Category Archives: Australian noir

Book review: Wake in Fright

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 3 Comments

Rural noir is big at the moment, if the interest in US writers like Donald Ray Pollock, Cormac McCarthy and Daniel Woodrell, is anything to go by.

While it is not be as well known, Kenneth Cook’s 1961 novel Wake in Fight is as good as anything that’s come out of the southern US, a searing story of masculinity, drinking and violence in regional Australia that still packs a punch today.

Fear of being trapped in the outback, as we call the vast expanse of harsh terrain that makes up the majority of Australia, is still semi hard-wired into the psyche of most city dwelling Australians. So, imagine how terrifying the prospect was in the sixties, when our interior was so much more remote and alien.

John Grant is a mild mannered teacher working in a tiny speck of a town called Tiboonda. Its isolation and distance from the coast has obliterated nearly all aspects of civilisation, except the ability of the local pub to keep the beer cold. As Grant puts it: “In the winter you wished for the summer, in the summer you wished for the winter, and all the time you wished to blazes you were a thousand miles from Tiboonda.”

Grant has six weeks leave ahead of him and 140 pounds in his pocket.… Read more

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Posted in Australian noir, Book Reviews, Rural noir

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This Christmas give the gift of Ghost Money

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 1 Comment

Ghost Money-1Okay, it’s been a long year and like you, as 2012 draws to a close, I’m pretty much over everything.

But before I take a few weeks break from the blog, I wanted to pull on your collective coats one more time about Ghost Money, my crime novel set in nineties Cambodia.

The folks at Snubnose Press have decided that for December only, Ghost Money, as well as all their other titles, will cost just 99 cents. That’s – literally – a steal for some seriously excellent crime fiction.

If you have bought and read Ghost Money, regardless of what you think of it, I’d love it if you could give it a review on your blog, Amazon, Goodreads or whatever.

If you haven’t got the book now there’s no excuse. And you can pick up a couple of titles why you are at it. I’m sure it would make an ideal Christmas present for the discerning noir aficionado in your life.

The book is available on Amazon here:

On Barnes & Noble for Nook readers here.

And in a multitude of formats, including e-pub, on Smashwords here.

For those of you who haven’t heard it, here is the pitch.

Cambodia, 1996, the long-running Khmer Rouge insurgency is fragmenting, competing factions of an unstable coalition government scrambling to gain the upper hand.… Read more

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Posted in Asian noir, Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Crime fiction and film from Cambodia, Noir fiction

Anthologies, my novel and more shameless self-promotion

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 6 Comments

In over a couple of weeks I will be jetting off to spend a couple of weeks in the US, New York mostly, followed by a few days in Philadelphia to attend Noir Con.

I-can-not-wait.

Several more ‘Noir Con noir bust’ posts are scheduled between now and when I leave, but I just wanted to take a short break from these to do a bit of shameless self-promotion. A lot of writing I’ve been working on for the last year is being released around the same time. By the end of the year it’ll be back to the drawing board, but for now I’ve got some serious pimping to do.

First up, is Crime Factory’s latest publication, Hard Labour, an anthology of 17 noir and hardboiled Australian short crime stories, edited by Cameron Ashley, Liam Jose and myself. We launched this baby last week at Grumpy’s Green in Collingwood.  A fine time was had by all and we managed to sell enough copies on the night to more or less pay the printing bill.

The print version of Hard Labour is now available from our website for $13.99 plus postage. The digital book is available on Amazon here for just $2.99.

It’s a bargain for crime fiction this good.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Crime Factory, Crime fiction, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Noir Con, Snubnose Press

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Unveiling the cover of Crime Factory’s Hard Labour anthology

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 4 Comments

Here it is people, the cover of Crime Factory’s all-Australian anthology, Hard Labour, edited by Cameron Ashley, Liam Jose and myself.

It’s by the same artist who did the cover art work for the Australian version of the First Shift anthology we launched earlier this year, the very talented, Erik Lundy.

We are welcoming this beauty into the world October 8 at Grumpy’s Green in Collingwood. We promise you a great night. A number of the authors will be reading from their Hard Labour stories, drinks will be available at the bar and, of course, you’ll be able to buy a copy of Hard Labour. Doors open 7pm, with readings beginning sometime around 8pm.

And if that’s not enough, our special guest on the night will be Iain McIntyre, author of Sticking it to the Man: Pop, Protest and Black Fiction of the Counterculture, 1964-75, out through The Leda Tape Organisation. Copies of the book will also be on sale and Iain will be giving a little tour through the lava lamp lit streets of counter cultural pulp fiction.

Hard Labour will set you back just $13.99. The digital book, available soon, will be $2.99.

It’s a bargain for crime fiction this good. If you’re not convinced caste your eyes over the full line up of authors.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian noir, Crime Factory, Crime Factory Publications, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Noir fiction, Peter Corris

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Crime Factory Publications clocks on

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Andrew Nette| 5 Comments

Put the night of March 5 in your diaries, people. That’s the launch of Crime Factory Publications, a (very) small publishing company I’ve set up with my two colleagues and friends from Crime Factory magazine, Cameron Ashley and Liam Jose.

A couple of months ago on this blog I mentioned 2012 was going to be a big year for me. In addition to several short stories coming out around the place in the next couple of months, my novel will be out as an e-book around mid-year with Snubnose Press. On top of all this, I’ve now got my own slice of the publishing business (he says, tongue firmly in cheek).

The Crime Factory crew have been discussing taking our work to the next level for a while now. Several factors drove the decision to finally bite the bullet.

First and foremost, nine issues of Crime Factory magazine (of which I’ve been on board for the last four) have given us contacts and access to quality crime fiction from great writers. We don’t always make the most of this and push the great writing we get as much as possible. Starting our own outfit is one way to reverse this situation. We also wanted to raise the profile of the magazine here in Australia where, in comparison to the US, we’re pretty much unknown.… Read more

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Posted in Adrian McKinty, Angela Savage, Australian noir, Crime Factory, Crime Factory Publications, Crime fiction, David Whish-Wilson, Garry Disher, Leigh Redhead, Megan Abbott, Snubnose Press

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