Roundup of the shortlists for the 2018 Ned Kelly Awards. By Karen Chisholm

This year’s shortlists for the Australian Crime Writers Association Ned Kelly Awards celebrate the novels of well-established crime writers and talented newcomers.

 In July the ACWA released their longlists of entries, decided by individual panels of judges across the three main categories – Best Crime, Best First Crime and Best True Crime. The longlists included former Ned Kelly Award winners such as Alan Carter, Candice Fox, Garry Disher, Dave Warner and Michael Robotham, as well as up and coming writers like Sulari Gentill, Iain Ryan and Anna George.

Today (31st July, 2018) the ACWA releases the shortlists. The variety of books, styles and subject matter across all categories clearly reflects the strength of Australian crime fiction and true crime writing.

Best Crime 

Marlborough Man by Alan Carter. Longlisted for the Ned Kelly and the Ngaio Marsh awards in the same year, Marlborough Man is the first in a new series set in New Zealand for previous Ned Kelly winner Alan Carter. Nick Chester is a British cop in witness protection, working as a sergeant in Marlborough Sound, at the top of New Zealand’s south island, where he could expect the biggest problems he’d encounter would be a bit of petty thieving (mostly of meat, it turns out) and some minor drunk and disorderlies. But a series of child killings in the area means that Chester finds himself at the centre of a high-profile investigation, allowing his old life to catch up with him — and his family — in the worst possible way.

Under the Cold Bright Lights by Garry Disher. Starting out with what you have to hope is going to be another long-running series, Under the Cold Bright Lights introduces retired, now cold-case investigator Alan Auhl and the odd case of a skeleton discovered under a concrete slab and the long-open shooting death of a farmer. Think New Tricks-style cold-case investigator, add a hefty dose of Wyatt, and a simply wonderful supporting cast and sense of place and this is Disher telling great stories with a twist as only he can.

Redemption Point by Candice Fox. The second book in the Ted Conkaffey series, Redemption Point is a prime example of why Candice Fox has won two previous Ned Kelly Awards: dark, funny, cleverly plotted and populated by wonderfully real, often eccentric characters. A sense of place is also an important aspect of this series. Conkaffey is ‘hiding out’ in the Queensland rainforest, trying to repair the mess that his life has become since he was accused of the kidnap and brutal assault of a young girl. He and his wife have split up and he’s run to remote far north Queensland and a solitary life in a rented home with only a family of geese to keep him company, and his slightly off-the-wall business partner to keep him on his toes. Private detective Amanda Pharrell has had a life as well, and these two very damaged, compromised people are finding a way to be sort-of mates and work together while also solving some seriously baffling cases.

The Lone Child by Anna George. A cleverly constructed and plotted Gothic domestic noir, The Lone Child is the story of Neve Ayres learning to cope with single motherhood as she retreats with her newborn to her house perched on a cliff overlooking a beach on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. When a young, seemingly neglected girl appears in the neighbourhood it is a bit hard to decide who is saving whom. The narrative switches between Ayres and her life, her internal struggles over Jessie (as she names the mostly silent girl) and the story of the girl’s real mother Leah. Misdirection, doubt, harrowing emotion and poignant moments combine to create a tautly structured psychological thriller full of portent and inevitability.

Crossing the Lines by Sulari Gentill. This is something very different from Sulari Gentill, known for her Rowland Sinclair historical crime series and her YA Hero trilogy. An intricate dance of mystery and psychological suspense, blurring the lines between the real and the fictional, sanity and insanity, obsession and love, here Gentill has created a novel that is part crime fiction, part the story of an author writing crime fiction that then twists and turns into the storyline itself. Reality and fiction weave into and out of each other in a most intriguing, and ultimately successful blurring of the (unnecessary) line between literature and genre.

The Student by Iain Ryan. Deepest darkest noir set in the bright light of Queensland makes The Student compelling reading. There’s a lot crammed into this perfectly pitched noir coming-of-age novel. It’s dark, gritty and sharply focused. It uses the milieu of a small town and the tight campus-based society within it to achieve a type of closed-room atmosphere to great effect. It makes some pointed observations about the day-to-day impacts of dealing as well as using drugs. It talks about sex, exploitation, violence, pornography, corruption and the cool, ruthless heads at the top, intent on making money regardless of the consequences. It’s violent, graphic, no-holds-barred and peppered with imagery and language that make it required reading for fans of the blackest, darkest noir.

Best First Crime 

The Dark Lake by Sarah Bailey. Set in a small town, The Dark Lake is a police-procedural with a hefty dose of romantic tension. Gemma Woodstock and Rosalind Ryan went to school together. Woodstock was obsessed with the wealthier, beautiful Ryan in those days, but Ryan left town and Woodstock stayed – joining the police force, finding herself investigating the murder of Ryan when her body is found floating in the local lake. Using the intertwined backgrounds to great effect, The Dark Lake is a brooding, small-town tale where everybody has something to hide.

