Davitt Awards Longlist Announced - Bonus Episode

In this episode, we look at the Davitt Awards longlist, which has just been released. 

This year, 126 books were entered into the 26th Davitt Awards, across four categories. The judges of the 2026 Davitt Awards have selected a longlist of 28 books that reflect the excellent quality and maturity of stories written by Australian women crime writers. These stories are notable for their originality, depth and high level of the authors’ skills.

View the longlist

https://sistersincrime.org.au/davitt-awards-2026/

Booktopia Affiliate Program

The Kill City Podcast is a part of the Booktopia Affiliate Program, meaning that when you purchase a book from Booktopia using one of the above the links, we get a small commission. Or as they'd say in the crime world, a kick back! 

At the Kill City Podcast we love celebrating and promoting the work of Australian writers, publishers and bookstores, and we hope you do too.

Disclaimer

The episode transcripts are auto-generated, and while all efforts are made to ensure their accuracy, there may be some instance of incorrect spelling and/or errors in the accuracy.

www.killcitypodcast.com.au

Transcript

Helen 0:00

The Kill City podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands we're on. Here in Melbourne, that's the Wurrundjeri Woi Worong people of the Kulin Nation. We honour their deep connection to storytelling, a tradition carried across more than 2,000 generations. Pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging, and we extend that acknowledgement to First Nations people listening today. Welcome back to the Kill City Podcast, where Australian crime and mystery writing is our MO. We just wanted to jump on quickly with a bit of industry news that's too good not to share. But before we get into it, Leigh, hello there. How are you travelling today?

Leigh 0:44

Um navigating the final week of the school term with three rather tired children where the juggle is absolutely real. But all in all, I'm well. Thanks. Yes.

Helen 1:00

Well, I hope you get through the last few days before they all get that much needed rest. I'm actually a bit tired myself for slightly different reasons because the World Cup has taken over my household, and this has been exacerbated by the fact that I actually support three different countries because England for my mum, Germany for my dad, Australia, because of course that's home, and the team my lovely husband and Aussie kids are all passionate about. And look, I don't know if you've been watching it, Leigh, but oh, it's been exciting. There's been so many surprises in the first round.

Leigh 1:35

I have and I have been watching it.

Helen 1:37

Excellent. So the first round, if you haven't been watching, has been full of really great games and quite a few surprises, but there's a lot more to go before I can work out if at least one of my countries actually makes it through to the quarterfinals. So are you happy to keep supporting the Socceroos with me, Leigh?

Leigh 1:53

No, of course. Goes without saying.

Helen 1:55

Absolutely. Alright, well, I better stop talking about the beautiful game. Okay, so one of the things we're keen to do is keep our listeners up to date with the latest news from the world of Australian crime and mystery fiction. And that includes announcements from some of the major competitions that are run by organisations like Sisters in Crime, and that of course includes the Davitt Awards.

Leigh 2:17

Now, so the David Awards, for anyone not familiar with them, are run by the Sisters in Crime, who for the last 25 years have been shining a spotlight on the incredible achievements of women crime writers of fiction and non-fiction. 2026 is no exception. So the long list has now dropped for the 2026 David Awards, and as you would expect, there are some some great works from some wonderful women crime writers.

Helen 2:39

Yeah, there sure are. And look, there's four categories in the David Awards: adult fiction, non-fiction, young adult, and children's books. And as you said, there's just been so many great books nominated this year.

Leigh 2:51

Yeah. And I love that there is a children's and a young adult category too. Like I'm always looking for new titles for my tribe of young readers. So, and I know I've said this before, but one of the great joys of doing this podcast is that we're constantly discovering new writers and new books.

Helen 3:07

Oh, yeah, it's just one of the hidden bonuses, isn't it? Now, because there's 28 books on the list, we're really conscious of not rattling them off like a bit of a laundry list. Um, and we don't want to gloss over sort of any of them in particular, so we're just going to pick out a couple in each category that we've kind of piqued our attention and we're a bit excited about.

