Author Talk: 'Outrageous Fortunes' with Lucy Sussex

Author Lucy Sussex introduces 'Outrageous Fortunes' - the gripping story of Australia's first female crime writer and her career-criminal son.

When Mary Fortune arrived in Melbourne in 1855, she was determined to reinvent herself. 'The Detective's Album' was the first book of detective stories to be published in Australia and the first by a woman to be published anywhere in the world. Her work appeared in magazines and newspapers for over forty years – but none of her readers knew who she was. She wrote using pseudonyms, often adopting the voice of a male narrator to write about 'unladylike' subjects.

When Mary died in 1911, her identity was nearly lost. In 'Outrageous Fortunes', Megan Brown and Lucy Sussex retrieve Fortune's astonishing career and discover an equally absorbing story in her illegitimate son, George. While Mary was writing crime, George was committing it, with convictions for theft and bank robbery. In their intertwined stories, crime fiction meets true crime.

Copies of 'Outrageous Fortunes' will be available for purchase on the night.