Authors who are intrigued with crime and thriller writing often draw inspiration from real life cases. Sometimes they find real life crimes so fascinating they recreate them as stories – filling in the unknown areas based on available facts with a little bit of speculation. Others create chilling new scenarios. Speculative fiction on environmental themes are popular with readers as we all try to imagine our possible futures in a changed world.
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DENNIS ALTMAN - Death in the Sauna
A crime story that leads us from a gay sauna, to the intrigues of of an international AIDS conference. This is celebrated gay activist Altman's 17th book and draws on his considerable experience of the gay underworld and the political rivalry.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
AMY ANDREWS - Limbo
A grungy bar in a suburb of Brisbane is the setting for the hero Dash, as he contemplates his life’s downward trajectory. To cap it all off , the pub is doing an open mic night. Amy Andrews describes her work as romance noir but throws in some paranormal activity as well.
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GABRIEL BERGMOSER - The Hunted
Outback noir! Simon, a naïve backpacker, meets the much more worldly wise Maggie in Melbourne and they set off to explore the wilder places of Australia. Maggie proves to be the more resourceful of the two when Simon mysteriously disappears and she is pushed to extremes to survive an horrific situation.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
MARK BRANDI - The Others
Who are 'the others'? The mysterious, unknown yet threatening people on the other side of the hill that a young boy is taught to fear. Finally, one day, he decides to find out for himself. And it is not what he expected.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Sydney Dec.2021
ANNE BUIST - Locked ward
A psychiatrist with a bipolar disorder suspects the police have arrested the wrong person in a murder case. An insightful story about how women are often more vulnerable than men when it comes to mental health issues, written by an author who has had over 25 years of clinical and research experience in perinatal psychiatry.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
PAUL BURMAN- The Grease Monkey's Tale
Any drive to the outback rural areas of Australia will bring you into contact with the sort of law enforcer depicted here. This reading makes you want to check behind every bush and bit of scrub for a lurking lawman!
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RAE CAIRNS - The Good Mother
The Author draws on her background as a former youth worker in Northern Ireland to write a thriller that crosses from Australia to Ireland as her character is hunted down by men who suspect she has secrets about an incident in the past during 'the troubles'. This read depicts a scary riot drawn from the author's own experiences there.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
Dying to Know
Geneva's sister Amber has been abducted and she makes one last desperate call for help. The police are only minutes away when Amber screams and is never seen again. Twelve years on, raising her sister's children, Geneva sets out to find out what happened to Amber. Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
LUCY CAMPBELL - Lowbridge
Every year young women go missing and no traces of them are found. They leave behind shattered families whose questions remain unanswered. 17 year old Tess Dawes leaves the local shopping center and is never seen again. Years later, Katharine Ashworth grieving the the loss of her own daughter becomes obsessed with the thirty year old mystery. And then she discovers a second young woman who was never found as well.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
AOIFE CLIFFORD- All these Perfect Strangers
For the books narrator Pen Shepherd, to leave home and go to university was a chance to reinvent herself – but when do you start telling the truth – after the first murder?
Audio PlayerRecorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2016
NATALIE CONYER- Present Tense
A crime story with a dramatic slant of difference as it is set in modern South Africa. Racial tensions and old wars underlie all the clues and the complicated working hierarchy of mixed tribes and races all add to the tension.
Audio PlayerRecorded June 2020 by the author.
MATT CONDON -The Night Dragon
This long, slightly scary read from crime reporter and author Matt Condon goes into some detail of what life is like inside the notorious Boggo Road jail and the the sort of men who end up there. All true, and reported in journalistic style.
Audio PlayerRecorded a the Byron Writers Festival 2019
NIKKI CRUTCHLEY - In Her Blood
Jac has come back to the small town that drove her away to find her sister Charlie. She arrives to a less than friendly reception, and then her father is found dead. Now she has two mysteries to solve in a town full of secrets.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
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CAROLINE DE COSTA - Blood Sisters
This read starts off with what seems like a classic ' murder in the motel ' scene- or is it?
Nothing is what it seems in this third book in the series by Caroline De Costa starring her female detective Cass Diamond. Set in tropical Cairns the book starts in the Philippines and weaves together the stories of several women, all linked by a terrible event in the past.
