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.
M**der mysteries and history books have a similar modus operandi. Both are concerned with whodunnit – and usually the why and how. Historical M**der mysteries are doubly credentialled, as three authors with new books – Amanda Hampson, Natalie Conyer, and Tara Oldfield – will explore with host Maryanne Vagg.
The Model M**der (Penguin) by Amanda Hampson is the highly anticipated new book in the bestselling, award-winning, Australian cosy crime series The Tea Ladies. It’s Sydney, 1968. When a popular local man is murdered, police are quick to pin the blame on his glamorous model fiancée, who has since disappeared. But Hazel suspects a criminal cover-up and rallies the tea ladies to investigate; a quest that brings danger right to her door.
Melbourne-based author Amanda Hampson has been writing professionally for more than 30 years and is the award-winning author of nine novels: The Olive Sisters, Two for the Road, The French Perfumer, The Yellow Villa, Sixty Summers, Lovebirds, The Tea Ladies, The Deadly Dispute, and The Cryptic Clue. A runaway bestseller, The Tea Ladies, won the 2024 Danger Awards for Best Crime Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2024 Davitt Awards and Ned Kelly Awards. More info.
Finding the Bones (Echo Publishing) is Natalie Conyer’s third novel, and it marks a departure from two previous novels featuring the South African police detective Schalk Lourens. Back in the 1980s in Kings Cross, Belle Fitzgerald, young, rich, and spirited, embarks on a passionate affair with a cop, Sergeant Stanton Rose, and then disappears. Present day, Stanton Rose retires as a celebrated detective, but when Belle’s bones are discovered, it falls on his daughter Jackie, a homicide detective, to investigate.
Natalie Conyer’s first novel, Present Tense, won the Ned Kelly Award for the best debut crime novel of 2020 and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award. Her second novel, Shadow City, was shortlisted for both the Ned Kelly and Danger Awards. Her short stories have been featured in anthologies and published as a collection titled The Book Club and Other Stories. She’s also a serial pest in the Scarlet Stiletto competition, still yearning for the elusive red shoe. Natalie’s a swimmer, a TV addict, a world-class procrastinator, and a crime fiction tragic who loves the genre so much she did a doctorate on it. More info.
Tara Oldfield’s debut novel, Diamonds, Furs and M**der: The Many Crimes of Mona Hayes (Ginninderra Press, is a historical fiction inspired by the life and crimes of little-known 1930s thief Mona Hayes. Described by police as a well-educated, exceptionally clever crook – if she sees something she wants, she takes it. Diamonds, watches, and furs are Mona’s weakness. Not to be deterred by J*il time, she hones her craft, performing cons on shopkeepers and charming the police. But when Mona falls in love with the mysterious Albert Sharpe, who will save her?
Tara Oldfield is a communications professional from Melbourne. In her current role at the State Archives, she delves into fascinating files of Victoria’s past, writes regular history articles, and presents episodes of the Look History in the Eye podcast. In 2024 she won a Mander Jones Award for her short historical fiction Bitter Salts. Through Tara's work with archives, she happened upon the files of the fascinating 1930s criminal. More info.
Host, Sisters in Crime National Co-convenor, Maryanne Vagg has spent a career curating literary events, festivals, and experiences and was the founder of Geelong’s successful Word for Word Nonfiction Festival, which ran from 2014-2018. She currently works for Victoria University as the Manager, Library Client Experience, and has been a reviewer for Good Reading Magazine for over a decade. Maryanne loves a good crime read and, even more than that, enjoys a great conversation with crime writers.
Tickets not sold prior to the event will be available at the door for $67/$62/$59/$57
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 58.51 to AUD 68.95
