Ned Kelly Nominee

10 Months in Laos

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:51 +1000

ISBN 1863503854

Blurb from the book:

An updated edition of Lawyers, Gems and Money.

Conroy reveals a tale of corporate crime and deception that proves sometimes fact can be stranger than fiction.

Melbourne lawyer Max Green paid the ultimate price for his multi-million dollar fraud when he was murdered, and more recently Kerry and Kay Danes have been detained.

How did you feel about 10 Months in Laos?

Submitted by helen on Thu, 06/09/2007 - 11:29pm.

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2007 Lifetime Achievement Award

Karen — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:13:16 +1000

Lindsay Simpson and Sandra Harvey talking about the difficulties of being a True Crime reporter and author.

2007 Ned Kelly Winners

Karen — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:31:20 +1000

We've just returned from the 2007 Ned Kelly Awards so a full report will follow in the morning, but the winners are:

Lifetime Achievement Award

Sandra Harvey and Lindsay Simpson True Crime

Best First Crime

Diamond Dove – Adrian Hyland

Best True Crime

Killing for Pleasure: The Definitive Story of the Snowtown Murders - Debi Marshall
Written On The Skin – Liz Porter

Best Crime Fiction

Chain of Evidence – Garry Disher

For a full listing and links to all the author's pages:

http://www.austcrimefiction.org/node/2398

A Hand In the Bush

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1877008966

Blurb from the book:

In the heady days of the seventies, and at the tender age of nineteen, Decca Brand experimented with what was on offer - sex, drugs and intrigue. Far too much intrigue, it turns out, and of a sort that spells murder. Fast forward nearly thirty years and Decca is confronted by dangerous figures from her past. Not only that, the stunning psychologist and divorcee has a blind date lined up with a married man. And then things start to get complicated.

A Hand In the Bush is about skeletons in the closet, and simply being in the closet. It is also the mravellous new comic thriller, brimful with wit and menace, from the irrepressible Jane Clifton.

Reviews / Chat about this book

How did you feel about A Hand In the Bush?

Submitted by helen on Thu, 06/09/2007 - 10:38pm.

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A Knife Edge

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 140503758X

Blurb from the book

While working on a top-secret research program for the US Department of Defense in the freezing waters off Japan, a leading scientist turns up dead, eaten by a monster shark.

US Air Force OSI Special Agent Vin Cooper is hurriedly dispatched to investigate. Cooper, however, has barely begun when he's pulled off the case to look into the death of an old military buddy who died while making a routine parachute jump. Both cases suddenly collide when Cooper finds himself having to parachute out of a plane and into the night-time skies of a hostile Pakistan.

His mission: to recover stolen US Defense biological technology. The stakes: to prevent a nuclear war between Pakistan and India that could engulf the world. The problem: Cooper has to jump alongside a soldier he suspects is a killer.

In his latest edge-of-the-seat adventure, the clock is ticking down to disaster as Cooper tracks his elusive quarry from the crushing depths of the Japan Trench to the frozen foothills of the Hindu Kush and the humid border regions of Thailand and Burma.

How did you Feel about A Knife Edge?

Submitted by Karen on Mon, 03/09/2007 - 1:49pm.

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A Private Man

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1740513282

Blurb from the book

It is two days since Dr John Brand's death and his eldest son, Davis, suspects a cover-up. Survived by two sons, the death notice said. Peacefully.

This is a lie: there are three sons, and the circumstances of their seemingly conservative father's death are unclear. No-one seems able to tell Davis, also a GP, where and when his father died, and with whom. And no-one except Davis seems motivated to get to heart of the matter. There is a Test Match being played, and Davis's brother Chris, a famous cricketer, is at the crease, feeling the pressure of batting to save a long and celebrated career. Their mother Margaret watches the broadcast, inert in her armchair. Hammett, the youngest brother, lurks on the edges of their minds, ostracised from the family because of a criminal past, but not forgotten.

Scattered over Sydney, the Brands' lives - and John Brand's funeral - are put on hold for the duration of the match: five days of suspense, silences, revelations, recriminations and redemption, as Davis uncovers the truth about his father and his sudden demise. Filtered through the lens of two arenas of masculinity - sport and pornography - A Private Man is at once a poignant story of a family's grief, an artfully constructed thriller and a provocative and darkly amusing dissection of Australian men and their private passions.

