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Sisters Are Killing it for Themselves

 

You’ve probably heard that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time. But did you know that the most successful author ever is Agatha Christie? On par with Shakespeare for units sold, an estimated four billion books roam the world with her name on the cover. Again and again, readers have picked up her crime books and have been sucked into the pages to race against the question: whodunit?

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She may be the most famous, but Agatha Christie was not the first women to offer tales of murder and mystery. The origins of female-authored crime narratives can be tracked all the way back through the literary canon to the dark and twisted folk stories and fairy tales that were told by women over millennia to teach cautionary lessons, as well as to enthral.

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Today the crime genre is having a female-led resurgence. Women are reading and writing it more than ever, and the impact can be seen on the shelves of bookstores and in the bestseller lists. Some male writers are even using female and gender neutral pseudonyms to harness the trend. From every book-with-a-girl-in-the-title to the recent Australian success of The Dry, crime fiction is being energised by women who are writing narratives that shock and thrill fans into turning the pages.

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So why is it that women are so compelled to write and to read crime in this present moment? And are these new femme fatales really doing it any different to their male counterparts? In our panel Sisters are Killing it for Themselves at the Odyssey Literary festival, some of this country’s preeminent female crime authors will explore their desire for intrigue and their murderous inclinations. With moderator Moraig Kisler, co-convener of Sisters In Crime, they will untangle what still needs to be said in regards to the success of women in the crime genre and what they hope readers gain from their dark and blood-thirsty stories.

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