Audio PlayerRecorded at Bellingen Writers Festival 2019
JO DIXON - The House of Now and Then
Olivia has escaped to deepest rural Tasmania after public humiliation but the house she has rented has a history. One day a stranger knocks on the door with a letter, and in unravelling its mystery, her own life also changes.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
JOSH DONELLAN – Killing Adonis
Freya is struggling to cope with the death of her friend in an accident, and takes on a job with a wealthy but mysterious family. She finds she is nurse to their son, who is in a coma – or is he?
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Bellingen Writers Festival 2018
LOUISE DOUGHTY - BLACK WATER
Indonesia in 1965 was a a terrifying time for anyone deemed a ‘communist’ . Here the main character of the story, John Harper is being told how many thousands of innocent villagers met grisly ends , often by the words of their own terrified neighbours.
Audio PlayerRecorded at Byron Writers Festival 2016
MICHAEL DUFFY - The Problem with Murder
Disgraced homicide detective Paul Ruell has been sent to the Blue Mountains. It's cold, but he is determined to adjust and stick it out. When a crime is uncovered that has been hidden for years things begin to look up for him.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
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ESKIL ENGDAL & KJETIL SAETER - 'Catching Thunder'
Authors Kjetil Saeter and Eskil Engdal
You've probably never heard of the Patagonian Toothfish - much less had the pleasure of eating it. It must be pretty darn tasty because men risk their lives trying to catch it illegally and sell it on the world black market. These pirate vessels operate in Antarctic waters, not the place for pleasure cruising. Yet that is where the Sea Shepherd vessel the 'Bob Barker' must go, through ice floes, hurricanes and appalling danger, to track the movements of these vessels and provide proof of their illegal fishing. Meanwhile, fishing in cyberspace, Norwegian investigative reporters Eskil and Kjetil are racing to find the real owners of the vessels, the only way court orders can be served . Mind boggling research , bravery and even sympathy for the wretched crews on these pirate vessels - an incredible story of detective work.
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2018
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KATHERINE FIRKIN -'STICKS AND STONES'
'Sticks and Stones' is an excellent debut novel from Katherine Firkin who has reported on criminal justice for a number of years. Fast paced, but with well fleshed out characters, we follow detective Emmett Corgan as he slowly finds himself overwhelmed with a series of murders of young women. Years of real life experience show through in this story which illustrates that there are no easy answers and that we as a society must all share a little of the blame for the paths that some people take in life.
Audio PlayerCANDICE FOX - Eden
This opening chapter from 'Eden' takes us into the childhood history of the main character.‘Eden’ is the companion novel to ‘Hades’ which won the Ned Kelly ‘Best Debut’ novel in 2014.
The read sets the scene for the crime which follows the protagonist through the story.
Audio PlayerRecorded at Sydney Writers Festival 2016
David Free - 'Get Poor Slow'
Lovers of Raymond Chandler fiction will love David Free’s style – shambolic, drunken and heartbroken, his hero is on a downward spiral – a photographer peering through his window for a late night shot is a last straw.
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RHYS GARD- Four Dogs Missing
Twins Oliver and Theo share the same face but are totally different in outlook . Oliver is leading a fulfilling existence as a winemaker in Mudgee when his errant twin Theo turns up. Suddenly poisoned liquor, stolen art and even murders are happening in this sleepy wine growing district. Is Oliver's twin the cause?
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Writers Festival Sydney 2023
POPPY GEE- The Vanishing
When someone disappears from your life and there's no explanation, what do you do? In this novel, Tasmania once again provides a gothic backdrop to strange occurrences in a small town.
Audio Player
Recorded by the author, 2021.
POPPY GEE- The Vanishing
When someone disappears from your life and there's no explanation, what do you do? In this novel, Tasmania once again provides a gothic backdrop to strange occurrences in a small town.
Audio PlayerRecorded by the author, 2021.
SULARI GENTILL- Crossing the Lines
A lawyer dreams of being a writer, a writer appears in her life and they begin to correspond.
Fiction and real life begin to entwine .
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Bellingen Writers Festival 2018
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(Image shown: 'Listening for the Sky to Change' - Oil on Cotton Duck 91 cms X 121 cms) ROBIN GREGORY - TRAFFIC
Robin Gregory spent a lot of hours, just like her P.I Sandi Kent, sitting in the car watching the comings and goings at various brothels around Melbourne in her research for this novel. It was probably by turns dangerous and tedious - fortunately her novel is neither and rips along as we join Sandi on her quest to rescue a woman trapped in sexual slavery.
