Quote of the Week

 

Friday's "Forgotten" Books - Night and Fear

He's been called the "Edgar Allan Poe of the 20th century," the "father of noir fiction," "the Hitchcock of the written word," and "our poet of the shadows." It's quite possible more film noir screenplays were adapted from his works than any other crime novelist, including films by Hitchcock, Truffaut and Fassbinder, with many stories also adapted during the 1940s for radio.Yet, when the centennial of his birth rolled around in 2003, few of his works were available in stores in or print, and the date passed with mostly a collective yawn.

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich, who also wrote under the pseudonyms William Irish and George Hopley, was an eccentric, alcoholic, and a diabetic, who had a leg amputated due to an infection from a too-tight shoe. He was both shy and arrogant, but primarily a loner, who was said to have so few friends he rarely put dedications on his novels, and when he did, they were to things like his Remington Portable typewriter and a hotel room he hated. He was a conflicted homosexual who married briefly as a joke, and ended up living with his mother in a rat-infested Harlem tenement with pimps, prostitutes and criminals, even though they could have afforded better (upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers).

He started out writing romantic fiction imitating F. Scott Fitzgerald, but turned to pulp fiction in 1934 and wrote for magazines like Black Mask, Detective Fiction Weekly and Dime Detective. His golden period came between the years of 1934 to 1948, although he continued to write off and on until his death in 1968. Both his earlier and many of his later works weren't on the same level as the middle output (although he wrote several good later stories for EQMM). Even Francis M. Nevins, Woolrich's literary executor who wrote a critical biography and edited three of the Woolrich short story collections, admitted that "purely on its merits as prose, it's dreadful."

Yet, those middle works included tales like the story "Rear Window" which later became a famous Alfred Hitchcock movie. In the introduction to the Woolrich story collection, Night and Fear, Nevins talks about Woolrich's first crime story, "Death Sits in the Dentist's Chair," which paints a vivid picture of New York City during the Depression, a bizarre murder method (cynanide in a temporary filing), and a race against the clock to save the poisoned protagonist, elements that would become Woolrich hallmarks. Nevins writes "in his tales of 1934-39, Woolrich created, almost from scratch, the builidng blocks of the literature we have come to call noir."

The 14 stories in Night and Fear, published by Otto Penzler in 2004, contain all the elements that came to be associated with Woolrich, including the intense, feverish, irrational nature of his world, and plots often filled with outlandish contrivances and coincidences. But Nevins concludes that "in his most powerful work these are not gaffes but functional elements," and that Woolrich believed "an incomprehensible universe is best reflected in an incomprehensible story." Thus, Woolrich's oft-quoted aphorism, "First you dream, then you die."

In Night and Fear, you'll find stories like "Endicott's Girl," which Woolrich once listed as his personal favorite, about a cop who begins to suspect his beloved teenage daughter is a murderer and covers up the evidence; "Cigarette" where a poison cigarette is passed from person to person; and "New York Blues," which is probably Woolrich's final story, involving the claustrophobic imaginings of a lonely man as he waits for the police in his secluded hotel room for a crime he's not sure he even committed:

It's a woman's scarf; that much I know about it. And that's about all. But whose? Hers? And how did I come by it? How did it get into the side pocket of my jacket, dangling on the outside, when I came in here early Wednesday morning in some sort of traumatic daze, looking for room walls to hide inside of as if they were a folding screen...

It's flimsy stuff, but it has a great tensile strength when pulled against its grain. The strength of the garrote. It's tinted in pastel colors that blend, graduate, into one another, all except one. it goes from a flamingo pink to a peach tone and then to a still paler flesh tint—and then suddenly an angry, jagged splash of blood colors comes in, not even like the other...

 

The blood isn't red anymore. It's rusty brown now. But it's still blood, all the same. Ten years from now, twenty, it'll still be blood; faded out, vanished, the pollen of, the dust of blood. What was one once warm and moving. And made blushes and rushed with anger and paled with fear. Like that night—

Fortunately you can find more Woolrich works available these days, including re-releases of some of his novels and short stories by Hard Case Crime, Pegasus Books. Random House, and others. Almost any one of his stories would make for fine Halloween-season fare, as you find yourself sucked down into the nihilistic noir world that Woolrich created.

Mystery Melange

Mick Herron, author of the Slough House and Zoë Boehm series, has been awarded the 2026 Pepe Carvlho Award, given annually as part of the BCNegra literary festival in Barcelona. Herron received the honor for his "essential contribution to crime fiction, thriller, and contemporary espionage" fiction, and is the latest in a line of winners that includes Jo Nesbø, Don Winslow, Dennis Lehane, Donna Leon, Michael Connelly, P. D. James, and more.


