Aug
28
Vale Dominick Dunne, 1925 – 2009
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Dominick Dunne and the grave of his daughter Dominique at Pierce Brothers cemetery in Los Angeles. Dominique’s tragic murder started Dominick’s second career as a ‘celebrity’ crime reporter and a crime fiction author.
Nov
1
Australian Hard Boiled Detective Fiction
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Australia has many fine mid-20th century hard boiled detective fiction writers: Carter Brown (Alan Yates), Marc Brody (Bill Williams), Larry Kent (various), Eric North (Bernard Cronin), Otto Beeby, and Ian Hamilton, to name just a few. But my favourite is Bant Singer (Charles Shaw). His detective, Denis Aloysius ‘Del’ Delaney, is not only the coolest, but also the most typically Australian.
Jun
28
My old buddy Michael Jorgensen (left) had his fourth crime novel Kidnap reviewed in today’s Age (far left). Mick has also published around 20 books, including two by me. A publisher who isn’t deceitful, who isn’t a phony, and who pays his bills in full and on time — INCREDIBLE!
Jun
20
Exhibition curated by Derham Groves.
Jul
17
Television and Australian Crime Fiction
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Television was introduced in Australia in 1956 and remained a ‘novelty’ for about 10 years. Even Australian crime fiction fell under its spell. In The Cold Dark Hours (1958) by A.G. Yates (a.k.a. Carter Brown), an advertising agency executive devises an ad campaign to sell defective TV sets; in the series of pulp novels by W.H. Williams featuring Marc Brody, he starts out as a newspaper crime reporter and ends up as ‘TV’s on-the-spot crime reporter’; in Who Dies for Me? (1962) by S.H. Courtier, people are secretly monitored by means of tiny TV cameras placed inside light globes; and in Make-up for Murder (1966) by June Wright, a popular TV show host is threatened with murder. Does anyone know of others featuring TV?
Jul
16
Along with S.H. Courtier, I am also currently reading and researching the Melbourne-based crime writer, June Wright (b.1919). June wrote six crime novels between 1948 and 1966. The last three, Reservation for Murder (1958), Faculty of Murder (1961) and Make-up for Murder (1966), all feature her detective, Reverend Mother Mary St. Paul of the Cross (a.k.a. Mother Paul) — Australia’s ‘Father Brown’. Well worth reading.
May
9
‘Here’s a problem you might work out in your spare time. It is something I want to use in a story that is buzzing in my mind and I can’t get on with it until I solve the problem. The hero wants to hide a small cylinder somewhere in a car. The cylinder holds important documents—secret documents. Now where and how could he hide the cylinder in a car so that even expert mechanics fail to spot it? In the story, when it is shown where the cylinder was hidden, the searchers will say, “Heavens, I should have thought of that myself.” And I want the readers of the story to say that too. I’d be awfully grateful for your help.’ (From a letter by Courtier to his brother-in-law, Alan George, 3/3/73.)
May
8
S.H. Courtier's Final (Unfinished) Novel
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This is the first page of the science fiction novel S.H. Courtier was working on when he died in 1974. It is interesting that he couldn’t quite nail its title.
May
7
The Glass Spear by Sidney Hobson Courtier
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I am currently reading and researching S.H. Courtier (1904-1974), a very fine, but much neglected, Australian mystery writer. His books are well worth reading. Pictured is the cover of his first novel, THE GLASS SPEAR (1950).
