AustLit
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.
Latest Issues
AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'June Wright’s debut stars feisty young telephonist Maggie Byrnes. When one of her more unpopular colleagues at Melbourne Central is murdered – her head bashed in with a “buttinsky,” a piece of equipment used to listen in on phone calls – Maggie resolves to turn sleuth. A couple of her co-workers are acting strangely, and Maggie is convinced she has a better chance of figuring out who is responsible for the killing than the stodgy police team assigned to the case, who seem to think she herself might have had something to do with it. But then one of her friends is murdered too, and it looks like Maggie might be next in line. ' (Publication summary)
Notes
-
Dedication: Dedicated to 'CENTRAL' and to all who have worked therein.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Related Works
-
y
So Bad a Death
Sydney
:
Hutchinson
,
1949
Z1481733
1949
single work
novel
crime
detective
'The return of Maggie Byrnes, heroine of Murder in the Telephone Exchange, finds her married, with a young son, and living in an outer Melbourne suburb. But violent death dogs her footsteps even in apparently tranquil Middleburn. It’s perhaps not that much of a surprise when widely disliked local bigwig James Holland (who also happens to be Maggie’s landlord) is shot, but Maggie suspects that someone is also trying to poison the infant who is his heir, and turns sleuth once more to uncover the culprits.'
Source: Publisher's blurb (Verse Chorus Press edition)
Works about this Work
-
Damned to Literary Obscurity
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , May 2014; -
[Untitled]
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 31 May 2014; (p. 25)
— Review of Murder in the Telephone Exchange 1948 single work novel -
Review : Murder in the Telephone Exchange
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 70)
— Review of Murder in the Telephone Exchange 1948 single work novel -
Our Very Own Agatha Christie
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 27 April 2014; (p. 26) ' Who would have thought a reserved Australian housewife would produce exciting tales of homicide? Clare Kermond investigates.' -
Gendering the Genre : Three Australian Women Writers and their Debut Crime Fiction Novels
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , March vol. 3 no. 1 2014; (p. 57-71) 'The creators and consumers of crime fiction have changed dramatically since the genre, established in ancient times to define legal and moral codes and indicate the consequences for breaking those codes, first started to gain widespread popularity as a form of entertainment in the eighteenth century. One of the most significant of these changes can be seen in the slow but steady rise of the female as consumer, creator and character. There are many ways to explore some of the gendered changes within the crime fiction genre, one of which is to examine novels written by women who have chosen female protagonists to tell their stories. Ostensibly quite different texts, Miles Franklin’s Bring the Monkey (1933), June Wright’s Murder in the Telephone Exchange (1948) and Elizabeth Antill’s Death on the Barrier Reef (1952) are three debut crime novels that share some striking similarities. In addition to all three novels featuring female first-person narrators, these stories also tell tales of very violent crimes and contribute to documenting some of the shifts in views on gender, female friendship, marriage and class within what has become the world’s most popular genre.' (Publication abstract)
-
End of a Crime Wave
1948
single work
review
— Appears in: The Australasian Book News and Literary Journal , April vol. 2 no. 10 1948; (p. 532-533)
— Review of Murder in the Telephone Exchange 1948 single work novel ; An Author Bites the Dust 1948 single work novel -
Review : Murder in the Telephone Exchange
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 70)
— Review of Murder in the Telephone Exchange 1948 single work novel -
[Untitled]
2014
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 31 May 2014; (p. 25)
— Review of Murder in the Telephone Exchange 1948 single work novel -
Gendering the Genre : Three Australian Women Writers and their Debut Crime Fiction Novels
2014
single work
criticism
— Appears in: Australasian Journal of Popular Culture , March vol. 3 no. 1 2014; (p. 57-71) 'The creators and consumers of crime fiction have changed dramatically since the genre, established in ancient times to define legal and moral codes and indicate the consequences for breaking those codes, first started to gain widespread popularity as a form of entertainment in the eighteenth century. One of the most significant of these changes can be seen in the slow but steady rise of the female as consumer, creator and character. There are many ways to explore some of the gendered changes within the crime fiction genre, one of which is to examine novels written by women who have chosen female protagonists to tell their stories. Ostensibly quite different texts, Miles Franklin’s Bring the Monkey (1933), June Wright’s Murder in the Telephone Exchange (1948) and Elizabeth Antill’s Death on the Barrier Reef (1952) are three debut crime novels that share some striking similarities. In addition to all three novels featuring female first-person narrators, these stories also tell tales of very violent crimes and contribute to documenting some of the shifts in views on gender, female friendship, marriage and class within what has become the world’s most popular genre.' (Publication abstract) -
Our Very Own Agatha Christie
2014
single work
column
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 27 April 2014; (p. 26) ' Who would have thought a reserved Australian housewife would produce exciting tales of homicide? Clare Kermond investigates.' -
Damned to Literary Obscurity
2014
single work
essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , May 2014;
Awards
- 1948 winner United Nations Literary Contest — Detective Story Section
Last amended 20 Apr 2015 16:12:18
Settings:
- Melbourne, Victoria,
Export this record
