The human cost: ‘The Mushroom Tapes’ by Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper & Sarah Krasnostein
The subtitle of this book sums up the authors’ intent: Conversations on a Triple-Murder Trial.
It’s not a blow-by-blow of the whole trial, nor of the crime itself. That sort of true-crime writing is not really my cup of tea, nor is it the kind of approach that the three authors are, rightly, famous for.
Rather, it’s a collaborative exploration of their personal responses to what they see, hear and think during this very famous trial in Victoria’s Gippsland region in 2025.
Especially, it is an examination of the very significant toll on those involved: the human side of the headlines, the speculation, the theories. The crime is only the first part of a process that affects every individual who is somehow connected to a trial like this.
I probably would not have been inclined to read this book, except that the three women who wrote it are authors whose previous works I have admired. They tackle their subjects with respect, humility and a very honest vulnerability. These qualities are reflected in this, a collection of conversations they had together while driving and from to the small town where the trial was held, and in between hearing days.
The result is not a forensic examination of the evidence, or the legal arguments, so much as how all of this made them feel – about the accused, about the victims, about the residents of a little country town that will be forever changed. The legal teams, the journalists covering the trial. The families of the dead.
They debate long and hard about their reasons for wanting to attend and write about this particular trial. Are they, in the end, like those who see it as an opportunity to make a quick buck from a book, podcast or film? Are they just curious sticky-beaks wanting a vicarious glimpse into unimaginable trauma? They share their thoughts about those reasons; here is part of their answer:
Helen: Basically what we’re doing is bearing witness…We’re bearing witness to a rent in the social fabric and how the law is going to deal with it.
Sarah: You can do two things with [evidence in a trial]. You can digest it into content that people come to ogle out of shadenfreude, or you can say ‘Oh God, I know that feeling…I know what shame is, and I know what rage is,and I know what it is to be islolated and desperate.’
ebook pp 23-24 of 249Of course mushrooms feature throughout, death cap mushrooms being the medium by which the killer delivered the poison to her victims. The authors muse on the ways in which mushrooms could be seen as metaphors: for indications of personality, relationships, intent. This book also had me thinking about fungi in general and its place in our environment.
I love the way these women write, and I loved ‘hearing’ their voices throughout this book: unadorned, unedited, honest.
The Mushroom Tapes is unlike any ‘true-crime’ book I’ve come across previously. In their exploration of this particular trial and the crime that brought it about, the authors have much to say about us all.The Mushroom Tapes was published by Text Publishing in 2025
Connections: ‘Three Reasons for Revenge’ by Dervla McTiernan
Fans of Irish-Australian crime writer Dervla McTiernan will welcome the arrival of her latest book, Three Reasons for Revenge. Her previous book (2025) continued the Cormac Reilly series, and she has also written stand-alone stories such as What Happened to Nina? (2024).
This is another stand-alone, pleasingly set in Australia, and featuring as protagonist Detective Sergeant Judith Lee, who could well become the centre figure of another series. She is an experienced and able police officer, but the case that opens up when she takes the complaint of young Alexis Turner, is unlike any other she has dealt with.
Alexis has alleged sexual improprietry on the part of a university clinic counsellor, a man who has been on Judith’s radar since a similar complaint years earlier. But no sooner has Judith opened the inquiry, than Alexis disappears. And then the case turns into a murder investigation.
She must work against the clock to connect three seemingly disparate individuals to the case and to each other. The only thing they appear to have in common is that they have been recipients of a beautifully wrapped parcel with an ambiguous object inside, along with a cryptic note.
This author excels at weaving intricate tales in which the obvious answers are the wrong ones and the unexpected is sure to happen. This one is no different. There are several twists and surprises, before the mystery is solved.
I enjoyed the characters, finely drawn and believable, and the pace keeps the pages turning quickly. Along the way, the novel explores themes of grief, childhood trauma, and psychological distress.
As often the case for me, I wasn’t completely convinced by the reveal towards the end; however that did not stop me finding this one a great holiday read. I hope to meet Detective Sergeant Judith Lee again, too.
Three Reasons for Murder was published in April 2026 by HarperCollins.
My thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an advance review copy.
Immersive, engrossing fiction: ‘A Far-Flung Life’ by M.L. Stedman
Do you love a book you can fall into, immersing yourself into the place, time and people of the novel to the extent that you think about it in between reading and can’t wait to pick it up again?
I was delighted to find A Far-Flung Life just such a book.