In other international award news, Dominic Nolan won the Lauréat Du Prix Mystére De La Critique 2026 for his novel, White City, in the Best Foreign Novel category. The Critics' Mystery Prize was created in 1972 by the journal Mystère, published by OPTA from 1948 to 1976, and continues to be awarded annually by its founder, Georges Rieben, and his team. The Critics' Mystery Prize is one of the oldest French prizes awarded to a detective novel and is divided into two categories, French novel and foreign novel. This year, Benjamin Dierstein's Bleus, Blancs, Rouges won in the "Best French-language novel" category.


The Los Angeles Times Book Prizes announced finalists in various categories. The top nods in the Mystery/Thriller realm include El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott (G.P. Putnam’s Sons); The Proving Ground: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company); Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Ace Atkins (William Morrow); King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar); and Crooks by Lou Berney (William Morrow).  Winners will be revealed during the LA Times Book Festival, Friday, April 17, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Bovard Auditorium (USC Campus).


There will be a Noir at the Bar event in New York City on March 1 at the Shade Bar, 241 Sullivan Street. Authors scheduled to appear to read from their works include James McCrone, Wil Medearis, Linda Sands, Brian Silverman, John Shepphird, Jason Starr, Albert Tucher, Scott Adlerberg, and Jen Conley.


A little farther down the road on April 15, Baramoor in Newton, Massachusetts will be the setting for a Noir at the Bar to benefit the Alzheimer's Association. It was organized by Nancy McCreary in honor of her husband, Lew McCreary, a critically acclaimed author of literary and crime fiction, including Mount’s Mistake, The Minus Man, and The 13th Step, who is suffering from this cruel disease. Participating authors include Hank Phillipi Ryan, Tracy Sierra, Liza Tully, Edwin Hill, Emily Ross, Sara Divello, Nicole Asselin, Trisha Blanchet, and Jonathan Payne, with Joanna Schaffhausen serving as host.


Registration is open for the 2026 Edgar Week Symposium set for Tuesday, April 26. Panels include "Murder by Death: Where crime, art and literature intersect," "Composite Sketch: Creating unforgettable characters," and more, featuring a lineup of bestselling authors. There will be also be an interview by Oline Cogdill of the 2026 Grand Masters, Donna Andrews and Lee Child.


This week's crime poem up at the 5-2 Crime Poetry Weekly is "Allow Me" by Caleb Merritt.


In the Q&A roundup, Deborah Kalb spoke with Deborah Goodrich Royce, author of the new psychological thriller, Best Boy. Kalb also interviewed Sandra K. Griffith about her new thriller, One Beautiful Year of Normal.

Nonpareil Nonfiction for 2025

Last year's awards season honored a bumper crop of nonfiction mystery and crime titles, as I mentioned yesterday. Today, I'll note the top honorees that garnered the most nominations, starting with the four titles that had three nominations each, followed by the six books with two nominations each. They run the gamut from true crime investigations and reporting, to biographies and memoirs, to a book on writing cozy mysteries. And, with the 2026 awards season just beginning to ramp up, I fully expect another year ahead of fascinating reading and much-deserved recognition for all the reference and research efforts that go into writing these books. 

THREE NOMINATIONS EACH

Abingdon's Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press). On a bitter November night in 1945, a widow shot her young boarder, a WWII veteran, and left him to die on the floor of his room. Helen Clark tossed the gun under the neighbor's porch and then took a taxi to join her teen daughters at a movie in Bristol. When the body was found, after several conflicting statements, she settled on the claim that he shot himself-four times, twice in the back. The Commonwealth of Virginia called it murder in a jealous rage. The trial enthralled the nation. Author Greg Lilly uses newspaper coverage of the murder, the investigation and the trial to reveal the facts of the Abingdon boardinghouse murder.

On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press).  Ashley Lawson’s On Edge presents a new picture of postwar American literature, arguing that biases against genre fiction have unfairly disadvantaged the legacies of authors like Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett. Each of these women navigated a male-dominated postwar publishing world without compromising their values. Their category-defying treatment of gender roles and genre classifications created suspense in their work that spoke to the tensions of the “Age of Anxiety.” Lawson engages with foundational voices in American literature, genre theory, and feminism to argue that, by merging the dominant mode of literary realism with fantastical or heightened elements, Brackett, Jackson, and Highsmith responded to the big questions of their era with startling and unnerving answers.

