Cirrus@Austlit

'If Australia can be represented in three books, there can be little better a genre than crime fiction. European Australia originated as a penal colony, and crime and its representation have been an obsession ever since. It began with convict ballads, then true crime in newspapers, to the gradually developing form of the crime novel over the nineteenth century. Australia was a significant generic innovator here, with Fergus Hume’s 1886 The Mystery of a Hansom Cab being the first crime international blockbuster. Crime-writing in Australia has form, content, swaggering style—and some of the results are outstanding literature by any criteria.' (Introduction)