Published...Or Not

The seeds of a new war are sown between East and West just as Europe is liberated from the Nazis. Anthony Byrt sets his thriller, 'Dying Days', within this febrile environment as partisans, facists, communists and allies confront each other in Trieste. Can a top-tier law firm be made accountable for silencing the protests from environmental damage in another country or hiding a paedophile killer. ...

'Where Truth Ends' reveals just how narrow the gap can be between protest and terrorism and it's the latest novel by Mark Smith. There are two bookshops in different countries and at different time frames but connected by more than just their names in 'The Bookshop of Buried Pasts’. Sarah Clutton has woven together a family saga, Celtic mythology, unmarried mothers and a love of antiquarian books....

'How to Love the World' by Ilka Tampke is a literary thriller and a meditation on nature and healing. Just who is informing on whom is the question behind the murder that takes place in 'The Informant' by Christine Gregory.

50 years for 3CR and 50 years of writing programs.  Sherryl Clark was a presenter on Writers at Work for many years and talks about her own writing on our Radiothon program.

We would like to believe Elspeth, a successful investigative journalist, is telling the truth but when it comes to her own family, she is damaged. Readers will not be sure whether than can feel for her, or fear her.  Mali Cornish has many twists and turns in ‘The Missing Mother’.The Wheeler Centre in Melbourne plays a pivotal role in developing the culture of writing not just in Victoria but Austr...

Women proving rape is questionable in court today but what of a 13year old in Vicenza Italy back in 1757.  Christine Balint hasanother wonderful historical fiction written from a well researched fact in a ‘A Single Witness’.  Once again we journey to the highlands of Scotland where an unidentified murder victim and a ten-year old missing persons case converge against a backdrop of ancient myth and...

Jung, fairy tales and the future all converge in Karen Comer's latest novel, 'Once Upon Tomorrow'.'The Angry Wives Club' is a domestic noir novel with a chick-lit twist by Gabbie Stroud.

A serial killer enamoured with the internet is a dangerous thing - a scenarion explored in Sarah Bailey's novel, 'Click'.'How to Date Like a Dangerous Woman' is a modern guide to dating safely by Alita Brydon.

Kerry Jewell's, 'A Little Unwell', is a book about life, death and surviving the night shift as a medical practitioner. 'The Belly of the Wolf' is Julianne Negri's verse narrative addressing an adolescent struggling with her best friend's suicide. Always remember, help is only a phone call away through such groups as Headspace (1800 650 890) or Lifeline (131114) should you wish to seek advice.

The success of the miniature railway is being sabotaged. Observant mother Fleck Parker is asked to find out who could possibly be doing this in Kate Solly’s warm hearted ‘The Paradise Heights Miniature Railway Bust-Up’. 'The General Hospital' continues to detail the mental health challenges faced by psychiatric registrars, interns and specialists in the fraught world of public care. It is the thir...

Irma Gold has written a moving tale 'Shift' set in Kiliptown, South Africa. Sarah Walker’s book is ‘The Water Takes’.  The title is unfinished just as the ending is open but the novel has characters so honestly drawn in their reaction to a catastrophe that they will live on beyond the page.  

A farmer and a movie star, both trying hard to parent their problem kids and both having their much loved spouses die. What future could there be for them in such different life styles. ‘A Farm in the Golden Clouds’, a second time around love story by Leearna Shaw.'Griefdogg' is a sprawling, enigmatic, idiosyncratic delta of a novel by Michael Winkler that poses curious existential questions about...

In ‘The Writer’s Retreat’, it’s not just fiction that is being written and the closer it becomes to real life is when the suspense just doesn’t happen on the page, cleverly crafted by Victoria Brownlee. 

Gordon Thompson catapults a young William Shakespeare and many of his characters into the present day in his novel, Kill Will. The trauma of war links a small community on an island off Scotland, massacres in Bosnia and an Australian war crimes investigator in Ian Kemish's thriller, Two Islands.

Grace wants the cultural emersion of Italy but has to decide if language barriers limit or enhance desire. ‘Slip’ by Abbey Lay could mean a slide for Grace back into, or out of, her comfortable relationship. An assassination attempt on the journalist, Martin Scarsden, in Chris Hammer's latest novel, ‘Legacy’, leads to the discovery of an age old feud in the outback where the journalist is seeking...

The loss of a body in Fiona Hardy's latest novel, 'Old Game',' isn't the crime you'd expect in a work of detective fiction but that's not the only surprise when a tennis star's accolytes claim his remains. There are dangerous currents of untold secrets, a vicious Group in the Irish Catholic Church and facing trauma in ‘Shellybanks’, another crime novel by Louise Milligan.   

The resonance of literature and its interconnectedness with geography, the lives or artists and one's own individual journey intermingle in 'On Not Climbing Mountains' by Claire Thomas. Bridie Blake has written about the chaos and joy of big-family life – the overlapping conversations, the competitiveness, the laughter especially in suppressed desire and mouthwatering cakes in ‘The Boyfriend Claus...

'The Mother of All Calamities' is Lisa Moule's debut novel about the travails of parenting in the modern age.  She has reminded us about the joys and hazards of parenting by bringing alive the problems and delights of a year in Grade 3,.  Things go right and very wrong.    

‘Murder in the Suburbs’ are true crime cases committed by neighbours or even family with often the psychological reason of why they did it, researched and written by Emily Webb.                                    A murder in the East Melbourne library seriously upsets the baby rhyme time session in Penny Tangey's murder mystery novel, 'What Rhymes With Murder'.

A drying lake leads to a discovery of a corpse on a cracked shoreline in Michael Brissenden's, ‘Dust’. What follows is a tale of intrigue and deception in a morally deprived and environmentally compromised landscape. Fiona Lowe talks about her new book ‘The Drowning’ and also about Sisters in Crime and what that organisation does for readers and writers.

An Australian photographer in New York meets a wealthy businessman from LA who has a controlling family and insistent fiancé. Will the necessities of life drive them apart?  ‘Capturing Love’ is the first in a romantic series by Ann Penny. Dr Niraj Lal guides us through the dangers and benefits of the internet in 'Behind the Screens' where terminology is explained and the dangers and benefits of li...

A scout on another planet makes money from plundering the ruins of an alien civilisation but finds himself questioning every choice he has made in John Morrissey’s ‘Bird Deity’.The Furphy Literary Award has just released its sixth compilation. The current anthology has a story each from Damian O'Donnell and Emma Westwood which speak to the range and versatility within the collection.

Murray Middleton toys with narrative conventions in his short story anthology, 'U Want It Darker'. These tales of 'artists in despair' speak to the emotional challenges faced by those contributing to art, music, acting and the culture in general.

Siang Lu's novel, Ghost Cities, won the Miles Franklin Literary Award in 2025. We thought it timely, as we begin our 2026 season, to revisit his interview on Published or Not when the book first came out. The imaginative and allegorical references, the literary influences, and the diverse timelines make this an enthralling and entertaining read.

‘The Hiding Place’ is a literary thriller written by Kate Mildenhall.‘What Have They Done to Liza McLean?’ sister Meg needs to get into the school data base which requires help from the very handsome and wealthy Benedict Hargreaves the fourth. Horticulture, herbology, chemistry and psychology are all in play as well as murder in this YA book by Amy Doak.