MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday 7 September, 2010

Eltham Library Uses Crime to Promote Reading

International bestselling authors Michael Robotham (The Suspect, Lost, The Night Ferry
and Shatter)and Malla Nunn (Let the Dead Lie and A Beautiful Place to Die) will direct a
night of crime at Eltham Library on Thursday 16 September from 7.00pm to 8.30pm as part
of a national campaign to get people reading.

Yarra Plenty Regional Library, ELTHAMbookshop, Sisters in Crime and ABC Local Radio
have all joined forces to showcase these talented crime authors and encourage book lovers
to join in for a night of murder and mayhem by dressing to kill in red stilettos or dark glasses.

It’s all part of the Australian Government’s Get Reading! Campaign. Previously called Books
Alive, Get Reading! runs for all of September and encourages us to turn off our screens, put
up our feet and get reading. The campaign includes a nationwide program of events, a free
guide to 50 of the year’s best books and a free book offer and more. The free 50 Books You
Can’t Put Down guide is available at the library and book retailers during the campaign
period until 30 September. Those who buy any of the books listed in the guide will receive
one of two free books, which are exclusive to Get Reading!

The crime authors will appear in conversation with author and Victoria Police strategic
advisor Jarad Henry (Blood Sunset and Head Shot). (Detailed author biographies follow.)

ELTHAMbookshop proprietor Meera Govil expects a lively evening. “We’re thrilled to be able
to bring Michael Robotham and Malla Nunn to Eltham for this event,” she said.

Yarra Plenty Regional Library Reading and Literacy Coordinator Blaise van Hecke agrees. “It
will be a wonderful and interesting evening full of suspense and intrigue. We extend an
invitation to the whole community to attend,” she said.

This is a free event but bookings are required. Places limited. Phone ELTHAMbookshop on
9439 8700. Refreshments will be served.

MEDIA OPPORTUNITY:
Please contact me on 9401 0755 to organise an appropriate time for pre-event
photography.
 • Eltham librarians, Reading and Literacy Coordinator Blaise van Hecke and
Elthambookshop owner Meera Govil dressed in red stilettos and black glasses in the
Eltham Library Gallery Foyer.
• Author photographs available for publication.

For further information:

Suzanne Male
Marketing & Media Coordinator
Yarra Plenty Regional Library
P 9401 0755
smale@yprl.vic.gov.au

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES

Born in Australia in November 1960, MICHAEL ROBOTHAM grew up in small country towns
that had more dogs than people and more flies than dogs. He escaped in 1979 and became
a cadet journalist on an afternoon newspaper in Sydney.
For the next fourteen years he wrote for newspapers and magazines in Australia, Britain and
America. As a senior feature writer for the UK’s Mail on Sunday he was among the first
people to view the letters and diaries of Czar Nicholas II and his wife Empress Alexandra,
unearthed in the Moscow State Archives in 1991. He also gained access to Stalin’s Hitler
files, which had been missing for nearly fifty years until a cleaner stumbled upon a cardboard
box that had been misplaced and misfiled.
In 1993 he quit journalism to become a ghostwriter, collaborating with politicians, pop stars,
psychologists, adventurers and showbusiness personalities to write their autobiographies.
Twelve of these non-fiction titles were bestsellers with combined sales of more than 2 million
copies.
His first novel The Suspect, a psychological thriller, was chosen by the world’s largest
consortium of book clubs as only the fifth “International Book of the Month”, making it the top
recommendation to 28 million book club members in fifteen countries. It has been translated
into twenty-two languages, including some he's barely heard of.
His second novel Lost won the Ned Kelly Award for the Crime Book of the Year in 2005,
given by the Australian Crime Writers Association. It was also shortlisted for the 2006 Barry
Award for the BEST BRITISH NOVEL published in the US in 2005.
Michael's subsequent novels The Night Ferry and Shatter were both shortlisted for UK Crime
Writers Association Steel Dagger in 2007 and 2008. Shatter was also shortlisted in the
inaugural ITV3 Thriller Awards in the UK and for South Africa's Boeke Prize. In August 2008
'Shatter' won the Ned Kelly award for Australia's best crime novel.
Michael can most often be found working in his 'pit of despair' (basement office) on Sydney’s
northern beaches where he funds the extravagent lifestyles of a wife and three daughters.

MALLA NUNN grew up in Swaziland before moving with her parents to Perth in the 1970s.
She attended university in WA, and then the US. In New York, she worked on film sets, wrote
her first screenplay and met her American husband-to-be, before returning to Australia where
she began writing and directing short films and corporate videos. The films
Fade to White, Sweetbreeze and Servant of the Ancestors have won numerous awards and
have shown at international film festivals from Zanzibar to New York. Malla and her husband
live in Sydney with their two children.

JARAD HENRY has worked in the criminal justice system for the past ten years and is a
currently a strategic advisor for Victoria Police. He has a degree in Criminology, is a
proficient public speaker and is a regular presenter at many conferences, forums and
seminars on crime trends.
Head Shot, a murder mystery inspired by Melbourne’s gangland killings, was short listed in
the 2006 Ned Kelly Awards for Best First Crime Novel. As a manuscript, it was also short
listed in the 2004 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards.
Blood Sunset is his second book and was short listed in the 2006 Australian Vogel Awards
and in the same year won the Fellowship of Australian Writers Jim Hamilton Award. It is
published by Allen & Unwin and will be in stores on April 24 2008.
He lives in Melbourne and is currently working on his third novel, Pink Tide, a story about gay
bashings and homophobia.