About this Event
The Rising Sun Hotel, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne.
From 6.30 pm for dinner. The panel discussion starts at 8 pm. The price includes a main course meal and the panel.
Families may be related by blood – but they can also involve blood-letting, sometimes with fatal consequences. It’s no coincidence that Christmas Day and Boxing Day see huge spikes in family violence. Three Victorian authors – Tanya Scott, Fiona Lowe, and Kirstyn McDermott – dissect the institution of the family and its criminal complexity in different ways. They will reveal all to fellow author, Lyn Yeowart.
Tanya Scott’s debut novel, Still Water (Allen & Unwin), is a gritty crime thriller where old secrets collide with deadly new threats. It centres on Luke Harris who has worked hard to bury his violent past. Now he's back in Melbourne, chasing a quiet life, a normal job, his own house, and a dog. But Luke's old life isn't done with him. When he crosses paths with the ruthless crime boss he once served as a teenager, he's pulled back into the dark world of his past. Luke's father has vanished, along with a bag of Gus's cash, and his new girlfriend's father is acting strangely . . .
Tanya is an Australian author, doctor, and educator based on the Surf Coast of Victoria. Her writing is inspired by her work with patients in mental health care, although her love of twisty mysteries and pacy thrillers has made her an accidental crime writer. More info here.
In Fiona Lowe’s latest novel, The Drowning (HQ BOOKS Fiction), the inheritance of a beach house pulls a family apart. CC Cilento's best memories are of spending every summer holiday running wild in and out of the Friend family beach house with her cousins. But now a bombshell has dropped: the four Friend siblings have officially inherited the property – along with an unexpected fifth share to CC. What starts out as the perfect gift, and a way of keeping the family connected forever, quickly devolves into an emotional power struggle. When a body is found on the shack's beach, has this family dispute turned deadly?
Fiona Lowe has been a midwife, a sexual health counsellor, and a family support worker; an ideal career for an author who writes novels about family and relationships. She spent her early years in Papua New Guinea, where, without television, reading was the entertainment, and it set up a lifelong love of books. Her previous crime novels include The Accident and The Money Club. More info here.
In Kirstyn McDermott’s new novel, What the Bones Know (HQ BOOKS Fiction), a ghost gum falls in a storm in the Victorian Highlands, and tangled in its roots are the bones of a small child and the tattered remains of her clothing. Meanwhile, single mum Jude returns home as her mother is showing troubling signs of dementia. There are many disturbing occurrences on the farm, and Jude fears something more sinister is happening ...
Kirstyn McDermott is the author of two award-winning novels, Madigan Mine and Perfections, along with numerous pieces of short fiction and poetry. Her most recent works are Winterbloom (winner of 2023 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novella), Hard Places, a collection of short fiction, and Never Afters, a novella series of retold fairy tales now collected in an omnibus edition. Kirstyn holds a PhD in creative writing. More info here.
Host Lyn Yeowart is a consulting writer and editor. Her debut novel, The Silent Listener, won the 2022 Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for two 2022 Davitt Awards. It was also a finalist in the UK People’s Book Prize, and has been translated into French and Russian. The script for a television series to be produced by The Storyd Group is currently underway. Her second novel, The Hollow Girl is set in a home for unmarried mothers, where a gruesome M**der and a cemetery full of babies’ headstones result in long-buried secrets exploding to the surface with devastating consequences. More info here.
Tickets not sold prior to the event will be available at the door for $70/$65/$62/$50
Dinner orders need to be placed by 7:00 pm. Note: the panel starts at 8:00 pm
Men or ‘brothers-in-law’ welcome.
Sun Bookshop stall: Sisters in Crime members receive a 10% discount.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Rising Sun Hotel, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne, Australia
AUD 48.07 to AUD 68.95
