Mycology and Murder

 Last week I attended a Sydney Writers' Festival event at Sydney Town Hall called 'The Mushroom Tapes' - authors Helen Garner, Chloe Hooper and Sarah Krasnostein in conversation with ABC journalist Fran Kelly. The session was to promote the authors' new book, The Mushroom Tapes: Conversations on a Triple Murder (2025).

The murders in question are the sensational 'Mushroom Murders' in which Erin Patterson served a lethal beef wellington laced wth death cap mushrooms to her in-laws on 29 July 2023. Erin invited Don and Gail Patterson, the parents of her estranged husband Simon, along with Gail's sister Heather and her husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson (Simon's aunt and uncle), to her new home for lunch. Within 24 hours, all four were in hospital with liver failure and all but Ian Wilkinson died in the next few days. By November, Erin was arrested and charged with three counts of murder and five counts of attempted murder (four of these were for prior attempts at poisoning her husband). Ms Patterson's ten-week trial took place in mid-2025, with the jury convicting her on 7 July 2025. Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 33 years. Erin Patterson is appealing her conviction. 

The case was sensational with media from around the world descending on the tiny town of Morwell in Victoria's Latrobe Valley. These authors are among my favourite writers, and each is known for their courtroom reportage of true crime. If any one of them had chosen to cover this case, it would have been brilliant, but bringing the three of them together was genius.

Instead of doing a podcast, the three chose to record and transcribe their thoughts about the case. As they drive to and from Morwell, about 150 kilometers from their homes in Melbourne, or sit in a local cafe or hotel room, they discuss the day's evidence, the vibe of the town, the court attendees, and their own discomfort with the matter. Written in conversation form, the women endeavour to try to understand this remarkable crime, while also contemplating the public fascination with the murders. 

In the Town Hall session, as in the book, they spoke about why this crime garnered such interest and the long history of women as poisoners. They dissected the ways in which Erin confounded them - presenting herself as a victim, then getting caught in her own web of lies, and becoming belligerent on the stand. They grapple with the ethics of the case, and the horror of what Patterson did. 

I loved the form of this book, and felt as though I was on the journey with them. I particularly appreciated the depiction of the stoic Ian Wilkinson. While I followed the case from afar and knew about the orange plate, the dehydrator, and the true crime Facebook group Erin participated in, The Mushroom Tapes revealed many things I did not know and added to my understanding of this case. What I enjoyed most though was the camaraderie and banter between these three intelligent women as they bear witness and contemplate the complex issues and themes of the case.  

There are plenty of books about this case that have recently been published, including Greg Haddrick's The Mushroom Murders and Duncan McNab's Recipe for Murder. There were also several podcasts and documentaries about the case. I doubt I will engage in these others as I feel The Mushroom Tapes is enough for me.  

About the authors

Readers of this blog know that I adore Helen Garner.  Her coverage of the Farquharson case - in which a father drove his three young sons into a dam - was brilliantly captured in This House of Grief (2014). Likewise her book Joe Cinque's Consolation (2004) about a Canberra murder trial is a must read for those interested in true crime. Her novels, like The Spare Room (2008), capture her storytelling and her diaries showcase her humble insights on life.

I have long admired Chloe Hooper as a writer. Her Walkley Award winning coverage of the death of Cameron Doomadgee was captured in her non-fiction account The Tall Man: Death and Life on Palm Island (2008). More recently she investigated the Black Saturday bushfires in The Arsonist: A Mind on Fire (2018). I also enjoyed her debut novel A Child's Book of True Crime (2002), shortlisted for the Orange Prize (which I read long before I began blogging).

Sarah Krasnostein is best known for her award winning book The Trauma Cleaner (2018), the true story of Sandra Pankhurst a transgender woman who, after a lifetime of her own challenges, started her own business as a trauma cleaner - attending to crime scenes and hoarder homes. She also wrote The Believer (2021) about individuals and groups with deep-rooted beliefs in the paranormal or other phenomena. Krasnostein has a PhD in Criminal Law.

