Karen from AustCrime's Blog (430)

2009 Ned Kelly Short List Announced

http://www.nedkellyawards.com/2009.html

BEST FIRST FICTION

Ghostlines, Nick Gadd *

Crooked, Camilla Nelson *

The Build Up, Phillip Gwynee *

BEST FICTION

Bright Air Barry Maitland *

Deep Water Peter Corris *

Smoke & Mirrors Kel Robertson *

BEST TRUE CRIME

The Killing of Caroline Byrne, Robert Wainwrights

The Tall Man, Chloe Hooper

A Question of Power, Michelle Schwarz

THE SD HARVEY SHORT… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 12, 2009 at 10:25am — No Comments

Review - Deep Night, Caroline Petit

Book Title: DEEP NIGHT

Author: Caroline Petit

Publisher: SOHO

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 978-1-56947-530-0

No of Pages: 276

Book Synopsis:

Leah Kolbe's father, a dealer in antiquities, left the business to her when he died. Now the Japanese have occupied most of mainland China and threaten the British colony of Hong Kong where Leah lives. When they unexpectedly invade, her fiancé becomes a prisoner of war, interned under the harshest conditions with the… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 11, 2009 at 3:52pm — No Comments

Review - Kickback, Garry Disher

Book Title: KICKBACK

Author: Garry Disher

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Copyright: 1991

ISBN: 1-86373-591-7

No of Pages: 192

Book Synopsis:

Wyatt robs banks, and lifts payrolls. Most men like him are dead or in gaol. But Wyatt stamps a cold, pitiless style on his heists - and makes sure that he never gets caught.

Now his funds are low and his luck is running out - until the day Anna Reid explains about the kickback in her partner's safe.… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 10, 2009 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Review - The Semantics of Murder, Aifric Campbell

Book Title: THE SEMANTICS OF MURDER

Author: Aifric Campbell

Publisher: Serpents Tail

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 9781846686580

No of Pages: 246

Book Synopsis:

Jay Hamilton lives a comfortable life in fashionable west London, listening to the minor and major dysfunctions of the over-privileged clients who frequent his psychoanalytic practice. But the darker recesses of his own psyche would not stand up to close examination: his brother Richard, a genius… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 10, 2009 at 1:51pm — No Comments

Review - Three Murder Mysteries by Mary Fortune

Book Title: THREE MURDER MYSTERIES

Author: Mary Fortune

Publisher: Mulini Press

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-9805455-8-6

No of Pages: 74

Book Synopsis:

Three 'Murder Mysteries' are examples of Mary Fortune's great skill in writing 'detective fiction' at this early period when the genre was in

the beginning stages of a now popular form of fiction. The three stories are introduced by Lucy Sussex.

Book Review:

THREE MURDER… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 6, 2009 at 3:00pm — No Comments

Review - The Labyrinth of Drowning, Alex Palmer

Book Title: THE LABYRINTH OF DROWNING

Author: Alex Palmer

Publisher: Harper Collins

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7322-8574-6

Book Synopsis:

Two years have passed since top cop Paul Harrigan walked away from the New South Wales Police Force to be his own man. Since then his life has been a gift, and his home with his partner Agent Grace Riordan and their daughter a sanctuary.

When a trafficked sex worker is found brutally murdered in Sydney… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 2, 2009 at 9:43pm — No Comments

Review - Bleeding Heart Square, Andrew Taylor

Book Title: BLEEDING HEART SQUARE

Author: Andrew Taylor

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Copyright: 2008

ISBN: 9780718147501

No of Pages: 390

Book Synopsis:

It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage there is only one person who she can turn to - the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at no… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 11, 2009 at 3:26pm — No Comments

Review - A Deadly Trade, Michael Stanley

Book Title: A DEADLY TRADE

Author: Michael Stanley

Publisher: Headline

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-0-7553-4408-6

No of Pages: 438

Book Synopsis:

How can a man die twice? That's the question facing Detective 'Kubu' Bengu when a mutilated body is found at a tourist camp in northern Botswana. The corpse of Goodluck Tinubu displays the classic signs of a revenge killing. But when his fingerprints are analysed Kubu makes a shocking discovery: Tinubu is… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 9, 2009 at 4:50pm — No Comments

Review - Dark Mirror, Barry Maitland

Book Title: DARK MIRROR

Author: Barry Maitland

Publisher: Allen & Unwin

Copyright: 2009

ISBN: 978-1-74175-741-5

No of Pages: 364

Book Synopsis:

When Marion Summers - red-haired, beautiful and mysterious - collapses and dies in the rarefied surrounds of the London Library, DI Kathy Kolla and DCI David Brock are sent to head the investigation. Kathy finds a reluctant kinship with the feisty Marion, who had, like Kathy, left a difficult home life… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on June 9, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

3 Acts of Murder - The Story of a Crime Writer - Upcoming movie about Arthur Upfield

Fans of Australian Crime Fiction and, in particular, Arthur Upfield have got a bit of a treat coming up on ABC1 on the 14th June. 3 Acts of Murder will be screening, telling one of those truth is often stranger than fiction stories about Arthur Upfield.