Some of My Best Friends are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers, by Chris Chan (Level Best). Can you enjoy a crime television show if you already know whodunit? As Columbo proved, definitely! In nearly every episode, Lieutenant Columbo, played by Peter Falk, is paired off against a murderer who’d supposedly committed the perfect crime. Columbo would question, trick, and even befriend the very different killers in order to make an arrest. But despite the standard formula for the episodes, each guest murderer was very different. This book explores the killers who believed they were too clever to be caught, only to be undone by a detective who kept asking about just one more thing…

Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors' Perspectives on Their Craft, edited by Phillis M. Betz (McFarland). This book brings together essays written by a number of well-known writers of cozy mysteries, including Sherry Harris, Amanda Flower, Leslie Budewitz, and Edith Maxwell, among others, who provide insight into their approaches to writing. Topics covered include how they work with the form, develop characters and settings, and utilize the particular hook, skill or business that establishes the protagonist's ability to solve crimes. In addition to discussing these traditional aspects of writing, several authors focus on how they have expanded the direction the contemporary cozy mystery has taken with the inclusion of more diverse characters and social issues.

TWO NOMINATIONS EACH

Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness by Mark Aldridge  (HarperCollins). In Agatha Christie’s Expert on Wickedness, "Agathologist" Dr Mark Aldridge looks at nearly a century of St Mary Mead’s most famous resident and uses his own detective skills to uncover new information about Miss Jane Marple’s appearances on page, stage, screen, and beyond. Drawing on a range of material, some of which is newly discovered and previously unpublished, this book explores everything about Miss Marple, from her origins in a series of short stories penned by Christie, to the recent bestselling HarperCollins collection Twelve New Stories. This accessible, entertaining and illustrated guide to the world of Miss Marple pieces together the evidence in order to tell you everything you need to know about the world’s favorite female detective.

Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre). From her early days in Liverpool to her unexpected acceptance into RADA, joining peers Anthony Hopkins, John Hurt and Ian McShane; from beginning her scriptwriting career with Widows and Prime Suspect and becoming a BAFTA award-winning writer and producer, Lynda's tales of stage and screen will have you gasping in shock as well as laughing in the aisles. Lynda has an important story to tell, one of breaking down stereotypes and blazing a trail for others along the way. Starting her writing career in the eighties, an era of entrenched gender inequality both in front of and behind the camera, Lynda faced innumerable obstacles to her vision. Getting Away with Murder shows how she overcame them to create generation-defining television and become a multi-million-copy Sunday Times bestselling author

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House - Crown). When Arthur Woods took command of the NYPD in April of 1914, the institution was still largely the corrupt, low-tech organization of the Tammany Hall era. To the extent the police were stopping crime—as opposed to committing it—their role had been almost entirely defined by the brawn of the cop on the beat keeping criminals at bay with nightsticks and fists. The solving of crimes was largely outside their purview. Woods was determined to change that, but he couldn’t have anticipated the maelstrom of violence that would test his science-based approach to policing. The Infernal Machine is the complex pre-history of our current moment, when decentralized anarchist networks have once again taken to the streets to protest law enforcement abuses, right-wing militia groups have attacked government buildings, and surveillance is almost ubiquitous.

The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin). Roger Rogerson captured Australia's attention as its most notorious cop in the golden age of graft and violence. But who was the real Rogerson? And who was his principal partner in crime, the underworld kingpin, heroin dealer and armed bandit Arthur "Neddy" Smith? Now Rogerson and Smith are both dead, and the full truth can be revealed. Crime reporter Neil Mercer knew Roger and Neddy since early 1980s, when the men were at the height of their powers. He followed their careers for major news outlets, met with them and was given exclusive interviews and insider information. Rogerson even wrote to him from jail. With key witnesses finally coming forward, Mercer has uncovered astonishing new evidence that will rewrite the story of the Australian underworld. The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop is the definitive account of Roger and Neddy, and the era that made them. As compelling as any crime novel, it is filled with color, violence and inside stories not seen or read before.

The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (HarperCollins). In November 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted of five counts of sex-trafficking of minors, and now faces 20 years in prison for the role she played in Jeffrey Epstein's abuse of four girls. The trial was meticulously covered by journalist and legal reporter Lucia Osborne-Crowley, one of only four reporters allowed into the courtroom every day. The Lasting Harm is her account of that trial, a gripping true crime drama and a blistering critique of a criminal justice system ill-equipped to deliver justice for abuse survivors, no matter the outcome. Centering the stories of four women and their testimonies, and supplemented by extra material to which Osborne-Crowley has exclusive access, The Lasting Harm brings this incendiary trial to life, questions our age-old appetite for crime and punishment and offers a new blueprint for meaningful reparative justice.

