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Joanna Baker Joanna Baker i(A81355 works by)
Born: Established: 1958 ;
Gender: Female
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BiographyHistory

'Joanna Baker is the award-winning author of four murder mysteries. Her first novel, Devastation Road, won the Sisters in Crime Davitt Award for Best Young Adult Novel and was described by The Age as ‘an outstanding first novel’. Joanna was born in Hobart and educated at The Friends’ School, the Australian National University and RMIT. She sets her novels in the two places she loves: Tasmania and the wine and high country of North Eastern Victoria. She also writes and speaks about murder mysteries – why they are so enduring, and why they are not trivial.' (https://www.venturapress.com.au/impact-authors#/joannabaker)

Most Referenced Works

Awards for Works

y separately published work icon The Elsinore Vanish South Melbourne : Soren Press , 2019 19469681 2019 single work novel young adult crime '"Looking back, it’s obvious we should never have kept going. But stories feel different when you’re inside them.
And I didn’t realise. That’s my other excuse. I had no idea how bad it was going to be."

'Ten months ago, in the Beechworth Town Hall, Tim Williams died horribly, poisoned with potassium cyanide in front of a room full of people.

'The murder was impossible. When it happened the poison was locked in a cupboard two kilometres away with someone sitting in front of it.

'The police have got nowhere with the case, and now Matt Tingle and Chess Febey have been invited to Beechworth to see if they can get to the truth.

'It gets messy. Everybody is lying to them. There are two seriously big guys following them around in a van.

'And there’s a kid and who keeps showing them a card trick. The Elsinore Vanish. What’s that all about?

'Then they see the van again, and this time it stops …

'Now they’re in serious danger. And Chess’s logic isn’t helping. If she wants to catch this murderer she needs a new pathway to the truth. She needs to learn to understand people.

'And she has to look deep into the mysteries of The Elsinore Vanish. ' (Publication summary)
2020 longlisted Davitt Award Best Young Adult Book
y separately published work icon The Slipping Place Paddington : Impact Press , 2018 14745603 2018 single work novel crime

'Veronica Cruickshank’s youngest child Roland is her idealistic one – a fighter of lost causes, and the one that always needs protecting, particularly from himself.

'So when she hears he is back in Hobart helping an old school friend, Treen McShane, Veronica tries to track him down – but all she finds are second hand reports, whispers of horrific abuse, and stories of a small child being hurt.

'Then Roland sends Veronica a text message, asking her to go to the Slipping Place, high on Mount Wellington, a picnic spot known only to their family. Here she discovers Treen’s frozen body.

'Knowing Roland will be suspected of leaving Treen to die, Veronica resolves to find out what really happened. But as long-buried truths slowly surface, she uncovers a secret that brings the violence closer to home than she could have ever imagined…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

2019 longlisted Davitt Award Best Adult Crime Novel
y separately published work icon Devastation Road South Melbourne : Lothian , 2004 Z1108273 2004 single work novel crime young adult

'It used to be called Station Road, but eight years ago things started catching fire. Then a girl was killed, and someone got smart with the name.

Now it's happening again. There's a fire. Matt Tingle and Chess Febey find a girl drowned in a pond.

Chess isn't Matt's friend. She's one of those people you get stuck with - well meaning, total liability. But she knows how to answer questions, and there are plenty of those: Why are Tara and Wando afraid? What is the meaning of the amber necklace? How can a car be blue and white at the same time?

Before they can find out who killed Debbie, Matt and Chess have to put themselves in danger, they have to look deep into themselves, and they have to reveal things about the past.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

 

2005 winner Davitt Award Best Young Adult Book
Last amended 10 Mar 2020 09:49:36
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