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.
Police procedurals have been a staple of crime fiction since Wilke Collins’ The Moonstone in 1868. Australian women crime writers continue in the grand tradition, but adding new elements – women detectives, deadly small-town secrets, and different takes on violence against women.
A stolen baby, a stolen corpse, and a missing woman are at the centre of the novels by Vikki Petraitis, Sarah Bailey, and Rachel Givney – and the authors will reveal all to Philomena Horsley.
In The Stolen (Allen & Unwin), the new thriller featuring Detective Antigone Pollard from Vikki Petraitis, the bestselling author of The Unbelieved, a distraught mother calls the station to report her baby missing. Antigone and Wozza, her trained police dog, begin a race against time to find the baby and the person who brazenly took him. Once again, Antigone faces the questions: who's protecting the women? And what happens when we don't believe them?
is an author with 18 true crime books under her belt and a podcaster with more than eight million listeners at the latest count. The Unbelieved won the Davitt (Readers’ Choice Award) in 2024.
In Body of Lies (Allen & Unwin), Sarah Bailey’s DS Gemma Woodstock returns to Smithson, her hometown where she has solved numerous mysteries in the past. This time, it’s the biggest challenge of her policing career. A car crash victim clings to life and is rushed to hospital, but can't be saved. Hours later, her corpse is stolen from the morgue. No one knows who the dead woman was or why her body was taken. As Gemma seeks to discover her identity, she uncovers devastating secrets about the people she thought she knew best. The closer Gemma gets to the truth, the more danger she is in.
has written three other books in the Gemma Woodstock series with her debut novel, The Dark Lake, winning both the 2018 Davitt Award for Best Crime Debut and the 2018 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Crime. Her standalone novel The Housemate was published in 2021. She is also managing director at an advertising agency.
In Rachel Givney’s debut crime novel, Don’t Say His Name (Ultimo Press), Detective Stayer takes a job in the idyllic beach town of Thoorgala, hoping for a chance to reconnect with his sister, Ruby. As local women are found murdered on the sand dunes, marked with a peculiar symbol, townspeople begin blaming Tall Harry, a shadowy urban legend, as the culprit. And when Ruby also goes missing, Stayer finds himself reluctantly teaming up with Sister Catherine Kelley, a nun steeped in the town’s folklore, to help solve the crime. As the investigation intensifies, Stayer must confront the dark side of picturesque Thoorgala before this folkloric figure exacts any more of his promised revenge . . .
is an internationally bestselling author and filmmaker. She has worked for many of Australia's most beloved and critically acclaimed shows including Offspring, McLeod's Daughters, All Saints, The Warriors, and many more.
Host Philomena Horsley is a long-time member of Sisters in Crime, a Davitt Awards Judge, and a Scarlet Stiletto winner. She is also a medical anthropologist with expertise in autopsies, death and dying; family and domestic violence; and women’s health.
A short Annual General Meeting will follow the event.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Rising Sun Hotel, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne, Australia
AUD 11.53 to AUD 63.73