Set in a remote sheep station in Western Australia, the story begins in the 1950s and concerns the MacBride family who have lived and farmed here for generations. Theirs is an ordinary story for the time and place – until it isn’t.
When a freak road accident kills two members of the family and seriously injures another, the whole family’s trajectory is changed forever. In the aftermath of the accident, Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide, as he is forced to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. (From publisher’s website)
As with ML Stedman’s best-selling 2018 debut The Light Between Oceans, this novel examines what happens to ordinary people who are faced with extraordinary circumstances, and how fate, and the choices they make, both play a vital role in determining their futures.
The story’s events are narrated from the viewpoints of various major and some minor characters, showing how their thoughts, goals and fears affect their behaviour and the lives of those they are in relationship with. Every character felt real to me, their motivations driven by their own perspective on the worlds they inhabit.
Those worlds are beautifully depicted, especially the MacBride station, ‘Meredith Downs’, the vast landscapes surrounding it, and the small local town that services the farming communities. How do families and individuals cope with the isolation of these remote areas? What kinds of social lives do they conduct, and what inner lives do they lead? How are children educated, what do the day-to-day lives of sheep farmers look like? This novel answers these and many other questions in an immersive and engaging way.
There are some dark themes, to do with death, suicide, and family relationships; some readers might find some of the content challenging.
But, if you are able to try to understand why people make the choices they do in life, this novel will appeal. It deals sensitively with the results of trauma, both physical and moral/emotional. It’s a family saga, a coming-of-age story, a love story; a novel that poses several major moral quandaries and asks should we lay blame here or show compassion?
On any old outback property, you can see them, the skeletons of dreams. Houses long abandoned, windmills rusting, fence posts splintered, tank stands collapsed: every one of them was once a hopeful beginning…
Our lives come and go like these gold-rush towns. We arrive, we grow, we thrive, then we’re gone. Then the forgetting happens, and once-solid foundations are barely traces in the earth, from unguessable lives… In the end, we’re all looking for a place to ride out the storm of life. Among all these husks of houses and fossils of trees, we are like hermit crabs, borrowing a shelter for a time, and moving on.
A Far-Flung Life, loc 65 of 414 on ebook.I was engrossed in this big story right from it’s opening pages and although satisfied by the novel’s conclusion, I was sad to leave the MacBride family. Highly recommended.
A Far-Flung Life is published in March by Penguin Random House Australia.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a review copy.All about school: three picture books for newbies
It’s February and all across Australia, families are getting set for the first day of ‘big school’ as five year olds enter the world of formal education for the first time.
Here are three picture books to ease the transition and explore what littlies can expect.
How to Go To Big School by Sarah Ayoub and Mimi Purnell uses rhyming couplets and soft illustrations to go through all the steps of the first day: packing a lunch and putting on the school uniform, meeting the teacher, new routines and activities, games and making new friends. A great way to reinforce what most kindergarten transition programs aim to do, perfect reading for the days before the Big Day.
All About Starting School by Felicity Brooks and Mar Ferrero is a more interactive type of book, full of helpful info about every aspect of the school experience, where kids can answer prompts, draw pictures, or ask questions. It has an inclusive focus and whilst it has a UK slant, it refers to lots of different styles of schools across the world, with pictures that show a diverse range of children, grown-ups and school settings. It also has some helpful guidance at the back for adults. The many small cartoon-like illustrations invite close examination and ‘spotto’ type games.
The Wheels on the Bus and Other Songs is not strictly about starting school, though as many children will end up travelling there by bus at some stage, it’s absolutely relevant to the whole school experience. And its almost a guarantee that there will be a copy or two of this book in kindergarten classrooms and school libraries. Australian readers will be very familiar with the title song and the characters in this one: Big Ted, Jemima, Humpty, etc, all beloved members of the long-running ABC children’s TV series ‘PlaySchool.’ Along with the ‘Bus’ song, it includes other well known ones like ‘Five Little Ducks’, ‘Teddy Bear’, and ‘Little Peter Rabbit.’ This one just begs to be read (and sung) together and might be the perfect antidote to the night-before-the-big-day nerves.
These three books were all published by HarperCollins Children’s Books in November 2025.
My thanks to the publishers for review copies.Sweet surprise: ‘The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison’ by Meredith Jaffe
I borrowed the audio version of this novel from my local library (shout-out to the wonderful folk at Blue Mountains Libraries and public libraries everywhere!)
