Choosing your favourite books is like choosing your favourite children. It's hard to do, and it depends on your mood. As the QLD convenor of Sisters in Crime, I'm excited about the books being produced by so many talented women writers, and here are some of my recent faves:
Learned Behaviours by Zeynab Gamieldien
Ultimo Press, 2025
Ultimo Press, 2025
The Sydney settings in this excellent novel – the Canterbury-Bankstown area, the business district of Martin Place, and the eastern and northern beach suburbs – collectively illuminate a collision of worlds that’s not frequently portrayed in crime fiction.
Barrister-in-training Zaid Saban grew up in a working class family in western Sydney and is struggling to fit into a top tier law firm. One day Amira, a woman he knows from high school, turns up at the office. She believes that an innocent man was blamed for the murder of a fellow student when they were teenagers and she needs his help. Zaid is an observant and compelling narrator, and combined with Amira’s sharp, heartfelt and funny perspective, Learned Behaviours is a great literary mystery, and a thoughtful commentary on race and class in contemporary Australia.
Barrister-in-training Zaid Saban grew up in a working class family in western Sydney and is struggling to fit into a top tier law firm. One day Amira, a woman he knows from high school, turns up at the office. She believes that an innocent man was blamed for the murder of a fellow student when they were teenagers and she needs his help. Zaid is an observant and compelling narrator, and combined with Amira’s sharp, heartfelt and funny perspective, Learned Behaviours is a great literary mystery, and a thoughtful commentary on race and class in contemporary Australia.
We Saw What You Started by Carla Salmon
Pan Australia, 2025
This year I have been gifting this book to every child I know between the ages of 11 and 15. Californian boy Otto is struggling to fit into his new home in Red Sands, Australia. He makes friends with Milly at the surf club. Together they try to solve the mystery of who is lighting a series of fires in their close knit community. Gripping, smart, funny and heart warming, with a thrilling sinister undercurrent. It's a lot of fun.
Pan Australia, 2025
This year I have been gifting this book to every child I know between the ages of 11 and 15. Californian boy Otto is struggling to fit into his new home in Red Sands, Australia. He makes friends with Milly at the surf club. Together they try to solve the mystery of who is lighting a series of fires in their close knit community. Gripping, smart, funny and heart warming, with a thrilling sinister undercurrent. It's a lot of fun.
Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin
HQ Fiction, 2025
Exquisite writing, gripping plot, and strong female characters, I adored this. Aboriginal policewoman Renee Taylor returns reluctantly to her childhood hometown and investigates a brutal murder. With poetic lyricism and thoughtful social commentary, Melaleuca tells the story of two eras, 1965 in a yumba (camp) on the outskirts of town, and in 2000 in the fictional small town of Goorunga. In rural crime fiction, we don't often see a tender, authentic, considered portrayal of First Nations characters, or an interrogation of how law enforcement intersects with their communities, or even how the past shapes the present for FN characters. Melaleuca is original, memorable and an important addition to Aussie rural noir.
HQ Fiction, 2025
Exquisite writing, gripping plot, and strong female characters, I adored this. Aboriginal policewoman Renee Taylor returns reluctantly to her childhood hometown and investigates a brutal murder. With poetic lyricism and thoughtful social commentary, Melaleuca tells the story of two eras, 1965 in a yumba (camp) on the outskirts of town, and in 2000 in the fictional small town of Goorunga. In rural crime fiction, we don't often see a tender, authentic, considered portrayal of First Nations characters, or an interrogation of how law enforcement intersects with their communities, or even how the past shapes the present for FN characters. Melaleuca is original, memorable and an important addition to Aussie rural noir.
Hurt Mountain by Angela Crook
Lake Union Publishing, 2024
Several mysteries are interweaved in this atmospheric and haunting mystery about missing children, love, hope and despair. When a patrolman finds an injured girl in a strange situation on the road, it's his ex-wife who is the doctor on duty to care for the young, silent patient. Four years ago, this couple lost their own child. From the mysterious catalyst of the girl's arrival, a propulsive thriller plotline unfolds against the striking backdrop of the dramatic Colorado landscape. Hurt Mountain is a page-turning thriller that takes us into the disquieting outposts of Colorado you'll never see in any ski holiday brochure, and it's a really beautiful exploration of human endurance, grief, and forgiveness.
Lake Union Publishing, 2024
Several mysteries are interweaved in this atmospheric and haunting mystery about missing children, love, hope and despair. When a patrolman finds an injured girl in a strange situation on the road, it's his ex-wife who is the doctor on duty to care for the young, silent patient. Four years ago, this couple lost their own child. From the mysterious catalyst of the girl's arrival, a propulsive thriller plotline unfolds against the striking backdrop of the dramatic Colorado landscape. Hurt Mountain is a page-turning thriller that takes us into the disquieting outposts of Colorado you'll never see in any ski holiday brochure, and it's a really beautiful exploration of human endurance, grief, and forgiveness.
The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins
Angus and Robertson, 2025
The Bluff is about who murdered Dash Rogers, a charismatic cattle king found dead at the farm gate of his vast Clive River property. Everyone has a motive, many have the means…it’s up to amateur sleuth Ruth to peel back the layers of the close knit rural hinterland community and find out the truth. This is a standalone with protagonist Ruth, the gruff yet endearing city lawyer, who featured in Jo’s bestselling debut How To Kill A Client. The characters are relatable, authentic, flawed and lovable. The Bluff doesn’t shy away from the thorny issues relating to colonisation. In regional towns, the topic of land and legacies of wealth and inheritance are often kitchen table conversations. A compelling, riveting, intelligent mystery with a big heart.
Angus and Robertson, 2025
The Bluff is about who murdered Dash Rogers, a charismatic cattle king found dead at the farm gate of his vast Clive River property. Everyone has a motive, many have the means…it’s up to amateur sleuth Ruth to peel back the layers of the close knit rural hinterland community and find out the truth. This is a standalone with protagonist Ruth, the gruff yet endearing city lawyer, who featured in Jo’s bestselling debut How To Kill A Client. The characters are relatable, authentic, flawed and lovable. The Bluff doesn’t shy away from the thorny issues relating to colonisation. In regional towns, the topic of land and legacies of wealth and inheritance are often kitchen table conversations. A compelling, riveting, intelligent mystery with a big heart.
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