The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus). London, 1953. Police discover the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy terrace house in Notting Hill. On searching the building, they find another body beneath the floorboards, then an array of human bones in the garden. But they have already investigated a double murder at 10 Rillington Place, three years ago, and the killer was hanged. Did they get the wrong man? The story becomes an instant sensation, and with the relentless rise of the tabloid press the public watches on like never before. Who is the chief suspect, the former policeman Reg Christie? Why did he choose to kill women, and to keep their bodies near him? As reporters Harry Procter and Fryn Tennyson Jesse start to learn the full horror of what went on at Rillington Place, they realize that Christie might also have engineered a terrible miscarriage of justice in plain sight. In this riveting true story, Kate Summerscale mines the archives to uncover the lives of Christie's victims, the tabloid frenzy their deaths inspired, and the truth about what happened inside the house.

In Reference to Research

In keeping with the original focus of this blog, I decided to highlight the nonfiction books nominated for major mystery awards during 2025 (with winners indicated by an asterisk). Tomorrow, I'll focus more on those books that garnered the most accolades during the year, but I encourage readers and fans of true crime and crime reference to dig into this list and support these authors and their painstaking research. I haven't personally read all of them (yet), but this is a fine list of some of the best recent fact crime and nonfiction studies, all of which are available from most bookstores and libraries. (Winners are denoted with an asterisk.)

AGATHA AWARDS 2025

Best Non-fiction

• * Writing The Cozy Mystery: Authors' Perspectives On Their Craft Edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland) 
• Abingdon's Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lill (The History Press) 
• Agatha Christie, Marple: Expert On Wickedness by Mark Aldridg (HarperCollins) 
• Some Of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing The Columbo Killers by Chris Cha (Level Best Books) 
• The Bookshop: A History Of The American Bookstore by Evan Fris (Viking)

ANTHONY AWARDS 2025

Best Critical/Non-fiction:

• * The Serial Killer’s Apprentice, by Katherine Ramsland and Tracy Ullman (Crime Ink) 
• Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft, edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland) 
• Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers, by Chris Chan (Level Best) 
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett, by Ashley Lawson (Ohio State University Press) 
• Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder, by Greg Lilly (History Press)

BAD SYDNEY CRIME FESTIVAL DANGER AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Best Crime Nonfiction

• * Black Witness by Amy McQuire (UQP)
• In the Dead of Night by Greg Haddrick (Allen & Unwin)
• The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin)
• Dark City by John Silvester (Pan Macmillan)
• The Outback Court Reporter by Jamelle Wells (HarperCollins)

CAPITAL CRIME FINGERPRINT AWARDS 2025

True Crime Book of the Year

• * Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre) 
• The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World, by Ben Macintyre (Crown) by Ben Macintyre (Crown) 
• The Murder Of Judith Roberts: The Mark Of Peter Sutcliffe, by Chris Clark & Tanita Matthews (Pen and Sword True Crime) 
• The Peepshow: The Murders at Rillington Place, by Kate Summerscale (Penguin Press) 
• The Umbrella Murder: The Hunt for the Cold War's Most Notorious Killer by Ulrik Skotte (WH Allen)

CRIMEFEST AWARDS 2025

H.R.F. Keating award

• * Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert in Wickedness by Mark Aldridge (HarperCollins) 
• Allusion in Detective Fiction by Jem Bloomfield (Palgrave Macmillan) 
• Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 by Ashley Bowden (Fabula Mysterium Press) 
• Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction by Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst (Dead Ink) 
• The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Female by Sara Lodge (Yale University Press) 
• Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen by Lynda La Plante (Zaffre)

CRIME WRITERS OF CANADA AWARDS 2025

The Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book

• * (tie) Out of Darkness: Rumana Monzur's Journey through Betrayal, Tyranny and Abuse, by
•  Denise Chong (Random House Canada)
  * (tie) The Knowing, by Tanya Talaga (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.) 
• Atrocity on the Atlantic: Attack on a Hospital Ship During the Great War, by Nate Hendley (Dundurn Press) 
• The Rest of the [True Crime] Story, by John L. Hill (AOS Publishing) 
• A Gentleman and a Thief: The Daring Jewel Heists of a Jazz Age Rogue, by Dean Jobb, (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.)