Spies Like Us

I recently watched season five of Slow Horses, the brilliant British spy thriller series based on Mick Herron's novels starring Gary Oldman. Saddened that it will be another year before the next season airs, I wondered how many books there are in the series and how long I may have to enjoy it. Herron has just published his ninth Slow Horses novel, Clown Town (2025), so there are thankfully a few seasons left. When my googling led me to a boxed set of Herron's novels, I ordered without hesitation, and started the first novel in the series, Slow Horses (2010) as soon as it arrived and finished it after a few magical hours of reading.

When you flunk out of the British spy service MI5, whether due to disgrace, dislike or incompetence, you may end up in Slough House - a ramshackle building near the Barbican where MI5 stores its unwanted agents. Here, Jackson Lamb, an intelligent, disheveled, cantankerous Cold War agent oversees this group of misfits. River Cartwright seemed to be a perfect fit for the agency and he is desperate to get back to 'the Park' as HQ is known. His grandfather was once at the helm, and River is a smart, creative agent who failed during his training. 

The plot of this cracking thriller centres on the abduction of a young Pakistani man by three white nationalists calling themselves the Voice of Albion. They have targeted him because of his race and plan to execute him live on the internet. The slow horses are on a different case, which may somehow be connected, and suddenly they need to solve the case or else get blamed for the young man's imminent beheading. But can this group of losers actually seize the day?

I really enjoyed Herron's writing style. The novel starts and ends with an almost cinematic voiceover introducing the reader to the scene. His dialogue was perfect, and I noticed Herron only ever used the word 'said' for dialogue. He paces the story well, with enough twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. For fans of spy thrillers there are plenty of spycraft tropes to fuel your enjoyment.

I have had the audiobook of this for sometime, so listened along while I read. Sean Barrett does a wonderful job of narrating this story. Of course, being such a fan of the show I was unable to quite form my own interpretation of the characters as in my mind they will forever be linked with the perfect cast of actors who play them: Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb, with Jack Lowden as River Cartwright, Saskia Reeves as Standish and Kristin Scott-Thomas as Taverner and so on. If you are unable to read the books, I highly recommend the Apple TV series as it is a fantastic adaptation.

Dublin Literary Award 2026 Nominations

The nominees the 2026 Dublin Literary Award have just been announced. Sixty-nine books have been nominated by 80 libraries from 36 countries. The nominees are:

• 1985: A Novel - Dominic Hoey
• 
  A Thousand Times Before - Asha Thanki 
• Back in the Day - Oliver Loverenski
• Blurred - Iris Wolff
• Brightly Shining - Ingvild Rishoi
• Camarade - Theo Dorgan
• Casualties of Truth - Lauren Francis-Sharma
• Coloured Television - Danzy Senna
• Creation Lake - Rachel Kushner
• Darkenbloom - Eva Menasse
• Dear Dickhead - Virginie Despentes
• Delirious - Damien Wilkins
• Diablo's Boys - Yang Hao
• Dream Count - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
• Dust in the Gale - Joao Morgado
• Endling - Maria Reva
• First Name Second Name - Steve MinOn
• 
  Gliff - Ali Smith
• Good Girl - Aria Aber
• Great Eastern Hotel - Ruchir Joshi
• Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert - Bob the Drag Queen
• Highway 13 - Fiona McFarlane
• I Will Live - Lale Gul
• In Late Summer - Magdalena Blazevic
• Intermezzo - Sally Rooney
• Katarina - Becky Manawatu
• Leading Ledang - Fadlishah Johanabas
• Live Fast - Brigitte Giraud
• Long Island Compromise - Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• Luminous - Silvia Park
• Model Home - Rivers Solomon
• 
  Murder at the Castle: A Miss Merkel Mystery - David Safier
• My Kingdom is Dying - Evald Flisar
• Napalm in the Heart - Pol Guasch
• Ordinary Saints - Niamh Ni Mhaoileoin
• Our Evenings - Alan Hollinghurst
• Our London Lives - Christine Dwyer Hickey
• Perfection - Vincenzo Latronico
• Perspective(s) - Laurent Binet
• Red Water - Jurica Pavicic
• Small Ceremonies - Kyle Edwards
• The Antidote - Karen Russell
• The Boy From the Sea - Garrett Carr
• The Burrow - Melanie Chung
• 
  The City and Its Uncertain Walls - Haruki Murakami
• The Clues in the Fjord - Satu Ramo
• The Creation of Half-Broken People - Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu
• The Dissenters - Youssef Rakha
• The Echoes - Evie Wyld
• The Edges - Angelo Tijssens
• The Emperor of Gladness - Ocean Vuong
• The Empusium - Olga Tokarczuk
• The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin - Alison Goodman
• The Mires - Tina Makereti
• The Names - Florence Knapp
• The Night Guest - Hildur Knutsdottir
• 
  The Original Daughter - Jemimah Wei
• The Tokyo Suite - Giovana Madalosso
• The Voices of Adriana - Elvira Navarro
• The Wager and the Bear - John Ironmonger
• The Weather Diviner - Elizabeth Murphy
• There are Rivers in the Sky: A Novel - Elif Shafak
• Time of the Flies - Claudia Pineiro
• Under the Eye of the Big Bird - Hiromi Kawakami
• Vanishing World - Sayaka Murata
• Voracious - Malgorazata Lebda
• We are Green and Trembling - Gabriela Cabezon Camara
• What I Know About You - Eric Chacour