Wimmera by Mark Brandi. Awarded the UK Crime Writers’ Association debut dagger in 2016, before it was published, Wimmera quickly became the book that lots of Australian crime fiction readers were talking about. Another coming-of-age narrative, set in a small town in Victoria’s Wimmera district, this book tackles the subject of child abuse in a poignant and moving way. Hindsight provides chilling credence to the location and the tale of two young friends and the damage that societal flaws and mistakes can inflict.

The Girl in Kellers Way by Megan Goldin. Ticking many of the domestic noir boxes – unreliable narrator, creepy male characters and strained domestic relationship – The Girl In Kellers Way delivers a lot more. The focus is on two main female characters – Julie, wife of charismatic and controlling psychology lecturer Matt and stepmother to his young daughter; and Mel, new in town, widowed cop whose cop husband has been killed in the line of duty. When the body of the much-mourned Laura, Matt’s first wife, previously assumed to have been killed by a notorious serial killer, is discovered, Mel, Julie and Matt are thrust into each other’s lives. Julie’s drug-addled and extremely unreliable – even she knows she can’t trust the things she sees, and Mel’s new in town, scared, confused and dealing with plenty of domestic trauma of her own. Put a pair of central female characters like this together, and they might start out ticking boxes, but end up kicking the boxes to bits.

See What I Have Done by Sarah Schmidt. Based on the true story of Lizzie Borden, See What I Have Done is a fictional account of the axe-murder of Andrew and Abby Borden in their Massachusetts home. Told from the perspective of older sister Emma, housemaid Bridget, stranger Benjamin and Lizzie herself, the events of the fateful day are slowly revealed, leaving the reader to wonder if unreliable Lizzie is guilty or innocent.

 

Best True Crime

The Contractor by Mark Abernethy. Six action-packed true stories following a man who left foreign intelligence for the tradies’ life. Mike, nicknamed ‘Big Unit’, runs a building site, drives a ute, wields a nail gun and likes a beer. He’s also very handy with a Colt M4, and as accustomed to danger, death and pain as he is to building renovation. These stories include the time that Big Unit goes undercover to save a family trapped by an ISIS-run drug cartel in northern Pakistan, to terrorist-besieged Paris, and the chase for Australia’s most wanted murderer.

Unmaking A Murder: The mysterious death of Anna Jane Cheney by Graham Archer. Anna-Jane Cheney worked in the conservative Adelaide legal community. She was popular and talented and she loved Henry Vincent Keogh. Keogh was a divorced 39-year-old Irish migrant with three children. After Anna died six weeks before their wedding, the prosecution alleged Keogh had planned her drowning murder to claim the five insurance policies he’d taken out on her life. Journalist Graham Archer’s fascination with the life sentence that Keogh was given despite the lack of a fair trial became a 13-year odyssey for him, resulting in a Supreme Court review and the quashing of Keogh’s conviction. It took 20 years for Keogh to be released from prison.

The Suitcase Baby by Tanya Bretherton. In the early hours of Saturday 17 November 1923 the body of a baby in a suitcase was found washed up on a small beach in Mosman, Sydney. Unfortunately there had been many dead infants found in similar situations, dumped in the harbour, on trains and isolated locations. It appears these babies had become the unwitting victims of the seemingly never-ending clash between unrelenting poverty, human passion and over-reaching moral judgements. In the case of this particular suitcase baby the mother, Sarah Boyd, and her friend Jean Olliver, were identified, and their trial became a media sensation. The Suitcase Baby is written by sociologist Tanya Bretherton, who tells an engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy with echoes through to the current day.

Whiteley on Trial by Gabriella Coslovich. Covering the biggest case of alleged art fraud to come before the Australian criminal justice system, Whiteley on Trial is about the $4.5 million sting two men were originally found guilty of, and then acquitted of on appeal. Suspicion was originally aroused by secret photographs taken of artworks in the style of Brett Whiteley in a Melbourne art restorer’s studio. The artworks themselves have now been returned to their original owners, but questions about their authenticity remain.

The Fatalist by Campbell McConachie. ‘I first met Lindsey Rose playing pool at the Burwood Hotel in 1988. I was two years out of high school. He’d already committed three murders. None of us knew.’ Exploring not just the shock of discovering that your mate, whom you knew was a brothel owner, a bit touchy and not somebody to get on the wrong side of, was also a multiple murderer, The Fatalist also looks at the factors that create a cold-blooded killer, and particularly how a relaxed, sociable bloke with a strong work ethic hid his inner life and extremely dark side from family, friends and the woman he married.

Karen Chisholm blogs from http://www.austcrimefiction.org, where she posts book reviews well as author biographies.

 

 

 

Tags: Australian crime fiction, Ned Kelly Awards