisters member Dr Rachel Spencer on the popular fascination with poison narratives.
Win a copy of At Café 64
Echo Publishing is generously donating twenty copies of At Café 64, the second novel by Perth author Shaeden Berry, for the Crime Stack over the festive season.
It’s an original plot. Without any warning, Justin Kowalski drives his vehicle across a line of traffic and through the front wall of Cafe 64, killing himself and three other people – and taking the reasons for this shocking act to the grave and sparking the creation of a victims’ support group.
Murder Monday: Lainie Anderson
For Murder Monday, Sisters in Crime’s Jacq Ellem spoke to acclaimed Adelaide author, Lainie Anderson. Her two crime books are The Death of Dora Black and Murder on North Terrace, both published by Hachette Australia, and both featuring the real-life character, Kate Cocks, who, in 1915, became the first policewoman in the British Empire employed on the same salary and with the same powers of arrest as men.
Win a copy of The Ghost Walk
Fremantle Press is generously donating twenty copies of The Ghost Walk, a medical thriller by Perth author Karen Herbert for this month’s Crime Stack. A lung-transplant surgeon is found dead. Seeking the truth is his secret lover who also saved her life.
Lingering in the literary mystery space: Charlotte McConaghy
Charlotte McConaghy reveals her motivations in writing her latest eco-thriller, Wild Dark Shore (Penguin, 2025), set on Shearwater, a tiny island close to the Antarctic, that is home to the world’s largest seed bank and under threat by rising tides.
Writing from the edge of civilisation: Nicole Crowe
Nicole grew up ‘in the arse end of nowhere’ – Magnetic Island – and crime fiction has been her salavation. Also, she might not know what a world-class flat white tastes like, but she does know how to spot a cone shell at ten paces
New WA Chapter launched!
The new Sisters in Crime WA Chapter launched at the Geraldton Big Sky Readers and Writers Festival on 25 October with two events to an enthusiatic audience at Batavia Brewing.