Joanne Drayton: Award-winning biographer with a criminal bent

New Zealand-born Melbourne based author and reviewer, Lucy Sussex, turns her gaze back across the ditch to Joanne Drayton who is presenting Sisters in Crime’s 19th Davitt Awards on Saturday 31 August in Melbourne. (Click here to book.)  New Zealand writer Joanne Drayton is primarily a biographer, her interests ranging from art to true crime, …

Read more

The joys of writing a courtesan sleuth: Q&A with M.J. Tjia

Brisbane author M.J. Tjia talks to Sisters in Crime’s Vice-President, Robyn Walton, about her books She Be Damned (Pantera, 2017) and A Necessary Murder (Pantera, 2018) Hello, M.J. Sisters in Crime Australia got to know you in 2017 when you won the History and Mystery category in our annual short story competition, the Scarlet Stiletto Awards. …

Read more

Headshot Sulari Gentill

Hit list: Sulari Gentill on optimism

Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre presented a brilliant session on the current state of crime writing on 3 July. As the official notice said: “It’s no mystery that Australian crime writers are on some kind of a rampage – some kind of a spree– filling bookshops, racing up bestseller lists and taking over big and small screens …

Read more

The virtues of “bum glue”: Carmel Reilly

I’m a children’s educational writer by trade, but recently I’ve just released a crime-ish adult book, Life Before. People ask me how the two types of writing mesh together? Has being an educational writer been a help or a hindrance to writing for adults? My answer to that is that my background is probably more …

Read more

Felonious communities and fractured families

The murderous intertwining of love, family secrets and the broader society informs the latest novels by Jennifer Lane, Jennifer Spence and Joanna Baker. The authors confessed all under the humorous but incisive interrogation of fellow author Vikki Petraitis in Melbourne on April 12. Under Vikki’s probing, they explained what inspired them to write their novels …

Read more

Terror Australis Readers and Writers Festival announced

MURDER SHE WROTE HUON VALLEY, 31 October to 5 November 2019 A NEW TASMANIAN WRITERS FESTIVAL INSPIRED BY AGATHA CHRISTIE “Incredibly beautiful Hobart, with its deep blue sea and harbour, and its flowers, trees and shrubs. I planned to come back and live there one day.” Agatha Christie “In honour of the Queen of the …

Read more

How writing changed these authors’ lives

Sisters in Crime held a fascinating and often hilarious event in Melbourne on 14 June  – Doctors, Danger and Death where three debut crime writers, Susan Hurley, L M Ardor Sue Ingleton, talked to Maggie Baron about the blood-tingling scenarios and scenes of the crime offered by the worlds of science and medicine. We asked …

Read more

A murder mystery about mystery itself – Q&A with Joanna Baker

Joanna’s latest book is The Slipping Place (Impact Press, 2018) and she spoke about her literary trajectory with Robyn Walton, Sisters in Crime’s Vice-President. Hi, Joanna. First let’s talk about your crime and mystery writing for young adults. In 2005 you won Sisters in Crime’s Davitt Award for Best Young Adult Novel for Devastation Road. …

Read more