Leigh 3:26

Yeah, I think that's the best way forward. And just for context, this year there were 126 books entered, and the long list has been narrowed down to 28 across the four categories.

Helen 3:37

That's incredible, isn't it? Wow, they had to try and whittle down a list from 126 books. Alrighty, well, out of all of that, um, what jumped out at you?

Leigh 3:49

Um, what I think is fantastic here is that we've got debuts in three of the four categories, including three debut novels in the adult fiction category. Um, so that's where we'll focus this episode. Um so in the adult fiction category, we have Malaleuca by Indigenous author Angie Faye Martin. We have The Wolf Tree by Laura McCluskey, and Stillwater by Tanya Scott. Now, we're actually going to be talking more about Malauca over the coming weeks when we look at some of the incredible indigenous authors writing in the genre. But for now, here's the setup. The injustices of the past and dangers of the present envelop Aboriginal policewoman Renee Taylor when her unwilling return to the small outback town of her childhood plunges her into the investigation of a brutal murder.

Helen 4:33

Oh, just love the premise of that. And then next up is Wolf Tree, which is written by Melbourne author Laura McCluskey. And look, there's been such a buzz about this one, and I've actually already downloaded it on my Kindle because I can't wait to read it. And look, while it's not set here in Australia, it does take us to the other side of the world, to Aileen Edar. Now, I don't know if I've got that pronunciation right, but it's a wonderfully eerie, windswept Scottish island that McCluskey has created, and it's apparently a place that feels so isolated and atmospheric that you can almost hear the gulls and feel the cold coming off the water. And look, here's what grabbed me from reading the back of the book. A remote Scottish island hides shocking secrets in this page-turning debut mystery laced with dark folklore. Eileen Adar is a barren, windswept rock inhabited by a few hundred humans and some sheep. And until now, the island was best known for the unsolved mystery of the three lighthouse keepers who vanished back in 1919. But when a young man is found dead at the base of the same lighthouse, two detective inspectors are sent from Glasgow to investigate.

Leigh 5:43

That does sound great. Now, the third debut is Stillwater by Tanya Scott, which dives straight into that hard-edged underworld grit. When Jack Quinn's mother dies of a drug overdose, it's not his father who raises him, but Gus, a ruthless crime boss who sees Jack for what he is, a whip smart kid with untapped potential. It doesn't take long for Gus to forge Jack into a weapon, but Jack was also self-aware enough to know where this sort of life was going to lead him. When the time was right, he got out, or so he thought.

Helen 6:15

Well, you know what really stands out for me is the range that we're sitting in these debuts. They're just coming at crime from completely different angles, and you kinda um never know what's going to happen next, and that's what makes the genre so interesting. And the fact that there's three debuts on the list, I just love it. We're going to pop a link to the full long list in the show notes, but you can dive into everything at sistersincrime.org.au. Now, in keeping with our theme of debuts in the young adult category, we've got We Saw What You Started by Brisbane writer Carla Salmon. And it's got a real Queensland coastal town feel. It's kind of hot, it's salty, it's kind of a bit tense, it's kind of perfect for a young adult thriller set on the Sunshine Coast. And look, here's the setup from the back of the book. Three deadly fires, one suspect, a thriller of surf and sea. Otto was a star surfer back in California, but now he just wants a fresh start. But when fires break out in Red Sands, the locals are suspicious. It's no coincidence, he's at the scene every time. And Millie isn't so sure. Small town talk isn't always right, especially when it comes to her perfect brother. But what if the new boy is innocent? Can Otto and Millie trust each other to find the truth out behind the fires? And what happens if you do the wrong things for the right reasons?

Leigh 7:37

And a bit of exciting news for fans of Carla's. Her next book, We Did It Anyway, is out on the 30th of June. So she's clearly on a roll.

