And the Winner is ......
This years winners of the Ned Kelly Crime Writing Awards were announced on Saturday night and the good news is all three are available in our libraries! Click on the link to access the catalogue record for each title and don't forget you can reserve any titles for no charge.
Winner - Best Fiction
Most police duos run on trust, loyalty, and the desire to
see killers in court. But Detective Frank Bennett's partner, the enigmatic Eden
Archer, has nothing to offer him but darkness and danger. She doesn't mind
catching killers – but it's not the courthouse where her justice is served.
And now Eden is about to head undercover to find three
missing girls. The only link between the victims is a remote farm where the
desperate go to hide and blood falls more often than rain. For Frank, the
priority is to keep his partner monitored 24/7 while she's there – but is it
for Eden's protection, or to protect their suspects from her?
Across the city at the Utulla Tip, someone is watching Hades
Archer, a man whose criminal reputation is the stuff of legend. Unmasking the stalker
for him might be just what Frank needs to stay out of trouble while Eden's
away.
But it's going to take a trip into Hades's past to discover
the answers - and what Frank uncovers may well put everyone in danger . . .
Winner - Best First Fiction
HIS HONOUR: Mr Jardim, withdraw that comment immediately.
MR JARDIM: Your Honour, I’m not withdrawing it because it’s got nothing to do with the merits of this case, just as your small-minded treatment of my client has got nothing to do with the merits of the case. I mean, could you have cocked this thing up any worse? Bloody helpless kid and you know she’s back out on the street now. You’re known throughout the state as a heartless old prick and a drunk, and seeing I’ve gone this far, your daughter-in-law’s appointment to the court is widely viewed as a grubby political payoff. Today’s pretty much the lowest I’ve seen you stoop but it’s been a rich field of excrem—
HIS HONOUR: Senior, will you have Mr Jardim removed?
Charlie Jardim has just trashed his legal career in a spectacular courtroom meltdown, and his girlfriend has finally left him. So when a charitable colleague slings him a prosecution brief that will take him to the remote coastal town of Dauphin, Charlie reluctantly agrees that the sea air might be good for him.
The case is a murder. The victim was involved in the illegal abalone trade and the even more illegal drug trade. and the witnesses aren’t talking.
And as Dauphin closes ranks around him, Charlie is about to find his interest in the law powerfully reignited.
Winner - True Crime
Anyone can see the place where the children died. You take
the Princes Highway past Geelong, and keep going west in the direction of
Colac. Late in August 2006, soon after I had watched a magistrate commit Robert
Farquharson to stand trial before a jury on three charges of murder, I headed
out that way on a Sunday morning, across the great volcanic plain.
On the evening of 4 September 2005, Father’s Day, Robert
Farquharson, a separated husband, was driving his three sons home to their
mother, Cindy, when his car left the road and plunged into a dam. The boys,
aged ten, seven and two, drowned. Was this an act of revenge or a tragic
accident? The court case became Helen Garner’s obsession. She followed it on
its protracted course until the final verdict.
In this utterly compelling book, Helen Garner tells the
story of a man and his broken life. She presents the theatre of the courtroom
with its actors and audience – all gathered to bear witness to the truth –
players in the extraordinary and unpredictable drama of the quest for justice.
This House of Grief is a heartbreaking book by one of
Australia’s most admired writers.
Click here to see all of the Helen Garner titles available in our libraries.
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