Crime Fiction Down Under

In Episode 6 of Crime Fiction Down Under we talk about:

• Red Queen - the TV adaptation of Juan Gomez-Jurado’s trilogy of thrillers (Amazon Prime)
• Law the Podcast hosted by former Supreme Court judge Lex Lasry AM and barrister Greg Barnes SC

We review:

• The Shark by Emma Styles  (4:48)
• The Doubles by Jacob P Gallagher (9:26)

We talk about The BAD Sydney crime writers festival which is being held on the 20th and 21st of November (15:35)

More information and tickets can be found at badsydney.com 

Our recommendations from the wider world of crime fiction this week are:

• The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet (17:24)
• We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman (20:23)

You can follow and get in touch with us on our Facebook page which is Crime Fiction Down Under: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1GYvsdyrpc/ 

And all of Robert’s reviews can be found at: www.pilebythebed.com 

Other books mentioned in the podcast:

• Red Queen Series by Juan Gomez-Jurado:
  • Red Queen
  • Black Wolf
  • White King
• No Country for Girls by Emma Styles
• The Shark Net by Robert Drew
• Terra Nullius by Claire G Coleman
• Song of the Crocodile by Nardi Simpson
• Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch
• A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett
• A Trade in Blood by Robert Jackson Bennet
• We Solve Murders by Richard Osman
• Return to Breakneck Island by Tom Ryan
• We Had a Hunch by Tom Ryan

Episode 5 of Crime Fiction Down Under features some heavy hitters of the Australian crime fiction scene.

We talk about new crime TV:

• Slow Horses (Apple TV)
• Treasure and Dirt (ABC)

We review and discuss:

• Full Circle by Chris Hammer
• Tell Me Something True by Michael Robotham

And we recommend:

• A Killing in Lagos by Amen Alonge
• The Man Who Died Seven Times by Yasuhiko Nishizawa

In Award news we discuss the winners of the 2026 Ned Kelly Awards.

• Best Debut: In Bloom by Liz Allen
• Best True Crime: Duty to Warn by Charlotte Grieve
• Best International Crime Fiction: The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
• Best Crime Fiction: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth

The video presentation of the 2026 awards can be found on the Australian Crime Writers’ Association Website - https://www.austcrimewriters.com/

Or on You tube: https://youtu.be/ySb4kgGH5Gw?si=rrbFydPocoKGEYlZ 

If you want to see Jacqui in conversation with Chris Hammer at Clunes Booktown on Sunday 11 October 2026 you can get your tickets here: https://creativeclunes.tidyhq.com/public/schedule/events/88511-booktown-on-sunday-october-2026 

Robert’s book review website is: www.pilebythebed.com

And the Crime Fiction Down Under Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1381554830859678 

Other books and authors mentioned in Episode 5:

• The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
• The Dry by Jane Harper
• Garry Disher’s Hirschhausen series
• My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwait
• Lightseekers by Femi Kayode
• Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
• The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister
• Nigerian science fiction authors:
  • Tade Thompson
  • Nnedi Okorafor
  • Wole Talabi
• Other books by Chris Hammer
  • Scrublands
  • Silver
  • Trust
  • Treasure and Dirt
  • The Seven
• Other books by Michael Robotham
  • The Suspect
  • Lost
  • Shatter
  • Life or Death
  • The Secrets She Keeps
  • When You Are Mine
  • The White Crow
  • Good Girl, Bad Girl
  • When She Was Good
  • Lying Beside You
  • Storm Child

In our fourth episode of Crime Fiction Down Under we talk about some of our favourite podcasts:

• Decoder Ring
• The Secret Life of Books
• Zero to Well Read

Our in-depth crime fiction reviews in this episode are:

• The Reckoning by Vikki Petraitis
• The Model Muder by Amanda Hampson

Awards News

The Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards this year was won by David Whish-Wilson for his novel O’Keefe.

The 2026 Davitt Awards were:

• Best crime novel: The Bluffs by Joanna Jenkins
• Best debut crime novel: Melaleuca by Angie Faye-Martin
• Readers Choice award: Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
• Young Adult Award: What Have They Done to Liza McLean by Amy Doak
• Best Children’s Crime novel: Run by Sarah Armstrong

And the 2026 McIlvanney Prize handed out at the Bloody Scotland crime festival. This year both the best crime and best debut novel were won by Frances Crawford for A Bad Bad Place.

And a reminder that the Ned Kelly Awards are on the 24th of September at 8pm Australian Eastern Standard Time.

The Awards can be streamed on the Australian Crime Writers Association website: 

https://www.austcrimewriters.com

And on the Australian Crime Writers Association You Tube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com.au/@australiancrimewritersasso7125

Radio National Top 100 Australian Books

We give some recommendations for the Radio NAtional Top 100 Australian books poll:

• The Mystery of a Handsome Cab by Fergus Hume
• The Broken Shore by Peter Temple
• The Empty Beach by Peter Corris
• The Monkey’s Mask by Dorothy Porter
• The Dry by Jane Harper
• Last Drinks by Andrew McGhan

Other books and authors mentioned in the podcast:

• The Unbelieved by Vikki Petraitis
• The Stolen by Vikki Petratis
• Taken by Dinuka McKenzie
• Days End by Garry Disher
• Panic by Catherine Jinks
• Alex Clayton series by Katherine Kovacic
• Zoe Mayer series by Simon Rowell
• Caleb Zelic series by Emma Viskic
• The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
• The Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill
• Cutler by David Whish-Wilson
• Free World by David Whish-Wilson
• Bad Neighbours by Joanna Jenkins
• Truth by Peter Temple
• Deep Water by Peter Corris
• El Dorado by Dorothy Porter
• Wild Surmise by Dotorthy Porter

All of Robert’s reviews can be found on www.pilebythebed.com 

And you can follow us on Facebook at Crime Fiction Down Under.

