Lucy Sussex

THREE MURDER MYSTERIES by Mary Fortune is an absolute little treasure of a book and I feel so grateful to Lucy Sussex for her pursuit of Mary's story and her writing, and for getting this wonderful little book published.

Mary Fortune had over five hundred crime stories published, all set in Australia. In 1871 a collection of these were published under the title The Detective's Album - a book which is now very very rare and very very expensive.

The three stories that Lucy has chosen to be show more incorporated in this little book are wonderful examples of not only Mary Fortune's skill as a writer, but how good crime fiction doesn't age. The themes of these stories are as valid now as they were in the late 1800's when they were written.

IN THE CELLAR is set in the goldfields in and around Maryborough in Victoria, THE HART MURDER in the fledgling farming world of early Victoria whilst THE PHANTOM HEARSE takes the reader into the city (and raises the tantalising prospects of ghosts on the streets of Melbourne!).

Not only are these short stories which are clever in their execution, they are extremely entertaining. Touches of a puzzle for the reader to solve, they explore the same sorts of social issues that we are still dealing with today. There is also a light touch of humour in some.

Leaving aside the tale of Mary Fortune herself, THREE MURDER MYSTERIES is made up of three wonderful short stories from the beginnings of the genre in Australia. show less

This is a wonderful collection of historical personal writings, although I must say that I find (at a few weeks remove) it difficult to match the pieces themselves with the descriptors from the back:

"...including: a bride of 16; one of the first men to play Australian Rules football; a woman running away from a brutal husband; another staving off a breakdown with drugs; a family fleeing imprisonment for debt; and her own great-grandmother, who was lucky to survive the first white settlement show more in the Kimberleys."

In each chapter, the writing itself is bookended at front with the description of a contemporary item (possibly all from Sussex's family possessions) and some other context providing information, and at the end with what follow up Sussex has gleaned about the writers themselves. Each piece is related to some aspect of sea travel in the mid 1800s, from wealthy individuals in 'first class' to those in steerage.

It was a fascinating read, and I was finding every spare moment to come back to it. Even though the writings themselves implied that the ships did not founder on the trip in question, there were certainly moments when this was in no way convincing. Thoroughly recommended. show less

Rediscovery is exactly the word that needs to be applied to this small, but incredibly packed offering from renowned Senior Research Fellow Lucy Sussex.

Sussex has to be one of the greatest proponents of the discovery and telling of the tales of the earliest female writers - having now bought Mary Fortune to light, she has turned her hand to exploring not just the origins, but much of the history of early Women Writers and Detectives. Proving once and for all that the crime genre was not just show more founded by a well-known group of men, many of the women in this book (characters and authors) really deserve the accolades due to them from current day readers.

Densely packed with information, this isn't a book that I sat down and read in a few settings, but rather one I've been dipping into and out of since it arrived here. It was particularly interesting to see where Mary Fortune fitted into this role call of writers, and it was also most interesting to come across Anna Katherine Green's name - a woman whose book The Leavenworth Case is a book that I remember from my early exposure to crime fiction in all its forms.

Despite having dipped into and out of this book from start to finish, it will be a book that I know I'll be returning to - the subject matter deserves a re-read over and over again. show less

Thief of Lives is a collection of four short stories without common setting. I have to admit, this collection was closer to literary realism than I usually read. Thematically, women are central to all the stories in a variety of different ways. Karen Joy Fowler eloquently explains what Sussex writes about in the introduction:

"Fantasy, history, crime. The relationship of women to men. The relationship of women to women. The relationship of the writer to her subject."

Alchemy

The first story in show more this collection is set in ancient Babylon. It’s about the best perfumier in the city, one of the first chemists in the world. She is watched, throughout her life by an immortal who has singled her out the smartest person in Babylon and is fascinated by her mind.

The Fountain of Justice

This story can be most accurately described as crime. It’s set around underworld shootings in an Australian city (I would guess Melbourne, but I don’t think it ever said), and told from the point of view of a legal aid.

The Subject of O

This story is about the main character’s understanding of her sexual experiences, when she starts to see them in a new light.

Thief of Lives

The titular story was my favourite of the bunch. The main character is PA to a successful urban fantasy novelist who has been sent to Bristol to conduct some research. While there she discovers a psychic vampire preying on the town; a creature who sucks the life out of its victims before committing their lives to paper. It’s a fascinating exploration of writers drawing inspiration from their surroundings that interweaves reality and fantasy.

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4 / 5 stars show less