Sisters in Crime held its much delayed Annual General Meeting yesterday (30 May) by Zoom. Thanks to the pandemic, it has been a long year since its last AGM – 19 months, in fact – but financial members rallied to the call for a big turnout (a quorum of 10%) to pass the new rules …
Sisters in Crime Australia is joining forces with its long-time supporter, the Melbourne Athenaeum Library, to launch its 28th Scarlet Stiletto Awards for best short crime and mystery stories by Australian women. A record $11,910 is up for grabs this year. The Melbourne Athenaeum Library has sponsored the ‘Body in the Library’ Award since 2012, …
Writing a crime thriller marks the author as a slightly suspicious person; perhaps even a downright shady one – or so I’ve recently discovered. My debut novel, Other People’s Houses, was released in March and I’ve lost count of the number of friends and family – even strangers – who’ve asked how, and why, I …
Sisters in Crime Australia was again proud to join forces with the Sir Zelman Cowen Centre, Victoria University, to present its 15th Law Week event. An expert panel – Louise Milligan, Jane Patrick, Michele Williams QC and Rachel Spencer – discuss the experience of survivors of sexual assault and their journey through the Australian legal system and how it make it …
The Trespassers, Meg Mundell’s first foray into crime fiction, is presciently set during a global pandemic, and tracks the deprivations and fears of passengers sailing from London to Melbourne as new infections break out on board. It won Sisters in Crime’s 20th Davitt Award (Best Crime Novel). Meg talked to Janice Simpson about how this …
Having just submitted my tenth novel, I find myself reflecting on the craft of writing and some of the challenges that come with having a long backlist. I was in my late twenties when I started writing my first novel. Writing was a hobby, a way of escaping the stress of my corporate job. I …
For thirty years this September, Sisters in Crime Australia has been celebrating women’s crime writing, running exciting events, nurturing authors and having fun. Co-founder Carmel Shute told tall tales and true under a grilling from a fellow convenor, Tara Mitchell, via Zoom on 20 March, to U3A Port Phillip. Catch up on our YouTube channel. …
France, renowned for delectable food and wine, art and romance, has also proved a popular setting for crime authors: the art world in Pip Drysdale’s The Paris Affair, a grand country estate in Anna Downes’s The Safe Place and the Alps in Allie Reynolds’s Shiver. Each lends a certain je ne sais quoi to the …
How does a woman alone on a remote island and running out of food escape the men hunting her? Elizabeth Flann’s debut novel, Beware of Dogs (HarperCollins), explores what happens with Robyn Walton. A warm welcome to your first novel, Elizabeth. Your bio tells us you have a background in publishing, literature, and film? …
Looking back, the leap seems inconceivable. But when the notion first arrived I could not ignore it. I’d taken up law as a second career in my thirties. It was challenging, stimulating, sometimes thrilling, ultimately lucrative and I thrived on it. But twenty years on it had lost its lustre. I wasn’t even sure what I …