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Today’s must-read – Killing Jodie

killing_jodieKilling Jodie: How Australia's Most Elusive Murderer Was Brought to Justice

by Janet Fife-Yeomans


Winner: Best True Crime, Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards


Daryl Suckling's arrest in remote NSW in the late 1980s revealed his disturbing connections with the disappearance of Jodie Larcombe from Melbourne. Charged with the murder of Jodie, then a sex worker on St Kilda's streets, Suckling was allowed to walk free, as police investigators struggled to prove a homicide without a body. He'd previously escaped conviction more than once after brutally abducting several women.


Frustrated by legal obstacles and bad luck, one officer resigned from the force in disgust, but the case was never forgotten and investigators closed in as Suckling stalked his next victim. The grisly murder linked St Kilda with the lonely, windswept sandhills of the NSW outback near Mildura, and brought two hardened policemen close to a brave family pushed to breaking point - in the end, it was too much for Jodie's mother, who committed suicide when Suckling appealed his eventual conviction.

Suckling is now one of 15 prisoners serving life in NSW, never to be released.

Amazon

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Today’s Must-Read – Frantic by Katherine Howell

 

franticFrantic                                                                                 Winner: Best Crime Novel -

by Katherine Howell                                                          Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards

In one terrible moment, paramedic Sophie Phillips' life is torn apart - her police officer husband, Chris, is shot on their doorstep and their ten-month-old son, Lachlan, is stolen from his bed. The police suspect Chris is involved with a number of armed hold-ups and that the attack is revenge for his desire to distance himself from the robberies, but Sophie believes the attack is much more personal - and the perpetrator far more dangerous... While Chris is in hospital and the police, led by Detective Ella Marconi, are moving heaven and earth to find their colleague's child, Sophie's desperation to make amends compels her to search for Lachlan herself. She enlists her husband's partner, Angus Arendson, in her hunt for her son, but will the history they share prove harmful to Sophie's ability to complete her mission?

 You can buy this from Amazon

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