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Jan Goldsmith, Lisa Moule and David McLean chat with authors each Thursday at 11.30am. 

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Some of the Australian authors we enjoyed in 2023

Crime – callous and comedic

In The Rush, Michelle Prak has the weather and her characters morph from friendly to violent in this tense twisted thriller set in an isolated country pub.

Anna Buist’s crime novels centre around women in prisons or hospitals with Dr Natalie King as psychiatrist and solver in Locked Ward.

Death in the Sauna by Dennis Altman is a murder mystery with an array of interesting characters who may all be suspects in this story of politics, sexuality and secret lives.

Erina Reddan’s Deep in the Forest has a sanctuary a conservative closed community helping drug addicts, in country Victoria but could it be linked to a disappearance, bush fire and death in the township.

A short, strong boyhood friendship and catastrophe link lives and emotional responsibilities many years later in Matthew Ryan Davies, The Broken Wave.

A lighter and more comical read is Kerryn Mayne’s Lenny Marks gets away with Murder…or does she’. Lenny is an over organised, perhaps obsessive, primary teacher.

Set in Sydney’ garment industry of 1965, crimes can be solved by the most observant of people, in The Tea Ladies by Amanda Hampson.

Historical fiction

What’s more powerful the work of God or the threat of a gun? Ben Hobson has set The Death of John Lacey in the goldfields of Ballarat.

Pip Williams follows on with some of her characters from The Dictionary of Lost words in The Bookbinder of Jericho.

Natasha Lester’s The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard centres on the difficulties of three generations of women wanting their creativity acknowledged in the male dominated fashion industry.

In Robyn Annear’s book we read about some of the remarkable people and happenings in Melbourne’s early history linked to Corners of Melbourne.

Silvia Kwon has researched Vincent van Gogh in 1882 when he took a prostitute as his model and lover. Was he a good Samaritan or a self-centred artist in Vincent and Sien?

And other interesting reads

Anna Kate Blaire writes insightfully and amusingly while exploring the issues of social conformity, desire, sexuality and a career in art in The Modern.

Emily Spurr has researched brains, parasites. chat bots, psychological health and perimenopause and given us this humorous fictional relationship in Beatrix and Fred

Colin Batrouney has written about the mystery involving an enduring friendship as well as creatively crafting six books and their authors for a literary prize, The Bannerman Shortlist.

Co-presenter - David McLean’s recommendations

Here are just a few takeaways from the 2023 reading year.

Gregory Day’s, The Bell of the World’is full of evocative allegory and allusion as its character interacts with the landscape of Australia. ‘

After the Rain by Aisling Smith is a contemporary account of how two siblings only a few years apart cope with the breakup of their parents’ relationship.  

Armando Lucas Correa gives insight into generational dislocation in ‘The Night Travellers’. 

And Mark Brandi captures the voice, once again, of an isolated boy in Australia’s outback in, Southern Aurora’ 

New Co-presenter - Lisa Moule

spoke with these authors, along with others that you and you can listen to on our podcasts.   3cr/podcast/publishedornot

The Heart is a Star by Megan Rogers is a lyrical story about how we can uncover our true selves when we are forced to face the myths that make us.

The Hummingbird Effect by Kate Mildenhall. A kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread.