Tanya Bretherton – författare

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2018 NED KELLY AWARD, DANGER PRIZE AND WAVERLEY LIBRARY NIBTrue history that is both shocking and too real, this unforgettable tale moves at the pace of a great crime novel.In the early hours of Saturday morning, 17 November 1923, a suitcase was found washed up on the shore of a small beach in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. What it contained - and why - would prove to be explosive.The murdered baby in the suitcase was one of many dead infants who were turning up in the harbour, on trains and elsewhere. These innocent victims were a devastating symptom of the clash between public morality, private passion and unrelenting poverty in a fast-growing metropolis.Police tracked down Sarah Boyd, the mother of the suitcase baby, and the complex story and subsequent murder trial of Sarah and her friend Jean Olliver became a media sensation. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton masterfully tells the engrossing and moving story of the crime that put Sarah and her baby at the centre of a social tragedy that still resonates through the decades.**Includes an extract from Tanya''s latest fascinating and chilling true crime story, The Killing Streets**

The charlatan Alicks Sly murdered his wife, Ellie, and killed himself with a cut-throat razor in a house in Sydney''s Newtown in early 1904, leaving their children to a wretched fate. He wasn''t the only man to murder his wife - or try - that year. Life in the big city could be harsh and brutal, and so could marriage. Sociologist Tanya Bretherton traces the brutal story of Ellie, one of several murderer''s brides in turn-of-the-century Sydney; of her husband, Alicks, and his family; and their three orphaned sons, adrift in the world.From the author of the acclaimed THE SUITCASE BABY - shortlisted for the 2018 Ned Kelly Award, Danger Prize and Waverley Library ''Nib'' Award - comes another riveting true-crime case from Australia''s dark past. THE MURDERER''S BRIDE is a masterful exploration of criminality, insanity, violence and bloody family ties in bleak, post-Victorian Sydney.**Includes an extract from THE SUITCASE BABY and an extract from Tanya Bretherton''s latest fascinating true-crime story, THE KILLING STREETS**

**WINNER OF THE 2020 DANGER PRIZE**From the acclaimed author of THE SUITCASE BABY and THE SUICIDE BRIDE, the fascinating story of a series of horrific murders that began in 1930s Sydney - and a killer who remained at large for over two decades.In December 1932, as the Depression tightened its grip, the body of a woman was found in Queens Park, Sydney. It was a popular park. There were houses in plain view. Yet this woman had been violently murdered without anyone noticing. Other equally brutal and shocking murders of women in public places were to follow. Australia''s first serial killer was at large.Police failed to notice the similarities between the victims until the death of one young woman - an aspiring Olympic swimmer - made the whole city take notice. On scant evidence, the unassuming Eric Craig was arrested. But the killings didn''t stop... A compelling story of a city crippled by fear and what happens when victims are blamed and suspects are presumed guilty, The Killing Streets investigates how a murderer could remain free to kill again.**Includes a BONUS extract from Tanya Bretherton''s compelling new book THE HUSBAND POISONER**

**Shortlisted for the 2021 Ned Kelly Award for True Crime**Shocking real-life stories of murderous women who used rat poison to rid themselves of husbands and other inconvenient family members. For readers of compelling history and true crime, from critically acclaimed, award-winning author Tanya Bretherton.After World War II, Sydney experienced a crime wave that was chillingly calculated. Discontent mixed with despair, greed with callous disregard. Women who had lost their wartime freedoms headed back into the kitchen with sinister intent and the household poison thallium, normally used to kill rats, was repurposed to kill husbands and other inconvenient family members. Yvonne Fletcher disposed of two husbands. Caroline Grills cheerfully poisoned her stepmother, a family friend, her brother and his wife. Unlike arsenic or cyanide, thallium is colourless, odourless and tasteless; victims were misdiagnosed as insane malingerers or ill due to other reasons. And once one death was attributed to natural causes, it was all too easy for an aggrieved woman to kill again.This is the story of a series of murders that struck at the very heart of domestic life. It''s the tale of women who looked for deadly solutions to what they saw as impossible situations. The Husband Poisoner documents the reasons behind the choices these women made - and their terrible outcomes.