The mining boom is generating a wealth of material and inspiration for established authors and new voices alike
When Dave Warner's City of Light appeared in 1995, Western Australia's crime writing scene resembled the late-night streets of 70s Perth described so vividly in Warner's book: devoid of life.
City of Light, which jointly won the 1996 WA Premier's prize for fiction, focused on a rookie police constable, Snowy Lane, swept up in an investigation into the murders of several young women by a serial killer dubbed ''Mr Gruesome''.
"As far as I knew at the time, there were no other contemporary crime novelists setting work in WA and nothing had been set there since Arthur Upfield," Warner says. Upfield set several of his books in WA, the last being Boney and the White Savage, which appeared in 1961.
Now it's a different story. WA's crime fiction scene is arguably one of the most exciting in Australia. Established writers such as Felicity Young, David Whish-Wilson and Alan Carter are being joined by new names, such as Robert Schofield and Ron Elliott. Jacqueline Wright's debut novel, Red Dirt Talking, a missing person's tale set against the backdrop of north-west WA's big wet, was shortlisted for the 2013 Miles Franklin award and is being marketed as literary crime.
The two books most responsible for kicking off WA's crime fiction renaissance are Whish-Wilson's Line of Sight and Carter's Prime Cut. Both were shortlisted for best first book in the 2011 Ned Kelly awards, with Carter taking the gong, and both have as their backdrop the state's mining boom.
Line of Sight is the darker tale. A hard-boiled, vivid examination of the political economy of crime and corruption in 70s WA, it is based on true events surrounding the unsolved murder, allegedly by corrupt police, of a Perth brothel madam in 1975. A sequel, Zero at the Bone, set at the beginning of the 80s against the backdrop of the cowboy capitalism we've come to associate with that period, will appear in August.
Carter's Prime Cut has similar themes, albeit in a more up-to-date take. Cato Kwong is a disgraced Asian Australian cop investigating the appearance of a human torso on the shores of the mining boomtown of Hopetoun. Carter's sense of place and his depiction of the social impacts of the boom are gripping. A sequel is due later this year.
The boom has not only generated a wealth of material and creative inspiration for WA's crime writers, but given their writing a stronger sense of vitality and realism. "The climate is tough, the landscape is tough, the people are pretty hard, from my experience," says Whish-Wilson. "And the mining boom has amplified everything: the wealth, the personalities.
"You can now use crime fiction to explore interesting things about WA, things that can't be satisfactorily explained using any other form, while giving readers the entertainment they expect."
Fremantle Press, a key force in the emergence of WA's crime fiction scene, put out Carter's first book and is behind the sequel. In addition to publishing Young's earlier work, it released Elliott's collection of crime novellas, Now Showing, and Wright's Red Dirt Talking.
But WA crime writers now have the attention of big publishing houses. Line of Sight and its sequel are published by Penguin's Viking imprint. Schofield's Heist, a crime adventure set in the WA goldfields, is put out by Allen & Unwin.
"More people from the east coast are visiting and working [in WA] and discovering the identity of its isolation," says Young, whose latest book is set in Edwardian London, but whose previous work dealt with the seedier side of suburban Perth. "And what a fabulous contrast of settings the state provides for a crime writer." Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.
When Dave Warner's City of Light appeared in 1995, Western Australia's crime writing scene resembled the late-night streets of 70s Perth described so vividly in Warner's book: devoid of life.
City of Light, which jointly won the 1996 WA Premier's prize for fiction, focused on a rookie police constable, Snowy Lane, swept up in an investigation into the murders of several young women by a serial killer dubbed ''Mr Gruesome''.
"As far as I knew at the time, there were no other contemporary crime novelists setting work in WA and nothing had been set there since Arthur Upfield," Warner says. Upfield set several of his books in WA, the last being Boney and the White Savage, which appeared in 1961.
Now it's a different story. WA's crime fiction scene is arguably one of the most exciting in Australia. Established writers such as Felicity Young, David Whish-Wilson and Alan Carter are being joined by new names, such as Robert Schofield and Ron Elliott. Jacqueline Wright's debut novel, Red Dirt Talking, a missing person's tale set against the backdrop of north-west WA's big wet, was shortlisted for the 2013 Miles Franklin award and is being marketed as literary crime.
The two books most responsible for kicking off WA's crime fiction renaissance are Whish-Wilson's Line of Sight and Carter's Prime Cut. Both were shortlisted for best first book in the 2011 Ned Kelly awards, with Carter taking the gong, and both have as their backdrop the state's mining boom.
Line of Sight is the darker tale. A hard-boiled, vivid examination of the political economy of crime and corruption in 70s WA, it is based on true events surrounding the unsolved murder, allegedly by corrupt police, of a Perth brothel madam in 1975. A sequel, Zero at the Bone, set at the beginning of the 80s against the backdrop of the cowboy capitalism we've come to associate with that period, will appear in August.
Carter's Prime Cut has similar themes, albeit in a more up-to-date take. Cato Kwong is a disgraced Asian Australian cop investigating the appearance of a human torso on the shores of the mining boomtown of Hopetoun. Carter's sense of place and his depiction of the social impacts of the boom are gripping. A sequel is due later this year.
The boom has not only generated a wealth of material and creative inspiration for WA's crime writers, but given their writing a stronger sense of vitality and realism. "The climate is tough, the landscape is tough, the people are pretty hard, from my experience," says Whish-Wilson. "And the mining boom has amplified everything: the wealth, the personalities.
"You can now use crime fiction to explore interesting things about WA, things that can't be satisfactorily explained using any other form, while giving readers the entertainment they expect."
Fremantle Press, a key force in the emergence of WA's crime fiction scene, put out Carter's first book and is behind the sequel. In addition to publishing Young's earlier work, it released Elliott's collection of crime novellas, Now Showing, and Wright's Red Dirt Talking.
But WA crime writers now have the attention of big publishing houses. Line of Sight and its sequel are published by Penguin's Viking imprint. Schofield's Heist, a crime adventure set in the WA goldfields, is put out by Allen & Unwin.
"More people from the east coast are visiting and working [in WA] and discovering the identity of its isolation," says Young, whose latest book is set in Edwardian London, but whose previous work dealt with the seedier side of suburban Perth. "And what a fabulous contrast of settings the state provides for a crime writer." Reported by guardian.co.uk 4 days ago.