Craig Sisterson - Southern Cross Crime: The Pocket Essential Guide to the Crime Fiction, Film and TV of Australia and New Zealand

Out where the river broke

The bloodwood and the desert oak

Holden wrecks and boiling diesels

Steam in forty-five degrees

Midnight Oil, Beds Are Burning

Out here on the edge,

The empire is fading by the day

Theres a woman with her hands trembling, haere mai ,

And she sings with a mountains memory, haere mai ,

Theres a cloud the full length of these isles,

Just playing chase with the sun,

And its black and its white and its wild,

All the colours are one.

Dave Dobbyn, Welcome Home

Digging Up The Bodies

Michael Robotham

Thus far, I have killed more than forty people in my career. The exact number is verifiable, if I were to dig up the bodies or look back over my notes. I havent hidden my crimes. The details are written down in black and white, stored on bookshelves and e-readers across the world, documented in two dozen languages.

It might seem like a large body count, but Ive been at this for a long time. I have shot, stabbed, suffocated, smothered, speared, squashed, drowned, poisoned and run-down my enemies and friends; good people and bad. On top of this have been numerous kidnappings, suicides, robberies and sex crimes.

I am a serial offender, killing for company and entertainment, feeding readers who like their crimes to be dark and twisty, with motives that are grand, or base, then never, ever (hopefully) boring.

Crime is in my blood. My great great great (I cant count any higher) grandfather, George Robotham, was transported to Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) in 1827 after he robbed a cottage and stole a watch. He was only seventeen. Ten years later, he married an English girl, Anne Harris, who was also seventeen when she was transported for stealing a shawl. They had nine children and neither saw England again.

People have often made fun of Australias convict ancestry, most notably New Zealanders. Its like when the Aussie customs officer asked a Kiwi if he had any criminal convictions and was told, Why? Is it still necessary? An oldie but a goodie. Equally, it could be argued that we Aussies dont miss importing our thieves and petty criminals from England, because now we get them from New Zealand. Touch.

The rivalry is alive and well, and not just on the sporting field, but when push comes to shove (Im not talking rugby) Aussies and Kiwis have far more in common than well ever readily admit. One of these things is that we punch way above our weight when it comes to crime fiction.

This book is evidence of that fact; a long overdue guide to the very best in Australian and New Zealand crime fiction, film and TV drama, put together by one of the worlds most knowledgeable and respected reviewers and interviewers, Craig Sisterson. The word essential is in the title for good reason because few people know as much as Craig does about crime writing in Australasia or have devoted so much of their lives to their passion for stories that thrill, frighten, puzzle and surprise us.

All the usual suspects are within these pages, including the giants upon whose shoulders I have stood, such as Ngaio Marsh, Arthur Upfield and Fergus Hume. These pioneers laid the groundwork for those who followed the next generation of writers like Peter Corris, Marele Day, Peter Temple, Paul Thomas, Vanda Symon and Paul Cleave, who showed Aussie and Kiwi readers that we didnt have to look to America or Britain to find our whodunits and whydunits; our cosy crime reads and our thrillers.

When my first crime novel was published in 2004, the bestseller lists in Australia and New Zealand were dominated by Dan Brown, Patricia Cornwall, John Grisham, Michael Crichton and James Patterson. There wasnt a single Aussie or Kiwi crime writer who got within cooee of the top fifty books, let alone the Top Ten. Now our lists are dominated by the likes of Liane Moriarty and Jane Harper, along with a growing list of equally brilliant young crime writers.

What has changed? I think weve grown up and no longer see ourselves as upstart younger siblings, who have to copy what has been successful overseas. Australia and New Zealand have our own unique landscapes and language, the dry humour and disrespect for authority. We have our own stories to tell, full of characters we recognise, set in places we know. Novels that explore the individualism of the outsider, as well as mateship, gender, race and justice.

Readers around the world are beginning to crave what we are offering: a unique sense of place and distinctive voices. We are not Nordic Noir, or Tartan Noir, or Emerald Noir. We are Outback Noir and Yeah Noir.

Our protagonists are a mixed bunch of whisky-soaked private eyes, ex-strippers, political fixers, hitmen, paramedics, pathologists, psychologists, detectives and outback policemen. The broken and the unbreakable. Heroes and anti-heroes.

If you want to know us better this can be your guide. Follow the directions carefully and you will enter a world of suspense, tension, murder and intrigue, where you will be required to expose the lies, interrogate witnesses and interpret the evidence.

These arent just mysteries. They are laden with information about who we are; our politics, laws, police, and criminal underworld. And they will help us explore the dark side of our psyches. Thats why we love crime stories, because deep down, in places we dont like to talk about, we wonder what it would be like to pull that trigger; or fear that someone we know might be lying beneath that white sheet.

You want bodies? Start digging.

Authors Note and Introduction

Gidday and kia ora , thanks for dropping by. What youre holding in your hands, or perusing onscreen, is something that several mates have told me is the inevitable result of my lifelong passion for mystery writing. Or more particularly the result of the last dozen years or so during which, among a rollercoaster of other adventures, shifts, and life changes, Ive loitered around the crime scene on three continents as a feature writer, critic, awards judge, panel chair, event organiser, festival co-founder, and just general all-around nuisance.

Looking back, its been a crazy, random ride, full of memorable moments, unexpected opportunities, and hundreds of brilliant people. This mystery-loving kid from small-town New Zealand has been warmly welcomed by the crime writing community at home and abroad. Ive got to wield a fiery torch while wearing a kilt and standing alongside Val McDermid, Denise Mina, and Liam McIlvanney as hundreds of mystery fans marched through historic Stirling. Ive descended into the bowels of a medieval church in Dublin with John Connolly and Paul Cleave to tap fingers with an 800-year-old mummy. Ive tried to keep my voice steady while speaking in Mori before elders and international guests as we opened the first-ever New Zealand crime and thriller writing festival on a Rotorua marae .

It all started with two libraries 7,000 miles apart, a legal magazine, and someone else not getting their article in by deadline, but thats a story for another day. The key thing I want to say is that I feel amazingly lucky and very grateful to have become so involved in the crime writing tribe. There are too many people to thank a sampling are listed in the acknowledgements. This readers guide is one way for me to pay all that forward.

Southern Cross Crime is designed to sit alongside my learned friend (sorry, once a lawyer) Barry Forshaws excellent series of Pocket Essential guides to various slices of the international crime and thriller fiction pie. Im here to bring the pavlova to Barrys buffet.