'The Dickens Boy' by Thomas Keneally looks at not just the life of Edward (Plorn) Dickens, the son of the great author sent to Australia when he was sixteen, but at the social landscape of a continent transforming itself in a new age.  'Sisters in Crime' is an open community of crime writers and readers. Carmel Shute explains how they are connected and what events are coming up in their on-line presence for everybody.