I was not familiar with the author but looking for a light read to occupy my ears while doing those otherwise boring tasks around the house. An audiobook is perfect to help the chores get done and this one had such an intriguing title. I wasn’t sure what I’d find: romcom? cosy crime? (the setting is a prison, after all) or a tale of redemption?
The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison does have elements of all the above. Derek Brown is serving a prison term for embezzlement, and knows he has no chance of attending his daughter Debbie’s upcoming wedding. He’s not seen or spoken to Debbie in years and his ex-wife Lorraine is keen to keep it that way.
But Derek is part of the prison sewing group (called ‘BackTackers’), a program run by volunteer Jane, as a way to help inmates pass the hours in a productive way while making positive connections within the gaol. Someone hits on the idea of making a wedding dress for Derek to give his daughter, as a way of telling her how much he loves her.
Derek usually likes to keep a low profile, take no risks, keep his head down…but to his own astonishment, he eventually agrees to the plan and so the project begins.
What follows is a series of twists and turns even more complicated than a dress pattern. Local politics gets involved when the treasured prison library is threatened. A prison riot threatens everyone’s safety. Corruption, both inside and outside the prison walls, plays its part.
There are some wonderful characters, especially among Derek’s fellow inmates, each of whom has their own story, their reason for being in prison and their thoughts and hopes about their futures. They are all very believable, no angels certainly, but much more nuanced than those we might see on a typical TV show or movie about prisons and those who live and work there.
The wedding dress symbolises so much about life, relationships, new beginnings. It almost becomes a character in its own right as each person invests this project with meaning far beyond the original purpose.
Of course there are many obstacles and problems along the way and Derek comes to wish he’d never agreed to the plan in the first place. There are some real laugh-out-loud moments as well; the author has nailed some aspects of behaviour and manners that are very funny indeed. At times I winced and chuckled at the same time.
It’s a sweet book without being sugary, yet also manages to be quite thought-provoking.
In all, a perfect book to be lost in while doing chores!
The Dressmakers of Yarrandarrah Prison was published by HarperCollins in 2021.
Twisty tale from home: ‘Girl Falling’ by Hayley Scrivenor
A new crime novel by an author I enjoy, set in my home region of the Blue Mountains of NSW. How could I resist?
Hayley Scrivenor’s debut novel, Dirt Town, received well-deserved accolades (my review is here.) I was looking forward to her next book and was delighted to learn that it was set amongst the sheer cliffs and amazing views of the Blue Mountains.
The thing I enjoy most about crime fiction are the characters and emotions, plus of course a well-drawn setting, and Girl Falling doesn’t disappoint.
The title is well chosen, as it can imply both the physical act of falling (in this case, from cliffs) but it can also be an emotional plunge for characters – in this case, pretty much all the characters.
The premise is intruiging: two high school girls bond over the shared trauma of losing a sister to suicide. Now young adults, they have grown inseparable – until one of them meets and falls in love with someone else.
There is a lot in here about youngsters trying to find their way in life, moving beyond childhood trauma, and also toxic relationships and coercion that can take many forms.
There is a twist that I truly did not see coming – and I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about it.
For all these reasons, Girl Falling is a crime novel that stayed with me well after I had read the final page.
Girl Falling was published by Pan Macmillan Australia in July 2024.
Taut: ’17 Years Later’ by J.P. Pomare
J.P.Pomare – Kiwi-born Australian author – writes taut, twisty crime thrillers. 17 Years Later is definitely that, imbued with a sense of darkness and with questions about the mystery at its heart: who really killed the Primrose family seventeen years ago?
Set in a small town on New Zealand’s North Island, the narrative is told from several different perspectives and voices.
There is Bill Kareama, the Primrose’s live-in private chef, delighted to be offered this amazing chance to kick-start his career and make good money while cooking for the wealthy family. When the shocking murders of Simon Primrose, his wife Gwen, daughter Elle and son Chester are discovered, Bill is the prime suspect – in large part due to the fact that the murder weapon is one of his chef’s knives. We hear Bill’s own account of the events leading up to his arrest, the trial and his imprisonment.
Into the town of Cambridge arrives Sloane Abbott, a successful journalist with a popular true-crime podcast. She is determined to investigate the crime because she has heard stories about how the original investigation failed to seriously consider any other suspects and overlooked evidence. Did Bill and the Primrose family receive justice? If not, seventeen years is a long time for the wrong man to be imprisoned. And troublingly, is it possible that here a killer still at large?
