Geoffrey McGeachin's superior crime thriller about likable larrikin detective Charlie Berlin took the prize for best fiction at the Neddies
Andrew Nette -
Historical crime fiction is a popular sub-genre. Photograph: Helen King/Corbis
Buried beneath the hysteria of last Saturday's federal election was another vote, the 2013 Ned Kelly awards for Australian crime writing. It was a night of firsts: the first year e-books were eligible, the first time the Neddies have taken place in Brisbane, and the first under the umbrella of the recently formed Australian Crime Writers Association.
But for Geoffrey McGeachin, the recipient of the top award, Best Fiction, it was very much a matter of second time around. His winning book Blackwattle Creek focuses on Detective Sergeant Charlie Berlin, a policeman in fifties Melbourne. The first in the Berlin series, The Diggers Rest Hotel, took home the Neddie for best first crime fiction in 2011.
Blackwattle Creek takes place two days before the 1957 VFL Grand. Menzies is prime minister and the country is happily ensconced in a period of peace and prosperity. Berlin has a week's leave – but any plans to take it easy are derailed when his wife asks him to inquire into the fate of a dead serviceman, the husband of her friend, who died and turned up to the funeral mysteriously missing a leg.
The trail leads to a suspect funeral parlour and on to Blackwattle Creek, a former asylum for the criminally insane. In very quick succession, unknown assailants beat Berlin's partner half to death, and our hero finds himself the target of unwelcome attention by a pair of thuggish Special Branch plod. He also comes into contact with a mysterious Hungarian émigré who drives the funeral parlour's hearse.
Berlin is determined to get to the bottom of what's going on at Blackwattle Creek, even if that means jeopardising his career.
If this year's awards were anything to go by, historical crime fiction is a popular sub-genre. Robert Gott's The Holiday Murders, a thriller set in forties Melbourne, was also shortlisted for Best Book and Andrew Grime's The Richmond Conspiracy, a police procedural set in the thirties, was shortlisted in the category Best First Fiction
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But for Geoffrey McGeachin, the recipient of the top award, Best Fiction, it was very much a matter of second time around. His winning book Blackwattle Creek focuses on Detective Sergeant Charlie Berlin, a policeman in fifties Melbourne. The first in the Berlin series, The Diggers Rest Hotel, took home the Neddie for best first crime fiction in 2011.
Blackwattle Creek takes place two days before the 1957 VFL Grand. Menzies is prime minister and the country is happily ensconced in a period of peace and prosperity. Berlin has a week's leave – but any plans to take it easy are derailed when his wife asks him to inquire into the fate of a dead serviceman, the husband of her friend, who died and turned up to the funeral mysteriously missing a leg.
The trail leads to a suspect funeral parlour and on to Blackwattle Creek, a former asylum for the criminally insane. In very quick succession, unknown assailants beat Berlin's partner half to death, and our hero finds himself the target of unwelcome attention by a pair of thuggish Special Branch plod. He also comes into contact with a mysterious Hungarian émigré who drives the funeral parlour's hearse.
Berlin is determined to get to the bottom of what's going on at Blackwattle Creek, even if that means jeopardising his career.
If this year's awards were anything to go by, historical crime fiction is a popular sub-genre. Robert Gott's The Holiday Murders, a thriller set in forties Melbourne, was also shortlisted for Best Book and Andrew Grime's The Richmond Conspiracy, a police procedural set in the thirties, was shortlisted in the category Best First Fiction
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