Southern Cross Crime by Craig Sisterson

Southern Cross Crime

by Craig Sisterson

Australian and New Zealand crime and thriller writing is booming globally, with antipodean authors regularly featuring on awards and bestseller lists across Europe and North America, and overseas readers and publishers looking more and more to tales from lands Down Under.

Hailing from two sparsely populated nations on the far edge of the former Empire - neighbours that are siblings in spirit, vastly different in landscape - Australian and New Zealand crime writers offer readers a blend of exotic and familiar, seasoned by distinctive senses of place, outlook, and humour, and roots that trace to the earliest days of our genre.

Southern Cross Crime is the first comprehensive guide to modern Australian and New Zealand crime writing. From coastal cities to the Outback, leading critic Craig Sisterson showcases key titles from more than 200 storytellers, plus screen dramas ranging from Mystery Road to Top of the Lake. Fascinating insights are added through in-depth interviews with some of the prime suspects who paved the way or instigated the global boom, including Jane Harper, Michael Robotham, Paul Cleave, Emma Viskic, Paul Thomas, and Candice Fox.

Reviewed by Cameron Trost on

3 of 5 stars

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Craig Sisterson largely achieves what he sets out to do in "Southern Cross Crime". His introduction is engaging and definitely does the job of presenting antipodean crime fiction to fans of the genre abroad, and indeed probably many Aussies and Kiwis. The book is a guide, not designed to be read cover to cover but rather to be used as a thematic reference resource. Readers can easily look up writers, films, and TV series according to historical period and geographical location. All in all, it's a useful resource. However, as a fan of short fiction, I found the almost exclusive focus on crime novels a little unfortunate. There was little mention of anthologies and collections. Similarly, a number of excellent crime writers aren't mentioned and several notable TV series are overlooked. Nevertheless, we can hope these issues will be addressed in a future edition or volume. One things is for sure; this guide provides the curious crime fan with plenty of suggestions about how to begin an antipodean adventure into the genre.

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  • Started reading
  • 23 November, 2020: Finished reading
  • 23 November, 2020: Reviewed