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ROSALIE HAM - The Dressmaker's Secret
A long awaited sequel to 'The Dressmaker' which was made into a very popular film. This book follows Tilly to Melbourne in the year of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. In this read, a very special client of Tilly's is revealed.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
CHRIS HAMMER- 'Scrublands'
A traumatised war journalist sent on an 'easy' assignment to a country town. What could go wrong? Quite a lot, as things turn out to be not as they seem on the surface.
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2018
The Tilt
Homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her home town assigned a cold case. But the more she investigates the more dangerous the implications for her own safety and that of the family she thought she knew. Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
The Seven
Ivan enters The Drover’s Rest, searching for Toxteth McGrath. He finds him in the ‘VIP’ lounge – playing the pokies! Another sleazy hotel, another dark mystery in a small town – how can you go wrong? The Seven are the original families that settled this town and still try to control everything that happens in it. Audio PlayerRecorded at Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2024
JANE HARPER - Exiles
This is the third and last book in the series that features investigator Aaron Falkes. A baby is found, carefully swaddled in a pram and her young mother is never found. Years later, the daughter begins to ask questions and long buried truths begin to emerge.
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Byron Writers Festival 2024
NARRELLE M. HARRIS -The Only One in the World
I am sure Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the original Sherlock Holmes stories, would be delighted to read this anthology of brand new short adventures by 13 different authors.
From ancient Egypt to A.I, Holmes and Watson continue sleuthing and solving down through the ages. Narrelle M.Harris had a great time as Editor of this collection and reads here from one of the stories , S.H.E.R.L.O.C.K , by Atlin Merrick.
Audio PlayerMARGARET HICKEY - Cutter's End
A young girl has disappeared in a remote small town on New Year's Eve. Sergeant Mark Ariti is sent to investigate and uncovers more than he bargained for. At least he can get a good cup of coffee!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
ADRIAN HYLAND - Canticle Creek
In this terrifying and heart rending read Adrian writes a fictional account from personal experience of what being caught in a firestorm is like and how you face the possibility of your own destruction. Adrian is a volunteer firefighter as well as author and has fought many fires.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
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JULIE JANSON - Madukka: The River Serpent
Aunty June gains a TAFE certificate 3 in Investigative Services and sets up Yanakirri Investigative Services. When a leading environmentalist goes missing , Aunty June picks up a case that the local police seem to be ignoring. Along the way, she has to deal with corruption, bikies, racism, sexism and water theft!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
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JESS KITCHING - Lucky Number 11
'Lucky Number 11' is the what the media dubbed the one woman who escaped the clutches of a serial killer. As an adult she helps others with similar assault trauma, but then someone begins the same pattern of attacks as the original killer and her life begins to unravel. A book about how violent crime lives on in trauma for the victims and all connected to them.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
KATHERINE KOVACIC -The Shifting Landscape
Tracking down and retrieving a valuable stolen artwork incurs a swift pursuit in this gripping read from Katherine. You'll be holding your breath as she tries to out run a pursuer armed with a shotgun, in the dark , on an unmade road!
Audio PlayerMiss Fisher's Modern Murder Mysteries : Just Murdered
And for lovers of the indomitably stylish Miss Fisher, here are some new updated adventures with her niece Peregrine carrying on the tradition. Audio PlayerRecording supplied by the Author Nov. 21
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VERONICA LANDO - The Whisperingboo
The Australian Rainforest in the far north can hide many secrets- and harbour some pretty shady characters in its damp gloom. A local man has gone missing in the forest, but he is not the first to disappear. Small town secrets once more!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
L.A LARKIN -Devour
L.A Larkin belongs to an elite group - that of female crime fiction writers. She creates strong female protagonists with high ideals and an environmental conscience. 'Devour' is her latest book in which she introduces us to investigative journalist Olivia Woolf, who travels from Antarctica to the Nevada Desert in pursuit of her uncovering of a potential global catastrophe. Some characters from Larkin's previous book 'Thirst' reappear in this new story.
Audio PlayerL.A Larkin 'PREY'
'Prey' is the second int he Olivia Woolf crime thriller series. ‘Prey’ takes her to South Africa where she digs down deep into the illegal rhino horn trade. Here is the author reading a short extract from this latest novel Audio PlayerL.A Larkin - WIDOW'S ISLAND
Another page turner from L.A Larkin. This one starts off chillingly and gets colder page by page as the heroine, a widowed scientist with a teenage daughter, becomes the victim of an online stalker. Stephanie retreats to a remote island but soon realises there is nowhere safe and strange secrets from her past begin to surface. Then her stalker steps off the screen and things take an even nastier turn!