Of these titles I have read and loved: Fiona McFarlane's Highway 13, Melanie Cheng's The Burrow, along with Evie Wyld's The Echoes. On my 'to be read' list are the novels by Alan Hollinghurst, Sally Rooney, and Ali Smith

Some of these books are familiar to me from awards this year but most I am unfamiliar with. 

In a change from previous years, this list of nominations will be reduced to a longlist of up to 20 titles on 17 February 2026. The shortlist of 6 titles will be announced on 7 April 2026. In the past, the extended nomination list was the longlist.

The winner of the 100,000 Euro prize declared on 21 May 2025. Happy Reading!

National Book Award Winner 2025

The 2025 National Book Awards has been announced. These annual American literary awards have been presented since 1936. The Longlist of ten titles per category, was reduced to a shortlist of five. 

The 2025 Winners, who each received $10,000 and a bronze sculpture, are:

• Fiction - Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
• Non-Fiction - Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
• Poetry - Patricia Smith, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems
• Translated Literature - Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling (Translated from Spanish by Robin Myers)
• Young People's Literature -  Daniel Nayeri, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Stor

This is an interesting selection. For the most part, these winners have not even been on my radar. The non-fiction choice of Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This is the only one I have had any interest in reading. Nevertheless, it is always good to be introduced to new writers.

The Lodgers

The Paying Guests (2014) by Sarah Waters is set in South London in 1922. Frances Wray lives in a large, crumbling house with her mother. Her brothers were lost in the First World War, and her father died with large debts.  Having let go of their maid, Frances now cooks, cleans and cares for her mother. While Mrs Wray sees their reduced circumstances as a step down for this respectable family, Frances feels her world getting smaller. The women are forced to take on lodgers, the paying guests, to pay their bills.

Lillian and Leonard Barber move into their home. Leonard is loud and brash. While Len is off to work each day, Lillian has little to do but make herself attractive and decorate their rooms with bohemian aplomb. Initially, Frances is wary, seemingly having little in common with Lillian. But over time, the women form a bond, first over Anna Karenina, and then a more intimate relationship develops. Frances wants a life with Lillian, but a terrible event takes place which tests the strengths of their feelings and may pull them apart forever.  

To say more of the plot would spoil the story for readers. Waters has somehow crafted a tale in which the reader thinks it is going one direction and it suddenly turns into another. It begins as a domestic historical fiction and, after a gruesome segue, becomes a crime novel, a tense courtroom drama.  

I really enjoyed The Paying Guests. During the first third of the novel, I wasn't sure whether the domesticity and quaintness would hold my attention. From the plot twist, I was gripped and wanted to see where the novel would go. The emerging love affair, tenderness between the women, and then sharp change as face a moral choice, was beautifully done. Waters has an eye for detail - whether describing someone's attire or the tedious chores needed to maintain the house - which she uses to great effect. 

The Paying Guests was shortlisted for the 2015 Women's Prize, and named Fiction Book of the Year by The Sunday Times. 

This is the first novel I have read by Sarah Waters (although I have seen adaptations of her other books), and I am certain it will not be the last. As I read I listened to the audio version, skilfully narrated by acclaimed British actor Juliette Stevenson. She was brilliant, and gave life to the characters through accents and pacing. Highly recommend.

