Summer Reading: Bloody Histories

Whodunnit, whydunit, and where in time was all of it done — in an historical crime fiction special for our Summer Bookshelf. Kate Evans, onstage at the 2025 BAD Sydney Crime Festival, with novelists Nilima Rao (the story of an Indian police officer in Fiji in the 1910s), Michael Burge (religious communities and Jenolan caves in the 1850s), and Lainie Anderson (women policing Adelaide in the 1910s).

This discussion was recorded at the site of one of Australia's oldest lending libraries — the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts.

BOOKS

Nilima Rao, A Shipwreck in Fiji, Echo Publishing

Michael Burge, The Watchnight, Histria

Lainie Anderson, Murder on North Terrace, Hachette

GUESTS

Nilima Rao, creator of the Akal Singh series set in Fiji — whose latest, and second in the series, is A Shipwreck in Fiji

Michael Burge, journalist and novelist whose books include Tank Water and Dirt Trap — and his latest, The Watchnight

Lainie Anderson, also a journalist and novelist, and creator of the Kate Cocks series of novels set in Adelaide — the second of which is Murder on North Terrace. She has also written a PhD on the real historical figure of Kate Cocks

Presenter/ Producer: Kate Evans

Sound engineers: Timothy Jenkins, Harvey O'Sullivan

Arts Editor: Rhiannon Brown