We hear from Fleur, the French au pair, who shares a cottage on the Primrose estate with Bill. What is her role in the family and why does she stay with them, given that the children no longer really need a nanny?
TK was Bill’s psychologist who devoted years of his life to finding the truth about what happened. He is dragged unwillingly back into the mystery by Sloane’s dogged persistence.
All of these characters are well drawn, as is the setting of a regional New Zealand town where many of the locals just want to forget the whole thing. There are plenty of twists and an action-packed ending; the story unravelling between the various players, keeping me guessing to the end.
I was engrossed by 17 Years Later and gobbled it up quickly. A very satisfying read.
17 Years Later is published by Hachette Australia in July 2024.
My thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for a copy to read and review.
Casual crime? ‘Liars’ by James O’Loghlin
As an ABC Radio listener for many years, I was quite familiar with presenter James O’Loghlin’s voice and his wry humour. This is the first book of his I’ve read, and I will be returning for more. Liars is a great read.
Set on the NSW Central Coast, where several of my family members and friends live, the story plays out in what is somewhat familiar territory for me (though it was slightly unsettling to read about the local drug dealer in Woy Woy – perhaps based on similar real-life characters?)
One of the central characters is Barbara, a middle aged handywoman who is recovering from the shock of her husband walking out after many years of marriage. She finds herself drawn to two recent deaths – startling in a small quiet coastal town – which the Homicide team feel have been solved, but Barb is not so sure.
Also not sure is Sebastian, the local cop. Detectives have pointed to his old school friend, Joe, a recovering drug addict, as the perpetrator of one of the deaths. Then Joe himself is found dead and it’s ruled a suicide, the result of guilt. Seb just can’t see Joe, for all his faults, as a murderer.
Barb and Seb team up and begin their own, off the books, unauthorised investigation. Joe and Seb were part of a tight-knit group in high school and the years immediately following. One of those six friends was killed seven years ago, and although that (unsolved) murder was judged likely to have been one of several committed by a serial killer, it begins to look like Sally’s death, too, is somehow connected to these more recent ones. But how?
Each of the five remaining friends has something to hide, and as Barb and Seb dig deeper, there are more complications waiting to confound them. Liars is a very appropriate title for this story.
The first section of the novel is told almost completely through text messages, emails and other documents by and between the five friends. Later, we hear snippets of recordings of interviews done by Joe, canvassing people’s memories of the time leading up to Sally’s death. It’s a clever technique to illustrate the differences in what people remember, and the way recollections are often flawed, or even deliberately obfuscated.
The aspect of the story that I found most alarming was the almost casual way in which some killings were carried out. There are paid ‘hits’ of course, but also murders committed not because of a deep desire to kill, but simply as a means to an end, a way to solve a problem. The murderer does not see themself as a ‘psycho’, as someone who loves killing. They kill because they can’t see an alternative solution.
The novel is well paced, the characters and setting realistic, and the plot kept me guessing until the end. I enjoyed Liars very much; and I’m happy to add James O’Loghlin to my list of good Aussie crime writers.
Liars is published by Echo Publishing Australia in July 2024.
Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an advanced review copy.
Different worlds: ‘The Sea Captain’s Wife’ by Jackie French
Possibly one of Jackie French’s more unusual historical fiction creations, The Sea Captain’s Wife takes us into a vivid world of her own imagination, informed by folklore and research.
The protagonist is Mair, a young woman who lives on a remote fictional island. It is 1870. Her tiny community is made up almost entirely of women, after a tsunami hit a nearby island, sweeping away many of the men who’d gone there to collect bird’s eggs. It’s a matriarchal society where women make the decisions. They wait for those men who’d survived The Wave to return from sailing ventures, or search the beaches in case a shipwreck washes a man onto their shore.
‘Wait’ and ‘search’ are perhaps misleading verbs here. These are not passive women, pining for a man, or immobilized by grief. They build gardens on the poor rocky soil of their volcanic island, birth babies and raise children, fish, prepare meals and create beautiful, functional garments. It’s essentially a subsistence life, where what they grow and produce is supplemented by occasional visits from a ship with goods to trade. They are busy and, largely, content.
They wait for, or seek out husbands for companionship, support, procreation. Potential husbands must be approved by the council of women. The community has their own way of dealing with any man who poses a threat to their way of life or to the peace and safety of the island. There are strong expectations and rules; however the individuals who live here enjoy freedoms only dreamt about by most women in western society at the time.