In 1928 Arthur Upfield, Australia’s premier crime writer, plotted the perfect murder for his novel The Sands of Windee. Meanwhile, one of his friends, stockman Snowy Rowles, put the scheme into deadly effect, even before the book was… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 28, 2009 at 10:26am — 1 Comment

A Chat with Michael Stanley (aka Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip)

Any thoughts of a formal interview with Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip (aka Michael Stanley) rapidly disappeared when we were lucky enough to meet up with the collaborating South African duo on their flying promotional trip to Melbourne in mid May. For a start it simply wasn't necessary, and for a second, these are two crime writers who can really tell a story - on the page, and in person. Mind you, one can't help but imagine that a lot of social settings with these two head off in slightly… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on May 24, 2009 at 1:41pm — No Comments

Some upcoming Australian releases

Following on from Peter Temple's Truth coming out from Text in August, Allen & Unwin have announced that Cliff Hardy is off to the US in April in Deep Water by Peter Corris. In June Allen & Unwin will be releasing The Dark Mirror by Barry Maitland - flagged as combining poetry and poisoning in London's research institutions. Pan MacMillan have also announced that in September Cold Justice - the third Ella Marconi novel by Katherine Howell will be released.

It's looking like a… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on January 21, 2009 at 4:33pm — No Comments

Currently Reading

I've not been posting blog posts here recently - but the RSS feed doesn't show them on the main page, so in the spirit of being a little more active - I'm currently reading what is not "technically" a crime novel - I've decided to call it more of a rant novel :) :) :)

Slyly funny thus far, I'm really enjoying English Toss on Planet Andong - a book we recently gave a few copies away of on AustCrimeFiction.

From the blurb:

"'Don't you realise you can get by… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on January 20, 2009 at 4:20pm — No Comments

Genre Flash 3 - just in time for a little Christmas / Summer shopping

Just in time for your last minute Christmas shopping - Genre Flash 3 has been released by the local Sisters in Crime - make sure you have a look through the publication, not just for Christmas ideas, but for P D Martin's report on Bouchercon this year.

Added by Karen from AustCrime on December 22, 2008 at 9:03am — No Comments

Win some books by Australian Authors

It's Christmas and our local authors are obviously going a little crazy.

Anyone who hasn't entered yet - don't forget the competition to win a copy of Geoff McGeachin's first two books which has a couple more weeks to go:

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/4943

We're now lucky enough to have 3 copies of Dave Franklin's new book - English Toss on Planet Andong (Dave's books are also very funn (no really… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on December 17, 2008 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Dorothy Porter - 1954 to 2008

Radio National's Bookshow first announced, and a story has just been aired on ABC Radio's The World Today Show - Dorothy Porter died from breast cancer this morning.

A profound loss to the Australian literary community, and to the cause of poetry the world over, Dorothy was one of those women that, if you were lucky enough to hear her speak, made you profoundly jealous of anybody fortunate enough to have been a student of hers.

I'm particularly feeling the loss as I… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on December 10, 2008 at 11:30am — No Comments

Competition - Win a Copy of D-E-D Dead! and Sensitive New Age Spy by Geoff McGeachin

Geoff McGeachin has a third Alby Murdoch book due out in January and he very generously has offered copies of the first two books as a competition via AustCrime. If you like broad, irreverent, Australian humour, laced with a bit of spying, a lot of lunching and some very nice coffee - these could be the books for you!

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/4943

No geographical restrictions :)

Added by Karen from AustCrime on December 4, 2008 at 12:51pm — No Comments

Murder Story in Verse Wins 15th Scarlet Stiletto Awards

A murder story in verse has won Sisters in Crime's 15th Scarlet Stiletto Award presented the tonight in South Melbourne (21/11).

Evelyn Tsitas (Canterbury, Vic), a former senior journalist at the Herald Sun, won the HarperCollins first prize of $750 plus the coveted trophy, a scarlet stiletto shoe with a steel stiletto heel plunging into a perspex mount for "Undeceive", a story about poetry, literary theft and betrayal. It also took out the Dorothy Porter Award for Innovation ($250)… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 24, 2008 at 7:18pm — No Comments

The Newstead Short Story Tattoo

Calling all short story writers, orators and lovers of words!

The Newstead Short Story Tattoo is planned for May 2009 (15th, 16th, 17th).

We need submissions from writers who wish to read their work, or storytellers / orators who wish to be a part of some live storytelling (around a big camp fire).

This is the only event in Australia that celebrates the short story alone.

The Newstead Short Story Tattoo seeks to involve community, families and… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on November 7, 2008 at 12:32pm — No Comments

2008 Ned Kelly Winners

We've just returned from a fabulous night at the Neds, with One Of Those Debates! But more on all of that later when I start posting some summaries of the entire MWF week. Suffice to say the winners were:

Best First Fiction:

The Low Road, Chris Womersley

An incredibly deserving winner and 100% my choice so it's absolutely the right choice [VBEG]

Best Fiction:

Shatter, Michael Rowbotham

Again - a very deserving and apt… Continue

Added by Karen from AustCrime on August 30, 2008 at 12:18am — No Comments