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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 – The Night has a Thousand Eyes

night_thousandThe Night Has a Thousand Eyes

Winner Best Young Adult Novel Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards

by Mandy Sayer

When Mark Stamp fires an air gun through the window of his father's shed, he's afraid he may have damaged something. But what he discovers is far worse. Peering through the broken window, he sees such a horrifying sight that he has to flee for his life. His older sister, Ruby, may not be officially old enough to drive, but she can handle the family's van, and Mark, Ruby and the baby set off on a hair–raising adventure across country, escaping the past and their violent father. In her electrifying new novel of family secrets and small–town scandals, Mandy Sayer deftly weaves raw suspense with exquisite prose. The Night Has a Thousand Eyes is a vivid and haunting tale of three kids on the run – and of rumours that spread like wildfire while the truth hides closer to home . . . People always talk about the dangers of speeding; no one ever mentions the risks of travelling too slowly through life.

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