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.
women’s crime writing
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.
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.
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.
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.