Will there be a Hush sequel, plus 25 excellent Aussie crime reads

Author News, May 2025

I’m slowly getting back to writing but it’s still been a busy couple of weeks. Last night I was lucky enough to be the in-conversation host for the Perth launch of Dervla McTiernan’s new Cormac Reilly novel, The Unquiet Grave. It’s always fascinating listening to Dervla talk stories and process, and it felt like there was a mini masterclass for writers over the course of the evening. If you haven’t read the Cormac series yet (The Ruin, The Scholar, The Good Turn and The Unquiet Grave), then you’re in for a treat!

All mic’d up like we’re gonna do a song and dance routine!

I was also out and about last weekend as a guest author at Rachael Johns’ fabulous bookclub retreat, which was held this year in Perth. Rachael and Anthea Hodgson do an amazing job of putting their unique event on every year, moving it around Australia (the next one is in Geelong), and this time it was Perth’s turn. Eighty readers from across the country came together with sixteen authors in a weekend celebration of everything that makes reading great. There were panel sessions and book clubs and games and dress-up dinners and amazing food - and through it all everyone was chatting about books and stories and making new connections. Rachael and Anthea are such pros that they make the whole thing look very streamlined and simple, but I’ve no doubt there’s a mass of moving parts behind the scenes. So a huge congratulations to them, and a shout-out to all their amazing readers, who made the weekend such a warm celebration of books and reading. I think there might be a few tickets left next year for Geelong, so follow Rachael Johns’s bookclub on Facebook or check out Rachael and Anthea’s excellent substack Reading Between Deadlines and Rachael’s own substack Pink Ink.

And hot off the press: Rachael has just also announced a story serialisation coming on her substack for paid subscribers, which sounds like terrific fun. check that out here:

Story Time, But Make It Weekly...

My writing updates, and answering the question: will there be a Hush sequel?

I’ve spent the beginning of this week re-reading my half-finished draft, which has been waiting patiently while I’ve been out and about promoting When She Was Gone. It is so SO good to get stuck into this work again, and I’m aware that I’m going to have to become very disciplined now, because the world seems to spin a little faster every year and there are still so many stories I want to write and share!

One of these stories is The Hush sequel. I’ve been sitting on this for a while, but I’m really heartened by the fact that at every event I go to, someone comes up to talk about how much they love The Hush and often asks whether there will be more. The answer is that I certainly hope so - the plan is in my head, and I’m just waiting to see what happens with new contracts and TV development. So watch this space, because I never saw the story as finished after book one. In fact, a couple of news articles this week have also got me thinking very hard on some of the themes around The Hush. The first is the case of Adriana Smith, who has been brain-dead for 3 months and is being kept alive as an incubator in Georgia, US, because of their heartbeat law (it’s so easy to miss the depersonalisation of women’s issues, but Adriana is often simply ‘brain-dead woman’ in the headlines). And the second is that, in a world-first, a baby has been healed using personalised gene editing. Both these news stories have seismic questions behind them, not only around what is happening now, but where this has the potential to lead. I’ll be looking more into what’s happening as part of the book research.

Events

I have some excellent events coming up, so here’s where you can find me in the coming weeks:

Sun 25 May, 10 am: In conversation with Will Yeoman at the York Regional Writers Weekend. Tickets and details here.

Wed 28 May, 6.30 pm: Book launch, Mahogany Inn and Distillery, 4260 Great Eastern Highway Mahogany Creek, WA 6072 Tickets and details here.

Thu 5 Jun, 5.30 for 6pm: The Lane Bookshop, in conversation with Bron Sibree. Tickets and details here.

I’m waiting for confirmation of a few more WA events too, so watch this space!

Recommended read this month:

I recently read J P Pomare’s knockout thriller 17 Years Later - not only a great read but it’s also been really helpful in giving me a bit more confidence about the structure of one of the books I want to write! 17 Years Later is about an award-winning Australian podcast team who are re-investigating the conviction of a young New Zealand private chef, Bill, who was sentenced for murdering the family he worked for. Told through multiple points of view, the twists keep coming as you try to figure out whether Bill is guilty, and if not, who else might have done it!

This was one of the books I recommended at the retreat over the weekend, where I devised a game of Crime Writer bingo to showcase just some of the incredible crime fiction by contemporary ANZ authors. I thought you might enjoy the list too, so I’ve put it at the end of this newsletter. How many of these have you read?!

The Handmaid’s Tale TV series - just ONE episode to go!

I am heavily invested in this series, and I’m putting my thoughts about these final episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale into the chat - so if you’re watching the series, head there and we can discuss all our thoughts and our hopes for the finale (please let Moira live, I love her so). I’ll be paying tribute to The Handmaid’s Tale in another post very soon, and telling you why it means so much to me.

My work on substack

I’m settling into my groove with my two substacks (greedy, I know!) and plan to send a newsy update, like this one, from Story Matters every month, while my other post will be more of a thought piece, on a topic that’s caught my eye - or a story about something I think you’ll love. And on the weeks I’m not writing here, I’m over at The Resilient Author working on posts for the writing community. Therefore, if you follow both my substacks you’ll get a weekly post from me!

And finally, here’s my Aussie crime bingo reading list for you - how many of these have you read?!

Jane Harper - The Dry
Dervla McTiernan - The Ruin (The Unquiet Grave)
Anna Downes - Red River Road
Pip Drysdale - The Close Up
Sally Hepworth - The Darling Girls
Christian White - The Ledge
Chris Hammer - Scrublands
Garry Disher - Bitter Wash Road
J P Pomare - 17 Years Later
Mark Brandi - Wimmera
Liane Moriarty - Here One Moment
Candice Fox - High Wire and Hades
Rae Cairns - Dying to Know
B M Carroll - One of Us is Missing
Dinuka McKenzie - Tipping Point
Michael Robotham - Storm Child
Tim Ayliffe - State of Fear
David Whish-Wilson - Cutler
James Bradley - Landfall
Jane Caro - Lyrebird
Aoiffe Clifford - It Takes a Town
Mercedes Mercier - White Noise
Fleur McDonald - The Prospect
Kerry Greenwood - the Phryne Fisher series

Bear in mind that this is only a very limited list of all the amazing crime-writing talent we have in Australia - we really are spoiled for choice, and I’ll be telling you lots more about all the books I find and love in future newsletters.