Booker Prize Winner 2025

The winner of the 2025 Booker Prize for fiction was announced today, with Hungarian British author David Szalay receiving the £50,000 prize for the novel, Flesh. 

Flesh follows Istvan's life from his lonely teenage years to his isolated middle age. Along the way he has an affair with a much older woman. A violent act impacts the course of his life. Istvan goes on to serve in the military, he then moves from Hungary to London where he works in security, interacting with the super wealthy. Istvan struggles with events outside his control. When longlisted, the judges praised Szalay's writing, saying 'using only the sparest of prose, this hypnotically tense and compelling book becomes an astonishingly moving portrait of a man’s life.'  

David Szalay was born in Montreal Canada to a Hungarian father and Canadian mother. He has lived in Lebanon, the UK, Hungary and Vienna. Flesh is Szalay's fifth novel. His debut novel, London and the South-East won the Betty Trask and Geoffrey Faber Memorial prizes in 2008. He was previously shortlisted for the Booker in 2016 for All That Man Is. 

Chair of the Judging panel, Roddy Doyle, said of Flesh:

The judges discussed the six books on the shortlist for more than five hours. The book we kept coming back to, the one that stood out from the other great novels, was Flesh – because of its singularity. We had never read anything quite like it. It is, in many ways, a dark book but it is a joy to read.

‘At the end of the novel, we don’t know what the protagonist, István, looks like but this never feels like a lack; quite the opposite. Somehow, it’s the absence of words – or the absence of István’s words – that allow us to know István. Early in the book, we know that he cries because the person he’s with tells him not to; later in life, we know he’s balding because he envies another man’s hair; we know he grieves because, for several pages, there are no words at all.

‘I don’t think I’ve read a novel that uses the white space on the page so well. It’s as if the author, David Szalay, is inviting the reader to fill the space, to observe – almost to create – the character with him. The writing is spare and that is its great strength. Every word matters; the spaces between the words matter. The book is about living, and the strangeness of living and, as we read, as we turn the pages, we’re glad we’re alive and reading – experiencing – this extraordinary, singular novel.’

I am delighted that Szalay was selected as winner. While I have not read Flesh, it is on my list! I had expected the prize to go to Kiran Desai for The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, although she is a previous Booker winner. 

If you missed it, here is the video of the announcement of David Szalay as winner and his acceptance speech.

Shadows of Grief

In the 1990s a series of murders took place along a stretch of highway. The bodies of hitchhikers and backpackers were found in the Barrow State forest. By the end of the decade, Joe Biga, a taxi driver is arrested and charged with the crimes, sentenced to consecutive life terms of imprisonment.  These horrific events reverberate back and forth in history - impacting people all over the world. 

In the short stories collected in Highway 13, Fiona McFarlane uses this crime as a starting point for exploring the ways in which the crimes impacted people directly and indirectly.  

In 'Hunter on the Highway', set in 1996, a young woman wonders if her boyfriend might be the murder as he drives a landscaping truck similar to the vehicle police have reported may be involved in the disappearances of backpackers.

Two decades after these crimes, in 'Abroad', British man Simon is worried about a solo trick-or-treater on Halloween. He remembers his own sister Angie who disappeared in Australia and has never been found. Could she be one of Biga's victims?

In 'Demolition' in 2003 neighbours watch as the house where the killer lived is demolished, fondly remembering the family who resided there before. 'Fat Suit' tells of the 2024 filming of a television miniseries about the crimes from the perspective of the actor hoping to turn his career around. 

None of these stories are graphically violent or really talk about the murderer. In fact, reading some of them you forget that there might be a link to the crimes until there is a passing reference. Some stories have close connections, but others are far removed. While Joe Biga and his crimes are fictional, Australians will immediately be reminded of serial killer Ivan Milat.

I really enjoyed the ways in which McFarlane plays with form. 'Democracy Sausage' is written in a single sentence stream-of-conciousness spanning ten pages, as a politician burns sausages wondering what his chances given he shares the same surname as the killer. 'Podcast' is styled as dialogue between the two hosts of a popular true crime podcast, complete with asides and bits to edit out. 

