31st Scarlet Stiletto Awards: Paint the town red

The Rising Sun Hotel, 2 Raglan Street, South Melbourne. Saturday 23 November, 6 for 6.30 pm.

Go wild in scarlet.

Multi-award-winning author, Candice Fox, will present Sisters in Crime’s 31st Scarlet Stiletto Awards, after first discussing her life in crime with fellow award-winning author, Margaret Hickey.

This year, 195 short stories have competed for 16 awards, with a record $13,400 prize pool. Twenty-eight stories by 28 authors have been shortlisted. Each author will receive a framed certificate and the winner of the 1st Prize will also take home ‘The Shoe’– a scarlet stiletto trophy with its steel heel plunged into a perspex mount. (Click for details of the shortlist and prizes.)

is the author of nine solo novels, three of which have won Australia's prestigious Ned Kelly Award. All of her novels have been shortlisted for the award. She has multiple TV and film adaptations currently in production. Her bestselling Crimson Lake hit screens as Troppo starring Thomas Jane and Nicole Chamoun in 2022. A second series aired this year and a third is planned. Troppo is being screened in Europe and the United States. In 2015, Candice began collaborating with US crime writer James Patterson. Every one of their seven novels together has been New York Times best sellers.

Host is a playwright and award-winning, best-selling author from rural Victoria. Margaret holds a PhD in Creative Writing and works as a senior English teacher. She is a regular guest on ABC regional radio. Her collection of award-winning short stories, Rural Dreams (2020) is taught in a number of secondary schools across the country, and her Mark Ariti crime novels, Cutters End (2021), Stone Town (2022), and Broken Bay (2023) were published by Penguin Random House. Cutters End was shortlisted for the Ned Kelly Debut Crime Award and won the DANGER award, for best Australian crime novel using Australia as a setting. Stone Town was shortlisted for the Davitt Awards. Her standalone novel. The Creeper, came out in July. Rural Dreams, a collection of short stories, is coming out in January.

Sun Bookshop stall: Sisters in Crime members receive a 10% discount.

The price includes a main course meal and the panel. Please order dinner by no later than 6.45 pm. Vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free and other dietary requirements catered for). Drinks at bar prices. Men or ‘brothers-in-law’ welcome. Book individually or in groups of up to 10.

And don't forget the scarlet . . .

Host or Publisher Sisters in Crime Australia