The past is never past: New mysteries with history

Toni Jordan, M J Tjia and Kirsten Alexander talk to Alison Goodman about why digging into the past provides such fertile themes and characters for crime writing. Award-winning Melbourne author Toni Jordan is the author of five novels. Her latest, The Fragments, is her first foray into the mystery world. Set in 1930s’ New York …

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Crossing the Thin Blue Line:  Q&A with Leigh Straw

Robyn Walton. Sisters in Crime’s Vice-President, spoke to Perth author Leigh Straw about her latest book, Lillian Armfield: How Australia’s First Female Detective took on Tilly Devine and the Razor Gangs and Changed the Face of the Force (Hachette, 2018) Hi, Leigh. Most Australians would not be able to name this country’s first woman police …

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Best holiday reads for 2018/2019

Sisters in Crime asked its author members and convenors what they would recommend for holiday reads and this is what they said:  Anne Buist (author) Louise Luna, Two Girls Down (Text publishing, 2019): I was lucky enough to get an advance copy— dynamite kick-butt heroine and a believable softer make side kick. Keeps the pages …

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Philomena Horsley takes out the 25th Scarlet Stiletto Award

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 …

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BOOKED OUT – A Black Saturday Crime

Sisters in Crime Australia and the Port Phillip Library  Service present… 6 for 6.30pm, Thursday 14 February: A Black Saturday Crime Award-winning author Chloe Hooper talks to Robin Bowles about her latest book, The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire ( (Hamish Hamilton). What kind of person would deliberately set a firestorm? Hooper asks. What kind of …

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A mug’s game? Janice Simpson on the profession of writing

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 …

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