I usually find short story collections to contain a handful of tales that don't resonate for me. But in Highway 13, each story was brilliant in its own right. This is an incredible collection that deserves a wide readership. I am now keen to seek out Fiona McFarlane's earlier short story collection The High Places (2016) and her novel The Night Guest (2013). 

Fiona McFarlane has been showered with prizes for Highway 13. It won the 2025 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Fiction, the 2025 NSW Literary Award Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, the 2025 ALS Gold Medal and the 2025 Story Prize. It was also shortlisted for the 2025 Miles Franklin Literary Award, Prime Minister's Literary Award for Fiction, and the Ned Kelly Award for Best Crime Fiction, among other accolades. 

Baillie Gifford Prize Winner 2025

I am beyond thrilled that Helen Garner has won the 2025 Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction for her collected diaries How to End a Story (2025). Having read this brilliant collection, Garner is so deserving of this award. 

The prestigious prize, worth £50,000, is the UK's top award for works of non-fiction.  The judges said “Garner’s candid, pacey diary chronicles the end of her second marriage and the challenges of being a writer. There is a skilled narrative drive which presents a lot of personal material that keeps you hooked, not necessarily on what is happening in terms of the story, but about Garner's whole life and about what's going on outside her window.” I could not agree more! She is a keen observer and these diaries are an intimate insight into her life, loves and work. 

The collected diaries were published in Australia as three seperate volumes (my reviews are linked):

• The Yellow Notebook (2019) covers the years 1978-1987 when she has just published her debut novel, Monkey Grip, and was on the verge of success but full of self-doubt.  
• One Day I'll Remember This (2020) spans 1987-1995 when Garner has relocated to Sydney after the end of her marriage, has begun an affair with another writer, and is experiencing the early stages of menopause.
• How to End a Story (2021) is about the period 1995-1998 when Garner is married to another author and struggles to find a way to live and work alongside him. 

Each of these diaries showcases Garner's incredible talent as an author. I love her frankness and vulnerability. She is wise and unapologetic. I hope that one day she published further instalments as so much has happened in the past 25 years.

After the Flood

Journalist Martin Scarsden is back as the protagonist in Chris Hammer's latest Aussie-noir crime novel, Legacy (2025).

Scarsden is on the run. There has been a threat on his life, so he has fled his home and is on the run. He is hiding out in the outback border town of Port Paroo, population 12, about as far as you can get from anywhere. The phone lines are down so Martin has no internet, and the floods are coming which will block the roads out of town. Martin hangs out at the town's only pub and tries to be incognito. Here he learns of a local feud over water rights between two long-established families in the area - the Carmichaels of Longchamp Downs and the Stantons of Tavelly Station - and wonders if there might be a story in it.

North of Port Paroo, ghostwriter Ekaterina Boland has arrived at Longchamp Downs. The elderly Claybourne Carmichael wants her to write his family's history and connection to this land so it is recorded for his son and future generations. Clay is planning to sell up and move on from this beautiful but inhospitable landscape. Trudging through old diaries of Clay's forebears, Boland comes across an ancient intrigue which may provide her with a redeeming book. 

Hammer juggles a lot of subplots in Legacy but he is such a gifted writer that he can effortlessly keep many plates spinning at once. He knows how to pace a story, and through his use of compelling cliff-hanging chapters, the reader is immediately immersed in the tale. I also love the way Hammer includes a helpful map of the locale in each book, created by Aleksander J Potocnik. 

The real hero of Legacy is the landscape. Hammer is able to accurately depict the parched earth desperate for rain and the slow arrival of the floodwaters. Even if you have never been to the outback, the reader can understand the dryness and the distance of these far-flung places. You'll be swatting flies and craving shade alongside Scarsden. 

I have read all of Hammer's novels and reviewed them on this blog. Books in the Martin Scarsden series are Scrublands (2018), Silver (2019) and Trust (2020). You do not have to read them in order but you will get more out of Legacy if you are familiar with what happened in earlier novels. Legacy is an excellent addition to this series. 

I was delighted to see Nell Buchanan and Ivan Lucic make a brief appearance in Legacy. I actually prefer the Lucic/Buchanan series Treasure and Dirt (2021), The Tilt (2022), The Seven (2023) and The Valley (2024). In fact, Hammer's last four novels have been with this pair, so I was suprised when he did another Scarsden book.