How Did you Feel About A Private Man?

Submitted by Karen on Mon, 06/08/2007 - 4:39pm.

A Simple Death

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 070434727X

Blurb from the book

When the storm dies down after the death of her aunt Jenny and the suicide of her cousin Cate, Marlo attempts to get on with her life. But when she discovers the body of a tramp bludgeoned to death in a local park, her grief emerges raw and fresh. Reluctant to get drawn into the investigation of another death, Marlo finds she has no choice when the police point the finger at her boss and friend of many years, Harold. Perhaps in solving this new mystery, she will at last be able to put her own ghosts to rest.

How Did you Feel About A Simple Death?

Submitted by Karen on Fri, 28/09/2007 - 5:13pm.

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A Thing of Blood

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1920769587

Blurb from the book

As Word War II drags on, failed Shakespearian actor and would-be private detective William Power Returns to Melbourne in disgrace after his disastrous brush with theatre and murder in Maryborough. Bloodied, broken but somehow unbowed, he arrives in a town struggling under war rationing and resentful of cocky American soldiers, and lands squarely in the bosom of his childhood home in Carlton - a home now dominated by his sister-in-law, the odious Darlene.

But even Will's contempt is tempered when, in the early hours of the morning Darlene is kidnapped, and Will finds his mother's kitchen splattered with blood and scattered with broken crockery.

Needing to escape the maternal home and the growing police investigation, Power rents a room in the spacious, Parkville home of wealthy, charismatic, and obsessively neat Paul Clutterbuck and is introduced to an underworld of bohemians, black marketeers and neanderthal henchmen. Will Power is fascinated - but before he can begin to enjoy his new home, a savage murder is discovered.

Just when modesty and good sense threaten to intervene, Will realises that only he can solve the murder, the mystery of his kidnapped sister-in-law, and save the nation from impending catastrophe.

Reviews / Chat about this book

Review of A Thing of Blood http://www.abc.net.au/widebay/stories/s1664712.htm

How did you Feel about A Thing of Blood?

Submitted by Karen on Mon, 20/08/2007 - 11:17am.

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All Things Bright and Beautiful

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

ISBN 1405036109

Blurb from the book

Adelaide has developed an eerie reputation for bizarre and horrific murders - even Salman Rushdie has called it a place "where things go bump in the night".

After the revelations of the so-called "bodies in the barrels" murders, in which twelve people were murdered and many of their bodies dismembered and defleshed, a British tabloid went so far as to christen Adelaide "the murder capital of the world".

Yet of all of Australia's cities, Adelaide prides itself on its civilisation and the moral foundations laid out at its creation - when it was founded as a shining model, a paradise of order and reason in the Great Southern Land. So what really is the truth behind this split society - city of light or city of murder?

Bestselling author Susan Mitchell was born and grew up in Adelaide, and in this fascinating and disturbing book she sets out to discover first-hand the truth behind the Snowtown murders and to ask how a city as cultured and civilised as Adelaide has spawned such terrible crimes. She takes us inside the worlds of its ruling class, cultured middle class and hidden underclass. Using a blend of storytelling, narrative and interviews in order to discover the truth, Mitchell has produced a gripping journey into the heart of a modern-day Utopia gone wrong.

How Did you Feel About All Things Bright and Beautiful?

Submitted by Karen on Thu, 27/09/2007 - 4:06pm.

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Almost Perfect

Karen — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:20:52 +1000

|ISBN 1877029882

Blurb from the book

Almost Perfect, by Greg Fogarty, is a true account of a brutal killing of a mother and her three children. Still to this day the killer has not been caught.

Theresa Crawford and her three children lost their lives on a cold day, July 2, 1970.

The case became one of the most intriguing murder mysteries in the modern history of Victoria. Greg Fogarty has meticulously pieced together the events surrounding the grisly family murder tracing coronial documents and interviewing key figures long ago caught in the tragedy. For many, the crime is just as fresh in their minds as it was when it happened - more than thirty years ago.

How Did you Feel About Almost Perfect?

Submitted by Karen on Tue, 11/09/2007 - 4:23pm.

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