How to ruin a perfectly good friendship (or plant the seed for a suspense thriller): Lyn Yeowart
A ‘confession’ by a friend about being an unmarried mother in the sixties implanted the idea behind Lyn Yeowart’s latest thriller, The Hollow Girl.
crime writing
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.
Cut a long story short
Grabbing a copy of Scarlet Stiletto: The Seventeenth Cut (ed. Phyllis King), the e-book collection of winning stories in the recent 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards, is the perfect answer to reading quandaries. Fourteen ripper reads for only $5.
A victory for the neurodivergent community: Sandra Thom-Jones takes out the top award in Sisters in Crime’s 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards
Winning first prize and the coveted trophy in Sisters in Crime’s 32nd Scarlet Stiletto Awards is a victory, according to Sandra Thom-Jones, was always told that “autistic people can’t write fiction because we’re not imaginative or creative.”
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.
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.
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.