IN CONVERSATION AT MUSE
MICHAEL BRISSENDEN & MARGARET HICKEY - Smoke and The Creeper
4—5pm Sunday, August 3, 2024
Muse, East Hotel, Kingston Canberra ACT
Tickets $10 (entry only)
Corruption, politics, history and unforgettable landscapes are front and centre of two new crime thrillers, The Creeper and Smoke. Meet their authors, Margaret Hickey and Michael Brissenden, in conversation with Chris Hammer.
After a brutal wildfire tears through the town of Jasper in the Californian sierras, a body is discovered in a shed. It looks like an open-and-shut case of accidental death - until further investigation reveals that the victim was locked in from the outside.
Years after leaving Jasper, Detective Alex Markov has been sent back under the shadow of an LAPD corruption investigation. She is convinced that the man, a family friend, was murdered opportunistically under the cover of the fire. As the smoke clears, Alex reveals a town corrupt to its core - but exposing that corruption could destroy her and the people she loves. Will she ignore the crookedness and deceit, or face the consequences of pursuing an inconvenient truth?
Michael Brissenden was a journalist and foreign correspondent with the ABC for thirty-five years. He was posted to Moscow, Brussels and Washington, and worked in Canberra for many years in various roles including as the political editor for ABC TV’s 7.30 and as a reporter with the ABC’s investigative television documentary program Four Corners. Through his reporting, Michael has covered bushfires both in Australia and overseas, including in California. He has published three previous books.
Set in the mountainous high country of Victoria, The Creeper follows ambitious Detective Constable Sally White – the only officer at Edenville’s modest police station – and her obsession with a local historical massacre. 10 years previous, five hikers were murdered on Jagged Ridge. Also found dead near the scene was Bill ‘Creeper’ Durant, a bushland loner, expert deer-hunter, and a man with a known reputation for stalking campers. Conclusion: murder-suicide. Case closed. But as Sally combs through the old investigation, it becomes all too clear that each murdered hiker had skeletons in their closet - and possible enemies in their past.
Margaret Hickey is an award-winning author and playwright from North East Victoria. She has a PhD in Creative Writing and is deeply interested in rural lives and communities. She is the author of Cutters End, Stone Town and Broken Bay. The Creeper is her latest novel.
Venue
Muse, East Hotel
69 Canberra Ave, Kingston ACT
T: (02) 6178 0024