They named their island ‘Big Henry Island’ after the active volcano that rumbles beneath them, throwing out black boulders and sulphur-laden fumes. Islanders have lived with Big Henry for two centuries and know its moods. But they are mostly unaware of the danger it poses.
Into this world arrives Michael, a ship’s captain washed onto the beach. Mair takes him to her cottage and nurses him back to health, during which time he learns a little of the customs and ways of living. He can barely comprehend the enormous differences between the world of colonial-era Sydney, and the seemingly free and easy lifestyle on Big Henry, especially for women. However he admires Mair’s intelligence, kindness and skills. Admiration turns to love and when the next ship arrives, Michael takes Mair back to live in Sydney.
Here is where the different worlds of Michael and Mair collide. She is shocked and bewildered by the restrictions on women, in a society where wives are expected to be helpmeets to their husbands, and have little in the way of individual freedom or agency.
Michael tries to understand, but he is preoccupied by the challenge to find a ship laden with gold that he discovered on the voyage which ended in him washed up on Big Henry Island. His upbringing leads him to believe that once Mair experiences his wealthy family’s life in Sydney, she will be happy there:
But all across the world women left their childhood homes to follow their husbands. It might not be the island way, but it was the natural order of things, and surely Mair would find it so once she had the luxuries and comforts that awaited her in Australia, with three women to make her feel she had family and a home there. The most important criterion for a sea captain’s wife was a woman who was used to waiting in a household of women for her husband’s ship to sail to harbour.
The Sea Captain’s Wife, p83There are several mysteries that wind through the narrative: the ‘ghost ship’ that haunts Michael’s dreams, and a series of accidents and deaths that take place within his family. Does the gold ship really exist? Were the accidents really mishaps or something more sinister? The conclusion brings these to a satisfying end.
But the novel has deeper themes. It asks questions about humans’ lack of perception of danger – all too relevant in today’s world, threatened by climate change and conflict. And it asks readers to reflect on our own lives. What makes a worthy life? What responsibilities do we have for others?
As always Jackie French has brought her setting to life, creating not one, but two very believable worlds.
Readers who enjoy her historical fiction will not be disappointed in The Sea Captain’s Wife, which is published by HarperCollins in March 2024.My thanks to the publishers for a review copy.
Lives of crime: ‘Sanctuary’ by Gary Disher
Gary Disher writes the kind of crime stories I like best: ones that focus on the people more than the crimes. He manages to show the how and why of the crimes committed, sure; but also the impact on both perpetrators and victims. This is meaningful fiction, not showcasing crime for its own sake, but to say something about humans and why they do the things they do.
Sanctuary is unusual for this genre in that the workings of the world of law enforcement are of minimal importance to the narrative. It centres on several people whose stories overlap, though for much of the book we don’t necessarily know how or why.
There is Grace, formerly known as Anita, who grew up in an unlovely and unloving foster home, along with Adam. They become a team involved in petty crime, just the two of them against a hostile world, until Anita meets a man who teaches her the tricks of a higher level criminal life. When she decides she has had enough of this man’s cruelty and control, she becomes Grace and continues her life of crime alone.
But Adam harbours a grudge and when they inadvertently cross paths on a ‘job’, she runs again, fearful of what he might do.
So begins a series of intricate and well planned moves; staying several steps ahead, constantly checking on surrounds and on people, distrusting of others, always looking for an escape, adopting a series of disguises.
Disher vividly conjures the loneliness and insecurity of this life, and we feel some sympathy for Grace as she tries to adopt another way of being, the kind of ‘legitimate’ and ordinary life that she now longs for. It takes enormous mental and physical energy to live like this. I was reminded of Maxwell Smart in the 1960’s cold-war spoof series Get Smart, in which he often says of the ‘baddies’: If only they could use their cleverness for niceness instead of nastiness.
Through the viewpoint of another character we are given insight into the mind of someone who indulges in digital stalking and illegal surveillance of people. It’s an unpleasant place and I was always relieved to move onto another scene, away from this sordid and rage-filled character’s world view. But I am very aware that sadly, technology has provided increased opportunities for people like this to frighten and hurt others.
The tension mounts as the trajectories of Grace, Adam and other characters head towards collision, with complications cleverly woven in.
The resolution does not tie everything up in a neat bow; that would be unrealistic and too tidy. But we are left with a hope that perhaps, at some future time, Grace and Adam can find a more satisfying way of being in their world.
Sanctuary is published by Text Publishing in April 2024.
My thanks to the publishers and to NetGalley for an early review copy.
