Nothing But Murders And Bloodshed And Hanging: Stories of crime and detection by a pioneering Victorian...

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Mary Fortune Lucy Sussex

Nothing But Murders And Bloodshed And Hanging

Stories of crime and detection by a pioneering Victorian mystery writer

Mary Fortune, Lucy Sussex, Megan Brown

$46.95

Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Big Nickel Publications
11 February 2025

Crime & Mystery; Classic crime; Australian Crime Fiction

A murderer is identified by a team of oxen. A dead man rises from a watery grave to indict his killer. A phantom hearse gliding through Melbourne's slums foretells violent death. A seamstress turns detective to avenge her friend's homicide. A locked-tent mystery.

Such are the themes of Mary Fortune's ingenious and dramatic crime stories. Between 1865 and 1910 she wrote over 500 of them; they comprise the first ever detective fiction series written by a woman. Set in the outback, on the goldfields, and in the burgeoning metropolis of Melbourne, they offer a vivid account of life and death in colonial-era Australia. Fortune tackled subjects such as murder, armed robbery, bootlegging, and sexual violence with a frankness unprecedented for a woman in the 19th century, in styles ranging from melodrama and Gothic horror to social realism and what is now called noir. This book brings together 17 of her finest stories, edited and introduced by literary historians Lucy Sussex and Megan Brown.

Born in Ireland in 1832, Fortune arrived in Australia during the gold-rush, which she observed firsthand and depicted in many of her stories. A brief, bigamous marriage to a policeman gave her inside knowledge to write about crime, and over the next 40 years her prolific output was serialized under the title The Detective's Album in the mass-circulation Australian Journal. She often lived precariously-struggling with alcohol, unable to prevent her son drifting into a life of crime-and preserved her privacy by publishing under pseudonyms. Her anonymity meant that when she died in 1911 she was almost lost to literary history. Only recently have Mary Fortune's true identity and her extraordinary life story emerged.

This collection, together with a simultaneously published biography, will confirm Mary Fortune's status as a trailblazing crime writer.

""The themes of marriage, murder, and gendered violence resonate with contemporary concerns. The writing is beautiful, complex, and thrilling . . . From the small towns of the goldfields to the arid yet lush landscape of the outback, and back to society living in Melbourne, these stories will enthral you.""-Candice Fox

By: Mary Fortune
Edited by: Lucy Sussex, Megan Brown
Imprint: Big Nickel Publications
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 16mm
ISBN: 9781959163091
ISBN 10: 1959163094
Pages: 310
Publication Date: 11 February 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Reviews for Nothing But Murders And Bloodshed And Hanging: Stories of crime and detection by a pioneering Victorian mystery writer

""Her characters and plot lines are so complex and twisting, they would be right at home in any contemporary crime novel . . . The themes of marriage, murder, and gendered violence resonate with contemporary concerns. The writing is beautiful, complex, and thrilling. . . . From the small towns of the goldfields to the arid yet lush landscape of the outback, and back to society living in Melbourne, these stories will enthrall you."" --Candice Fox