Some of the most interesting crime writing these days has an historical bent. A large and appreciative crowd packed South Melbourne’s Rising Sun Hotel to hear Toni Jordan, M J Tjia and Kirsten Alexander talk to Alison Goodman about why digging into the past provides such deadly themes and characters for crime writing. (Interestingly, all three …
Sisters in Crime member, Jess Byrne, is currently doing her PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Adelaide. It includes a 20,000 word exegesis which she has chosen to write on Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Awards. (Jess is is pictured here with 2017 Davitt Award winner, Jane Harper.) Here is the paper she presented …
Sisters in Crime is thrilled to discover that Geelong Cemeteries Trust has created a unique walking tour of the Geelong Eastern Cemetery, called History Alive, which features Ellen Davitt, author of Australia’s first full-length mystery novel, Force and Fraud, in 1865. Visitors are guided around by actors playing the parts of ‘residents’ of the cemetery, …
Sisters in Crime Australia’s 19th Davitt Awards for the best crime and mystery books by Australian women are now open. The deadline has been extended so publishers now have until Friday 10 May to enter. Self-published books are again eligible. Six Davitt Awards will be presented at a gala dinner in Melbourne, probably in late …
Sisters in Crime President, Robyn Walton, spoke to US author, Lisa Unger, about her latest psychological thriller, Under My Skin (2018). Hello, and congratulations on your publication record: 16 novels and a novella. In 2018 Bouchercon, the annual mystery convention, was held in your US hometown. How was that? Thank you so much! Bouchercon always …
New Zealand is a country of firsts, and Rotorua Noir was its debut crime fiction convention, held over the Australia Day weekend, 2019. The venue, appropriately the Shambles Theatre, was small, but a perfect confab resulted. Writers appeared from NZ, but also Australia (Michael Rowbotham), Iceland, Finland and the North of the British Isles. Rotorua …
Robyn Walton, Sisters in Crime’s Vice-President, spoke to long-term member, Sandi Wallace, about her latest rural crime novel, Into the Fog (Taut Press, 2018). Sandi, congratulations on the third novel in your Georgie Harvey and John Franklin series. For your setting you chose the Dandenong Ranges, about an hour’s drive east of Melbourne CBD. And …
Philomena Horsley (Northcote, Vic), a medical anthropologist who specialises in autopsies, took out the 25th Scarlet Stiletto Short Story Award presented on Saturday night (24 November). Actor Kate Atkinson and author Cate Kennedy presented the awards before a hundred crime fans at a gala ceremony at Melbourne’s Thornbury Theatre. “It was a night of magic and …
A Body of Work, my second crime novel, is a police procedural with social twists, although there is scant in-depth detail about police methods. Rather, the novel focuses on the interactions of the people in the investigating team. Social themes explored include secret adoption as a way of dealing with an unwanted pregnancy; the personal …
Melbourne crime writer, Anna Snoekstra, spoke to Sisters in Crime’s Vice-President, Robyn Walton, about her latest thriller, The Spite Game (HQ Fiction, 2018). Hi, Anna. You sold the film rights to your first novel, Only Daughter. How’s that all going? Great! I’ve just gotten back from LA, where I was catching up with everything that …