Tag Archives: Australian noir fiction

Orphan Road book launch

Posted on June 18, 2023 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

Melbourne folk, just a very quick heads up that I will be launching my latest crime novel on Tuesday July 11 at Brunswick Bound bookstore, 316 Sydney Road, Brunswick. Details are below. It would be great to see you there.

And if you cannot make the date but would like a copy of the book, please ask your local bookseller to order it in via Ingram Spark or drop me a line and I can fix you up with a copy.

… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime fiction, Australian crime film, Australian noir, Australian pulp fiction, Orphan Road, True crime

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Cover reveal: Orphan Road, my follow up to Gunshine State

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Andrew Nette| Leave a comment

I am a fast nonfiction writer, but a much slower writer of fiction. So, it has been a while between novels for me. In fact, since Gunshine State was first published in 2016, to be precise. But I have a new crime novel, Orphan Road, coming out via Down and Out Books in late May.

And here is the cover, designed by J. T. Lindroos.

While the story of Orphan Road had been bouncing around in my head for a while now, I finally managed to find the time to write it during Melbourne’s three Covid lockdowns. It is a short, sharp sequel to Orphan Road, featuring the same character from that novel, Gary Chance.

The pitch is as follows:

Gary Chance is an ex-Australian army driver and nightclub bouncer turned professional thief and
in need of a job. An offer comes from a former employer, once notorious Melbourne social
identity, now aging owner of a failing S&M club, Vera Leigh.

A shadowy real estate developer is trying to squeeze Leigh out of a rapidly gentrifying city. But she has a rescue plan that involves one of Australia’s biggest heists, Melbourne’s Great Bookie Robbery. On April 21, 1976, a well organised gang stole as much as three million dollars, a fortune at the time, from a Melbourne bookmakers club.… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Gunshine State, Heist films, Orphan Road

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Book review: The Student

Posted on July 6, 2017 by Andrew Nette| 1 Comment

Regular Pulp Curry readers will know I have a particular fondness for noir fiction. In particular, Australian noir fiction. And, let’s be honest, when all is said and done, there’s not much Australian noir fiction, and I mean really noir fiction, out there. The publication of Iain Ryan’s The Student adds another more book to this rather slender canon of local crime writing.

I reviewed Ryan’s debut novel, Four Days, on this site when it was released in late 2015. A very dark police procedural set in the Queensland cities of Cairns and Brisbane in the 1980s, the plot of Four Days involves a borderline sociopathic cop with a drinking problem who becomes obsessed with the case of a murdered prostitute, in the process coming up against a police hierarchy who are keen to bury any investigation into her death.

Now Melbourne based, Ryan grew up in Queensland – a place that for various I am also very familiar with – and he completely nailed the corruption and picturesque sleaze that typified much of the state in the eighties, a time when its police force was one of the most violent and corrupt in Australia. Ryan cited James Ellroy as a major influence and I was particularly taken with the way he was able to pay homage to legendary crime writer without sinking into pastiche or cliche.… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime fiction, Australian noir, Book Reviews, Neo Noir, Rural noir

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Noir at the Bar Melbourne

Posted on March 8, 2017 by Andrew Nette| 2 Comments

NATB1A very brief heads up for Melbourne based readers of Pulp Curry, that if you are at a loose end on Tuesday, March 28, I have the event for you.

Myself and crime writer, Iain Ryan (whose debut novel, Four Days, I reviewed on this site here) are organising Melbourne’s first Noir at the Bar event.

What is Noir at the Bar you ask?

It is pretty much what it sounds like – a group of writers do readings in a bar (or in our case a cool second hand bookstore with a bar, Grubb Street Bookshopm 1/379 Brunswick St, Fitzroy).

Crime fiction critic and blogger Peter Rozovsky of Detectives Beyond Borders originated Noir at the Bar at Noircon in Philadelphia in 2008, and from there the idea has spread all over the US. Indeed, these days hardly a week goes by in which there’s not a Noir at the Bar somewhere in the US.

Anyway, Iain and I thought it was high time we had one in the US. After all, we get enough of the crap of the US, we may as well take the good things as well.

So, a night of readings from some of Melbourne’s best noir fiction stylists and drinks in a cool establishment, what is not to like about that.… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime fiction, Australian noir

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Book review: Zero At the Bone

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Andrew Nette| 4 Comments

ZeroA couple of months ago I wrote an piece for the Guardian Australia’s Oz Culture Blog on why I think the most exciting crime fiction in Australia at the moment is coming out of the West.

It has something to do with the fact that the people are tough, the climate is harsh, and the mining boom has amplified everything and has given local writers a wealth of material and creative inspiration, as well as a real sense of vitality and realism.

If you want proof, look no further than Zero At the Bone, the latest book by Perth based crime writer, David Whish-Wilson.

Zero At the Bone is a sequel to Whish-Wilson’s 2010 book, Line of Sight, which established him firmly in my mind as the president of the, albeit very small, club of Australian writers who do noir fiction and do it well.

Based on real events, Line of Sight opens in 1975, six months after the murder of Perth brothel madam Ruby Devine, shot four times in the back of the head with a .22 the day before she was scheduled to give evidence to the tax office that would have implicated the senior police she bribed to stay open and certain high profile ‘secret investors’ in her operation.… Read more

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Posted in Australian crime film, Australian noir, Book Reviews, David Whish-Wilson

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