Apr 22

Apr 22 Sandi Wallace

Author Sandi Wallace

Biography

Sandi Wallace’s crime-writing apprenticeship comprised devouring as many crime stories as possible, developing her interest in policing, and working stints as banker, paralegal, cabinetmaker, office manager, executive assistant, personal trainer, and journalist. She has won a host of prizes for her short crime fiction, including several Scarlet Stiletto Awards, and her debut novel Tell Me Why won the Davitt Award Readers’ Choice. Black Cloud is her latest gripping Georgie Harvey and John Franklin rural crime thriller. It follows Tell Me Why, Dead Again, and Into the Fog. Sandi is currently at work on a psychological thriller.

She is still an avid reader of crime and loves life in the Dandenong Ranges outside of Melbourne with her husband.

Sandi’s work has been commended by serving police officers, authors, and critics, and is much loved by readers. It has been described as “Aussie Noir at its best” (B. Michael Radburn, author), “Engaging, fast-paced, and full of suspense” (Karen M. Davis, former NSW police detective and author), “Suspenseful, exciting, atmospheric rural crime” (Michaela Lobb, Sisters in Crime Australia), “Beautifully written police procedural, where the characters are every bit as important as the plot” (Chris Hammer, author), and “Unputdownable!” (L.J.M. Owen, author).

Sandi’s contemporary rural crime thrillers star Melbourne journalist Georgie Harvey and Daylesford police officer John Franklin. Enjoy each book as a standalone – or read them in series order. The Harvey and Franklin novels are set in the popular spa town of Daylesford in central Victoria, Australia, and other country towns. These settings enrich Sandi’s stories, imbue them with atmosphere, and even if beautiful, also create unease.

Tell Me Why is the first rural thriller starring Georgie Harvey and John Franklin. They are working separate investigations but collide over a woman missing from Hepburn. Harvey’s search reignites the mystery surrounding the missing woman’s husband—his suspected murder—stirring up long-buried secrets and potentially dangerous adversaries. Tell Me Why won the Davitt Award Readers’ Choice and was shortlisted for the Davitt Award Best Debut.

In Sandi’s second thriller Dead Again, Georgie Harvey and John Franklin are back in conflict when her assignment in wildfire-ravaged Bullock and a crime spree in Daylesford connect with the terrible truth about the fire. A secret someone might kill to keep.

Sandi’s third rural crime thriller Into the Fog sees Georgie Harvey and John Franklin risk everything in their race to find three young children missing from a police-run camp in the Dandenong Ranges in a wild storm and a long way from home. Somebody saw the children, somebody knows something…

Black Cloud is Sandi’s latest rural thriller. Georgie Harvey and John Franklin are pushed to breaking point by a fatal explosion on a farm in Korweinguboora involving two of Franklin’s workmates. The crime scene is compromised by fire, blasts and water, and speculations run rife. Franklin seeks answers; someone to blame. Harvey investigates her toughest story yet. Will one break?

Sandi also has a passion for writing short crime stories. Next Chapter has proudly released two collections of her short crime.

On the Job is Sandi’s first collection of short crime fiction. The stories include award-winners and a finalist in an international, open competition, and feature police characters working in urban and rural settings. These tense, haunting, gritty, action-packed, light, flirty, and funny tales brim with peril, humour, heartbreak, justice… No two police shifts are the same.

Sandi’s second short crime collection Murder in the Midst complements On the Job. It includes several award-winning stories, along with some that are new and never-before released. Each story features a strong, female protagonist. These eight different women have one thing in common: serious crime.