Grattan Street Press and the Australian Centre proudly invite you to join us for a drink (or two) as we celebrate the launch of our second book, Force and Fraud, by Ellen Davitt (now available in our shop).

Force and Fraud

A bad-tempered squatter is murdered in country Victoria and the local townsfolk are swept up in the rush to solve the crime. Will the squatter’s beautiful daughter, Flora McAlpin, save her lover from the gallows? Or is the circumstantial evidence against him too strong?

Ellen Davitt’s Force and Fraud: A Tale of the Bush is a feisty account of a murder investigation in the colonies that takes the twists and turns of English sensation fiction in a uniquely Australian direction. The novel brings an innovative forensic eye to its crime, reinventing the squatter romance as it takes its characters from country to city and from public house to courthouse. Force and Fraud was serialised in the popular, long-running Australian Journal from 2 September to 18 November 1865.

Join us in the what will be a celebration of Australian literature, both historical and contemporary.

We are delighted to welcome crime fiction author Cath Ferla as our launcher for the evening.

Cath is a multi-platform writer with a background in screenwriting and script editing, print and online journalism, educational publishing and long and short form fiction. She is also a Secondary School­ qualified teacher, with teaching experience and qualifications in the area of EAL. Cath recently won the Sisters in Crime Australia, Davitt Award, for debut novel Ghost Girls. Set in Sydney’s Chinatown, Ghost Girls richly evokes the sights, smells, tastes and sounds of the city’s underbelly, and imagines dark exploitative demands behind closed suburban doors.

You can RSVP for the launch here.

Looking forward to seeing you all!