In our third episode we discuss our guilty crime tv pleasures and we review:

• Possible Springs by Samantha Ross
• Nothing Personal by Alex Dook 

We go international to recommend:

• The Intrigue by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Final Six by Akinari Asakura

In award news we talk about the long list for the Petrona Award for Scandinavian Crime Fiction - that list can be found here:

https://www.petronaaward.co.uk/2026/08/the-petrona-award-2026-longlist.html

And we discuss two Ned Kelly Award short lists.

Ned Kelly Award Short List for Best International Crime Fiction 2026:

• Lucky Thing by Tom Baragwanath
• Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet
• The Proving Ground by Michael Connelly
• The Death of Us by Abigail Dean

Ned Kelly Award Shortlist Best Australian Crime Fiction 2026:

• Liar’s Game by Jack Beaumont
• Lyrebird by Jane Caro
• The Other Child by Susi Fox
• Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
• The Ghost Walk by Karen Herbert
• Fire in the Head by Daniel Oakman
• The White Crow by Michael Robotham
• The Casino by Iain Ryan

And one last mention of the Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards Night which is in Melbourne on 12 September 2026 - you can still get tickets at this link: https://sistersincrime.org.au/davitt-awards-2026/ 

Some of the other books mentioned in this episode:

• The Minority Report by Philip K Dick
• Body Count by PD Martin
• The Model Murder by Amanda Hampson (the latest in her Tea Ladies Series)
• Gunpowder Creek by Alex Dook
• The Island by Adrian McKinty
• High Wire by Candice Fox
• No Country for Girls by Emma Styles
• The Shark by Emma Styles
• Day One by Abigail Dean
• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• Velvet is the Night by Silvia Moren-Garcia
• Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

All of Robert’s book reviews can be found at www.pilebythebed.com

In our second episode we review:

Bad Neighbours by Joanna Jenkins and The Cursed Road by Laura McCluskey 

And we recommend two books from New Zealand:

Dead Girl Gone by Gareth Ward and Lousie Ward and Slash by Gavin Strawhan.

We talk about the Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival, our picks from the long list for New Zealand’s Ngaio Marsh Awards for Crime Fiction and the Short List for this Year’s Ned Kelly Award for best Crime Fiction Debut.

We also have details of the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award Night which will be in Melbourne on 12 September 2026 - you can get tickets at this link: https://sistersincrime.org.au/davitt-awards-2026/ 

This is the final week to enter the Sisters in Crime 2026 Scarlet Stiletto short story award - entry details can be found at this link: https://sistersincrime.org.au/scarlet-stiletto-awards-how-to-enter/ 

All of Robert’s book reviews can be found at www.pilebythebed.com

Some of the many other books mentioned in this episode:

• How to Kill a Client by Joanne Jenkins
• The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins
• Finding the Bones by Natalie Conyer
• The Last King of the Cross by John Ibrahim
• King of the Cross by Mark Dapin
• Iris by Fiona McGregor
• The Wolf Tree by Laura McLuskey
• Cold River by Margaret Hickey
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper
• Cormac Reilly series by Dervla McTiernan
• Murder in the Pacific series by Matt Francis
• A Bad Bad Place by Frances Crawford
• The Deadly Dispute by Amanda Hampson
• Lucky Thing by Tom Bagwarnath
• Carved in Blood by Michael Bennett
• Softly Calls the Devil by Chris Blake
• A Beautiful Family by Jennifer Trevelyan
• Hades by Candice Fox
• In Bloom by Liz Allan
• The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary
• The Peak by Sam Guthrie
• Malaleuca by Angie Faye Martin
• The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey
• The Wykehamist by Alexandra Strnad 
• Tea Cake and Death by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward
• Murder and Mojitos by Gareth Ward and Louise Ward
• The Call by Gavin Strawhan

In our first episode we review:

Where the Truth Ends by Mark Smith a Melbourne-based thriller that explores the issue of environmental protest

and

Cold River by Margaret Hickey the follow up to her award winning book The Creeper, once again set in the Victorian High Country and featuring Constable Sally White

We talk about Australian authors being recognised in the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, the British Crime Fiction Dagger Awards and The New York Times Best Thrillers of the 21st Century. And we bring you the Davitt Awards 2026 shortlist.

We also chat about Shadow of Madness, the sixth book in New Zealand author DV Bishop's Cesare Aldo series set in Renaissance Florence and A Bad Bad Place a crime fiction debut by 60-year-old Scottish author Francis Crawford set in 1970s Glasgow.

Some of the many books mentioned:

• At Cafe 64 by Shaeden Barry
• Learned Behaviours by Zeynab Gamieldien
• Unbury the Dead by Fiona Hardy
• Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
• The Bluff by Joanna Jenkins
• Melaleuca by Angie Faye Martin
• To the River by Vikki Wakfield
• Broke Road and Black River by Matthew Spencer
• Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
• Five Found Dead by Sulari Gentill
• The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey
• The Peak by Sam Guthrie
• The Death of Us by Abigail Dean
• King of Ashes by SA Cosby
• The Dry by Jane Harper
• Big Little Lies by Leanne Moriarty