The Valley finds itself in some very distinguished company indeed: shortlisted for the BookPeople Award for fiction. And I’m blown away. Just to be listed alongside the likes of Tim Winton, Robbie Arnott, Michelle de Kretser,Garry Disher and Shankari Chandran is quite humbling. The awards are voted on by Australia’s booksellers – so a huge thanks to all of them. Not just for the votes, but all the work you… Read More »Shortlisted: BookPeople Awards
The television adaptation of Silver has hit the screens on Stan in Australia and New Zealand, debuting at number one. It’s branded as Scrublands: Silver and is based on the second Martin/Scarsden Mandalay Blonde book. Luke Arnold and Bella Heathcote reprise their roles as Martin and Mandy – and I feel this series they really make the most of the two character’s fraught relationship and theiremotional journeys. There are some… Read More »Scrublands: Silver premieres
The Valley has been shortlisted for the Australian Book Industry Award for best General Fiction. Huzzah! The ABIAs are clever – there are two fiction categories: one for literary fiction, the other for general fiction. General fiction means popular or genre fiction like crime, romance, fantasy, science fiction etc. It really says something about the strength of crime fiction in this country that five out of the six shortlisted titles… Read More »ABIA Awards Shortlist
This is exciting – it’s not even 2025 yet, but The Valley has been longlisted for the prestigious 2025 Indie Book Awards, in amongst some inspiring company. The awards are run by the Australian Independent Bookseller organisation – representing many of the country’s leading bookstores. These are the stores that do so much to champion local authors and are such an important part of the Australian literary ecosystem. See details… Read More »The Valley longlisted
So thrilled – and so grateful!! 🙏🙏The London Times has named ‘Cover The Bones’ as one of its top ten crime novels of the year! Thank you. It’s immensely gratifying to be the only Australian author to be named in such outstanding company. (Cover The Bones is published in Australia/New Zealand as The Seven). Here’s what critic Mark Sanderson had to say: “When a corpse is fished out of a… Read More »The Times 10 best crime books of 2024
The Ned Kelly Awards – known fondly as ‘The Neds’ – have been an annual event for close on thirty years now, run by the Australian Crime Writers Association. Past winners of the prize for best fiction include many of the giants of Australian crime fiction such as Shane Maloney, Peter Temple, Michael Robotham and Garry Disher. Back in the day, the awards were dominated by men, but that has… Read More »The Seven makes the Ned Kelly shortlist
The Seven has been selected as The ACT Book of the Year! I attended the awards ceremony at the Tuggeranong Library, where the Minister for the Arts, Tara Cheyne announced the selection of The Seven. My thanks to the judges, the ACT government for supporting writers and other creatives through grants and prizes, and to ACT Libraries for hosting the event. Congratulations to my fellow short-listed authors! In some ways,… Read More »ACT Book of the Year: The Seven!
Thirteen years ago, my first book, The River, won the ACT Book of the Year. Now, my eighth book, and sixth crime fiction novel, The Seven, has been shortlisted for the same award. When I won the award in 2011, it had such a positive effect on me, making me feel like I was a real writer. And I think it helped a few years later, when I was struggling… Read More »ACT Book of the Year Shortlist
Exciting news from the UK! Dead Man’s Creek has been longlisted for the UK Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger – arguably the world’s most prestigious crime fiction prize. It’s such an honour to be listed in such amazing company. This is the 2024 award, for the best crime novel published in the UK during 2023. Dead Man’s Creek was published in January 2023, after being published as The Tilt in… Read More »Daggers Longlist
The Seven has been shortlisted for the 2024 Indie Book Awards. This is such an honour – look at the other books and authors on the list: Trent Dalton with Lola in the Mirror, Melissa Lucashenko and Edenglassie, and Pip Williams with The Bookbinder of Jericho. So chuffed to see The Seven in such company. The Indies are run by the Australian Independent Booksellers – all those small (and not… Read More »Shortlisted for Indie Awards