‘Lady Loveday Investigates’ is shortlisted for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards

I’m over the moon to announce that my short story, ‘Lady Loveday Investigates’ has been shortlisted for the Scarlet Stiletto Awards. The Scarlet Stiletto Awards are run by Sisters in Crime for Australian female crime authors, and there’s almost $10K in prizes up for grabs. 

This is the second time I’ve entered and I’m so happy to have been shortlisted. My story is about a well-heeled new woman of the early 1900s investigating the murder of a party guest with her mother. Think Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries meets Keeping Up Appearances. I had way too much fun writing the story, and I feel like this fun comes through in the writing. The above illustration by Charles Dana Gibson captures so much of the sentiment of the story.

The idea came to me while reading the fabulous anthology The Penguin Book of Victorian Women in Crime, edited by Michael Sims. I love the way the Victorians wrote romps and crime, with such drama and sprightly humor. I wrote most of it on my trip to Europe in August travelling around the Balkan coastline. Which is really what any delightful lady detective would do.

I’ll be at the awards ceremony on 24 November at 6:30pm. You can find out more about the Scarlet Stilettos here.

Photo credit: The Crush by Charles Dana Wilson, in the Public Domain from Wikimedia Commons