Helen 7:46

Mm, she really is. Now moving over to the children's category, we've got True South by Gisella Irvin Ward. And this one's got such a great adventure vibe to it. It's got mystery, family drama, a bit of danger, and that classic kids teaming up because the adults are absolutely not helping anything. Energy that I love in those reads for 10 to 12 year olds, right before they tip into that chaos years of teenagerdom. Now the setup for this one I really like. 12-year-old Nell crashes her little sailboat into what turns out to be a submerged house in the lake, and suddenly she's caught up in a treasure hunt that's tied to generations old family feud. And of course, once the adults get involved, everything gets messier. So she ends up joining up with her neighbour and longtime family rival Charlie.

Leigh 8:36

I love the premise of this one, and Gisela has done some pretty amazing things outside of her writing career. She specialises in teaching kids with dyslexia and other learning difficulties how to read, and she spent a decade living in Southeast Asia as an aid worker.

Helen 8:49

Wow, that's incredible. And it really sounds like she's used some of those experiences and how she puts together her stories. Now, there's no debut works in the non-fiction category this year, but we do have three titles that we want to talk about. The first one is Groomed by Sonia Orchard. Now the blurb makes it really clear that this is a very confronting story. It starts with the author Sonia in her 40s finally telling a therapist about the relationship she had at 15 with a man 10 years older, and what she thought was consensual actually triggered this huge physical reaction, and she's suddenly questioning whether it was actually abuse and whether she's been groomed. From there, the book follows her as she goes to the police years later and starts to see just how often child abuse and sexual assault is minimized or dismissed. It's part memoir, it's part investigation into the systems and cultural blindstots that just let this keep happening.

Leigh 9:47

Such an important and confronting story. And then the next book takes us in a completely different direction, but it's still about recovering something that's been overlooked. Outrageous Fortunes by Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex is the biography of Mary and George Fortune, and it digs into this forgotten corner of our own crime writing history. Mary Fortune wrote under the name of Wafe Wonder, and in the 1800s she produced what's considered the first collection of detective stories ever published in Australia, the Detective's Album. She was incredibly prolific. She wrote thousands of stories across decades and was hugely popular at the time. But because she wrote under pseudonyms and lived a pretty tough, unstable life, her identity was almost lost. So this biography feels like a proper reclaiming of her place in Australian crime.

Helen 10:45

That's so cool. And we actually talked about Lucy Sussex in our Pride Month episode. Now she calls herself a literary archaeologist, and she's really brilliant at digging through the old archives and piecing together stories behind the stories. And so you might remember that we talked about her book, Blockbuster, which looks at Fergus Hume, the author of The Mystery of a Handsome Cab, which became Australia's first literary blockbuster. And through her research, she uncovered evidence about Hume's private life that had been hidden away for more than a century. So it's great to see that she's now joined forces with literary scholar and researcher Megan Brown to take a closer look at another literary great, Mary Fortune.

Leigh 11:30

This is such a fascinating corner of our history, isn't it? And speaking of writers who dig into the stories that we don't always want to look that closely at, that brings us to our final book in the nonfiction category, which is The Red House by Kate Wilde. This one takes us into much heavier territory. Wilde looked at the 2019 shooting of Kaman J. Walker, a young Walpiri man shot during an attempted arrest in a community with no medical staff on duty that night. His death sparked national security, a murder trial, and a coronial inquest that exposed deep systematic failures. She's a Walkley award-winning journalist, so you can tell the investigation will be meticulous, but also deeply human as she steps back and shows the bigger picture, how this one moment sits inside generations of mistrust, racism, and unfinished business between the police and First Nations communities. So the three books in this category are all completely different and all compelling in their own way.

Helen 12:26

Yeah, they really are. And look, I don't know about you, Leigh, but I can't wait for the shortlist to drop in July. And then, of course, we just have to wait for the winners to be announced at the Dabbit Awards later in the year. So, ooh, exciting times ahead.

Leigh 12:40

There certainly are. So that's all for now. Don't forget to tune in for part one of our conversation with the brilliant Christian White. That'll be live at 9 a.m. next Monday. And you won't want to miss it.

Helen 12:51

Can't wait. Until then, stay curious, stay suspicious, and we'll see you back on the Kill City podcast next time.