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
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
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
Cover The Bones has been published in the UK, Ireland and Europe… and had already garnered some great reviews. The novel – published in Australia and New Zealand as ‘The Seven’ – has already been named as the Crime Book of the Month for January by the Times of London – thanks Mark Sanderson! Gold dagger winner Chris Whitaker describes it as ‘a masterful, stunning thriller’, The Irish Independent calls… Read More »Cover The Bones book of the month
The Seven has been out a little over two months – and suddenly it’s in the running for a major awards. It’s longlisted for the Indie Book Awards – run by Australia’s Independent Booksellers. The independent book stores are a vital part of Australia’s literary culture – they do so much to promote and support local authors, so it’s very pleasing to be listed here. It’s in among some very… Read More »Indies Longlist
The London Times has named Dead Man’s Creek its Crime Book of the Year for 2023! Dead Man’s Creek is the UK title for The Tilt. It’s a great honour, sitting alongside Robert Galbraith’s (AKA J.K.Rowling’s) The Running Grave which was selected as The Sunday Times Crime Book of the Year. Times critic Mark Sanderson described it as a ‘superb crime drama’. Mark originally selected Dead Man’s Creek as his… Read More »Crime Book of the Year
The television version of Scrublands premiered to a wonderful reception in Australia on the streamer STAN on November 16th – and broadcast shortly after in the UK on BBC 4 and iPlayer and in New Zealand. Huge thanks to the team at Easy Tiger for bringing it to the screen! It’s a wonderful re-imagining of the book, directed by Greg McLean with the script developed under the leadership of Felicity… Read More »Scrublands Premieres
The Tilt has won the 2023 Danger Prize for Crime Fiction, announced at an awards dinner at the BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival on November the second. This is second time I have won the Danger Prize, after sharing it in 2021 with former homicide detective Gary Jubelin. Back then there was only one prize, and my fiction book ‘Trust’ shared it with Gary’s non-fiction memoir ‘I Catch Killers’. Since… Read More »The Tilt wins Danger Prize
Great news! The BBC has acquired the Australian television/streaming production of Scrublands!! I’m very happy about this – and very happy for all the talented people at Easy Tiger who have done so much and so well to bring the novel to the screen. Can’t wait to see it! This is the BBC announcement: “The BBC has acquired new Australian crime drama Scrublands, based on the award-winning novel written by… Read More »BBC to screen Scrublands
The Ned Kelly Awards are Australia’s oldest and most prestigious awards for crime writing – so I’m pretty stoked about The Tilt being shortlisted for the 2023 award for Best Crime Fiction. It’s quite the honour, particularly when you consider how many very fine crime novels are now being published in Australia each year. And I’m in some classy company here: Aoife Clifford (When We Fall), Jane Harper (Exiles), Sally… Read More »Ned Kelly Shortlist