writing, both influenced and distanced from its American model, has established itself and echoes of it can be seen in many of the books and authors mentioned above in various categories. Some writers, however, stand on their own, and are at the vanguard of this movement. Many also published new books in 2000, and they include John Connolly ( Dark Hollow ); Mike Phillips ( A Shadow of Myself ); Jerry Raine ( Slaphead Chameleon ); Martyn Waites ( Candleland ); Mark Timlin ( All the Empty Places ); Maxim Jakubowski ( On Tenderness Express ); Boris Starling ( Storm ); Rob Ryan ( Nine Mil ); and the Tokyo-based David Peace, who offered the second volume of his searing Yorkshire quartet 1977 , confirming the promise of his debut 1974 .
Possibly affected by the number of magazines currently hosting a platform for short stories, only three anthologies appeared this year. Martin Edwards edited a final CWA volume Scenes of the Crime , while the undersigned published the third, and also final volume, in his series of historical mystery collections initially set up in homage to the late Ellis Peters. Murder Through the Ages featured many of the usual suspects from British, U.S., and European shores. I also managed to showcase various mystery writers (including Val McDermid, Nicholas Blincoe, Stella Duffy, Denise Danks, and Manda Scott) in a collection of stories inspired by the Internet The New English Library Book of Internet Stories .
Lest the reader think I have indulged in sheer list-making above, I'm pleased to point out that the titles and writers mentioned in the course of this retrospective only cover a quarter of so of the books by British authors published in the U.K. in 2000. An indication, if one were needed, of the health of the genre on these shores. Long may it continue.
World Mystery Report: Australia
David Honeybone and Lucy Sussex
The Ned Kelly Awards for Australian Crime Writing were revived in 2000 after a hiatus of several years, and were presented at the Night Cat Bar, Fitzroy, on August 31, to coincide with the Melbourne Writer's Festival. Apart from the awards, the highlight of the evening was a spirited debate between a motley bunch of crime writers, journalists, and lawyers on the subject of "Is truth stronger than fiction?" On the Truth side were crime writers Carolyn Morwood, Shane Maloney, Peter Temple, and Liz Gaynor, QC (Queen's Counsel); on the Fiction side were author Barry Dickens, crime journalist John Silvester, and QCs John Smallwood (married to Gaynor), and Doug Salek. U.S. author Laurie King was also in attendance, and had the Australian idioms translated for her by Sue Turnbull. For the first time, true-crime writing was included in the Nonfiction category.
The winners of the Ned Kelly Awards were as follows:
Best Novel: Shooting Star by Peter Temple (Bantam)
Best First Novel: The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders by Marshall Browne (Duffy & Snellgrove)
Best True Crime: Huckstepp by John Dale (Allen & Unwin); Rule and Silvester , Underbelly 3 (Sly Ink)
Perhaps the most controversy of the year was produced by Inez Baranay's article for the Australian Author (May 2000) "Oz Cri-Fi in the Gun," a cover story with the subheading "Has Australian gumshow gone off the boil?" She took the position that crime writing in Australia was in a sorry state, languishing unread, with writers not delivering fiction suited to the local market's needs— although Baranay did quote various authors and publishers who strongly disagreed. In any case, the healthy amount of local crime publishing during the year, despite the imposition of a 10 percent goods and services tax on books, which raised their retail prices, would seem to belie Baranay's article.
The last quarter of the year saw new books from established writers including: Peter Temple's third Jack Irish book, Dead Point , (Bantam); and Andrew Masterson's sacrilegious and highly amusing The
Possibly affected by the number of magazines currently hosting a platform for short stories, only three anthologies appeared this year. Martin Edwards edited a final CWA volume Scenes of the Crime , while the undersigned published the third, and also final volume, in his series of historical mystery collections initially set up in homage to the late Ellis Peters. Murder Through the Ages featured many of the usual suspects from British, U.S., and European shores. I also managed to showcase various mystery writers (including Val McDermid, Nicholas Blincoe, Stella Duffy, Denise Danks, and Manda Scott) in a collection of stories inspired by the Internet The New English Library Book of Internet Stories .
Lest the reader think I have indulged in sheer list-making above, I'm pleased to point out that the titles and writers mentioned in the course of this retrospective only cover a quarter of so of the books by British authors published in the U.K. in 2000. An indication, if one were needed, of the health of the genre on these shores. Long may it continue.
World Mystery Report: Australia
David Honeybone and Lucy Sussex
The Ned Kelly Awards for Australian Crime Writing were revived in 2000 after a hiatus of several years, and were presented at the Night Cat Bar, Fitzroy, on August 31, to coincide with the Melbourne Writer's Festival. Apart from the awards, the highlight of the evening was a spirited debate between a motley bunch of crime writers, journalists, and lawyers on the subject of "Is truth stronger than fiction?" On the Truth side were crime writers Carolyn Morwood, Shane Maloney, Peter Temple, and Liz Gaynor, QC (Queen's Counsel); on the Fiction side were author Barry Dickens, crime journalist John Silvester, and QCs John Smallwood (married to Gaynor), and Doug Salek. U.S. author Laurie King was also in attendance, and had the Australian idioms translated for her by Sue Turnbull. For the first time, true-crime writing was included in the Nonfiction category.
The winners of the Ned Kelly Awards were as follows:
Best Novel: Shooting Star by Peter Temple (Bantam)
Best First Novel: The Wooden Leg of Inspector Anders by Marshall Browne (Duffy & Snellgrove)
Best True Crime: Huckstepp by John Dale (Allen & Unwin); Rule and Silvester , Underbelly 3 (Sly Ink)
Perhaps the most controversy of the year was produced by Inez Baranay's article for the Australian Author (May 2000) "Oz Cri-Fi in the Gun," a cover story with the subheading "Has Australian gumshow gone off the boil?" She took the position that crime writing in Australia was in a sorry state, languishing unread, with writers not delivering fiction suited to the local market's needs— although Baranay did quote various authors and publishers who strongly disagreed. In any case, the healthy amount of local crime publishing during the year, despite the imposition of a 10 percent goods and services tax on books, which raised their retail prices, would seem to belie Baranay's article.
The last quarter of the year saw new books from established writers including: Peter Temple's third Jack Irish book, Dead Point , (Bantam); and Andrew Masterson's sacrilegious and highly amusing The
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