CWA DAGGER AWARDS 2025

Gold Dagger For Non-Fiction

• * The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place by Kate Summerscale (Bloomsbury Circus) 
• Unmasking Lucy Let by Jonathan Coffey & Judith Moritz (Seven Dials)    
• The Lady in the Lake by Jeremy Craddock (Mirror Books)    
• Framed by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey (Hodder & Stoughton)   
• The Criminal Mind by Duncan Harding (PRH/Michael Joseph)    
• Four Shots in the Night by Henry Hemming (Quercus)   

DAVITT AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Nonfiction books

• * The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate GB) 
• In Bad Faith:Inside a secret ultra-Orthodox sect and the brutal betrayal it tried to hide by Dassi Erlich (Hachette Australia)- 
• Crimes of the Cross: The Anglican Paedophile Network of Newcastle, Its Protectors and the Man
• Who Fought for Justice by Anne Manne (Black Inc.)

EDGARS 2025

Best Critical/Biographical Work

• * James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)
• American Film Noir: From the Maltese Falcon to Gone Girl by M. Keith Booker (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers) 
• Organized Crime on Page and Screen: Portrayals in Hit Novels, Films, Television Shows by David Geherin (McFarland Publishing) 
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson (The Ohio State University Press) 
• Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (HarperCollins)

Best Fact Crime

• * The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House – Crown) 
• Long Haul: Hunting the Highway Serial Killers by Frank Figliuzzi (HarperCollins - Mariner Books) 
• A Devil Went Down to Georgia: Race, Power, Privilege, and the Murder of Lita McClinton by Deb Miller Landau (Pegasus Books - Pegasus Crime)                       
• The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy that Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (Amazon Publishing - Thomas & Mercer)                           
• Hell Put to Shame: The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre and the Horror of America's Second
• Slavery by Earl Swift (HarperCollins - Mariner Books) 
• The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age by Michael Wolraich (Union Square & Co)

KILLER NASHVILLE SILVER FALCHION AWARDS 2025

Best Nonfiction 

• * Tilghman: The Legendary Lawman And The Woman Who Inspired Him by Howard Kazanjian and Chris Enss (TwoDot) 
• There Is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America's Biggest Catfish by Anna Akbari (Grand Central Publishing) 
• Lovers In Auschwitz: A True Story by Keren Blankfeld (Little, Brown and Company) 
• Ask Not: The Kennedys And The Women They Destroyed by Maureen Callahan (Little, Brown and Company)

MACAVITY AWARDS 2025

Best Mystery Critical/Biographical

• * Abingdon’s Boardinghouse Murder by Greg Lilly (History Press) 
• Writing the Cozy Mystery: Authors’ Perspectives on Their Craft edited by Phyllis M. Betz (McFarland)
• Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers: Critiquing the Columbo Killers by Chris Chan (Level Best Books)\
• Witch of New York: The Trials of Polly Bodine and the Cursed Birth of Tabloid Justice by Alex Hortis (Pegasus Crime)
• The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson  (Crown)
• On Edge: Gender and Genre in the Work of Shirley Jackson, Patricia Highsmith, and Leigh Brackett by Ashley Lawson  (Ohio State University Press)

NED KELLY AWARDS (Australia) 2025

Best True Crime:

• * A Thousand Miles from Care: The Hunt for My Brother’s Killer – A Thirty-Year True-Crime Quest for Justice , by Steve Johnson (William Collins)
•  They’ll Never Hold Me: The life and crimes of Kevin John Simmonds, Australia's most daring fugitive, by Michael Adams (Affirm Press)
• The Kingpin and the Crooked Cop, by Neil Mercer (Allen & Unwin) 
• Meadow’s Law: The life and crimes of Kevin John Simmonds, Australia's most daring fugitive , by Quentin McDermott (HarperCollins) 
• * The Lasting Harm: Witnessing the Trial of Ghislaine Maxwell by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (4th Estate GB), by Lucia Osborne-Crowley (HarperCollins)

NGAIO MARSH AWARD (New Zealand) 2025

Best Nonfiction

• * The Crewe Murders: Inside New Zealand's most infamous cold case by Kirsty Johnstone & James Hollings (Massey Uni Press)
•  The Trials Of Nurse Kerr: The anatomy of a secret poisoner by Scott Bainbridge (Bateman Books)
• The Survivors: Stories of Death and Desperation by Steve Braunias (HarperCollins)
• The Last Secret Agent: The untold story of my life as a spy behind Nazi enemy lines by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin)
• Gangster’s Paradise by Jared Savage (HarperCollins)
• Far North by David White & Angus Gillies (Upstart Press)