Truth is stranger than fiction… A chat with Rochelle Jackson

Meet Rochelle Jackson, a journalist specialising in true crime and author of Inside Their Minds (a psychological study of some of Australia’s most notorious criminals) and the new book Partners and Crime. If you’ve ever wondered about the motivations, aspirations or possible delusions of the women who choose to love the baddest of the bad boys (from Chopper Read to George Freeman and Robert Trimbole) then this is a book for you.

We caught up with Rochelle to chat about reading, writing, and growing up in a police family.

TGIF: Quick hits and links, 24 February 2012

Crime fiction history buffs will be interested in reading The Notting Hill Mystery, a new (or rather, old) contender for the title of ‘first detective novel ever published’, preceding Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone (1868) by a good five years. Out of print for over a century, it is now available once more through the British Library.

Think outside the box – a chat with the great C.J. Box

C.J. Box is a living legend. He has won the Anthony Award, the Prix Calibre .38 (France), the Macavity Award, the Gumshoe Award, the Barry Award, the Edgar Award and been an L.A. Times Book Prize finalist. He has even been nominated for the IMPAC prize.

We were absolutely thrilled to catch up with C.J. recently for a chat about books, writing, and what he’s working on next. (It involves Cody Hoyt, so we’re happy).

The writer writes! Meet Chevy Stevens

In 2010 Allen & Unwin published a remarkable debut thriller, Still Missing. We knew this was white-knuckle, read-in-a-single-sitting material, and we wondered how we could build up the excitement that we were feeling so that the Australian book trade would be buzzing with anticipation too. We decided – in a slightly sadistic manner – that we would print the advance reading copies sans the final three chapters. Instead, readers were left on the most precipitous of cliff hangers and were required to sign an online ‘secrecy pledge’ in order to access those last chapters.

Well! The messages we’d come in to on our answering machines in the morning, from readers who’d run out of book at 3am and were jonesing for the ending… let us just say they were passionate. By the time the book was released we knew the word was out there: this is a writer to watch. (And we were right. Still Missing won the Best First Novel award at the International Thriller Awards in 2010).

Reviewing the case files 17/02/2012

So many great reviews, so little time! Let’s get to it.

Look who’s making a comeback… Sydney’s favourite PI Cliff Hardy is back and on form in Peter Corris’s 37th Hardy novel Comeback. Worried that you haven’t read any of his previous adventures? Fear not – Fair Dinkum Crime hadn’t either.

A civilian in celebrity-land

On the 12th February, the cast and crew of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries gathered for a special screening of the first two episodes – and they were kind enough to reserve a spot for one lucky Allen & Unwin Facebook fan. Leanne ‘Ning’ Curran won her seat in a hotly contested competition of passionate fans – and was kind enough to post her feedback on the experience the next day.

Introducing the Hon. Phryne Fisher

At Allen & Unwin HQ we are counting down the days until the inimitable Phryne Fisher bursts onto our screens in a dazzle of porcelain skin, velvet and sequins, cocktails and pearl-handled derringers. Sometimes you need a break from gritty and all too grotty realism, tell the hard-boiled PIs ‘au revoir’ and just wallow in the sheer delight that is historical ’cosy’ crime. (Though it must be said that Phryne herself is hardly cosy – she is far too fabulous for that).

Fabulous? Moi? Merci.