Audio PlayerL.A Larkin - THE SAFE PLACE
A psychopathic arsonist is on the loose in this chilling story set in a forest fire. In this slightly longer read from the author herself, we learn just how to cover your tracks if you want to burn someone's house down - with them in it! Maybe too much information here!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Sydney 2021
SUZANNE LEAL - The Deceptions
There's something about weddings and funerals that expose long hidden secrets and bring to the surface old betrayals and transgressions. Inspired by a true story.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival 2022
The Watchful Wife
Ellen grew up in a strict religious group but marriage to Gordon, a fellow teacher, has helped her blossom and gain confidence. When two police come to her door to question Gordon about an accusation from a school pupil, she will need all her faith in Gordon, to help both herself and him. Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
SANDI LOGAN - Betrayed
This is a true story of two middle aged women who were set up to be drug mules by one woman's nephew. They were sentenced for 14 years ( they served five ) and Sandi Logan has set out to reveal what an injustice this was. In this read, the two women have made it back to Australia with a campervan loaded with 2 tonnes of hashish- a fact of which they are completely ignorant.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
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RWR(Rob) McDONALD - Nancy Business
The Nancy's are attending the funeral for their Father who died in a strange accident. Meanwhile the town of Riverstone is rocked by an explosion that kills three people. But is the accused bomber really guilty, and is there a second bomber? Traversing several cultures from Shanghai to New Zealand, this is the second in the series of three but the author assures me you can read them in any order!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Writers Festival Sydney 2023
LYN McFARLANE -The Scarlet Cross
A crime thriller set in a hospital that covers a lot of bases- mental illness, self harm, power structures and hierarchies in medical institutions. The lead character, Meredith, manages the emergency department in St. Jude's Hospital, and has her own problems - intelligent and gripping!
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime festival Sydney 2022
DINUKA McKENZIE - The Torrent
It’s hard enough being a female detective without being pregnant, exhausted and with a competitive and ambitious, new partner in tow .Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is counting down the days until her maternity leave when not one but two new cases, a robbery-assault and a death in floodwaters, are dumped on her desk leading to unsettling discoveries in her Northern Rivers hometown.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
Taken
Detective Sergeant Kate Miles is back from maternity leave and feeling stress from her personal life and from the station chief. With increasing pressure from the media to solve a high profile case, involving a missing baby, she is pushed to her limits. Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
MERCEDES MERCIER - White Noise
The white noise in the title refers to the constant sound in Dr. Laura Fleming's ear, which is also accompanied by pain. Filling in for a colleague in the prison where she works as a prison psychologist, she is confronted by a man she feels is too dangerous to be released. Researching his past confirms this but then her own past begins to catch up to her.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
MAGGIE MUNDY - 'Random Meeting'
Maggie Mundy’s unusual protagonist is a man just released from jail after serving 12 years for murder. He finds himself at a pizza parlour, where he encounters more than just a meal.
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KAYTE NUNN - The Only Child
A nun buries a secret in this read which is set in 1949 and also 2013 on Orcades Island. Based upon a the true grim history of how young women were treated by the Catholic church in the past when they had the misfortune to fall pregnant and the criminal neglect they and their babies suffered.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022
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LORAINE PECK - The Second Son
Ivan Novak is shot dead in his own driveway and now his father Milan demands his brother Johnny avenge the family honour. But Johnny's wife Amy wants to escape this cycle of killing and revenge and threatens to leave Johnny taking his beloved son Sasha with her. What decision will he make?
Audio PlayerThe Double Bind
After Johnny's brother has been shot, his father Milan turns his attention to Johnny's young son Sasha, and promises him a gun for his birthday. Johnny's wife Amy has had enough. Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
J. P POMARE - Call Me Evie
This is a thriller set in a remote New Zealand town with so many twists and turns you will feel slightly dizzy each time you read the next chapter ! Who is the mysterious Jim who holds Evie captive? Is he protecting her, or imprisoning her? Why can't she remember how she came to be here with him? Josh Pomare has written a sensitive, gripping portrait of a woman , trapped in a peril she doesn't fully understand.
Audio PlayerRecorded at Bellingen Writers Festival 2019
Seventeen Years Later
This is a ‘cold case’ crime novel – was the accused really guilty ? Seventeen years in prison for something you didn’t do is an injustice. . This novel is set in New Zealand and follows the main character Sloane, as he produces a crime podcast on the convicted. But was the accused guilty after all? Audio PlayerRecorded at Bellingen Writers Festival 2024
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MICHAEL ROBOTHAM - The Secrets she Keeps.
