From the Sydney of the past to the Thailand of today: How crime (writing) interprets the world

[Jacqui Horwood]

8pm Friday October 15, 2010

From the Sydney of the past to the Thailand of today: How crime (writing) interprets the world

 

Sisters in Crime national convenor and crime author, Robin Bowles, shines the spotlight on three Australian crime writers—two with debut novels.

 

Angela Savage usually resides in Melbourne but she sets her crime novels in Thailand where she lived for several years, heading the Australian Red Cross HIV/AIDS subregional program. Behind the Night Bazaar, her first novel to feature Jayne Keeney, a fiesty thirty-something Aussie ex-pat P I, won the 2004 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript and was published by Text in 2006. In the second in the series, The Half-Child (out September), Jayne investigates the backstreet world of Thai ladyboys, monks, strippers, expats and corrupt officials. The Half-Child is not your standard crime novel, and Jayne Keeney is not your everyday detective.

 

In A Few Right-thinking Men, first-time author, Sulari Gentill, investigates the Sydney of the 1930s when mounting political tensions between communists and the right-wing New Guard, fuelled by the Great  Depression, threatened to take Australia to the brink of revolution. Artist Rowland Sinclair, from a wealth grazing family, is indifferent to the politics…until a brutal murder exposes an extraordinary and treasonous conspiracy. The Age named the book ‘pick of the week’ on June 19. Sulari set out to study astrophysics, ended up graduating in law, and later abandoned her legal career to write books instead of contracts. She lives in Batlow, NSW.

 

Sydney author, P M Newton, spent 13 years working in the NSW police force in various departments including drug enforcement, sexual assault, and major crime before resigning to travel and live overseas. The Old School is the first in a series, all featuring Detective Nhu 'Ned' Kelly. Set in Sydney during 1992, the young half-Vietnamese detective is on the case to discover what happened to two women found entombed in the foundations of an old building. She soon finds herself drawn into the city's past.

 

Bell’s Hotel (upstairs), 157 Moray Street, South Melbourne (cnr Coventry). Mel 57, G1. Try 112, 55 or St Kilda Road trams. Free on-street parking after 6pm.

No need to book for the event or dinner (downstairs ) from 6.30pm. 

Men – or ‘brothers-in-law’ - welcome.

$5/$10 (non-members)

10% discount from Benn’s Books stall.

Info: Carmel Shute on 0412 569 356 or go to www.sistersincrime.org.au

 

Sisters in Crime's Annual General Meeting will follow the event on 8pm Friday October 16.  You can nominate as a Sisters in Crime national Convenor on the night.