Michael Robotham is more interested in why a character would commit a certain crime, than the actual crime itself. This is a creepy, psychological thriller about a most unlikely stalker.
Audio PlayerMichael Robotham was recorded at Byron writers Festival 2017
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JOAN SAUERS- Echo Lake
Historian Rose McHugh moves to the Southern Highlands in NSW and finds a roll of film buried in her new backyard. Processed, the photos reveal a woman who went missing six years before. Intrigued she tries to discover what happened to her - but small towns hide many secrets, and one of them is a killer.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
MATTHEW SPENCER - The River
A classic murder thriller set in Sydney during a heatwave. Journalist Adam Bowman has to reach into his own past to help detective Rose Riley catch a serial killer before he strikes again.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime festival Sydney 2022
BENJAMIN STEVENSON - Everyone on this Train is a Suspect
Recorded at Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2024
CHRIS STUART - For Reasons of their Own
What does it mean to be 'safe'? Can any of us ever be truly safe? A crime of murder, set in the bleak inner suburbs of Melbourne, which challenges the reader to question whether some crimes are justified, if against the law. This award winning author has worked all over the world in the area of humanitarian aid and writes to help answer her own questions about the human condition.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
FIONA SUSSMAN - The Doctor's Wife
When a mother of two begins to act strangely at first her husband is advised 'it's just menopause'. But when her strange behavior escalates, and a a body is found at the foot of the cliffs in town, she becomes a prime suspect. But there are many others in the town who also had motivation.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2023
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MARK TEDESCHI - Missing Presumed Dead
This examination of a contemporary case of murder is different from Mark's previous books in that he was involved with the case. Mark brings to light evidence that was not presented at the trial that he says makes the final judgement incontrovertible.
Audio PlayerRecorded at the Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival 2022
MARK TEDESCHI - Eugenia, Kidnapped
Mark is a top QC by day, and a writer by night who is drawn to re-examine famous Australian crime cases with a fresh eye and some skillful re-imagining to fill in the gaps. Here he reads from his book Kidnapped .
Audio PlayerThis recording was made at the Sydney writers Festival 2016
Eugenia is the recreated story of the very private life of the first male impersonator convicted for murder in Australia. How did a woman fool everybody for many years, including her wives? Audio PlayerThis recording was made at the Sydney writers Festival 2016
SARAH THORNTON - White Throat
A much loved environmental campaigner is found dead at the base of a cliff. The Police rule it suicide, but her friends can' believe that to be possible and suspect foul play. They set out to find the truth. Another 'Tasmanian noir' thriller!
Audio PlayerRecorded at the BAD Festival Sydney , Dec.2021
P.A THOMAS - The Beacon
The lighthouse is the guiding light for fishing boats and surfers in the Bay. Patrick, who works on the local paper, surfs early in the morning. Then suddenly, he is dragged off his board by a shark. Or is it a shark? Jack Harris sets out to investigate. This is a crime novel set in Byron Bay and author P.A Thomas found the characters of Byron very inspirational!
Audio PlayerRecorded at Byron Writers Festival 2024
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Sandi Wallace- BLACK CLOUD
Sandi Wallace likes small towns. In a place where everyone knows everybody else's business - how can crimes happen?
This is her fourth novel combining environment, social relationships and skullduggery!
Audio PlayerTIM WATSON-MUNRO -A Shrink in the Clink
It's a great title - and it perfectly describes the real life experiences of Tim Watson-Munro a criminal Psychologist. Weird, funny and terrifying true tales as Watson-Munro reveals some of the warped minds behind some of the country's major crimes. In this read, Tim is trapped on a small plane with passenger terrified of flying.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Writers Festival Sydney 2023
SUSAN WHITE - Cut
The author is both a doctor and a writer so her descriptions of medical procedures are not short on detail! Her protagonist is a young, female doctor battling workplace politics, misogyny and the knowledge that something is being covered up at the hospital she loves.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime festival Sydney 2022
GREG WOODLAND - The Carnival is Over
Hal is seventeen and working in an abattoir- a job only made bearable by his friendship with Christine, an older woman. When she turns up dead and is pronounced a 'suicide' he suspects foul play.
Audio PlayerRecorded at BAD Crime Festival Sydney 2022